ABC News:
In Memoriam: The Old Obama, Who Wanted to Bring People Together
The 2004 version of Barack Obama, who captured the nation with a dazzling speech about unity and went on to win the presidency on a message of hope, died on Monday. He was 8 years old.The cause of death appeared to be a bitter realization that he needed to win reelection in an increasingly partisan political environment, a cancer that he had been battling for months if not years.
Obama’s illness got the best of him late Monday, as he announced that his campaign for four more years in the White House would be based not on optimism, but rather the shady corporate record of his opponent, Mitt Romney, who ran a private-equity firm that few Americans knew about before this year.
Obama’s announcement was a stark contrast to the speech that catapulted him into his party’s sights eight years ago, when he electrified Democrats at their quadrennial convention.
“There is not a liberal America and a conservative America,” Obama declared to cheers at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. “There is the United States of America.
“We are one people,” Obama roared, perhaps envisioning his political future as the crowd rose to its feet. “All of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.”
And strangely enough, it was in that very speech that Obama predicted his own demise. Just before his climactic applause line, the future president issued a stark warning.
“Even as we speak,” he said, “there are those who are preparing to divide us — the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers, who embrace the politics of anything goes.”
On May 21, 2012, more than three years after he was sworn into office, Obama confessed at a press conference in his hometown, Chicago, that he had become one of those peddlers.
I hate to break it to the boys at ABC, but some of us never drank the Koolaid bought the hype. Obama ran a vicious, scorched earth campaign, both in the primaries and in the general election.
He was never about Hopenchange™. He “ran” against his mentor Alice Palmer by challenging her nominating petitions, and the ones of the other candidates. They were knocked from the ballot and he was unopposed on election day. When he ran for the senate his two main opponents both had dirty laundry get aired during the campaign.
Obama’s followers told us how great he was at bringing people together, but they couldn’t provide examples. There aren’t any. Those of us who questioned his qualifications were denounced as racists and purged from Left Blogistan. Meanwhile Obama was raking in record amounts of money from special interests.
Nothing good comes from a bad seed. Obama has been the most divisive president of my lifetime – maybe ever. He has ruined the Democratic brand.
Hasta la vista, baby.
Filed under: Barack Obama Tagged: | Barack Obama
Same old, same old.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/05/24/Obama-Campaign-Ad-Controversy-2000-This-Guy-Says-One-Thing-About-You-in-Your-Presence-and-Then
He’s Johnny One-note.
the division in this country now is the worst I have ever seen.
division between races is higher than the last 50 years.
The divide between income is greater now .
the festering anger is higher than I remember.
the thing that backtrack has done is DIVIDE
somewhere along the line we forgot our forefathers teachings
a house divided can not stand
we hang together or we all hang separately
E pluribus unum
someday we may get back to that, but not during the backtrack era
AMEN!!!!
http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/05/a-headline-so-obsequious-even-ny-times-had-to-change-it/
The NYT – Tiger Beat for Obots
LOL from the comments:
The word obsequious describes the coverage of the Once since day one, and yet America’s gag reflex would do a porn star proud:
Boy who touched Obama’s hair: Story behind White House photo is probably in your inbox | The Cutline – Yahoo! News
The New York Times published the adorable back story about the photo—which has been hanging in the West Wing of the White House for more than three years—on Thursday, and it’s quickly become the most-emailed article on the Times’ website.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/story-behind-white-house-photo-boy-touched-president-140641932.html
Honk, honk!!
This cracked me up……Poor BO, so tired riding around on AF1 all day…..
http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2012/05/24/obama-misses-entrance/
Totally agree with you, Oswald. And also what he did to the Clintons! I tried to have rational discussions with my progressive friends about Obama when he was running for president and they just looked at me with disdain. Because I did some initial homework about Obama, George Soros and others, I was always suspicious of Obama….now I am even totally disgusted with him and, unfortunatley, those who support him with, still, such blindness. As my dear mom used to say, look in all directions before you cross the road! Nothing could be more appropriate now. In my lifetime, I have never experienced such divisiveness….and I’m a product of the 50s and 60s….
Heh. Guess who else besides the Whitehouse pays their female staff significantly less than their male staff?
The Senate Dems. Especially the ones yelling loudest about the war on wimminz:
http://freebeacon.com/senate-dems-betray-lilly/
Why doesn’t that surprise me.
Well, the Fair Pay Act doesn’t say that employers have to pay women fairly, it only says women can sue if they are not paid fairly.
Good luck with that if your boss is a Senator.
