Oh you sillies... All this bickering over Obama

[BelgianMadCow]

Oh you sillies... All this bickering over Obama, and all the pet names you have made up for him. You are ALL delusional. It's over folks. The Facists have one. The government is in bed with the corporations and there is nothing you can do about it. When Apple imbeds NSA software in the iPhone...what does that tell you? I suggest you get off this "It's HIS fault" mentality. Wake up.

Found in the comments over at RT. They do their best of making it sound important. They also have the link to the memo.

The Guardian comments are interesting.

[Thinkingabout]

1. Sometimes it dounds like too much RW talking points. He was elected and has a

Constitution to uphold. I wish more could have been accomplished but I also realize there has to cooperation in Congress and we know how that has worked out. Calling him names and blaming him for everything is what Rush and Hannity get paid to do, we do not need to work for those two.

[rhett o rick]

10. Congress didnt force him to appoint conservatives. nm

[Thinkingabout]

13. So if he had appointed far left they would have been approved by this Congress, guess he

Did not realize it would have been to their liking. Sometimes it should be the best qualified. BTW, if you look at the Supreme court some who was thought of as liberal was conservative and some appointed which was supposed to be conservative turned out liberal. Judges are supposed to make decisions according to laws rather than making decisions based on which side they may be.

[rhett o rick]

14. So you say he conceded his powers to the Republicans because he couldnt do anything else

with this Congress. He just couldnt help himself except to appoint conservatives and in many cases actual Republicans.

Penny Pritzker is a Democrat but as conservative as Mit Romney.

If we elect another conservative Democrat in 2016, we can kiss the middle class goodbye.

[Thinkingabout]

19. I did not say he conceded his powers, read my post again.

[rhett o rick]

23. Ok, maybe I was wrong. Explain again how Congress forced him to appoint only conservatives.

Poor helpless Obama. Congress made him do it.

[Thinkingabout]

26. No need to repeat myself

[rhett o rick]

27. There are only two sides in a war and we are at war. You can choose the liberal side or

the conservative side. Looks like you choose the 1% side. Maybe you think the wealthy will trickle down on you.

[Thinkingabout]

28. Your dog don't hunt.

[BlueCaliDem]

29. Thank you, Thinkingabout.

Apparently, this needs to be said over and over again, because some people just don't seem to get the whole "three co-equal branches of government" and "A government of the people, by the people, and for the people", which is the House (a.k.a. the People's House), which is the "head" of Congress.

The president, although head of the Executive Branch, is not a dictator and s/he can't do much without Congress' approval. Even the president's vetoes are weaker than Congress' "vetoes". He can't override theirs, but they can certainly override his.

Government of the people, by the people, for the people.

So to blame this president for all our country's ails is merely displaying one's ignorance of how our government actually works.

[Fumesucker]

2. Please don't throw me in that Briar Patch Brer Fox

I'm starting to think that's one of the major political maneuvers in our system of government.

http://www.mythfolklore.net/3043mythfolklore/reading/remus/pages/03.htm

[Skip Intro]

3. I don't think the corporations are at the top of the structure.

They answer to someone else. Our government must answer to someone else because the place is kind of falling apart and nobody seems to be effective at doing anything about it.

I don't trust any of the players here, including Obama.

[BelgianMadCow]

4. Yeah, the place is falling apart

but the corporations aren't, so they're IN the structure all right. The same people own many companies, so their number is much smaller.

[Egalitarian Thug]

17. The corporations are the instruments, the tools. They are wielded by the parasite class, just as

they have since The Enlightenment started to make them uncomfortably visible.

[CreekDog]

21. But in 5 years you have never trusted him

Just something about him, you know...

[BlueCaliDem]

30. Yep. You are soooo correct. eom

[jazzimov]

5. "The Fascists have ONE"?

WTF is that supposed to mean?

Perhaps you should have the Belgium docs look at that Mad Cow disease you have.....

[Egnever]

6. One what? Was my first thought as well

[BelgianMadCow]

7. I'd say its safe to say the US has wedded government and business

which is always how I understood the original (italian) fascism. The boxes are ticked, have been since Bush and remain in effect. That's not acceptable, but YMMV

[Fumesucker]

8. Probably not a native English speaker

English has a lot of homophones and won and one are two.

[tblue37]

25. LOL--I see what you did there. nt

[rhett o rick]

11. Most of us can figure it out. nm

[HarveyDarkey]

12. It wasn't fascists, it was facists.

That's something completely different I'm guessing.

[Egalitarian Thug]

18. I'm not sure admitting this was a good move on your part. Over 3600 views and you two are the only

people that didn't understand the meaning...

, indeed...

[1000words]

20. You couldn't figure that out?

[KoKo]

9. The Guardian Article is a Must Read!

He's always "the Perfect Lawyer" in his parsing of his speech while the Speech writers do soaring language to try to make him quotable for Posterity. So that the "WOW" factor of his clever Speech Writers overwhelms his obfuscating, waffling "Lawyer Speaks" where the Buck is always passed to Justice Department or "Other Agencies" and Congress to do the work that he doesn't want to commit to or be Held Accountable For!

I read the Transcript of the Speech. It was all over the place saying pretty much nothing that we could count on for reforms...because it's up to "those other guys."

I agree with your post and thanks for the Links.

I think this fits over here with Progressive Media Resources because the Guardian is a voice that we don't get much of over here in the US with our own faltering Media.

I have to get to those COMMENTS to read...but, it's bedtime here in US...Will do tomorrow! And thanks for the Crosspost!


Snips from Guardian:

The president also rejected a recommendation from his handpicked surveillance panel to place judicial oversight over the FBI’s practice of issuing a nonjudicial subpoena known as a National Security Letter for the records of US businesses. But Obama proposed allowing businesses greater, but as yet unspecified, ability to discuss those letters, which are currently under a gag order.

Much of the substance of Obama’s proposals remain undefined. The telephone companies have resisted having to store customer data for additional periods of time on behalf of the NSA, and any new third-party private storehouse of metadata would have to be created from scratch.

The lack of clarity places increasing pressure on Congress to ultimately resolve many of the complexities of surveillance – creating effectively a new round of jockeying on Capitol Hill between privacy advocates and the NSA’s allies, who fear losing what Obama described as a valuable tool for determining domestic connections to terrorism.

"Now it's up to the courts, Congress, and the public to ensure that real reform happens, including stopping all bulk surveillance – not just telephone records collection,” said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Freedom Foundation.

[rhett o rick]

15. Good post KoKo. nm

[BelgianMadCow]

16. seconded

and to both of you

[rhett o rick]

24. Same to yeah

[nilesobek]

31. I agree with all legitimate criticisms

of President Obama. Except it occurs to me that it was like Alice in Wonderland. He becomes President...he realizes the POTUS is not the real power in America, the intelligence agencies are!

When I realize what he is up against, the real powers that be, and possibly the terrible consequences of not taking the course he has to, then I feel he's doing a good job. He might not have ever been in the position of making sweeping changes to the machine Bush built, but has had to chip away at it.