Posts Tagged ‘Barack Obama’

Obama Congratulates Fiji

// October 10th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Moron of the Week

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It seems like the undeserving Nobel Peace Prize has gone to Barack Obama’s head or maybe it is his lack of knowledge of international affairs. He has been caught congratulating Fiji for the ‘rule of law’ and ‘democratic ideals’ it shares with the United States.

The United States President Barrack Obama says America stands with the people of Fiji in their pursuit of a brighter future.

Fijilive reports President Obama sent a Fiji Day message, on behalf of the American people, congratulating the people of Fiji on the 39th anniversary of Fiji’s Independence on October 10.

He says Fiji and the US enjoy a friendship founded on the mutual commitment to peace, freedom, the rule of law, and democratic ideals.

President Obama says it is through a shared commitment to these ideals that the friendship between the two countries has developed so strongly over the years.”

The note, sent via the US Embassy in Suva, is addressed to “the people of Fiji” and signed “sincerely, Barack Obama”.

Mr Obama, last we checked, Fiji was a military dictatorship ran by an illegitimate government that has abrogated the Constitution and now serves as judge, jury and executioner.  How about you address this in your next note to the illegal dictator, Commodore Bainamarama, and give us some of the change we can believe in?

Any national leader who abolishes his country’s constitution and overturns its judiciary because their strictures and findings do not agree with his idea of democracy, is not worthy to hold responsible office. Bainimarama has hung on to power for far too long by drastically changing the rules and ensuring that articles critical to the government remain unreported. Fiji is not a democracy. It is a dictatorship.

Obama – Big fat NOPE

// October 9th, 2009 // No Comments » // All things LGBT

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Fantastic cover shot from The Advocate referring to how Obama has let down queers.  He certainly owes the LGBT community much more than he has delivered thus far. But he is telling us to ‘wait’ a little bit longer. Sorry, that just is not acceptable. And with the Human Rights Campaign telling us to cut him some slack till 2017, we realize what ‘waiting a little longer’ means.

Morons of the Week – Outraged ‘Liberal’ Americans

// September 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // Moron of the Week

This is the last I will post on the topic.

The POTUS denigrated both immigrants and women in this country within the space of 40 seconds, and most Americans are more concerned over two words from a right-wing idiot that violated decorum. So concerned that they poured a million already into the election bid of the heckler’s opponent, Rob Miller, without even knowing what the candidate is all about.

That’s how rights are lost so easily in this country. People paying attention and giving weight to the wrong things to the point that they end up being on the losing end. What’s the underlying result? More taxpayer dollars spent on eligibility verification that excludes more people, not to mention higher health care insurance premiums because less people are eligible to pay into the system. Bravo.

Why Not an ‘Include Everyone’ Option?!

// September 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // Immigration

Congressperson Joe ‘You Lie’ Wilson was hard hit this week while the POTUS effectively got away with snubbing women and undocumented immigrants in his health care speech.

But even after his re-election opponent, Rob Miller, raised a million due to the outcry and an apology to President Obama, Wilson seems to have won. Today, Democrats Max Baucus and Kent Conrad delivered a more anti-immigrant bill health care bill on a silver platter with eligibility verification that threatens to exclude more than just undocumented immigrants.

John Aravosis at America Blog cannot fathom why Democrats are on the defensive and trying to appease right-wing extremists. He writes:

Why would anyone think that Wilson, or any of the extremists he represents, will support Baucus and Conrad’s plan, regardless of the changes? […]Wilson is holding firm. Perhaps Conrad and Baucus can delete women from the bill too, or gays, or blacks. That might finally get Wilson on board.

And Aravosis is right. Why is the Democrat party pandering to right-wing paranoia in the name of facts?

Cutting through the anti-immigrant noise on health care insurance reform, it really costs more to exclude than include. Lindsay Beyestein at In these Times writes that the more premium-paying members, the cheaper the insurance plan.

Bottom-line: It just makes economic sense to include everyone. Excluding anyone, much less undocumented immigrants, makes little moral or economic sense.

Stop throwing people under the bus. Demand a no-compromise single-payer health care bill that includes everyone.