That’s what I don’t get. The first bill Obama signed was basically, “Here you go ladies, now you can fight for yourself. In the most expensive manner possible, with the odds stacked against you. Congratulations!”
But that’s not how leftist women saw it. Idiots. Excuse me, Odiots.
Wapo cries racism.
some of the comments are great
http://wizbangblog.com/2012/05/23/wapo-says-obamas-massive-primary-fail-is-racism/
backtrack needs 5 years to lead the 57 states.
http://freebeacon.com/five-more-years/
how much is the next vacation going to cost us???????
he’s tired
for all the music lovers
the white house has a series of videos of the concerts you paid for but could not see.
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/05/24/white-house-email-now-you-can-watch-all-those-concerts-you-paid-for-but-werent-invited-to-see-live/
OH MY MY
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/05/sidwell_friends_schools_mistake-proof_prom_prank.html
you have to give them credit for creativity
Okay, I just went off on someone on another blog about the whole RAPE WAND!!!!! hysteria. If women don’t wise up to how fucking stupid and irrational they sound with this crap, we are going to lose choice altogether, just from the backlash. Which I would prefer not happen.
As both a nurse and someone who has actually had an abortion, I can tell you that 99.9% of the time, ALL women who are going in to get an abortion get an ultrasound as part of the workup for the procedure. The ultrasound itself is not some “new” strange thing that wasn’t being done. I had the usual routine ultrasound prior to my own abortion, because it’s safe medical practice to see the size and location, etc of the fetus before you start poking around in there.
The only thing that the TX law and others wanted was to require showing the woman the ultrasound as part of informed consent. Whether one agrees with that position or not, it is hardly the RAPE WAND! RAPE WAND! ZOMG!!!! travesty that the idiot hair-on-fire progs have portrayed it. The ultrasound was being done anyway in almost all cases. Want to argue that the woman should not be shown the ultrasound? Fine,then argue that – that’s a valid argument. But arguing that the act of doing the ultrasound itself is some terrible sexual assault is flaming bullshit with an overreactive cherry on top.
So pardon me if I don’t view an ultrasound (which was usually being done anyway) as the ultimate intimate violation, when you are there for the express purpose of spreading your legs, hoisting them up in the stirrups and having a godamned medical Hoovering device inserted into your uterus. Of those two, the ultrasound is hardly the most invasive or intimate. So spare me the “OMG, it’s so terrible to have them dooo thaaaat to meeee!!” bullshit.
Make your real argument, not a fake demonizing one.
Vaginal ultrasounds are not routinely done, that’s bullshit.
If someone doesn’t want an ultrasound and there’s no medically necessary reason for it, they should be able to opt out.
The mandatory ultrasound laws states have passed (forcing women to look is medically necessary?? Fucking REALLY?) have nothing to do with medicine or women’s health.
So go ahead, “go off” on me. But don’t call yourself pro choice if you support “pre-termination” procedures invented by pro-life lawmakers to shame women.
Christ on a fucking bike.
I did not say that I supported the TX law. Please point out where I said that. I said that comparing a transvaginal ultrasound to rape was a completely unproductive overstatement.
It’s ridiculous on the face of it. Ultrasound probe is RAAAAAPE!, but a huge-ass speculum, Goudell dilator, vaginal retractor, polyp forceps, suction curettes, and other instruments often used for the procedure itself are not? Give me a freaking break.
I WORKED the gyn floor of the hospital. I know what is used for a D&C. I’ve assisted. And going all faint-ish over a little ultrasound probe while you are preparing to undergo all the rest is ridiculous.
Again, want to argue that requiring staff to show the woman the ultrasound is not fair? THEN ARGUE THAT. There is actually a legitimate argument on both sides of that one. But characterizing the ultrasounds as some weird assault in light of all the OTHER things that are about to be put into the hoohah in question is just damn silly, IMO.
And if you want to limit women who are allowed to call themselves “pro-choice” to those who agree with you on every aspect and every tactic of the abortion debate, and label all the rest traitors to women, do not be surprised if you find yourself in an ever-shrinking minority. And if you want to exclude from the club women who think that abortion is a sometimes necessary evil, not a good or even always a neutral thing, your ranks will get thinner still.
To be fair, aren’t the women under sedation when most of those other items are used in a D & C?
Look, I was raped and had an abortion. The regular ultrasound is understandable to know what procedure is needed. And while I didn’t tell them I was raped….it was uncomfortable to be prepped for the procedure. So I am grateful for not being subjected to the probe.
