Sapere Aude!

OMG! Obama Tries to Be Polite to People From a Different Culture!!!

Drudge Report headlines crack me up. 

It must me he's showing weakness!!!!!!  We're all doomed!  Now the Japs are gonna attack!!!!

Cornel West on Obama on The Colbert Report

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Cornel West
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Dear RightWingers, Do You Understand the Difference Between "Some" and "All"?

I'm a little late posting this clip from The Colbert Report.  In it Colbert takes on the "black-washing" of criticism against Obama.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Blackwashing
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Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Protests

I remember a time not so very long ago when anybody that criticized Bush was labeled a "terrorist sympathizer" or "un-American" by many of the people who seem to have conveniently rediscovered their principles now that a Dem is in office.  Or they distort the claim for their own ends. Just check out how Morning Joe takes Carter's claim about some of the opposition to Obama and turns it into a claim about all the opposition to Obama.  What are we to make of somebody that takes a claim about some of the opposition to Obama and turns it into a claim about all the opposition to Obama so that they can accuse the person who made the original claim about some of it of falsely accusing people of racism?  I'm not inclined to think much of them as a critical thinker or a reliable source of information. 

Meanwhile back in reality it's pretty clear who is injecting race into our political discourse.  Limbaugh and Beck characterize Obama as prejudiced against white people and then claim that motivates his policies in order to generate opposition to his agenda.   Then they cry foul when somebody suggests that some of the opposition to Obama is racially motivated?  Seriously?  I'm supposed to think that Birthers, the folks that claim Obama is a Muslim, and think his policies are really a plan for reparations to take money from white people to black people have a "principled opposition" to Obama?  Give me a break.

I don't think all criticism of Obama is racially motivated or that there are no principled objections to his agenda. But, I very much doubt that people who refer to blacks as "niggers" or exhibit overtly racist attitudes about blacks have a principled objection to his policies since I imagine their racist beliefs and their political beliefs probably influence one another.

Bill Maher on Real Time on Democracy

Jon Stewart on Glenn Beck on Health Care

Apparently, getting a job at a right-wing news outlet has changed Glenn Beck's views on the American health care system.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Glenn Beck's Operation
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The debate over health care has finally soured me completely on politics. I'm so fucking tired of people who clearly have no goddamn clue about basic forms of politics crying "socialism" and "fascism" about health care while the real fascist policies (like indefinite detention, domestic surveillance, etc.) are completely ignored or rather actively supported by the folks crying "fascism".

Police Break Up Screaming Crowd Outside Tampa Town Hall On Health Care Reform

Police Break Up Screaming Crowd Outside Tampa Town Hall On Health Care Reform.

Police officers were called to calm down an unruly crowd outside a health care reform town hall meeting in downtown Tampa, Florida on Thursday evening, according to local news reports.

Angry protesters screamed, yelled and banged on windows as officers hurried to guard the entrances to the facility, where U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor was trying to discuss the various health care reform proposals being debated in Congress. One photojournalist said that a fistfight broke out inside the building, reports WTSP.

It's gettin' real.  At least some of these folks do not want to discuss or debate health care, they want to fight about health care.  So, it's not really possible to have a town hall meeting about it.  Keep it up Republicans, you're going to drive that bus right over the edge.  Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh has been busy calling Obama a fascist.  To recap, then, health care reform is 'fascist,' but acting like a brownshirt at a town hall meeting is 'democracy in action.'

Neo-Liberal Governmentality

It seems to me one of the ways in which the government governs subjects today is through incentives.  For example, to stimulate the economy they offer incentives.

WASHINGTON – The government's popular "cash for clunkers" program may be running out of money after only a matter of days as car shoppers flock to dealerships to take advantage of the rebates.

Obama wants to encourage people to stimulate the economy and reduce emissions.  I don't know what Newt Gingrich thinks of the cash for clunkers program, but he thinks governing through incentives is a good idea too.

LANSING -- Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says Michigan should pay pregnant teenagers to take prenatal vitamins and stay healthy so the government avoids expensive costs when babies end up in neonatal intensive care units.

The Republican also told state senators Wednesday he supports paying poor children to read, and the state should consider paying girls to not get pregnant.

Gingrich wants to offer incentives to shape health and reduce health care costs.  Both he and Obama govern by incentive and aim to mobilize individuals and the population by encouraging certain conduct on the part of citizens.  Their means of governance are the same, they employ the same form of power, but they do so for different ideological aims, at least in some ways. 

Bill Maher on the Birthers

Even Ann Coulter Thinks Birthers are Nuts

But, of course, she blames it on the liberal media because it just couldn't be a bunch of loons on the rightwing.

The More Things Change The More They Stay the Same

We all know he ran on change, but he's accepting more and more of Bush's arguments.  From Salon.com's War Room:

The catalyst for the refusal was a letter that government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sent to the Secret Service asking to see the White House visiting records. In question were visits made by 18 health industry executives, including Billy Tauzin, a former congressman who's now president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, and William Weldon, the chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson. CREW wanted to assess the impact these visits might be having on the current debate over healthcare reform.

In response, the organization received a letter from the Secret Service claiming that White House visitor logs are exempt from public disclosure laws. That's the same argument the Bush administration used to block public access to the names of oil and coal industry players who came to the White House to meet with then-Vice President Cheney in 2001. CREW has now said they will file suit against the Obama administration in order to get the records released.

So, Cheney does not want people to know what energy execs were coming and going from the White House and Obama does not want people to know what health care people are coming and going. It's this sort of stuff that is going to run off the civil libertarians that voted for Obama.