Harry’s Place

Germany hasn’t seen the likes of it since the 1930s.

You’ve got to hand it to him: he managed to hold off for six sentences before mentioning that his father was a goatherd, in Africa.

Germany hasn’t seen the likes of it since the 1930s.

You’re forgetting Kennedy (”Ich bin ein Berliner”) and Reagan (”Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”). At least Obama didn’t try to speak German.

Seriously I thought it was an excellent speech, from what I saw of it. Pilger and co must have been tearing their air out - 100,000 people turned up!

It’s like the 1990s all over again, and some.

100,000 people turned up!

There was a big rock concert on…in the same park. on the same evening.

Your linking to the speech was very competent I thought.

Morgoth, are you confusing today’s speech in Germany with that campaign event in the US where a band was playing later that day?

Your linking to the speech was very competent I thought.

Thanks, but you’re off-topic.

Good speech; though I must point out that the walls have gone up in Belfast rather than down!

I think he needs to fire his speechwriter and hire Toby Siegler instead.

: anyone on the “anti-imperialist” Left

two quick questions:

1) Is there such a thing as a “pro-imperialist” left?

2) Is there such a thing as “pro-imperialism” today?

Apparently he will be fighting for bloggers in Iran. Maybe those threatened by the MB too?

You’re forgetting Kennedy (”Ich bin ein Berliner”) and Reagan (”Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”). At least Obama didn’t try to speak German.

Or Angela Davis at the Stadion der Weltjugend in East Berlin.

Joe, the anti imperialist left are not traditional anti imperialists about supporting third world liberation movements. Today they follow the Mugabe model, who demonstrates perfectly how anti imperialist ideology in the post imperialist era has warped into a racist ideology that suppresses national self determination and uses whitey as cover to carry out their campaign of terror.

That’s why I call them The New Anti imperialists, or neo-anti imperialism.

Or Angela Davis at the Stadion der Weltjugend in East Berlin.

I can’t get that speech to play. It must be a classic artifact. Darn.

Mike, why not just call them “immature idiots”?

Best comment I’ve heard yet is:
‘Ich bin ein beginner’

Thank goodness for Gerard Baker and the KJV

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4392846.ece

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”

And so it was, in the fullness of time, before the harvest month of the appointed year, the Child ventured forth - for the first time - to bring the light unto all the world. He travelled fleet of foot and light of camel, with a small retinue that consisted only of his loyal disciples from the tribe of the Media. He ventured first to the land of the Hindu Kush, where the Taleban had harboured the viper of al-Qaeda in their bosom, raining terror on all the world. And the Child spake and the tribes of Nato immediately loosed the Caveats that had previously bound them. And in the great battle that ensued the forces of the light were triumphant. For as long as the Child stood with his arms raised aloft, the enemy suffered great blows and the threat of terror was no more.

From there he went forth to Mesopotamia where he was received by the great ruler al-Maliki, and al-Maliki spake unto him and blessed his Sixteen Month Troop Withdrawal Plan even as the imperial warrior Petraeus tried to destroy it.

And lo, in Mesopotamia, a miracle occurred. Even though the Great Surge of Armour that the evil Bush had ordered had been a terrible mistake, a waste of vital military resources and doomed to end in disaster, the Child’s very presence suddenly brought forth a great victory for the forces of the light.

And the Persians, who saw all this and were greatly fearful, longed to speak with the Child and saw that the Child was the bringer of peace. At the mention of his name they quickly laid aside their intrigues and beat their uranium swords into civil nuclear energy ploughshares.

From there the Child went up to the city of Jerusalem, and entered through the gate seated on an ass. The crowds of network anchors who had followed him from afar cheered “Hosanna” and waved great palm fronds and strewed them at his feet.

In Jerusalem and in surrounding Palestine, the Child spake to the Hebrews and the Arabs, as the Scripture had foretold. And in an instant, the lion lay down with the lamb, and the Israelites and Ishmaelites ended their long enmity and lived for ever after in peace.

