Obama is damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t.

Oh, and zed.

This would be a good weekend for HBO to rebroadcast Kevin Bacon’s marvelous movie, Taking Chance.

The Bushbots shamelessness is without bottom.

Nah, you’ll just hear crickets as they curse you under their breath for reminding them of St. Ronald, who ain’t comin’ back to lead them.

Bluetexan, oops, you did it again.
Tell it like it is, brother! It is brother isn’t it? I guess I don’t know for sure. Not that it matters. Being a feminist and all. Ha.

You really don’t understand. reagan was photographed walking by the caskets because he loved the military and wanted to honor the dead. His withdrawal from Lebanon was to strengthen our position there. w did not visit the returning dead because to do so would show that the terrorists won and caused us to acknowledge casualties. obama is allowing the photos strickly as a political publicity stunt because he is a wimpy Democrat. After all, obama did not serve his nation during war as both reagan and w did.

I assume you forgot the snark tag?

A brother, indeed.

Obama had the audacity to take a pool reporter to the event – how dare he./s
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/us/politics/23photogs.html

You’ve got to give them SOME credit, though. At least they got the “other jackals yapping around the periphery“ thing right.

I just wnt over to the blog that comments on your post bt

holy crap, he thinks by feinging indignation it forgives his sorry bushmaster for the depravit the idiot in cheif created

his minions are equally rediculouos in his comments section

they actually try to turn this episode of made up war into some kind of honor…that’s right, they turn the abuse of our military and sacrifice of our soldiersl, all for the neo-con fascists profit model into some kind of “honor”

I wonder if he believes his own crap or just says it because he gets a stipend from the richt wing puppet masters

At least they got the “other jackals yapping around the periphery“ thing right.

LOL, Nancy.

Yap, yap.

Looking at the photo, Reagan had an entourage, including his wife. Talk about a staged photo op! Truth is, it doesn’t matter. The Republics got their news cycle smear. They’re off working on the next one now.

And of course these geniuses will find the one diary here that calls for condemning the troops and “conveniently” miss that the diary has received no recommendations and the comments on it are universally against the author.

It’s not like every president doesn’t get the opportunity. I’m 46 and we’ve been at war my whloe life!

Why do you hate the military?

[/wingnut]

I don’t believe in censorship but I could make an exception for that guy.

Twain, I’m sorry but I don’t use the snark tag. I feel that I leave enough clues to show that I am being sarcastic, and I feel that having to explain dulls the edge of the comment. I assume that the readers here are really intelligent and able to differentiate between a troll and snark. Perhaps I assume too much.

I was kidding.

another day in the life of the land of the reality impaired… does anyone remember Network 21 in the old Max Headroom episodes? The shrubots would’ve made a good episode.

There you go again using facts and photos.

did shrub ever go pay his respects in this manner? can’t remember

I consider myself fairly snark attuned and while I thought it was probably snark your comment could have gone either way. The only thing that really set it apart from the trolls was it’s not being quite insulting enough.

I could care less if people use snark tags, although I did consider your implication @ 18 that (some) readers here might not be intelligent enough to tell the difference between snark and trolls somewhat objectionable.

It’s Mourning Again in America!

No.

He had private sessions with families of fallen. He also did the official duty stuff like laying wreaths at the tomb of the unknown.

I’ll bet Bob feels the same way.

There seems to be a lack of trolling here today compared to yesterday. Perhaps it’s too early for the hangovers to have worn off.

They are all busy inspecting candy for the demonic varieties.

To hell with Obama. He is equivocating and calculating and from all appearances has no convictions that favor the public.

And there certainly is an element of cynicism in first risking soldiers’ lives on a fool’s errand and then weeping in front of them when they come back dead.

I feel no obligation to come to this arrogant and worthless leader who has felt no obligation to come to the defense of the people of this country. To hell with him is my conviction.

Bob has a clear sense of priorities, food and attention in large quantities… All else is trivial.

I think i’ll go buy as many red hots as i can for tomorrow.

Likely making a Cheeto run or attempting to scrub the orange off their wing-dings. They’ll be back.

Did you notice that the photo above is of Reagan?

