Vyan

Saturday, October 10

Obama Derangement Syndrome is Real!

In the last few days I'd been thinking about writing this diary, then President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize and Rachel Maddow let the cat out of the bag and halfway down the street.

I've come to realize that Obama Derangement Syndrome (or Baracknophobia) isn't just a cute way to play turn-about on the Right Wing, it's the dangerous deadly truth of how the Wingnuts have turned literally against their own country.



Obama loses the Olympics and they Cheer, Obama wins the Nobel Prize and they Cry - "He doesn't Deserve it!" (Except for the fact that Pound for Pound based on what he actually has done - HE DOES! - not to mention the potential of what he may yet accomplish)

Obama ordered Gitmo Closed and Torture Banned. He presided over the UN Security Council voting Unanimously to Bring the World Ultimately to ZERO Nuclear Weapons. His approach to Diplomacy has brought Iran to the table, exposed their Nuclear deceit and allowed them to agree to have IAEA inspectors brought in to ensure their compliance with International Mandates. Those are all good things, but not the Right.

So for a moment lets look seriously at where the original version of the phrase 'Bush Derangement Syndrome" comes from (Dr.) Charles Krauthhammer who suggested it in relation to an offhand comment by Howard Dean that President Bush's attempts to suppress the 9-11 Report was because he didn't want information coming out that he'd already aware of it ahead of time.



Diane Rehm: ``Why do you think he (Bush) is suppressing that (Sept. 11) report?''

Howard Dean: ``I don't know. There are many theories about it. The most interesting theory that I've heard so far -- which is nothing more than a theory, it can't be proved -- is that he was warned ahead of time by the Saudis. Now who knows what the real situation is?''


Bush Derangement Syndrome: the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency -- nay -- the very existence of George W. Bush.

Now, I cannot testify to Howard Dean's sanity before this campaign, but five terms as governor by a man with no visible tics and no history of involuntary confinement is pretty good evidence of a normal mental status. When he avers, however, that ``the most interesting'' theory as to why the president is ``suppressing'' the 9/11 report is that Bush knew about 9/11 in advance, it's time to check on thorazine supplies.


It's clear from Dean's comment that he doesn't seriously support the theory that Bush was warned by the Saudis prior to 9-11, and that he was doing nothing more than speculating.

However... years later we do know that Bush Received this in the August 6th PDB which at the time of the 9-11 Commission Hearings remained classified. He may not have received a warning from the Saudis but THIS IS WHAT HE DID KNOW more than a month before the attack.

The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of bin Laden's first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the U.S.

Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that in ---, Laden lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his own U.S. attack.

Ressam says bin Laden was aware of the Los Angeles operation. Although Bin Laden has not succeeded, his attacks against the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Laden associates surveyed our embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as early as 1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the bombings were arrested and deported in 1997.

Al Qaeda members -- including some who are U.S. citizens -- have resided in or traveled to the U.S. for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks.

Two al-Qaeda members found guilty in the conspiracy to bomb our embassies in East Africa were U.S. citizens, and a senior EIJ member lived in California in the mid-1990s.

A clandestine source said in 1998 that a bin Laden cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.

We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a ---- service in 1998 saying that Bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel Rahman and other U.S.-held extremists.

Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.


They had a ton of information right there - including methods and targets, everything but the date - and Bush did nothing. Nothing. Zero. Zip. ZILCH about it.

In addition to this it was revealed by Bob Woodward that an urgent meeting between CIA director Tenet and then National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice calling a Four Alarm Warning about Bin Laden and al Qeada in July of 2001 was Concealed from the 9-11 Commission.

"The July 10 meeting of Rice, Tenet and Black went unmentioned in various investigations into the Sept. 11 attacks, and Woodward wrote that Black 'felt there were things the commissions wanted to know about and things they didn't want to know about.' "Jamie S. Gorelick, a member of the Sept. 11 commission, said she checked with commission staff members who told her investigators were never told about a July 10 meeting. 'We didn't know about the meeting itself,' she said. 'I can assure you it would have been in our report if we had known to ask about it.'

"White House and State Department officials yesterday confirmed that the July 10 meeting took place, although they took issue with Woodward's portrayal of its results."


It may not have occurred as Dean theorized, or even as Michael Moore suggested in Fahrenheit 9-11 that Bush was slow in his response, and more interested in ready "My Pet Goat" because of his families long standing direct financial ties to the Bin Laden family.

It was not about George W. Bush the person it wasn't just because some people simply had a pathological dislike for George W. Bush - in fact at this point in his career just a month after 9-11 Bush approval ratimgs were in the high 80 percent range - this was because of HIS ACTIONS!

But to Krauthhammer, the intense dislike an eventual calls for "Impeachment" by his most vocal critics had nothing to do with George Bush's Policies... it has to do with those who suffered from "Compromised Intellectual Immune Systems" like of course Barbara Streisand.

Now it's clear Krauthhammer had at least half his tongue in his cheek, never the less the term has stuck - and is even more appropriate now in reverse.

