The DUmpster Fire of Obama's Moral Authority (WillPitt stirs the pot )

[miskie]

Sir William the Pittiful stirs the pot mightily in this thread - and he was kind enough to use a title that BEGGED to be included here - Wasn't that nice ?

Anyway - primitives are running around like unwilling 'Facebook Fire Challenge' victims - the thread is long and getting longer by the minute as the flames burn them all.  -Enjoy !

The Dumpster Fire of Obama's Moral Authority

 

President Obama briefs the press on the economy and foreign
policy issues at the White House, Friday, Aug. 1, 2014.
(Screengrab via Whitehouse.gov)

The Dumpster Fire of Obama's Moral Authority
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed

Thursday 07 August 2014

Whatever lingering moral authority remaining in the administration of President Barack Obama fell to dust last Friday in a news dump that no one, apparently, was expected to pay any attention to.

That's what Friday news dumps are for; you drop the smelliest stories in the late afternoon, when the citizenry is staring out the window at work and waiting for the weekend to begin. Very few people pay attention to the news on the weekends, and by Monday morning, the damning or damaging stories that were dropped on Friday have flowed far down the river to pollute the bay, out of sight and out of mind.

The news dump last Friday, however, was a doozy, and didn't sink from sight in the manner the Obama administration hoped it would. Over the intervening days, a great many people have taken a long, slow burn on remarks made by the president regarding America's use of torture during the so-called "War on Terror."

(snip)

One is immediately struck by the staggering glibness of using the line "We tortured some folks" to encapsulate a years-long comprehensive international program that tore a great many people to pieces, among them many innocents, to no appreciable gain. The program was used, in no small degree, to extract niblets of highly questionable "intelligence" the previous administration used to justify a war of aggression against Iraq that won them elections and made their friends rich. Along the way, public international knowledge of America's actions destroyed this nation's reputation utterly. They all got away with it.

(snip)

As bad as the "some folks" gambit was, this, this right here, is where the moral authority of this president and his administration became a dumpster fire. No one has any business blaming President Obama and his administration for the deplorable actions of his predecessor. However, the simple fact of the matter is that all of them swore a public oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. They are required to swear that oath not for the times when defending the Constitution is easy, but for the times when it is hard. Otherwise, the oath itself is pointless.

By citing the fear that came after the attacks of 9/11 - a moment when defending the Constitution and holding to that oath was very, very hard - as a free pass for those who instituted and practiced this program of torture, the president betrayed his oath, just as those who practiced torture betrayed theirs. No one was prosecuted for these crimes, and the "investigations" conducted by this administration into that torture were so piddly and toothless as to be utterly meaningless.

(snip)

"Not to feel too sanctimonious in retrospect," he said. Note this well: that specific remark was not directed at the Republicans, the Tea Party or the "mainstream" news media, all of whom happily went along for the ride back when torture was the hip thing to do. Mr. Obama isn't going to get any static from them on the issue of torture; their hands are grimy with the blood they helped to spill.

No, that line was directed at people like me, and maybe you, and everyone who stood up and shouted from the rafters that torture is wrong, that torture is evil, and the people who did it need to be punished if the United States has even a whiff of a prayer of recovering its morality after so long and cruel and despicable a practice. The torturers are the "real patriots" here, you see, and those of us who stood against them - and will ever do so - are only being "sanctimonious" in our outrage.

(snip)

Why is the president bending over backwards for what is demonstrably a CIA that has gone dangerously rogue? It might have something to do with the fact that the current CIA Director, John Brennan, was up to his neck in the torture program while a member of the Bush administration, and is now the CIA director because Mr. Obama nominated him. Yes, it just might.

The whole thing reeks of a cover-up, but don't get too sanctimonious about it. They were "patriots," and we were "afraid," and besides, it was just "some folks" who were tortured.

What took place during the long, gruesome practice of torture is a stain on the soul of this nation. President Obama has done nothing to bring those responsible to justice, and has in fact tapped several of the architects, such as Mr. Brennan, for positions of incredible power. On Friday, Mr. Obama chose to soft-pedal the disgrace of torture, called the perpetrators "patriots," and told those of us upset about the whole thing not to be "sanctimonious" in our indignation.