I just wonder if anyone has compiled a record of what Limbaugh and others of that ilk were saying back in that era and how that contrasted to Clinton, W (spinning 180 degrees- as in “nation-building is now good…under Clinton it was bad) and Obama

Rush didn’t go national until 1988 when Reagan was on his way out. Anyway, hate radio didn’t start to become the juggernaut that it is today until Clinton.

Needless to say, most of the conservative pundits criticism during the Reagan and Bush (41) years was directed at the tax and spend liberal Congress.

Limpy’s act, day after day, is “everything done by Democrats is bad and everything done by Republics is good”. It’s been the same since he started. It never varies. The actual events make no difference.

Rush attacks Republicans who have the audacity to criticize him until they fall back in line.

his technique actually worked for a while, I do beleive he is the man responsible for reagan’s re-election even though he had one of the most miserable presdency’s in history

yet now he’s definately a liabiltiy to the repupuke party, every time he opens his mouth another once republican turns into a democrat and someone fed up with the democrats remain in the party because they can’t stomack the party of limpballs

he acts like a secret democrat who’s real purpose is the destruction of the repukes cause that’s what he’s done

That was then, this is now.

as oposed to the tax and steal reaginites

as oposed to the tax and steal reaginites

charge it …….
Fixed

Rush only had a show in the California market in 1984. Walter Mondale’s connection to the (allegedly) failed Carter administration (mainly due to the Iran hostage crisis) is what got Reagan reelected. Mondale’s choice of Ferraro did not help but by then the outcome was pretty much a foregone conclusion. At the time I thought the VP choice was a mostly symbolic act to (a) make history and (b) put a few cracks in the glass ceiling.

My point has nothing to do with the above photo of Reagan, rather it has to do with not needing to come to Obama’s defense when he is being attacked by the lunatic fringe from the right. Whether that criticism from the right has merit or not.

I simply couldn’t care less about Obama. Let him fend for himself. He is simply not worthy of our sticking up for him when he is not willing to do same for the people in this country.

And it is certainly the case that he is sending soldiers to die into a mess that was in large part of this and the prior government’s making. To stand in front of them, as he has done, is both cynical a little too late.

They were all about deregulation and weapons procurement. Reagan effectively gutted all the government agencies with any corporate oversight responsibility. We’ve all seen how well that turned out.

yup

the thing is, we saw it immediatly as well, you have never seen more mom and pop shops close then you saw under reagan, you never saw more homeless either

a few cudos do happen to go to reagan though, when he saw the destructive nature of his tax cuts he turned those “tax reductions” into the largest tax increase into history

It really all fits together. Reagan’s 11th Commandment translates to “Put tribe before country.” His nickname was not “The Great Legislation Writer” or “The Great Diplomat” or “The Great Leader”, but “The Great Communicator”. In other words, he was a fairly talented public speaker and adequate actor. He was good at pretending to be in charge and giving the impression that you should relax because everything was going to be okay, regardless of how obvious it was that he wasn’t being honest with you, and that’s what Republicans want.

They hated Carter because he wanted people to behave like adults. They love Reagan because he talked to them like children… and that’s what any hypertribalist truly wants. They want a big, strong Alpha Male to be in charge of them.

They worship Reagan, a man who went on TV and admitted that, under his very nose, his administration had sold arms to terrorists and gave the money to *other* terrorists (after he cut and run from still more terrorists). Yet they hatemonger against Obama on a daily basis for absolutely nothing.

Tribalist scum deserve nothing more than contempt and marginalization. It’s too bad that Obama and Reid and Pelosi coddle and indulge them, instead.

I think Reagan did more damage to the country than even Dubya and Cheney. Without Reagan laying the groundwork many of the abuses of the last administration would not even have been possible.

Don’t you people know that a Democrat is not allowed to support the troops? Especially a Black President. I am sure he is only doing it because there must have been some dead black soldiers. I’m sure that Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and Karl Marx must have visited their dead troops.

I’m sorry, but I couldn’t resist this one, I don’t hate many people, but Lizzy is right up there!
Very “cunning” if I say so myself!