As word spread throughout the land about the Child’s wondrous works, peoples from all over flocked to hear him; Hittites and Abbasids; Obamacons and McCainiacs; Cameroonians and Blairites.

And they told of strange and wondrous things that greeted the news of the Child’s journey. Around the world, global temperatures began to decline, and the ocean levels fell and the great warming was over.

The Great Prophet Algore of Nobel and Oscar, who many had believed was the anointed one, smiled and told his followers that the Child was the one generations had been waiting for.

And there were other wonderful signs. In the city of the Street at the Wall, spreads on interbank interest rates dropped like manna from Heaven and rates on credit default swaps fell to the ground as dead birds from the almond tree, and the people who had lived in foreclosure were able to borrow again.

Black gold gushed from the ground at prices well below $140 per barrel. In hospitals across the land the sick were cured even though they were uninsured. And all because the Child had pronounced it.

And this is the testimony of one who speaks the truth and bears witness to the truth so that you might believe. And he knows it is the truth for he saw it all on CNN and the BBC and in the pages of The New York Times.

Then the Child ventured forth from Israel and Palestine and stepped onto the shores of the Old Continent. In the land of Queen Angela of Merkel, vast multitudes gathered to hear his voice, and he preached to them at length. But when he had finished speaking his disciples told him the crowd was hungry, for they had had nothing to eat all the hours they had waited for him. And so the Child told his disciples to fetch some food but all they had was five loaves and a couple of frankfurters. So he took the bread and the frankfurters and blessed them and told his disciples to feed the multitudes. And when all had eaten their fill, the scraps filled twelve baskets.

Thence he travelled west to Mount Sarkozy. Even the beauteous Princess Carla of the tribe of the Bruni was struck by awe and she was great in love with the Child, but he was tempted not.

On the Seventh Day he walked across the Channel of the Angles to the ancient land of the hooligans. There he was welcomed with open arms by the once great prophet Blair and his successor, Gordon the Leper, and his successor, David the Golden One.

And suddenly, with the men appeared the archangel Gabriel and the whole host of the heavenly choir, ranks of cherubim and seraphim, all praising God and singing: “Yes, We Can.”

Amen, Old Labour Brother, Amen!

I can’t help thinking that Obama lifted part of his speech from Hedwig & The Angry Inch ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh-DRxfG5ao

“Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President,…”

Bullshit.

And that’s when the airlift began — when the largest and most unlikely rescue in history brought food and hope to the people of this city.

The airlift “began.” Just kinda happened.

Of course, as an American I’m embarassed –mortified!– to see American tourists overseas who only speak American.

“In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after 9/11/01. White America and the western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared’ as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns.”

“Barack knows what it means living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary would never know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger. Hillary has never had a people defined as a non-person.”

–Pastor Jeremiah Wright, spitiual mentor and friend of Barack Obama for 23 years.

Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don’t look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?

–Barack Obama

mesquito, as is often the case when it comes to Obama, you’re trying way too hard.

I like the way, how at the start, he explains the history of Berlin to the crowd of Berliners. Almost as if he wasn’t addressing the crowd but rather a group of historically-challenged Americans watching on tv…

But….Islamic terror: “This threat is real and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to combat it”

Afghanistan: “Too much at stake to turn back now”

“Despite past differences - time to support the Iraqi the people…”

Yep.

Mesquito: Thanks for mentioning that according to the Minister who married Obama & Michelle and baptized their children, 9-11 happened because of the racism of white America! (At least the Wrong Rev. Wright did not blame the Jews.) I can not believe that Wright and his Afro-Centric Church that Obama has been a member of for more then 20 years did not sink him. Hmm, maybe Obama really is the Chosen One!

And Yes, Praise the Lord for Gerard Baker’s beautiful piece of satire.
Very Appropriate.

His father — my grandfather — was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.

All of them? :D

Meanwhile, reports are coming in that Labour have lost Glasgow East!

Major blow for Brown.