Obama is a Liar

// September 9th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Human Rights, Immigration

Crossposted at S4FC and The Sanctuary

It is sad that all our social networks and media blitzes are about how disrespectful Congressperson Joe Wilson was rather than how centrist and inappropriate Barack Obama is with his assertion that all human beings don’t deserve equal access to health care. He has to reiterate twice using the hateful discourse of ‘illegal.’ That’s just an all-new low for a President who once said that we have to take the hate out of the immigration debate.

I wish Joe Wilson was right and Obama was lying about the fact that undocumented immigrants would not be covered. But Obama is a liar. Just not in the way that Joe Wilson meant it. Once upon a time, Barack Obama used to be a proponent of single-payer healthcare — “Everybody in, nobody out.” Alas, that came with an asterick. *Illegals and people without proper government documentation need not apply.

That list also includes citizens:

I am effectively an “illegal immigrant,” since I do not have gov’t papers. Yes, this is because I am trans and a woman. (via @nueva_voz)

If the President had pursued immigration reform before healthcare, we probably wouldn’t be seeing this hateful fear-mongering heckling. Yet, President Obama has continued to pursue the same failed immigration enforcement policies of the Bush-era like 287g that is ripping apart communities of color.

Anything less than single-payer universal health care is a dismal failure when it comes to providing everyone with equal access to health care. Anything without a public option is not close to tolerable. I wish people were as outraged at Obama’s centrist and hateful otherization of human beings as they are at Joe Wilson being an idiot.

On/Off – Imperialism by Leon Kuhn

// June 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // Politics

The best new media political work I have seen this week:

Courtesy: Leon Kuhn

Notes for Kal Penn in the White House

// April 7th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Desi-Indian, DesiPundit

Kumar is finally working with House after all, only it is the White House.

Whose Kumar? Does Kal Penn ring a bell? Remember the confused Gogol Ganguli of The Namesake? The pot-smoking Kumar from Harold and Kumar? The young Indian-American House intern? Well, he will be working with the White House now.

Penn, 31, will become associate director in the White House Office of Public Liaison, administration officials confirmed Tuesday. The Indian-American film star will be an emissary to the Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities, along with arts and entertainment groups.

The Rise of Taj gets a whole new meaning.

I thought this was a belated April Fool’s joke. Well, it is not. Obama is certainly playing his cards and reaching out to the young ‘desi’ community.

We can spend an entire post analyzing ‘Why Kal Penn‘ as a White House ambassador for the South-East Asian and Pacific Islander communities and question his credentials, or we can start giving our list of concerns. The latter probably seems more useful.

Mr. Penn,

I have been a huge fan since American Desi. You certainly have some talent there.

I have three major issues of concern.

First, immigration reform. There is a huge stigma in our communities and a big divide between the rich and poor, the high-tech workers and more service-sector workers. There has to be a way to unite our communities around immigration reform. We need some protective provisions for our H-1 B workers while also passing policies like the DREAM Act and comprehensive immigration reform so 12 million people can be regularized, pay taxes and not be abused by scrupulous employers. Too many foreign and undocumented students graduate from schools and universities only to have their potential wasted and our investments squandered. Keeping our undocumented population underground and breeding a permanent underclass of undocumented youth helps no one.

(more…)

Brand Obama – No You Can’t

// February 2nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Anti-Capitalism, Politics

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President Obama’s popular appeal makes him a dream for marketing companies looking to siphon profits by using his image and rhetoric. So it should come as no surprise that the White House is looking into copyrighting “brand Obama.”

“Our lawyers are working on developing a policy that will protect the presidential image while being careful not to squelch the overwhelming enthusiasm that the public has for the president,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

Obama’s calls for change and his “Yes We Can” campaign mantra are being evoked to sell assembly-required furniture in Ikea’s “Embrace Change” marketing campaign, bargain airfares during Southwest Airlines Inc.’s “Yes You Can” sale and “Yes Pecan” ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. shops.

[...]
Riding the wave of Obama’s popularity may become a concern when advertisers use his likeness without permission to imply that Obama is endorsing a product or cause. The White House through the years has objected to commercial use of presidential faces, such as footage of President George H W Bush in a Cold War-themed 1989 television ad for cold medication.

Is “si se puede” going to come under attack?

Given the massive sale revenues generated using brand Obama, how much is he worth? Can he sell himself and just pay off some of the trade deficit that may help hedge U.S. dollar and restore some credit credibility to this country?

It’s not clear who will lose from this precisely, but the winners list is quite apparent with White House litigators at the very top.

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