David Dayen has a fresh cross-post ready: “Obama Meeting with Progressives and Caucus Leaders Focused on Triggers, Opt-Out”

he is certainly the kingpin, the cornerstone for the abuses we’ve seen since him

the decline of the middle class, the deregulation and allowing corporations to export our jobs, to allow corporations to defer their expenses onto us through their depraved scheme of deregulation

and of course the elimination of the fairness docrince so limpballs gets to lie with impunity and everyone who listens thinks his spew is the truth

Can’t wait to hear the outcry when Obama is photographed visiting all of the flag draped coffins of Americas Seniors who are killed by the “death panels”.

Very well said.

Which brings forth the question as to what extent the majority of people are hard wired or predisposed toward conformity and domination for the sake of self preservation.

And to what extent exceptions to this general predisposition occur at both extremes of populations. Where on the one hand you have despots willing to take advantage of it and on the other you have liberals acting on behalf of the general good.

It may be that there will always be this tension and fight for sway over the middle group.

I went to a Righty Blog on one of your links BT it seems the Righty blogs are paying us a lot of attention. And the MSM says were irrelevant:)

Well, BT, you seem to be maddening the right people.

I wonder, do they bother to think about the words they use to characterize us as evil? “Nihilist FDL?” That was a new one for me. Unbelievable – at least, if I thought they had ever really read FDL or knew the meanings of words.

lad-dee-fucking-dah professor

All that yapping was at BlackFive, one of the most rightie warblogger sites on the InterToobz. They love to be contrarian and are 1000% still in love with Preznit Crotchrocket and Darth Dick. Had there been no election, they would still be happy to have that pair leading the repubilc on the path of destruction. Definitely 20 percenters over there.

I forgot to include a fourth group of illiterate inbreds.

It seems to me that you have a predisposition for being pedantic.
Anyone else ever say that to you?
Just talk, babe.

Shhhhhh.. you don’t know everything. PS, Your challenges are showing.

I do, I do.

There will, it seems, always be right-wing authoritarians.

The question is whether any particular society is more or less immune to their toxic parasitism.

Our society, which has many poorly-educated, ignorant, fearful people and a complicit corporate press, is ill-equipped to deal with right-wing authoritarianism.

So the “liberal media” publicly announces that it’s going to pay more attention to what the Teabaggers say, and “Matt Drudge rules our world” and “the job of a journalist is to repeat unsourced gossip that helps people in power remain in power” and so on, and every national conversation gets ruined because the right-wingers rush in and start crapping in the punchbowl.

Think about what weak antidotes Watergate and “At long last, Senator, have you no sense of decency?” would be to today’s GOP villains. They regularly laugh off such light scrutiny. The weapons that used to be sufficient to combat the darkness are sufficient no longer. I don’t know if we’ve got anything to replace them.

More and more, America seems doomed to fall to the same evil authoritarian traitors that have destroyed so many previous cultures.

Not quite all, I was in the US Army during Jimmy Carter’s (Rethugs say worst president ever) term & there wasn’t a war for me to go to, thank god. Worst Pres. my patooty!

I assumed a “snark” tag wasn’t necessary.

In the Navy I got to do the Cuban Missile Crisis and Taiwan Straits Patrol under Kennedy, then under Johnson and Nixon I got to do Nam. That was enough. I bailed under Ford.

Yeah, I joined the USAF in late ’76 and was always fairly happy that even with the death of the service members in the Iranian desert during the failed hostage rescue, that there were far fewer service members KIA during Carter’s one term than probably any other presidency in our history.

Then St Ronnie of Ray-gunz was elected and that ended that.

Yeah, over at Huffington, Reagan and Bush supporters are saying those two “would never” do what Obama did.

So I showed them that Wikipedia pic.

Agree!!

Reagan didn’t do what Obama did. Reagan was attending a public ceremony at Andrews AFB. Obama took a photo crew to a private transfer of fallen soldiers at Dover. Initially, 6 of the 18 families had agreed to allow journalists to photograph the transfer. When they found out that Obama was going to be there to turn it into a photo-op, 5 of those families withdrew their permission.

well, please give us a link to the new source that confirmed that the families pulled out of the photo-op. besides, why isn’t it that the families pulled out because they are against the war, and not against obama? if the assumption is implicitly that they don’t like obama because he’s not “fighting hard enough,” then they should actually LOVE him since he’s escalating the war in afghanistan and pakistan.