Magbana's lead article 12/11/09

[Downwinder]

Pres. Obama: “America has never fought a war against a democracy, and our closest friends are governments that protect the rights of their citizens.”

http://hondurasoye.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/pres-obama-america-has-never-fought-a-war-against-a-democracy-and-our-closest-friends-are-governments-that-protect-the-rights-of-their-citizens/

[Peace Patriot]

1. He's starting to sound like LBJ. nt

[EFerrari]

2. People are comparing this speech to Philadelphia

while I think the Afghanistan speech and this one read like parodies of Philadelphia. If I had a twin, it would be interesting to do a linguistic analysis of the three because the hand that wrote the race speech did not write these, imho.

[Downwinder]

3. The Empire (Pentagon) employs different speech writers. n/t

[EFerrari]

4. Sure. The question is interesting to me only

because I used to write material for different kinds of comedians and it is possible to duplicate form, diction, themes, organization pretty nearly and especially if you work in a good team. This last effort was sloppy in a sort of disturbing way.

[rabs]

7. The Lion of Afghanistan

Image is from Chan Lowe, cartoonist at South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale.

In his blog accompanying the cartoon today, Chan suggests that Obama may grow into deserving the Nobel.

"Remember when you were a kid, and your parents bought you new sneakers a couple of sizes too big because they knew your feet would eventually grow into them? And you spent a few months tripping over the big, floppy toes?

Maybe we should think of it like that."

http://blogs.trb.com/news/opinion/chanlowe/blog/


and an earlier one



(btw, you certainly hit a home run with you post in GD :fistbump:

[EFerrari]

10. Those are great, rabs!

LOL

[VanW]

8. Great article

and interesting theory about the speech writers. I wouldn't be suprised either!

[Judi Lynn]

5. Thank you, Dounwinder, thank you, magbana, and thanks for the excellent article, EFerrari!

He has flushed what should have become a whole reversal of the long hated world wide wrong path previous US Presidents have followed looking out for greedy opportunists rather than HUMAN rights first.

[Peace Patriot]

6. Great op-ed, EFerrari! And thanks to Downwinder & Honduras Oye for posting it!

I thought Obama's speech to the Miami mafia in May 2008 during the campaign was insulting to Latin America's new crop of great leaders. He said that "Latin America needs U.S. leadership." Clunk! But I gave him some benefits of the doubt on that speech (with its additional demagoguery about Chavez and "Monroe Doctrine" tone) because, a) it was his speech announcing a slightly more open policy on Cuba (dangerous territory), and b) it was a campaign and in the U.S. that means obligatory butt-kissing of the Miami mafia and rightwingers, fascists and Bushwhacks by Democrats apparently trying not to be Diebolded (or "Swift-boated").

I waited and watched. Next came the inexplicable Chavez bashing by Obama during Obama's inauguration week. I tried to write that off to bad advisers. Thence to Rio and shaking hands with Chavez and getting a book from Chavez that Obama apparently hasn't read. Obama announces a new U.S. policy of "peace, respect and cooperation" in Latin America. That turns out to be bullshit because, a) The U.S. was meanwhile secretly negotiating a huge U.S. military buildup in Colombia (so much for peace), in negotiations that were kept secret from the Colombian people, the Colombian legislature and all the other leaders and peoples of Latin America (so much for respect), and then came Honduras (so much for cooperation with Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and other countries, the OAS, the EU and the UN). While Obama was yammering about "peace, respect and cooperation, McCain and Clinton-funded, corpo-fascist operatives in Honduras, the Pentagon and assorted fascist rotters in Honduras, Colombia and here were meanwhile planning a rightwing military coup that would destroy Honduran democracy.

In June somebody gives an order to the U.S. military in Honduras to stand down while the Honduran military and a rightwing coup fly the elected president out of the country at gunpoint, stopping to refuel at the U.S. military base. I didn't know who gave that order and began to wonder if the putsch was happening here and there at the same time, with Jim DeMint now effectively president of the U.S. or at least Secretary of State. Thence to the lying and backstabbing over the summer through today, and I have to conclude that either Obama is so weak that he has no control over Pentagon coup and war plans (that's Chavez's view--he said that Obama is "the prisoner of the Pentagon), or he is on board for Pentagon coup and war plans, the view I am tending toward now.

More insults against Latin America by Barack Obama are not a surprise to me. That he can lie like a Bushwhack is still appalling, though.

[Braulio]

9. Chavez doesn't represent Latin America, does he?

The last I heard, Chavez doesn't even have support from a majority of Venezuelans. So why do you think he symbolizes Latin America? I think a more deserving person is Lula. Chavez was somewhat more effective when he could throw money around, but now that he's going broke, his charm is petite indeed.

[Peace Patriot]

12. "The last you heard"? Please cite the polls. Chavez has had a consistent 55% to 60% approval rating

throughout his tenure.

"So why do you think he symbolizes Latin America?" Huh? I didn't say any such thing. I said that Obama engaged in gratuitous Chavez bashing. Chavez is the ELECTED president of Venezuela--in elections that are far, FAR more transparent than our own. (He can prove that he was elected. Can Obama?) He has been the choice of Venezuelan voters in election after election, and poll after poll. Obama's remarks have been INSULTING and contemptuous of Latin America democracy, and contemptuous of the people of Venezuela.

If I were to pick a symbol representing Latin America, I would pick an ordinary poor voter who had taken the trouble to educate himself or herself on the issues, and joined with others in grass roots political activity which has brought about an historic leftist democracy movement in Latin America. And I DON'T LIKE our government INSULTING those brave and far thinking and mostly POOR people who have done a miracle that we cannot do here, for all our relative wealth and privilege: elect leaders to public office who attend to the interests of the majority.

As for the Venezuelan economy, you are really seriously misinformed. Venezuela--like Brazil, Bolivia and other countries who defied World Bank/IMF advice and control--has landed on its feet in the Bushwhack-induced worldwide economic meltdown. For one thing, Venezuela SAVED MONEY ($43 billion in international cash reserves). They currently have a budget based on $40/barrel (oil is about half their revenue, and this is a very conservative, bottom-line price prediction) with FULL social program funding. They are in far, far better shape than the U.S. They are IN THE BLACK, and are borrowing on THEIR OWN TERMS, against their own cash reserves. EVERYBODY is suffering recession--due to the Bushwhacks' Financial 9/11. Venezuela is doing better than most.

And do you consider spending money on schools, health care and other bootstrapping of the poor to be "throwing money around"? That is a very rightwing position. Spending money on the poor is the BEST use of the oil money. Stuffing Exxon Mobil execs' pockets with it is NOT.

I really must repeat this: Over the previous five years, 2003 to 2008, the Chavez government created a sizzling 10% economic growth rate, with most of the growth in the private sector (not including oil). One, this required excellent management of the economy (including generating big SAVINGS of the peoples' money), and, two, the economy could not continue at that rate and had to slow down (to control inflation). Venezuela is by no means "broke." Where are you getting that idea? (The Wall Street Urinal & brethren regularly predicts it and it is never true. They WANT it to happen. It doesn't.) WE are broke. Venezuela is doing very well, compared to us, because the Chavez government has PRIORITIZED the interests of the poor majority and the working class. That is what the U.S. should be doing--not stuffing the pockets of the banksters and serving the interests of global corporate predators and war profiteers.

[EFerrari]

11. You and Judi Lynn are much better at exposition than I am.

Hint. Broad hint. Big broad hint. :)