Gabriel Sherman in The New Republic:

Reporters who have covered Obama’s biography or his problems with certain voter blocs have been challenged the most aggressively. “They’re terrified of people poking around Obama’s life,” one reporter says. “The whole Obama narrative is built around this narrative that Obama and David Axelrod built, and, like all stories, it’s not entirely true. So they have to be protective of the crown jewels.” Another reporter notes that, during the last year, Obama’s old friends and Harvard classmates were requested not to talk to the press without permission.

SNP win Glasgow East!

Possibly…………

The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil.

That’s got to be my favorite.

The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow.

I don’t understand how poverty in Somalia caused a Saudi millionaire and his middle- and upper-class recruits to want to murder Americans by the thousands and tens of thousands.

Mesquito: I do not know how the Racism of American Whites and their supposed ignoring of the concerns of Black America caused a Saudi millionaire and his well-off followers to murder 3,000 people on 9-11 either.

Overall though, it was a very good speech that was eloquently delievered.

“Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President,…”

Shortly after 6 pm Central time — just a few hours after Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, gave his speech in Berlin, which his campaign insisted was not political — his campaign manager, David Plouffe, sent out a fundraising solicitation using the speech to raise campaign cash.

“As you may have heard, Barack has been in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia this week,” reads the email, with a big red “DONATE” sign. “Today, he spoke in Berlin, Germany. In a city where a wall once divided the free from the oppressed, he talked about tearing down the walls that divide all peoples so we can address our common problems — the threats of terrorism and nuclear weapons, global warming and genocide, AIDS and poverty. Watch Barack’s historic speech and share it with your friends.”

Dog and pony show in Berlin. Some bloke trying to look like Jack Kennedy and sound like Ronald Reagan at the same time, uncritically adored by the descendants of the same folk who voted for Hitler.

There will no doubt be a firework display next…

Glasgow East is looking like a win for the SNP.

uncritically adored by the descendants of the same folk who voted for Hitler

Wow.

Just, wow.

Returning officer just confirmed the result in Glasgow. SNP won.

Gregg, what Monty is the spin that conservative bloggers like Little Green Footballs are pushing. That Obama was making his speech from the Victory Column where Hitler often spoke (false) to cheers from the descendants of those who cheered Hitler, etec. Total nonsense, but shows how much Obama has them worried.

Meant to write, “what Monty says is the spin that conservative bloggers ….” sorry.

I quite liked Old Labour’s gentle piss-take.

Good speech. It is. But it leaves me entirely cold. Listening to it right now, in fact. Short on specifics, but that’s what you’d expect. I hope he makes it to Pres.

But, and I do genuinely realise that I sound less a “citizen of the world” and more a “bitter little Englander” (though it would, I suppose, be better if I actually were English for the phrase to work, and if I were in fact bitter) in saying this:

Am I the only person who finds this just ever so slightly vomit-inducing?

I cleave to no-one in my support for a fellow liberal democracy and de facto leader of that group of nations, but I just wouldn’t turn up to hear a foreign politician speak if he turned up to grandstand in London. I have my own politicians to listen to, thank you very much. They’re mostly not fascinating, but probably a tad more interesting than a character who presumes to give us throw-away comments regarding such matters as the NI peace process, which, frankly, I imagine he knows jack all about.

I realise that Germany has issues here. Firstly, it is not a nation, for obvious reasons, which has a strong sense of patriotism. Does that make it a cosmopolitan nation? I would suggest not. Because, secondly, despite the waving American flags so apparent, I cannot help but feel that the 100,000-200,000 people who turned up to focus their adulation on a mere individual, a single man, were not in fact expressing their love of and adulation for America (and why should they?), but rather their derision and disgust (and this is even more uncalled for than uncalled for adoration) for the difficult decisions taken in the last seven years by the US and supported - and informed to a limited extent *for our own national security reasons* (which partly include needing to be close to the US) - rightly, by our own government here in the UK. They were there to attack America by proxy, rather than to love it.

Bloody hell. That was pretty badly expressed, wasn’t it?