The rest: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/25430-the-dumpster-fire-of-obamas-moral-authority

[DUmpsterDiver]

As if the broken and bravado stricken PittStain wouldn't put the thumbscrews on some deserving thug that harmed his wife or daughter.  The douche protests too much.

[thundley4]

One is immediately struck by the staggering glibness of using the line "We tortured some folks" to encapsulate a years-long comprehensive international program that tore a great many people to pieces, among them many innocents, to no appreciable gain.

Huh?  I thought there were like 3 terrorists that were waterboarded and that was the worst of the so-called "torture" that was allowed.

It's nice to know that Pittstain believes that Obama sending the SEALS to kill bin Laden was "no appreciable gain".

Liberals always lie.

[USA4ME]

It's the same story. In the eyes of the 100% Dear Leader cult followers, he can do no wrong. And the 99% Dear Leader cult followers are upset with him for all the wrong reasons.

.

[zeitgeist]

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

 Abraham Lincoln

Wee Willy and Obiewun may want to take note.

   
RufusTFirefly (5,547 posts)

33. He won Ad Age's Marketer of the Year in 2008
 Talk about truth in advertising.
That was a great big warning sign that people chose to ignore.
He's a brand.

And just as people are passionate about Coke vs. Pepsi, people get irate when someone discredits their favorite political product.

People used to cheer mightily when the San Diego Chicken menaced the Philly Phanatic, oblivious to the fact that the real game was being played on the field.

 And he has a logo:

 

 
Response to RufusTFirefly (Reply #33)

Thu Aug 7, 2014, 02:32 PM

truth2power (7,786 posts)

125. Succinctly stated, Rufus. Obama is a brand, as Chris Hedges has been at pains to make everyone aware
practically since Obama was first elected.

Yes, the Obama campaign got Ad Age's Marketer of the Year award. As Hedges repeatedly says, "the professionals know what's going on".
 

And he is past his 'use by date".  Maybe

Akira Watts (36 posts)

84. Exactly
 Just because "we tortured some folks" is a phrase that sounds a little Bushian doesn't mean it just randomly tumbled from his mouth. He chose his words, and he intended their effect Ditto the "sanctimonious" phrase which, if anything, I find more annoying. 

Opsec has apparently been violated.  Someone notify Lord Rove that they are on to the old Teleprompter Speech Switch gambit. Akira is on to the fact that Obama is just a sock puppet who has words qued up for him on his teleprompter. And speaking of sock puppets, this is Pittstain's Sock Puppet dejour as we find out in this thread.  New meat for the machine.  I will give him twenty four business hours to see how he does.

[beefeater]

Obama has to tiptoe around the whole torture issue since he directly authorized the forced feeding of the inmates at Gitmo and...

U.N. Official Says Gitmo Force-Feeding Violates International Law
A United Nations official called the practice of force-feeding hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay “torture” on Wednesday, adding the world body to a growing list of those concerned over U.S. treatment of detainees there.

He's probably looking at a trip to the Hague himself.

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/05/01/1946641/un-gitmo-torture/

[USA4ME]

JaneyVee

222. Just in time for November elections!
 
Keep the nihilism coming!

Akira Watts

227. It's not nihilism
 
It's not as if there is some magic finish line, after which attaining, Obama will suddenly transform into a progressive messiah. After the November elections, he'll keep doing the same thing, and the excuse will be shifted to the 2016 elections. He is who he is. And, as Friday's speech clearly shows, one part of who he is is an apologist for torturers. Pointing that out isn't nihilism; it's realism. And, last time I looked, rose colored glasses didn't do much to win elections either.

JaneyVee

233. Oh, it's nihilism.
 
Will is free to point it out just like I'm free to point out the nihilism that has permeated DU. There are 2 types of liberals, those who want to build on past progress, and those who want to tear it all down and start over. Both have the same end goal: Utopia.

