Barack Obama is our president. How I wish that were April Fools!
My embarrassment for working to elect this man knows no bounds. Seriously.
If one more person says, “Yes, well, he’s not perfect, but we could have had John McCain.”, I will laugh in his face.
I have written many posts on this and been chastised for it in the comments. Well, sorry-here’s another. This is the clincher, though. The treatment of Bradley Manning, whistle-blower to wikileaks in this, “Land of the Free, Home of The Brave” where we do not torture, has me absolutely steaming. Has anyone else read this?
To destroy Manning as a human being, the Pentagon for the past seven months has barred him from exercising in his cell, and to inhibit his sleep denies him a pillow and sheet and allows him only a scratchy blanket, according to Heather Brooke of “Common Dreams” (January 26th.) He is awakened each day at five a.m. and may not sleep until 8 p.m. The lights of his cell are always on and he is harassed every five minutes by guards who ask him if he is okay and to which he must respond verbally. Stalin’s goons called this sort of endless torture the “conveyor belt.”
Now, if I’m not mistaken (and this article would have me believe that I am not) then, John McCain was a POW in Vietnam, was he not?
In the 2008 presidential race, Gawande wrote, both Obama and McCain came out firmly for banning torture and closing Guantanamo Bay prison where hundreds have been held in years-long isolation, yet neither “addressed the question of whether prolonged solitary confinement is torture.” McCain spent two of his five years as a POW in Viet Nam in solitary, later stating: “It’s an awful thing, solitary. It crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment.”
I think with this issue, McCain might be on the winning side.
I’m not suggesting McCain would have been any better, all I am saying is Obama seems to be moving slightly to the right of McCain, and I can’t believe that McCain would have been all that much worse.
So, there you have it. I’ve said it. It’s not an April Fool’s post, it just happens to be posted on April 1st.
(Apologies to those who wanted me to cover, more in depth, the new mayor of Rochester- haven’t had the GAS meter repaired for that yet)
Related posts:
I couldn’t agree more. There was also a post on CommonDreams about the “treatment” of Bradley Manning (that’s Orwellian doublespeak btw). commondreams.org/headline/2011/03/11-3 I want to be clear: I am a hawk on foreign policy, a dove on domestic, but violating the Geneva Convention. the Constitution, the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, and decency of natural law is an outrage that should have every American in arms. On this issue, I can only hope McCain would be different–but he’s reverted to such a right-wing stance that I harbor some doubts–but for Obama to get away with this is an outrage. I also worked my heart and soul
I am, frankly, quite tired of this nonsense.
For starters, Manning is alotted an hour of exercise per day, every day. His mattress has a built in pillow, and he is allowed two regular blankets. He has a window of ten hours a day to sleep, is given between one and four hours of TV time per day, has two hours a day to pursue correspondence, and has up to 15 books or magazines available to him. Being checked on every five minutes is part of the suicide watch that Manning has been on since he made a reference to killing himself. And that only applies while he’s awake, by the way.
Hell yes it’s unpleasant. Prison generally is. But to equate not getting to do what you want when you want to torture devalues the entire concept of torture, and is a grotesque insult to people who have actually been through that. It’s not torture, it’s not sleep deprivation, it’s not dehumanization to be required to sleep only in your boxer shorts after you make a comment about hanging yourself. And to create a fictional world where somehow that makes President Obama “to the right of McCain” borders on the depraved.
Damn, Adama, you’re on fire! Well stated response.
“If Manning is guilty of a crime, let him be tried, convicted, and punished according to law. But his treatment must be consistent with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. There is no excuse for his degrading and inhumane pretrial punishment. As the State Department’s P.J. Crowley put it recently, they are “counterproductive and stupid.” And yet Crowley has now been forced to resign for speaking the plain truth.”
From readersupportednews.com
George W Bush would have had a chocolate mint on his bed every night
Look, I agree that I am as disappointed with Obama as you are, if not more! But c’mon, McCain? I suppose McCain would have appointed better justices to the SC than did Obama. And our energy secretary would have been a climate change denier instead of a Nobel Laureate. And Iran would have been bombed to the tune of the Beach Boys by now. And … ad nauseam.
The unfortunate thing in the modern US of A is that the right wing dominates in all the places that seem to matter, and 40% of the electorate is literate, not educated. With those numbers, we can never elect the kind of President who would court-martial torturers and who would follow the constitution. Sadly …
For real Adama, enough with this crap.