But the fact that other ultrasound does the job. It then becomes hard to ignore that the probe is being utilized for another reason. Even when women are forced to look at the normal ultrasound, it’s being used for another reason than size and location. It’s an attempt to try and shock/shame women into the right decision. Name a medical procedure that men are subjected to that does such a thing.
I get the argument you are making, however, that probe isn’t needed for an abortion.
But having women subjected to legislated bs in the doctor’s office is exactly the bs to be fighting and frankly the same type of bs that Fluke was trying. Legislating someone on the other side of the abortion argument into something against their will/religion for a reason other than a serious medical requirement/need.
It’s two sides of the same coin….both are wrong.
Vaginal ultrasounds are becoming standard operating procedure at Gynos everywhere in this country. I just had one last month to look at my uterus and ovaries in order to find out why I’ve been bleeding like a stuck pig for the better part of this year. The picture is much clearer and techs (and doctors) can see a lot more than with external ultrasounds. They even use the wand on pregnant women now, as it is safe to use and because of the enhanced imaging available from this view.
The fight over this is ridiculous anyway, since it’s not GOP cavemen pushing it. It’s the ultrasound industry. Look at their lobbying stats for 2011. They went waaaaaay up. Here’s an example: http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000064839&year=2011 I’d offer another, but I’d get sent to moderation jail for the double link. I do encourage all of you to do the research yourself.
You should put together a post about that.
Thanks for doing the research Lola. I wondered on another thread if there was a financial reason these things were being pushed into the abortion debate but never looked into it,
Also, two brand spanking new models of transvaginal ultrasound were introduced between 2010 and 2011, which explains why lobbying contributions went from $10,000 a year to almost $200,000 a year.
Here’s an application for FDA approval of one of the models: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/pdf11/K110673.pdf?utm_campaign=Google2&utm_source=fdaSearch&utm_medium=website&utm_term=transvaginal%20ultrasound&utm_content=3
There’s a story to be told here, but it has nothing to do with the GOP wanting to take abortion rights away of shame women over their sexual activity. Real facts, not feelings, are needed to persuade people. Otherwise it’s just a Chicken Little scenario.
You’re welcome, Karma. I might write it up in an article if people would like to read that sort of thing. I can do more research.
Jayzus no wonder. It’s just like those damn TSA p0rno-scanners, isn’t it?
Oh, and we’d all best shut up and cooperate or we’ll lose choice completely?
Sure, that’s logic.
Let’s just duck tape our mouths shut and be cooperative.
Yes, that’s exactly what I said. I’m all for duct tape. Yup.
*shrug* It doesn’t really matter to me if anyone gets angry with me for saying what I said. I’m looking at the dwindling support for legal abortion, and positing that the hair-on-fire tactics and verbiage are not helping – and may indeed be hurting.
But hey, maybe I’m wrong. Keep doing it your way, and we’ll see how it plays out.
I think the point is that it’s not consensual as it’s being forced on the woman. I had several ultrasounds with my pregnancies and I do not recall use of the vaginal device in any of them. There’s just no reason to make a non-consensual procedure even more invasive, IMO, that’s just being hateful so I can see where women, especially sexual assault victims, would find it akin to rape.
I hate even getting pap smears but I consent to them as part of health screening. I had to get an u/s wand to check for fibroids and it was not as bad as a pap smear imo.
But anyway wmcb’s point is that if the woman has decided to have an abortion, she will be consenting to have medical devices inserted into her uterus. Why would an u/s wand be different in that respect – she’s already consented to have it inserted into her as needed as part of the abortion but having it prior to that as a go/no go decision point is a violation?
Even if we consider the fetus to be non-living, like a cancerous growth, a lot of tumor surgery is like that – the doctor does imaging first and actually talks to the patient about the what he’s going to do before they decide to operate.
Btw I consider myself pro-choice but I’m in the I don’t really care category at this point.
Yeah, I’m in the really don’t care category too. The Obots did me in.
Like I said earlier. I get the argument that WMCB is making, because the Obots’ yelling what a racist, woman-hating, sell-out, I was accomplished the opposite. Especially, when they were such hypocrites in hurling those slurs.
If they keep screaming the world is going to end and overblowing the issue and most importantly not arguing the real issue, then pretty soon people are doing to start ignoring their hair on fire screams. Recommended reading: Boy Who Cried Wolf.
I am not a nurse, but have had an abortion- back in the day- and have taken a few friends for the procedure. Not one of us had an ultrasound done. NOT ONE. We had gone to our own OB/Gyn and had a standard pregnancy test. First the urine test and then when we had made the decision to abort, a blood test to double check.