Now there's something you don't see them admit everyday. At least not that direct.

.

[GOBUCKS]

among them many innocents

They were all muslims.

There are no innocent muslims.

[USA4ME]

WOW!!

That's a great thread. Some of them are really ripping their messiah a new one. We're talking calling him a fake from the very beginning and even admitting they were duped.

Of course, given the opportunity to vote for him all over again they would do it in a NY minute. No one said they were smart.

.

[98ZJUSMC]

WOW!!

That's a great thread. Some of them are really ripping their messiah a new one. We're talking calling him a fake from the very beginning and even admitting they were duped.

Yeah, ....they saw that at the beginning.   

Uh-huh....Right.

I'll give some half-a-prop for at least admitting to being duped, but they will be duped again....

and again, and....

You want to be duped.  You beg for it.

Of course, given the opportunity to vote for him all over again they would do it in a NY minute. No one said they were smart.

Even faster.

[Carl]

WOW!!

That's a great thread. Some of them are really ripping their messiah a new one. We're talking calling him a fake from the very beginning and even admitting they were duped.

Of course, given the opportunity to vote for him all over again they would do it in a NY minute. No one said they were smart.

.

Any one that tells them they will take from others to give to them will.
That is all they care about,everything else be damned.

[zeitgeist]

WOW!!

That's a great thread. Some of them are really ripping their messiah a new one. We're talking calling him a fake from the very beginning and even admitting they were duped.

Of course, given the opportunity to vote for him all over again they would do it in a NY minute. No one said they were smart.

.

It has been said "Those who  stand for nothing will fall for anything."  Democrats in general and DUmmies in particular are living proof.

[Karin]

Normal people, when hearing zero say "we tortured some folks" had a much different reaction than Pittstain is imagining.

[wasp69]

Thu Aug 7, 2014, 10:12 AM

Star Member WilliamPitt (57,050 posts)

The Dumpster Fire of Obama's Moral Authority

...No, that line was directed at people like me, and maybe you, and everyone who stood up and shouted from the rafters that torture is wrong, that torture is evil, and the people who did it need to be punished if the United States has even a whiff of a prayer of recovering its morality after so long and cruel and despicable a practice. The torturers are the "real patriots" here, you see, and those of us who stood against them - and will ever do so - are only being "sanctimonious" in our outrage...

...On Friday, Mr. Obama chose to soft-pedal the disgrace of torture, called the perpetrators "patriots," and told those of us upset about the whole thing not to be "sanctimonious" in our indignation...

At one time in my life, while I was still in uniform, I have told many an ignorant pearl clutcher that if it saved American lives (even ungrateful, drunken, slovenly, assbag liberals), I would personally pry the kneecaps out of an islamokazie with a screwdriver to get information.  I said this, William, because unlike you, I have a bit of perspective and knowledge about the utter inhumanity of the enemies of Western Civilization and how they view your "sanctimony" on their behalf as a weakness to be exploited.  The only thing these animals ever understand is brute, naked force and the will to use it.

Simply put:  You have no ****ing clue as to what it is you're whining about - none, zero.

To hear you still bleating like a sheep begging to be sheared after all that has been learned about the enemies of this country makes me regret standing the line in your place, William.  You do not deserve the rights I swore to uphold and protect, if necessary, with my life and you obviously lack the strength of character and wisdom to protect even yourself much less anyone else.

Just like your president for whom you voted twice...

[Big Dog]

William Rivers Pitt

Whatever lingering moral authority remaining in the administration of President Barack Obama fell to dust last Friday in a news dump that no one, apparently, was expected to pay any attention to.

Reminds me of a song...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygbne_koLgM[/youtube]

[Big Dog]

Some Doublespeak, courtesy of the DUmmies:

Obama kills non-combatant women and children, while using indirect fire weapons to kill jihadis. Killing non-combatants is morally acceptable.

Israel kills non-combatant women and children, while using indirect fire weapons to kill jihadis. Killing non-combatants is morally unacceptable.