I used to read this site all the time back when it actually covered Rochester politics. Now a days it’s just a bunch of “wah-wah, obama isn’t far enough to the left, I think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
If you guys want want to write that kind of stuff, you should go to mydd or dailykos - THIS SITE STARTED AND PAVED THE WAY FOR ROCHESTER BLOGS! I’m sorry that you’ve all been busy and such, but there’s redistricting happening, a mayoral election that you completely ignored and a special election happening in NY-26… these are WORTH covering and nobody will be able to give the straightforward, on the ground assessment that you guys can… if you don’t, nobody else will.
Now, on to this issue - Manning gave out national security secrets. Agree with it or not, that is legally treason, so I’m not shocked that he’s in prison - and it has nothing to do with Obama.
I hope you guys go back to what made this site great instead of making it just another “some reporter wrote this about a national story, here’s my 1 paragraph response to it.”
Keep it real.
I think it’s time to put “Rochester Turning” to rest.
I’m sick of people making excuses for Obama. And like ladkiddo I wish I could get my money and time back that I invested in getting this guy elected. Obama sure sounded like he was talking the talk, but he has turned out to be lying down with the dogs.
I wish I could get my money back too. I could really use it now.
I, too, am very sorry I got caught up in the glitz that was the Obama campaign. I’m sorry I supported him and voted for him. These days, what I predicted is coming true. The budget cut proposals are going to turn out to be a compromise between standard conservative Republicans and extremist Tea Partiers instead of being a compromise between Repos and Dems.
And how did we ever get to the point where we most lose Medicare and Medicaid? Obama is leading the way to really bad compromises instead of standing up strong for progressive values.
So do you think McCain would have been better?
The answer to that is in the post.
I think it’s very interesting that the last comment on this blog which is supposed to be about Rochester and NY politics, was complaining about Obama and was posted over a month ago. At the same time there is an open congressional seat where the Democrat is within striking distance, and a rather interesting County Executive race is forming up. Instead of complaining about a President who doesn’t give a damn what we think, why don’t we reinviograte this site as the local blog it was meant to be and get to work helping Sandy Frankel beat the bread and butter out of Maggie Brooks in the fall? Or should we just sit in our rooms and pout because the President isn’t listening to us?
So Rochesterturning… sounds more like Rochesterwhining. Does anyone seriously want a Vice President Palin? Of course not. Is Obama a bold progressive like we hoped? Of course not. Should we not be pushing and prodding him leftward… of course. He passed a stimulus, near-universial health insurance coverage, and repealed “don’t ask don’t tell”. Is he still an apologist for corporations and a scaredy cat on standing up to the Republicans? Absolutely.
Hello? I just wanted to say my Sundays are not the same since you stopped writing. I hope you come back soon.
I can’t agree more with the conclusion that Barack Obama is - thus far - a huge disappointment - and I can’t emphasize this enough: thus far. Unfortunately we have no other options than getting behind him. My belief (my hope) is that he is saving his best bits for act two. I wrote about this on my blog back on February 12:
http://tomdegan.blogspot.com/2011/02/stand-up-for-prez.html
Keep your fingers crossed and your hands folded.
Tom Degan
Couldn’t agree more. At least with Obama there is hope. There is a door slightly open. I think it is up to us to push to door more open, and I think that is what is happening with OWS, Move to Amend, etc. Yes he talked the talk and hasn’t come thru with all we have liked. But don’t be fooled into thinking any Republican would be any better.
I was saddened to see only 30 percent voter turnout in elections on Tuesday. That’s a shame. We have to think more locally and not focus so much energy on the federal level. Look at what Missoula just passed regarding corporations and personhood. Look at Ohio, and the upcoming recall walker vote in Wisconsin. Let’s focus locally with an eye on making change there, with an eye on at least keeping a Democrat at the federal level and please stop complaining about Obama and support him because he is a Democrat, which are always, always better than Republicans who have a bigger mindset on helping the rich and corporations.
Think locally, act locally.
Come back! Someone needs to be driving this train!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/28/emily-good-charge-dismissed_n_886405.html
I’m pleased to say I didn’t drink Obama’s Koolaid. Nor did I drink Massa’s. I’m waiting now for a Cuomo shoe to drop!
I would love for a Cuomo Shoe to drop. The man who traded marriage equality for hydrofracking. I’m afraid that Big Energy got the better part of that deal.
I’d be interested in an update to this discussion / comment thread now that the great debt debate of 2011 is behind us? As he moved more and more to the center, did that appease any of you folks who commented here?