Now, of course, I’m not up for supporting McCain. Although, actually, surprisingly, I do know a very small number of Labour sympathisers who are hoping McCain makes it. I imagine that some of the Labour parliamentarians in that fine organisation, the Henry Jackson Society, might possibly, but not definitely, have certain twinges too. But I don’t know about that. Just thinking about Gisela Stuart. Now I don’t want to justify that, but Obama’s messianic efforts do really stick in the craw.

I hope, frankly, that Obama will be much better at home, and herald more of the same abroad. I want America to be free of the horrors of mad Republicans instituting reactionary policies that no one in Europe would ever consider.

But I also want more of the same abroad, but with greater finesse. The reason I want more of the same abroad is, firstly, because I consider a hawkish anti-totalitarian foreign policy to be right in principle.

But, secondly, because that is broadly the view of the British government, and specifically the view of the sensible bit of the Labour Party. We’ve taken the hits for being pro-US, and held the ravening hordes of idiots on the left of the party at bay, and now I would be frankly aghast if we (both in the general and the specific) were left with our cocks hanging in the breeze on this one and had to sort out who gets the last bullet before the zombies break in.

This is frankly a parochial concern by comparison with the global Obamania currently occurring - and, *no doubt*, far, far less politically considered than said rational and considered Obamania - but, you know, I can’t help the fact it exercises me just a little bit, yeah?

(I realise, that in writing the above, I have just waived any rights I had to consider myself the owner of a functioning moral compass or indeed even being a member of the human race. :) )

The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terrorism of tomorrow.

Violence in Somalia? But US troops were pulled out of Somalia a decade and a half ago. Isn’t everything supposed to get better once US troops leave?

They were there to attack America by proxy, rather than to love it.

Cheering Barack Obama is just one of the many facets of “anti-Americanism” now?

Now, of course, I’m not up for supporting McCain.

Oh, but of course. It isn’t explicit but why would you not want to support McCain? He seems closer to you on foreign policy.

I would be frankly aghast if we (both in the general and the specific) were left with our cocks hanging in the breeze on this one and had to sort out who gets the last bullet before the zombies break in.

Just a quick tip, the imagery here is truly bizarre and inconsistent. If your, ahem, cocks were hanging in the breeze then you would be outside, perhaps in a public park. Whereas if the zombies were going to break in you would be inside, perhaps in a public toilet.

You’re not giving me enough poetic license, “The Dear Leader is loved by the North Korean people” boy. I’ve always considered myself a surrealist. That’s the whole impression I’m looking for. Uhhuh?

I knew you you were a toad, I just suspended my judgment because I was too much of a weeping liberal.

I have already expressed the hope that, after considering all the issues, Obama becomes President. It wasn’t ever really possible for me to come to any other conclusion, after Hills was knocked out. I tried it out, as an idea - for the reasons I expressed above. But it just didn’t feel comfortable. Is comprehension a tough one for you?

I mean, is it that you know me (but are too scared to give your real name), or are you just stalking me randomly?

I mean, is it that you know me (but are too scared to give your real name), or are you just stalking me randomly?

I’m pretty sure I’ve never met you before but I can see that you have literary aspirations which need a little guiding. As far as stalking is concerned I believe that you initiated our discussion when I made a remark about Kim Jong-il that you didn’t like very much. I’ve made a number of comments on a number of topics and responded to a number of posters here and I can see that not everyone here agrees with me (maybe I just don’t fit in round here) but you have been by the far the most vituperative so please don’t play the victim.

I messed up the italics.

Anyway, Obama’s speech was the usual wishy-washy affair. Lots of words carefully assembled to make no promises or to illustrate anything substantial. His book, Audacity of Hope, was a stunning example of this unless he made some kind of point-by-point pledge to do a lot of things towards the end (I had given up reading it before then).

There’s still plenty of time left for gaffs and goofs on both sides of the aisle. It’s nice to have a choice- protected by law.

There’s no guarantee that Obama would be a good President. There’s no guarantee he would be a crappy president either.

One brief thought: anyone on the “anti-imperialist” Left who thought Obama might be sympathetic to their cause must have been sorely disappointed.