No ultrasound involved at all.
But that was back in the 80′s and 90′s. Perhaps it is now standard procedure. Hell I never had an ultrasound with my two boys- no such thing with the first and not a routine procedure with the second- at that time they were used only for high risk pregnancies.
“But that was back in the 80′s and 90′s. Perhaps it is now standard procedure. ”
**********
It is “standard” procedure. ” We had gone to our own OB/Gyn” That is rarely/not an option today.
Oh and I HATED the ultrasound procedure I did have when pregnant with my daughter. “Here you go lady, drink this quart of horrible orange liquid and DO NOT urinate. Just hold it, and hold it and hold it and hold it. Now that you feel like you are going to be sick because your bladder is so full we are going to put some ice cold goo on your belly and press on the bladder really really hard.”
Ranks right up in the top three most hated medical procedures I ever had- right behind tooth extraction and gall bladder removal. And my daughter had her back turned so the only thing they saw on the damn thing was her spine and the back of her head.
LOL. Me too. Making a pg woman hold a full bladder is so cruel.
votermom- yes indeed cruel and unusual punishment- I have never been able to drink anything orange flavored since- not even an orange popsicle- makes me sick to my stomach lol.
I tend to question why the hell it became standard procedure for each and every pregnancy. My Mom had seven without them. My nephew and his wife had the shit scared out of them by one- they were told the baby had no brain and advised to abort as there was no chance of delivering- and the pregnancy would end in miscarriage anyway.. They opted to carry and Joshua is a completely healthy normal 16 yr old now.
Is it because docs are afraid of being sued or is the procedure a money maker or a combo of both?
I can see doing them if the pregnancy is high risk or the mother’s health is in jeopardy- but for an average, healthy young woman? Not so much.
“Is it because docs are afraid of being sued or is the procedure a money maker or a combo of both?”
********
Best that I can tell, it’s not a money maker for abortion providers. It seems that most clinics have a fixed price no matter how many ultrasounds may be needed or performed. For an early pregnancy that may qualify for a “pills” abortion, vaginal ultra-sound is the only option because the pregnancy is too early to be seen abdominally, (no matter how full the bladder, etc,.)
Even though a first trimester surgical abortion can be done safely if everything else checks out, the fact that most/all abortion clinics have ultrasound available; IMO, it would be asking for trouble for both the doctor and the woman not to ultrasound every patient.
I agree. This is the medical industrial complex covering their asses with new medical technology. Happens all the time. Funny, I don’t ever see this argument: “Doctor, I don’t know WHY you insist on doing an MRI when a simple blood test will show you if I have leukemia or not. Invasive!”
this just angers me
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/23/Sen-Reid-Blocking-Ban-On-4-Billion-Illegal-Immigrant-Tax-Credit-Loophole
this country is hurting economically and this loophole could make some difference.
maybe harry should go to another country, because he is not doing this one any good
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-05-18/federal-deficit-accounting/55179748/1
real deficit
the republicans are not backing down this time. I am not sure backtrack can handle someone who does not back down.
his record sucks
the race card has been overplayed
he has tried to weaken America’s ties with our allies
he has emboldened our enemies
and he has never had a real job and has always been carried by someone else
he might be slippery as an eel but without being propped up there is not much backbone there
“Okay, I just went off on someone on another blog about the whole RAPE WAND!!!!! hysteria. If women don’t wise up to how fucking stupid and irrational they sound with this crap, we are going to lose choice altogether, just from the backlash. Which I would prefer not happen. ”
***********
The politicians who push for the anti-abortion laws may be act/be stupid but they are getting good legal advice in writing the laws. As you point out, pre-abortion ultrasound, usually trans-vaginal, is routine and with a FU-486 abortion, a post abortion ultrasound is mandatory.
I read the VA abortion bill, and to me, the end result was to add hassle and cost for the abortion providers. The added cost wasn’t the ultrasound/s which is part of the procedure but the added cost of the mandated “counciling” and associated record keeping. (I wonder if the ultrasound provision was put in as a distraction from the real purpose of the law?)
There’s a good argument against it. First as WMCB says, argue against the requirement of showing the results and the counciling. But also in this economy and with our debt, argue about the cost and the unnecessary burden on medical providers. Those are winning arguments.
Overblown screaming that procedures are rape just makes you look like a blithering idiot.
