"This is the first time in my life that I can recall a government in North America organizing protests of one group of citizens against another. This is standard operating procedure in countries with left-wing governments."
The tactic is SOP for all repressive regimes, not just leftist ones. That Barack Obama's crew would deploy such a tactic will come as no surprise to those who've studied his political career and the careers of his handlers and closest associates.
For Americans who'd like to start catching up with reality, visit RBO ("The Real Barack Obama") and read the report that refers to the above quote.
The "terrible crimes" they aledge seem to me to be at worst an ill judged use of free speech and the right to demonstrate. The right-wing in the US have been using spin for decades to get its message heard. Its curious that its suddenly a great crime when the left-wing learns how to play to the press.
ReplyDeleteThe RBO is hardly a neutral source for these sorts of allegations. I wouldn't be sure it can be trusted to tell the whole truth.
And the hyperbole is ridiculous. I'm sure Obama's not perfect (and manipulates and spins as much as any other politician) but at least he's basically competant which is something we can't say about the previous president or senator McCain.
Typical Obot reponse from Barnaby.
ReplyDeletePopular front groups OAF formerly Obama For America has been soliciting mercenary counter-protesters from Craig's LIst.
Enough of this crap.
This administration is overloaded with grifters.
Anon -- I'm not certain that Barnaby Dawson is an American so it might be unfair to call him an Obot.
ReplyDeleteBut any way you cut it he's poorly informed on the issue. I am up to my hairline in swine flu reports so I put up his comment without taking time to bring him up to speed.
Thanks for adding your comment, which has prompted me to churn out a little background:
The escalation of White House tactics to shut down public dissent came when the OAF organization you mentioned, which is directly tied to Barack Obama and the DNC, launched counter-protests against the citizens protesting Obama's health care plan. According to the Washington Post:
"For the first time, Obama's formidable political operation, Organizing for America, is calling on supporters to go to town meetings and show support for Congressional Democrats, as a way of countering the Tea Party brigade's efforts to lay siege to such gatherings..."
The White House has realized they've gone too far. Many of those town hall protestors aren't Republican; they're Democrats or Independents. So, reportedly, Obama's chief advisor is trying to put the rent-a-mobs on a choke leash. See John Batchelor's
"Sandbox" post yesterday at his blog.
But again the rent-a-mobs are just the latest escalation.
Obama stepped over the line months ago by abusing his position as POTUS to single out specific American critics in the media by name in his public speeches; this was clearly an effort to whip up anger against these citizens among his followers.
This tactic, a favorite of authoritarian regimes, is unprecedented in modern American politics and has no place in a liberal democracy.
Then, Obama's White House stepped way over the line when their newly created 'disinformation director,' called for Americans to inform the White House by email if they heard any "fishy" criticism of Obama's health care plan or received any emails that struck them as fishy.
This tactic reflects a totalitarian approach to handling citizen dissent, which is anathema to a democracy.
Again, this is unprecedented in American politics -- and reportedly it has alarmed many Leftists and Obama supporters.
As for Obama's competence as POTUS: a plurality of respondents in both a CNN snap survey on Friday and a scientific poll they cited gave Obama and "F" on his first six months in office. I can't remember precisely what the average of the rest of the grading worked out to -- but it was something like C minus from the poll and perhaps a D from the survey respondents. You can check the CNN website for details. CNN's audience tracks liberal Democratic.
With regard to RBO and its earlier incarnation, Rezko Watch, the blogger there has been compiling a meticulously researched, encyclopedic profile of all Barack Obama's known associations, and she's brought to light the incredibly complex web of self-styled "leftist" organizations that backed Obama's rise to political power.
Last year Professor Steve Diamond, a genuine leftist and a labor attorney, whose writings I featured several times on this blog, pointed out to me that many of the people in Obama's circle aren't really leftists. They're authoritarians in the mold of Hugo Chavez, who is inexorably strangling Venezuela's democracy in order to consolidate his power.
Within months of RW/RBO launching and publishing research into his background, what had emerged was that Barack Obama was the political version of Dorian Gray.
Behind the mask of affable reasonableness, the "real" Barack Obama had spent his adult life unerringly gravitating toward people whose plan for saving the American democracy boiled down to destroying democracy in the name of the greater good.
That only the Americans who were exhaustively informed about Obama's connections knew this about him -- the rest are going to have find out about the "real" Barack Obama the hard way, as happened to several Americans during the past few weeks.
Barnaby -- All the above doesn't mean I would have voted for John McCain.
ReplyDeleteI'd originally planned to vote for McCain on the lesser-of-two evils theory, but that was before his frightening statements on Russia and Georgia revealed that he was very much a member of the 'Get Russia' crowd, which has factions on both sides of the Atlantic.
That crowd was, and still is, fanatically determined to destroy Russia's sphere of influence in the post-Soviet states. But their meddling in Ukraine and Georgia in the effort to control the outcome of elections turned America's 'democracy doctrine' into a laughing stock in many parts of the world -- particularly among governments that wanted justification to continue repressive government.
In 2005 I warned about this great threat to democracy in an essay titled, "Democracy Stage Show Kit." Whatever justification there might have been to engage in such meddling during the Cold War, using the outward appearances of the democratic process to install puppet governments is not acceptable in this fishbowl era, and it's threatening to destroy trust in genuine democratic reforms.
So, it turned out that behind the mask of patriotism John McCain was another political Dorian Gray.
Where did this leave American society on the eve of the 2008 presidential election? Caught between the proverbial devil and the deep blue sea.
I have a few comments on the responses to my comment which I shall work up into a post later. In the mean time I withhold judgement.
ReplyDeleteBarnaby -- Just to clarify, when I provided data on the snap survey and poll, unfortunately I did not elaborate. This implied that I thought that because a plurality of respondents found Obama incompetent this was evidence that he was indeed incompetent. Of course the majority can be wrong.
ReplyDeleteIt is early days in his administration, and so it remains to be seen whether Obama displays competence in areas other than talking and playing the political game.
However, the early returns, to stay with the political theme, are not encouraging regarding his actions on the domestic and foreign policy fronts.
I have maintained almost total radio silence on Obama's actions since he took office; I've spoken up only when I saw his actions were threatening to be very damaging to the USA.
I thoroughly detest Obama, but there is a difference between the man and POTUS. I am not eager to see any President of the United States fail, particularly if this means he pulls the USA into deeper economic troubles and brings the USA unnecessary confrontations on the defense front.
I took time from my swine flu investigations to highlight RBO's warning when I perceived that Obama had stepped so far over the line that this could create ugly confrontations among US citizens, at a time when the USA could least afford this.