Ah, yes. Let’s try to claim the dazzling Obama for the Decent/neo-conservative cause. Well, that doesn’t quite work either - at least not yet - since, unlike Gene and co., Obama disagreed with the decision to invade Iraq. Oh yes, some gymnastics, but not to the extent of say, David Aaronovitch.

Obama is a politician, so which of his statements do you believe? His anti-war ones or his more hawkish ones? I have a feeling his more hawkish ones lead him towards a Brent Scowcroft position, not a Decent one.

Just for the hell of it, which US presidential candidate do you favor, Benjamin?

lead him towards a Brent Scowcroft position

So he’s a Mormon now, Benji.

I have a feeling his more hawkish ones lead him towards a Brent Scowcroft position, not a Decent one.

Obama is whatever you want him to be. Kind of like god, or like Chauncey Gardener. Benji wants Obama to be like Brent Scowcroft, or at least anyone who isn’t Decent. And *poof* so he shall be, at least for Benjamin Mackie.

Of course Obama hasn’t a clue as to what a Decent is. But shhh don’t tell Benji.

On the speech, I saw bits of it on ‘Newsnight’. A very assured, skilled performance, although I’m not sure if it will get him any more mileage amongst the domestic audience.

Incidentally, did anyone notice the point where somebody in the crowd ululated (shortly after he mentioned his Kenyan father), and Obama did a self-conscious pause, and smile (to good effect on the crowd)? Am I alone in tbinking that was a set-up?

Benji wants Obama to be like Brent Scowcroft

No I don’t. I want Obama to be like Martin Luther King. To some he is - but, alas, I’m not that deluded.

Just for the hell of it, which US presidential candidate do you favor, Benjamin?

Kucinich or Nader in terms of pure preference. I favoured Obama over Clinton. I am not overly enthusiastic about either McCain or Obama, but if I had a vote and only chose one of those two, it’s got to be Obama.

I’m amused at all this speech-bashing. I mean, after 8 years of Bush stumbling and smirking through disjointed prose, Obama is Cicero crossed with a Kerryman.

Oh, and more references to the Wright story. Obama has already broken links with his pastor, more than McCain has done with his own bigoted spiritual advisor.

P.

“you have been by the far the most vituperative”

Aww shucks. You’re far too kind, my good man. :)

No victimhood intended, I promise.

Oh, and more references to the Wright story. Obama has already broken links with his pastor, more than McCain has done with his own bigoted spiritual advisor.

McCain didn’t lap up the words of Hagee for 20 years, Paul, or sit in his congregation not saying a word in disagreement.

Obama is Cicero crossed with a Kerryman.

Truly, he is the next Jackie Healy-Rae.

Truly, he is the next Jackie Healy-Rae.

More like the next Gerry Healy.

I heard an anchor on CNN this morning refer to Obama’s speech as being “like chinese take-out, very enjoyable but leaves you feling somewhat empty afterwards.” A cheap shot and not really true — but hilarious!

I heard an anchor on CNN this morning refer to Obama’s speech as being “like chinese take-out, very enjoyable but leaves you feling somewhat empty afterwards.

Not really fair, and anyway the analogy works better with McDonalds meals not Chinese.

There’s no guarantee that Obama would be a good President. There’s no guarantee he would be a crappy president either.

As one could say about everyone who has ever run for president in the history of the republic.

Obama has already broken links with his pastor,

After it became public after 20 years.

Very slightly off-topic; Im surprised The Guardian Editorial yesterday seemed to go unnoticed here (if its elsewhere on the blog, apologies)

“When a presumptive US presidential candidate arrives in Jerusalem, he willingly dons a jacket designed by Israeli tailors. He is compelled to call the country a miracle, to visit the Israeli Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem and to link the memory of the 6 million Jews who died in Europe to Israeli victims of Palestinian violence today. It was no accident that at Yad Vashem Barack Obama met the policeman who stopped the rampage of a Palestinian bulldozer driver that injured 16 Israelis on Monday.”

ie Whatever the merits or otherwise of Obama; he is helpless when faced with the all powerful

‘whateveryouwanttocallthembutyouarentantisemiticofcourseyouareantizionistwhichisfineisntit”

An extremely ugly piece, even by The Guardian’s own poor standards. It couldnt possibly be that Obama thinks Israel a success/miracle. No…he is simply having his strings pulled by those very clever, manipulative ……Zionists.

