fpb: (Default)
fpb ([personal profile] fpb) wrote2010-03-20 05:17 am

I told you all two years ago

As for President Obama:
1) he has broken his own promise on Don't Ask Don't Tell, something to which few reasonable people would have seen an objection. (That at least one right-wing columnist broke Godwin's Law in trying to find an argument against accepting homosexual soldiers just shows how poor the arguments for this really are.)
2) He has broken his promise on torture and even let into his administration a couple of people whose hands are dirty in the matter, such as Robert Gates.
3) He is wrecking his own proposals for health reform rather than give up a sneaky and unprincipled attempt to break the consensus on abortion (no federal monies for), and he is lying about it.
4) He is guilty of deliberately stirring up trouble against Israel, with the miserable Quartet all too happy to follow his lead.
5) He has ignored both the hideous threat of an Iranian atom bomb and, more disgracefully, the desperate struggle of the Iranian people against a bloodthirsty and disastrous tyranny. He has repeatedly spoken as though the mullah's government were the legitimate leadership of that unhappy country.

Oh, and strictly for Catholics:
6) According to Life Site News International, he has deliberately egged on Catholic Health Association, and possibly the Leadership Conference of Religious Women (although that lot don't need much egging) to revolt against the Bishops. I quote: White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs revealed to reporters today that President Barack Obama actively promoted the Catholic Health Association's public break with the American Catholic bishops to support his health care legislation.
Gibbs also suggested that the CHA and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious' (LCWR) break with the U.S. Bishops has provided legitimate political cover for pro-life Democrats to switch their votes from "no" to "yes."
(...)
Gibbs said that the president had been engaged on the issue, and a reporter asked if he had reached out personally to the groups.
"The President met earlier this week with Sr. Keehan of the CHA," said Gibbs, saying the meeting took place in the Roosevelt Room, but that he "did not get a detailed run-down of the pitch that [Obama] made."
"I do know that he was effusive about her support and her as a person for making the courageous statements that she has," he said.

Well, at least he was not shameless enough to tell his own spokesman what he had done with or offered to this rebel nun.
During the Paris negotiations of 1782-3, the reigning Pope offered Franklin and Adams that the USA government could have a veto over the nomination of Catholic bishops (something that many European governments had at the time). In keeping with their principles, the Founders - few of whom had any sympathy for the Catholic Church as such - nonetheless refused this offer and allowed the Church to organize itself in the new nation as it saw fit. Since then, I know of no President who has ever, for any reason whatever, thought to meddle in the Church's internal affairs and organization.

Hope? Change? Change, all right; hope - that he does not get re-elected.

[identity profile] panobjecticon.livejournal.com 2010-03-24 04:36 pm (UTC)(link)
2, you mean: he's not closed closed guantanamo or come up with a satisfactory answer to the problem?

3, i rarely comment on us or anywhere else's domestic stuff - not having a vote there and so on. but surely, given the unbelievable opposition to it, what has been done is a step in the right direction - even if it will take some time to come into effect and no need to get into the obvious racial inequalities there either? it absolutely amazes me that there's 40 million americans who do not have access to healthcare, and yet you have a country that is prepared to take military action on humanitarian grounds (in the balkans)! as regards the abortion issue, well i suppose if it's sufficiently regulated in the private sector, that's probably ok as it avoids the backstreet whisky and knitting needles procedures of old, but what about people who are not in a position to pay for it? just to clarify a woman's choice of what to do with her own body far outweighs moral indignation or ancient scriptural statement, however difficult the idea may be, and besides regulation is in fact a legal acceptance.

5, an iranian atom bomb isn't a hideous threat, the danger lies in the materials falling into the wrong hands but i don't think it's being ignored. as to the rest, tbh it appears that iran, in many people's eyes, is clearly the wrong type of democracy, like hamas. doesn't mean they're particularly pleasant though...

[identity profile] fpb.livejournal.com 2010-03-24 05:00 pm (UTC)(link)
An Iranian atom bomb is not a hideous threat to the USA. It is, however, a hideous threat to all the USA allies which are within reach of Iranian missiles, which includes Israel, Turkey, and a large part of south-eastern Europe. Why do you think that the Premier of Turkey has chosen this time to go smarming up to the Iranian leadership, whom he does not even respect as "proper" Muslims? Because he can see that there is no longer any reliable support from Washington.

[identity profile] panobjecticon.livejournal.com 2010-03-24 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)
oh please! relatively acceptable intermediary.

[identity profile] fpb.livejournal.com 2010-03-24 07:18 pm (UTC)(link)
First: you evidently know nothing about Turkey. Second: nobody in their right state of mind need an intermediary with Ahmedinajad. These are things on which I don't even want to argue, especially since I am rather tired and it's evening here.

[identity profile] panobjecticon.livejournal.com 2010-03-26 01:43 am (UTC)(link)
are you advocating war/regime change?

[identity profile] fpb.livejournal.com 2010-03-24 05:02 pm (UTC)(link)
By torture, I meant torture. I meant waterboarding, sleep deprivation and the other "enhanced interrogation techniques"; those who sanctioned them and those who used them, but above all those who sanctioned them. Obama had promised that these things would be dealt with. How he intended to deal with them became clear when he kept the Secretay of State for Defence who had been directly responsible for the treatment of prisoners.

[identity profile] panobjecticon.livejournal.com 2010-03-24 07:12 pm (UTC)(link)
sorry, i thought you were on about people being held without status or charge for years on end, i don't this as an issue otherwise.

[identity profile] fpb.livejournal.com 2010-03-24 07:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Civilized human beings don't even consider torture as an option. Period.

[identity profile] fpb.livejournal.com 2010-03-24 05:04 pm (UTC)(link)
The unbelievable opposition to health reform was largely caused by the way Obama, Reid and Pelosi chose to go about it, especially their shameless lies and shenanigans about federal funding of abortion. That alone cost them dozens of votes and any remote chance of bipartisanship. What is more, it has made it virtually certain that there will be a determined effort at repeal.

[identity profile] panobjecticon.livejournal.com 2010-03-24 07:25 pm (UTC)(link)
politicians politicking and lobbyists lobbying, apparently, stirs up ire to cause the members to vote against? i don't think so. there's a history of objection to healthcare for several former presidents and a real individual centered cultural problem at play in the wider society, in addition to massively vested corporate interests. i honestly doubt that abortion is *that big* an issue. more likely fear of not being re-elected because ensuring that people are unlikely to die as a result of simple, treatable ailments is big government, eurozone socialism at it's very worst, inefficient and costly - ignoring possible wider benefits.

[identity profile] panobjecticon.livejournal.com 2010-03-25 11:11 am (UTC)(link)
you've probably seen this already: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8586492.stm

'Some supporters of the bill had received threats and abusive messages, prompting them to call police and the FBI.
Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said more than 10 Democratic politicians had reported incidents since Sunday's vote, some of which he described as "very serious".'

[identity profile] fpb.livejournal.com 2010-03-25 12:22 pm (UTC)(link)
And your point is?

[identity profile] panobjecticon.livejournal.com 2010-03-26 01:41 am (UTC)(link)
well actually, i was a little surprised that it's attracting the lunatic fringe.