Obama: That's About Enough

In which I rant about the things that are pissing me off about this administration.

Last year, I spent a great deal of time cheering for Obama, supporting him in my blog, and celebrating joyously after his election.

Now maybe it's because when the last Democratic president was elected I was too busy getting stoned and chasing tail in college to give much a shit about politics other than "Yay Clinton!" *gurgling bong noise*, or maybe it's because I own my own business and keep a tight watch on money, but as of today I'm disillusioned by Obama. I'm done; that's enough.

I'm not turning Republican (what kind of monster do you think me?), and while I float in the direction, am not going fully Libertarian. I'm still with the Democratic Party. For now.

Wha - happen?

Bailout
Wait. America's hurting and we're pissing money into bad-decision banks and car companies? What. The. FUCK.

Will letting them fall lose jobs? Sure. But when companies fail and other, larger companies purchase them and people move and shift and, basically, the brush has burned and the bigger trees are nurtured and some big trees fall and nurture smaller, smarter ones. And the market rebounds.

But we shit out money and many banks and car companies still failed. And they're weaker for it. As are we.

Stimulus Bill Stalls
I'm looking at Obama, checking out the stimulus bill, cheering "Hell yeah!" and really hoping for the best from all this spending. And then I see that after months maybe 10% of that money has actually gone out. Months? 10%? Is a flood of money and projects and money something to be scared about when we've been hearing that it's ALL going to help the economy?

Where's the f'ing money? Where's the f'ing stimulus?

Pelosi
Honeslty, I'm an enormous proponent of female equality. If a man can be a feminist, I'm one of them. But power apparently corrupts. And Pelosi is doing some things that are total amateur wanker shit.

There's some illogical argumentation, a request for giant planes, and the stuttering and side-stepping you don't like to see in an official leader. I don't know if it's her tone of voice or general demeanor, but she doesn't present herself as a confident leader, not like Hillary does, not like Michelle does.

Cash for Clunkers
A cash incentive program to get people to buy cars with better GPM? Excellent! But we're going to destroy the car they're trading in? Retarded. For parts, for donation, for ...anything! If the program were really about going green, someone with a brain in the administration would've spoken up and said "Um, hey, since the carbon footprint of the car that's already been manufactured cannot be un-done, perhaps the best thing is for someone to get viable use out of the vehicle. Y'know? Like recycle, reuse, and all that other crap we keep saying?"

flag@whitehouse.gov
We just got out of an administration that lived and breathed big brother contempt for privacy. And you decided it would be a good idea to start up a snitch email where people can forward "fishy" information. That's fishy, shady, and stupid.

Single-Payer
One of the biggest parts of the '08 election, for me, was my support of Dennis Kucinich. His support for a not-for-profit medical program that overrided the madness of insurance companies - that are rationing NOW and operating as "death panels" NOW and preventing people from getting coverage that will save their lives NOW.

And today I read that The White House is positioning to drop single payer option.

So Obama and friends: I am well aware that you state that single payer is only a part of the health care reform plan. Unfortunately, insurance companies are most of the problem. If there is no public option and you pass a bill to just pass a bill, you will achieve NOTHING for the American people. You will shimmy just a little bit, just enough to make it look like things changed, but you'll still be wearing the girdle of the insurance companies, and you will be no better - actually, worse - than the Republicans lining their pockets with insurance company money.

America wants prescription drug costs bargained down. America wants a not-for-profit health care system. Call Dennis. Do lunch. He'll explain the way it needs to be.


And before my generally liberal readers have any negative feedback to pass along, I'd like to say that I post because I care. I know this is not the best the administration can do. I know that they know better. I think all of us who brought him to the Oval Office need to remind them all what their best is, and that before a general election in '12 there will be a Democratic Party primary.

Also Authoring Elsewhere - Pelosi's Plane

I've written a piece for All Things Democrat on Nancy Pelosi (More on deplane).

Bauhaus made me do it.

If received well, I'll be making my more perfectly partisan posts there.

Yay!

Give War a Chance: State of the Union '07

CBS News has the full video of the speech.

The state of the union is... well, you decide. Bush didn't address the desire for change mandated in the shift in power last November. He said what people were thinking he was going to say, not as a broken, defeated, lame duck, but not with a great deal of conviction either. Here are some highlights as I saw them.

Greeting Pelosi
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was the most prominent change in the environment last night, and Bush handled it well, but not too well. He congratulated her on her distinction as the first female speaker. He went on to talk about bipartisanship. But he never linked the two. A mention of Pelosi's progress since taking office, often with a spirit that crossed the aisle to get things done might have been nice.

