May 7, 2009 4:24 PM
Obama Razzle Dazzle and Reality Round-up
While the Washington Press Corps swoons over the First Couple taking a stroll on the White House Lawn or Obama and Biden taking a break from business to motorcade across the bridge for a burger, some real thinkers are still trying to wake up the citizenry to what is really going on behind the scenes.
The Obamas are being branded and marketed like Hollywood stars ('We have the best brand on Earth: the Obama brand,' their promoter Desiree Rogers says. 'Our possibilities are endless'), following a carefully crafted schedule floating from photo op to photo op. Living in the White House, earning a 400,000 salary, and with a full kitchen staff, is there really any reason to spend thousands in taxpayer dollars to go out for a hamburger? Can you imagine the hue and cry if Bush had done something similar? All we would hear would be the Rome burning/Nero fiddling tch-tchs of the MSM.
And how normal does it feel to go out for a burger with a raggle-taggle band of cameras following your every bite and reporting to the American public that you ordered your burger medium-rare with spicy mustard - "Do you have any Dijon?" (which MSNBC edited)
Think of Michelle's Vegetable Garden and Michelle's full-time makeup artist (in addition to her hairstylist). I don't know about you in the heartland, but the coverage here only demonstrates that this is not the people's President but the People magazine president.
Laura Ingraham calls this the Razzle-Dazzle - and rightly points out that it is meant to build Obama's image and to distract the American people from the real issues. So much is at stake and Obama has done more to deconstruct traditional America in 100 days than other presidents would have dreamed of in two terms. Without conservative talk radio - and who knows how much longer we'll have that? - or websites/blogs (ditto), we would have no idea that anything more important than the Obamas' new dog or Grandma Robinson's social life is actually going on in Washington.
I've gotten a little behind this week. Here is a round-up from my Inbox;
The President Who Hates His Country HT to William R.
NY Post writer Ralph Peters, a former military intelligence officer, in The Obama Doctrine: Hugging Foes, Hurting Friends sums up the hate-America core tenets of the "Obama Doctrine" as follows:(1) We're to blame,
(2) Problems can be negotiated away,
(3) Problems that can't be talked out can be bought off,
(4) Islamist terrorism doesn't exist,
(5) It's all our fault,
(6) Israel's the obstacle to Middle East peace,
(7) Our nukes threaten world peace and we need to get rid of them,
(8) Our military is dangerous,
(9) Our intelligence services are even more dangerous than our military,
(10) It's only torture if we do it, and
(11) Blame President George W. Bush.
From the Detroit News:Newsweek Compares Bush Era as Star Wars to Obama's as Star Trek
Naturally all Bush's folks are the Evil Characters
In a transparently unhinged and partisan hit job against several Bush administration officials, Newsweek thought it would be amusing to compare the Bush era and the Obama era by analogizing them with Star Wars and Star Trek respectively. Naturally Newsweek's Bush Derangement Syndrome was given full throated expression -- phasers set to kill not to stun -- as the Bush administration officials were noted as representing one or the other of the evil Star Wars characters while all the Obama officials were compared to the good guys in Star Trek. What we get is the typical Old Media talking point: Bush evil/ Obama good.
Out of the nine Star Wars characters used on the SW side to explain the Bush era, only five are conceivably a good guy. The rest are all the SW bad guys. But even that isn't as it would seem on its face. It's so bad that even when Newsweek uses any of the ostensible good guy characters from Star Wars, their caption tends to undercut the good nature of the character when coupled with a Bush official. For instance, we all know that the happy and fun character of C-3PO is a beloved Star Wars character, but in Newsweek's hands the venerable, loyal robot becomes former Bush Spokesman Ari Fleischer. Why is C-3PO like Fleisher? Why because he's "obsequious" and "glabrous," of course. Hardly flattering.
Read entire article here.
Obama's flawed auto logicFrom the New York Times:
Manny LopezThursday, May 7, 2009
President Barack Obama insists he doesn't want to run the domestic auto industry -- and we should all be thankful for that.But his actions speak differently -- and we should all be worried.
"... I rejected the original restructuring plan" that Chrysler LLC submitted for government loans, he said April 30 in announcing his decision to force Chrysler into bankruptcy. "... And the standard I set was high -- I challenged them to design a plan ..."
That's a lot of self promotion and involvement from a guy who doesn't want to control the companies.
Read entire article here.
Obama pressed to engage on gay issues
Activists urge action on same-sex marriage, 'don't ask, don't tell' rule
President Obama was noticeably silent last month when the Iowa Supreme Court overturned the state's ban on same-sex marriage.But now Mr. Obama -- who has said he opposes same-sex marriage as a Christian but describes himself as a "fierce advocate of equality" for gay men and lesbians -- is under pressure to engage on a variety of gay issues that are coming to the fore amid a dizzying pace of social, political, legal and legislative change.
Two of Mr. Obama's potential Supreme Court nominees are openly gay; some advocates, irked that there are no gay men or lesbians in his cabinet, are mounting a campaign to influence his choice to replace Justice David H. Souter , who is retiring. Same-sex marriage is advancing in states -- the latest to allow it is Maine -- and a new flare-up in the District of Columbia could ultimately put the controversy in the lap of the president.
Read entire article here.
From the Washington Post - April 10, but just as current an issue today:
Faith Groups Increasingly Lose Gay Rights Fights
By Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 10, 2009; A04
Faith organizations and individuals who view homosexuality as sinful and refuse to provide services to gay people are losing a growing number of legal battles that they say are costing them their religious freedom.
The lawsuits have resulted from states and communities that have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation. Those laws have created a clash between the right to be free from discrimination and the right to freedom of religion, religious groups said, with faith losing. They point to what they say are ominous recent examples:
-- A Christian photographer was forced by the New Mexico Civil Rights Commission to pay $6,637 in attorney's costs after she refused to photograph a gay couple's commitment ceremony.
-- A psychologist in Georgia was fired after she declined for religious reasons to counsel a lesbian about her relationship.
-- Christian fertility doctors in California who refused to artificially inseminate a lesbian patient were barred by the state Supreme Court from invoking their religious beliefs in refusing treatment.
-- A Christian student group was not recognized at a University of California law school because it denies membership to anyone practicing sex outside of traditional marriage.
Read entire article here.
Posted in Media Bias, Obama Nation | Permalink
