Ted Rall for November 14, 2009

See, Republicans and Democrats can be friends.

“Apologism leaves an awful taste”.

Yeah, it does. It’d be nice to see more people realize that.

I think he did say he wants to end the DADT policy in the military, though. Yeah, I wouldn’t call it gay-bashing, per se, but I guess gays can find something to gripe about.

But hey, some people dislike Obama for being too much like Bush, some people dislike Obama for being too little like Bush (or what Bush should have been). Can’t please them all.

he’s a child of divorce. we just want those warring parties to be reconciled and get along.

Bruce’s idea is a good one.

term limits imposed by legislation, however, are bad. they create lame ducks. virginia has a lame duck governor the minute he’s elected. bad.

term limits imposed by voters are good.

voters that surrender their rights and responsibilities to gov’t legislation are bad.

today’s comic strip is right on. politicians don’t have the ability to deliver on most of their promises, and we should mostly be grateful for that.

Hate to say it but Rall is right. Along with things he’s done right he’s also done stupid things like following War Bush ideological thinking. He needs to purge his house starting with the Bush/Clinton hold overs and putting some real progressives in place.

He needs to be ripped a new one by his constituents.

and we are already apologizing for him before the end of his first year.

ah….thank GOD!

d_legendary1 said, about 8 hours ago

“Hate to say it but Rall is right. Along with things he’s done right he’s also done stupid things like following War Bush ideological thinking. He needs to purge his house starting with the Bush/Clinton hold overs and putting some real progressives in place….He needs to be ripped a new one by his constituents…”

Just when I was starting to squirm with all this gush and love, d legendary reminded us to get back and man the ramparts against those terrible political adversaries of ours!

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.”

I think you’re being less than honest with this toon. Just my two cents

Assassinations sure - that’s essentially, part of what the predator drone strikes do (though it tends to produce a bit too many bystander deaths for a proper assassination). ER and the Katrina victims I’m not sure on, but I have not seen anything indicating either of these has been fixed for good. As far as tax cuts, Bush’s are still on (until 2010) and he has some of his own iirc, though for lower-income people.

To be honest, I don’t think he could have fixed ALL those and handled healthcare, Afghanistan and everything else by now, but does need to take care of his promises by the time his first term is up.

This is a “gay-friendly” editorial cartoon? Sounds like someone is projecting their insecurities onto Ted.

Give or take a few points, Ted’s observation about Obama is spot on.

Illegal detention at KZ Guantanamo has been replaced by outsourced detention centers.

Torture continued under Obama, it never ended.

Ted, audie and rkrabbit, I have my own disappointments in Obama, probably somewhat similar to yours. But it is important to separate hyperbole from facts. While in general I agree that Obama has followed Bush doctrine in areas of national security, can you cite examples of the following:

Have any extraordinary renditions occurred since Jan 09?

Has torture occurred since Jan 09? (My understanding is that Obama and Sec Def Gates almost immediately changed policies to ensure torture does NOT occur again and made it clear the U.S. abides by all international treaties banning torture. I believe they made it clear they follow the Army’s existing field manual which also bans torture, the very field manual Bush/Rummy ignored.)

We can disagree on assassinations, I don’t believe use of drones is equivalent to assassinations. But I agree with you that civilians killed by drones is unacceptable and counterproductive to whatever our goal we’re trying to achieve in Afghanistan.

Obama has made real progress on relocating Gitmo detainees and from all news accounts, it is not easy. Bush himself said in 2006 he wanted to close Gitmo and he made no progress. We disagree that Obama should give each detainee $1 million and set them up in Manhattan. I don’t think so and I don’t understand why you would recommend that. I see plenty of evidence that Obama and his administration are working to clean up the Bush problem of Gitmo.

Can you provide a source for your claim that Obama will continue the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy? (I haven’t read a news account of that.)

Re Katrina victims: I admit I’m not as knowledgeable about this as other things. I don’t know exactly what the disaster victims are still waiting for … I know lots of funds have been expended. Please don’t get me wrong … what happened to thousands of people during/after Katrina is unconscionable. I still have an image in my head of all the people in the hospital who were left to linger in heat, humidity, stench, with no electricity for six days, primarily because they were poor and powerless. Heads should have rolled over that.

What do you think Obama should be doing now for folks in News Orleans displaced by katrina.

Ted. I’m not being disrespectful nor cavalier with my questions. I really would like more info and pointers to sources to read.*

believecommonsense is a sycophant @ the office.

Wasn’t that the point ? The overreach of the fickle public’s plunging opinion. I’m a bit more patient than that , I love Barny Franks attaching the DADT issue to the congressional military mandate. Quite sure the President’s hand was in there somewhere. Also the non-prosecute policy allowing States to regulate marijuana , basically taking the feds out of your stash box is a sensible approach. Gitmo now has a vacancy sign up and I hear they are painting a for sale sign on it. Maybe KBR or whomever will buy it back for 10 cents on the million or charge the taxpayers a billion to tear it down. Torture ? I suppose the rise of right wing nut jobs profiles has been torturous to many. Ten more minutes of Glen Beck and I’ll confess to the Lindbergh Kidnapping Rendition and assassination are often in such a black realm that only intelligence agents are aware of them. But they are in-fact the most effective tools for disabling diabolical mechanizations. Drones make us appear cowardly to the locals. A net loss I believe. Taxes and bail outs and cronyism all out off control does any one know which way this ship is headed? One thing’s for sure the economy is in a mess and middle class America is taking it on the chin. It is like turning around a speeding freight train.

capt.jay: believecommonsense is a sycophant @ the office.

gee, that’s kinda harsh. I’m a sycophant to whom exactly. I’d like to meet that person; quite sure I’d like him or her.

Here’s how to make sure “torture” end as soon as you sign the new law.

“Intense interrogation while using physical/mental ‘stimuli’ like ‘loud music’ or ‘correctional electro whippings’ are not torture.”

And hey, accidents happen. All it takes is a few tens of thousands bad apples.

If a police officer decides to zap a suspect who is resisting arrest, even when that suspect is lying on the ground with two other cops sitting on top of him, that’s not the same as torture.

So if you zap a prisoner for a prolonged period and you accidentally hit his genitals repeatedly, that’s not torture either.