Ted Rall for August 07, 2014

I was a major Obama supporter in 2008. I remember the first waves of buyer’s regret (not that Romney was a choice) when he gave a unmemorable inauguration speech – I was so sure I was going to hear a JFK-2. But there was so much difference between his nomination acceptance speech in Chicago and that … something was just so wrong.

But the second wave came when I started to hear “folks” used everywhere instead of “people”, “men and women”, “citizens”, “soldiers”, whatever. I’ve got a good ear – and all of that was as phony as hell.

We didn’t want the Bush soundtrack – “nyoo-clear”, “misunderestimate”, and, yes, “folks” – continued. We didn’t want to go back to crackerbarrel. (At least GWB was authentic in his lack of fluency.)

What an embarrassing time the last six years have been for so many of us. So very sad.

Hummm. Ted sure knows how to boil down things to their base elements. With emphasis on the word “base”. Wink, wink.

Torture only gets the victim to say what you want to hear so the pain will stop. It is NOT effective in getting accurate information and never was...But why are you arguing with a master baiter?.

More here:The Effects and Effectiveness of Using Torture

So the problem is the tone of voice in how Obama discussed it? Come on, people, there are bigger things to deal with than this crap.

I thrilled to Obama’s pre-election rhetoric, but I can’t stand listening to his weekly presidential address about “the folks.” Thanks for taking it on.

US law prohibiting torture is written in such a way as to place Mr. Obama and his Justice Dept. in clear violation of law by his refusal to prosecute Mr. Bush and others in his administration. Given this, along with the Obama administration’s own torture, his murder-by-drone of US citizens, and his illegal mass surveillance of US citizens, there are enough high crimes and misdemeanors for several counts of impeachment.