Yep. Also, we pro-choicers need to recognize the fact that many abortion clinics do somewhat of a “lick and a promise” halfway-informed consent, and a few are even guilty of giving outright FALSE information to young women in the name of “not making them feel bad”. Not to mention the episodes of left-leaning local govts turning a blind eye to gross abuses of medical, cleanliness, secondary infection, follow-up, documentation and other standards in some clinics.
That needs to stop. And it needs to be US, the pro-choicers, that stops it. Because it’s crap like that, and the left defending or poo-pooing it, that gives rise to bad bills like the TX one. Yes, abortion should remain legal. No, it is not a fucking sacred cow where the usual ideas of accurate and thorough informed consent, and policing and regulation of the clinics just like any other medical facility, does not apply.
Abortion is sometimes necessary, and ought to remain legal. It’s not goddamned holy.
In short, if we don’t police our own, it opens the door for someone else with more extreme ideas to come in and do the policing in ways we won’t much like.
What would have happened if, after that fucking sadistic butcher in Philly got busted, the entire pro-choice bloc had risen as one, all the organizations, and LOUDLY called for better regulation of clinics? If we had all been publicly and loudly disgusted and appalled as pro-choicers, and DEMANDED it be investigated, and whichever city officials allowed this to happen be investigated?
I’ll tell you what would have happened: It might have taken the wind right out of the sails of many pro-life proponents. But the pro-choice left by and large tried to minimize and shove that story under the rug just as fast as they could. That is a big mistake.
Also, don’t forget about this horrific story that emerged in 2010=2011: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/23/pennsylvania-abortion-clinic_n_812700.html
Some regulations were in order. We didn’t need to wait for the GOP to re-deliver us to the age of back-alley abortions. They were already occurring even with all those Democratic protections. That these (mostly poor) women don’t count in pro-choice land says it all.
http://pumasunleashed.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/fitzgerald-stepping-down-as-us-attorney-in-chicago/
he must of done a good job. at one time or another, both sides democrats and republicans were mad at him
http://www.hillaryis44.org/2012/05/23/the-13-keys-thank-you-arkansas-thank-you-kentucky/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+hillaryis44%2FPlBo+%28Hillary+Is+44%29
backtrack should worry a lot
Great article. They sum up nicely at the end:
LMAO! A poster at Hillaryis44 just made a good analogy:
Romney is CatWoman. Not exactly on your side, not exactly a good guy OR a bad guy, self-interested, but doesn’t do a lot of damage and sometimes even (surprisingly!)helps.
Obama is The Joker. He’s fecking crazy, and egomaniac, and will watch the city burn. He’s beyond untrustworthy, he’s actively destructive.
That’s a great analogy.
And our prezzy joker eats dogs too.
Yep. CatWoman can’t really be trusted, no. But the Joker is just a fucking disaster.
http://johnwsmart.net/2012/05/23/radio-show-tonight-at-6pmpacific9pmeastern/
this sounds like it would be something to listen to tonight
the media silence
My ass bleeds for him:
He’s already got another bun in the oven. Bristol is lucky their son isn’t retarded.
Ace of Spades:
I don’t think the gay porn doom is the likeliest scenario.
I’m gonna go with the “I found Jeebus, now where’s my talk show cash?” doom as a prediction. The book, not so much. He’ll go talk show, and paid interviews.
Well game shows are out. He couldn’t even handle “Are You Smarter That A 5th Grader.” Maybe “Celebrity Apprentice” or “Survivor.” Does Bill Maher pay his guests?
It’s funny (and sad) because it’s true.
There a tiny part of me that feels sorry for Levi because he started out as a dumb kid who got used and dropped by lefty Hollywood PDSers.
There’s a much large part of me that is laughing cruelly and with much disdain.
you mean he will not be a feature on the bill maher show?????
“The 2004 version of Barack Obama, who captured the nation with a dazzling speech about unity…”
Oh honestly! What drivel! He never “captured the nation,” he sold a bill of goods to a few gullible souls and cheated his way through the rest.
If he had “captured the nation” there would have been no need for the Dem Rulez, the race card, a complicit media, and bullying at the polls. Obama hasn’t changed at all, it’s just that some people’s stupid is finally starting to wear off.
Besides…WTH was he given that speech time anyway? This disaster has been so planned for so long by somebody.
Still pisses me off.
off topic
this is weird, now four witnesses are changing stories on zimmerman case
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/23/four-george-zimmerman-witnesses-change-their-stories/
Right. It’s divisive and it’s all Obama’s fault.
Just say everything is Obama’s fault every day and save the post.
Don’t be a stranger!
I’m looking forward to watching you and your Obot buddies completely lose it.