Faces in the Crowd
I believe the shots of the distinguished audience come in two flavors: Appropriate to the content of the president's speech and "Aww man, look at that face; take camera 4." As there is no comedy in the former, here is some of the latter.

Hillary Clinton - Early on we saw Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY). Aside from the odd Donna Reed hair flip and pearls combo, the face was striking. The slightly curled lips, the scrunched mouth, the utter look of contempt on her face combined with the slight lean and cock of the head read thusly: "You liar. You stupid bastard liar. Every thought out of your head is ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag." At least that's how I read it.

Ted Kennedy - You can't always get a laugh out of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) like you used to. Last night was not one of those nights. Also seen early on, the man looked like a hangover in skin. His fingers on his temples, his eyes barely opened, a great grimace of anguish on his face. Based on the mathematics of drinking shifted to Ted's experience and body weight, it can be calculated that he had been drinking heavily, probably mixing beer/wine/whiskey from 10am to 4pm, caught 4 hours of sleep, and woke up as walking death.

Condoleezza Rice - Dr. Condoleezza Rice is usually a staid member of the former, boring group. But CNN got one hell of a shot of her last night. It was about halfway through the speech, and she was hunched over in such a way as to make her forehead huge, her eyes sink way the hell back into her head, and a scowl that I am beginning to believe is her "at rest" face. She looked awful. Yes, even worse than this.

To Blink or Not to Blink
The president is front and center. He's talking about the state of our union. He's addressing "important stuff." But all I could see was the Cheney/Pelosi dynamic going on in the background. It was like a morality play without the moral lesson. The first thing I noticed was Pelosi's constant, constant blinking. She was averaging over one blink per second. It was distracting. What was even more distracting about it was the contrast to Cheney. The vice president, now apparently almost completely cyborg, was blinking once every 12 to 17 seconds. This gives the value of one Cheney blink as about fifteen Pelosi blinks. Blinking means nervous; nervous can be interpreted as weakness.

Direct notes: Pelosi, stop chewing the inside of your mouth. Pretend you are on camera all the time because, for the most part, you are. Pelosi and Cheney, if you got a piece of ribeye fat caught in your meat-catcher at dinner, floss before the damn speech. Or dig it out at the table like every other red-blooded American.

Hints at Iran
I did spend a little too much time focusing on the Pelosi/Cheney dynamic, but I couldn't miss the three or more mentions of Iran as a threat. Syria was thrown in as well. Some rumors in the wind hint at us attacking Iran within the next year. Was Bush steeling us for this eventuality?

Private Citizen what?
I'm not sure I got this or just misheard it. By the look on the faces of the Joint Chiefs, they felt the same way. Did Bush really say something about bringing private citizens to Iraq? Is this to support the troops? Is this just trying to get more folks over there without the necessity of joining the armed forces? How is this different from private contracting? More to come as everyone starts digging a little deeper.

Give War a Chance
C'mon guys, really doodz. I'm tryin' here and we're really gonna win, man. Really. I just sent a bunch more guys over and more guys and weapons and bullets means more better killin' the terrorists, doesn't it? If you don't think so then maybe you're a terrorist too. Just gimmie some more time, man. Success. I'll have it for you, I just need more time. I know we've been there a while and it's only getting worse, not to mention the (shh!) civil war that may be in the works/on the way/already occurring. But more guys and private citizens and Iran's bad. God bless.

Webb's rebuttal
Let's get this out of the way: the content was fine. Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) has relevance with a son in Iraq, he doesn't fully agree with the party line on Iraq withdrawal which gives him believability as a real person.

I'm guessing as soon as the camera was turned off, someone got their ass beat. Take a look (CBS News Video of Dem Response here). Webb's speech was slowed down. There were pregnant pauses trouncing all over the place. His head was cut off. I don't know what goon of a little intern was running things over there, but it made the whole thing ridiculous. When shooting a speaker, you give them "head room," or a little gap above their head in the shot. That was missing. And the person running the teleprompter was running things a little slow. I can understand a freshman senator's lack of formal TV time, but a good teleprompter runner can follow anyone (look how well the president came off). It seems Webb was aware of the absurdity of the situation as well because about 3/4 of the way through his eight minute speech, he started to get the "smiles." The content of his speech was not appropriate to grinning, but he was doing so. I was genuinely afraid he'd break into giggles and be unable to stop. In a way it made him more real. In a way it was unprofessional. It's only funny if it happens to the folks on SNL.

And that was the state of the State of the Union.