OBAMESSIAH!

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”

In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of Working Class Whites.

[…]

[T]he Child went up to the city of Jerusalem, and entered through the gate seated on an ass. The crowds of network anchors who had followed him from afar cheered “Hosanna” and waved great palm fronds and strewed them at his feet.

In Jerusalem and in surrounding Palestine, the Child spake to the Hebrews and the Arabs, as the Scripture had foretold. And in an instant, the lion lay down with the lamb, and the Israelites and Ishmaelites ended their long enmity and lived for ever after in peace.

As word spread throughout the land about the Child’s wondrous works, peoples from all over flocked to hear him; Hittites and Abbasids; Obamacons and McCainiacs; Cameroonians and Blairites.

And they told of strange and wondrous things that greeted the news of the Child’s journey. Around the world, global temperatures began to decline, and the ocean levels fell and the great warming was over.

And so on and so forth.

Just gag me with a fucking spoon.

And democratic voters really need to get a religion

I think the Obamanon is now enough to make St Francis of Assisi shit himself with rage. It is truly beyond a fucking joke. He’s gonna get the launch codes. Fuck me. I wouldn’t trust him with a cigarette lighter.

Brilliant, John P.

It IS brilliant Nick, but I ‘m not ( unfortunately) the author. It was written by a guy named Gerard Baker

http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/16147

MattG Norman Geras at his finest has fired off a coruscating critique of this Guardian atrocity:
http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2008/07/barack-obama-and-the-jewish-tailors.html

NIckM that is not John P’s creation: it is by Gerald Baker- see the link in a comment earlier in this thread by Old Labour.

McCain didn’t lap up the words of Hagee for 20 years, Paul, or sit in his congregation not saying a word in disagreement.

Well, there’s also the improbably named Rod Parsley and his urge to McCain that “America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing [Islam] destroyed”.

(OK, I know I’m speaking to the wrong guy - you’re probably making “I Luv Rod!” badges as we speak.)

Now, we can either believe that Obama’s opinions on race, being the son of a black father and a white mother, are those as put forward in his nuanced “A More Perfect Union” speech (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/18/obama-race-speech-read-t_n_92077.html).

Or, we can believe it’s all bullcrap and that actually he thinks that Whitey has been behind every evil in the word including 9/11, and will start his inauguration speech with the line “From this day forth, the Jew will no longer use the Negro as muscle.”

Something makes me think the former is more likely.

Again, I just find the idea of Bush supporters criticising Obama for his oration laughable. A man who, will making a speech containing five bullet points, used “Secondly….” three times.

The following Google search return says it all:

No results found for “great speeches of george bush”.

P.

I think the Obamanon is now enough to make St Francis of Assisi shit himself with rage. It is truly beyond a fucking joke. He’s gonna get the launch codes. Fuck me. I wouldn’t trust him with a cigarette lighter.

Times that feeling by 10 and that’s how the majority of the world feel about Bush

“anyone on the “anti-imperialist” Left who thought Obama might be sympathetic to their cause must have been sorely disappointed.”

No one on the anti-imperialist left thinks Obama is sympathetic to them.

Obama is sympathetic to the pro-war left when it comes to Afghanistan. i.e. he supports it as you do.

Obama is sympathetic to the anti-imperialist left when it comes to Iraq. i.e. he didn’t ever want your war and doesn’t want it now.

It’s just a pity there isn’t that much ‘left’ to his policies, let alone pro or anti imperialism.

Herman, do fuck off. I can’t stick Dubya but ain’t that the point? Nobody eslse can but Obama is generally popular and fuck me if that ain’t dangerous. At least Dubya is unpopular which limits the damage he can do.

FC, you are neither of the left and you certainly are no