Ted Rall for November 14, 2009
Transcript:
Democrat Lady Woman: I hate this. Man: I know. Whatever. Say it! Woman: Ok... Except for the wars and the torture and the assassinations and the extraordinary renditions Guantanamo and Bagram and... the tax cuts and the deficits and the cover-ups and the bailouts of rich banks and ignoring Katrina victims and gay-bashing and doing nothing. About unemployment.... and letting millions of people lose their homes and coddling C.E.Os and propping up dictators, Obama is awesome. Yuk. Apologism leaves an awful aftertaste. Man: Get used to it. I had to say the same stuff about Bush for 8 years.
@believecommonsense:
“Mr. Rall, with all due respect, I think you’re a bit over the top on this one. Torture under Obama? Assassinations under Obama? Extraordinary renditions under Obama? Tax cuts under Obama? Ignoring katrina victims under Obama? Sure about all that?
and re Gitmo, Obama won’t make his original planned date of closing Gitmo, but I see plenty of evidence he’s making progress. A little hard to convince other countries to take some of the Gitmo people when our own Congress has said “not on our soil.””
Congress never approved Gitmo in the first place. Obama could sign an executive order issuing $1 million checks and formal apologies to each inmate and putting them up in Manhattan penthouses if he wanted to. And he should–but that would involve taking political risk, something he’s allergic to. This makes Gitmo HIS problem, not some leftover Bush hangover.
As for Katrina, Obama finally visited there recently and was booed by angry Katrina victims who are still waiting for help four years after the hurricane hit.
Obama has promised to extend the Bush tax cuts, which are due to expire. He also signed an executive order renewing extraordinary renditions. And, as a previous poster noted, what are Predator drone strikes if not political assassinations? We’re not at war, you know.