People had good reason to question President Bush on his reasons and rationale for rushing headlong into the Iraq War before the nearly re-inserted Inspectors had finished their job. People had good reason to question Bush's rationale for by-passing the FISA Court to implement broadbased surveillance of U.S Citizens, Journalists and Servicemen without a warrant. People had good reason to question Indifinate Detention in Secret Prisons and Gulags of suspects without Trail access to Habeus Corpus or protections from Mistreatment and Torture.

People had good reason to wonder why it took FIVE FUCKING DAYS to get Fresh Water to New Orleans.

Bush's decision to attacked killed more Americans in a pointless Iraq War than died in 9-11.

Bush CRASH OUR FRACKING ECONOMY by ignoring dangerous lending practices until it was far too late - just like he ignored Bin Laden, just like he ignore Katrina, just like he ignored Afghanistan and Tora Bora, just like he ignored everything - and slammed the country head first into a thick Stone Reality Wall.

These were not Fever Dreams. These were not the Phantasms of a Deranged Mind!

Those of us were bothering to notice had good reason to be upset about all this.

But Death Panels?

Using the Census Bureau to Round Up Republicans and send them to Detention Camps?

We have to fear Socialism and Fascism by Barack Obama when it was George W. Bush who implemented the TARP, took over the Banks and Auto Industry?

We have to fear that Barack Obama is trying to Indoctrinate our School Children by telling them to Stay In School?

Barack shouldn't have bothered even trying to get the Olympics for Chicago unless we pretty much were going to have them anyway?

Barack Obama Doesn't Deserve the Nobel Prize but Yasar Arafat did when the Peace agreement he signed with Izhak Rabin ultimately led to Rabin's assassination? When Desmond Tutu received it years before South African Apartheid ended - a long before there was even any strong evidence that it ever would?

If you have to look for people who are suffering from a serious issue of DERANGEMENT - it's the right wing of this country who have been throwing a massive Temper Tantrum for the last ten months because they think they lost "Their America" - the one where all the really SHITTY things only happened to the Poor and the Brown.

When George W. Bush was first elected, they told the Democrats and those who support Al Gore through the long month of Hell that was Florida to Suck It Up, that they need to Just GET OVER IT and MOVE ON!!

I'm thinking these people are far behind any such good and reasonable advice, and worse -- Thorazine is probably too good for 'em.

Obama Derangement Syndrome is Real! Get the Flynets, the padded rooms are waiting.

Vyan

Wednesday, October 7

Betsy McCaughey's massage PWNAGE by Ratigan and Weiner

Dylan Ratigan has been a recent addition to MSNBC's morning lineup, and has been seen doing an ad sport where he says "The job of the Media is to HOUND Money and Power until you get at the Truth.."

Now I know that he wasn't kidding or exaggering after I saw this clip of him taking on Former NY Lt. Governor and current Health Care Shill Betsy McCaughey the "Death Panel" Queen.



He starts over and over again, "What would you like to see (In Health Care Reform)?" - and she continually dodges the question.

Early on she suggests "High Risk Pools" as a method to address the currently uninsured - this would be low-premium high deductable insurance which would provide coverage that would be too expensive to actually use.

This does nothing to contain costs, it simply shifts those costs onto the backs of the sick.

Ratigan comes back again and asks "What are you going to do about this Corporate Communism" that is destroying our country right now?"

To which she says; "That's a Preposterous Statement!"

Preposterous after the failures of AIG & Lehman Brothers followed by a $Billion bailout? Uh, Massive FAIL!

She then goes on to try yet again scare the bejeezus out of Grandma with her Death Panel talk, talk about "Preposterous Statments".

McCaughey: These Bills are a Medical Assault on Seniors

Ratigan: I want to address that, but how do you answer the question that Insurance Companies have a anti-Trust Exemption?


McCaughey then plays the "Tort Reform" Card and both Ratigan and Wiener pounce.

Ratigan: As a percentage of the overall costs Tort Reform is a very small percent. Why would you start with Tort Reform when Insurance Companies have an anti-Trust exemption? How do you contain costs?

Weiner: CBO has asked what would happen if you eliminated 30% of all Tort Cases? The answer is .04%. 48 out of 50 states already have Tort Caps, and what happens is that the Insurance Companies take whatever "Savings" they get and put them in their pocket - it doesn't bring down costs. How do you contain the costs?


Again and again and again they ask how do you cut costs, and this time she answers - "Education, we can have people take better care of themselves with obesity as we have with smoking"

Ok. Right, we cut costs by making people work out more. I'm sure Bally's just saw their stock tick up slightly.

Then starts the whining -

McCaughey: You're not a very fair moderator.

Ratigan: You're not a very fair answerer - it takes one to know one.

...

McCaughey: This has to go down as one of the most brow-beating interviews in television history...

Ratigan: I Hope That it DOES! And maybe you’ll learn at that point then to answer questions as opposed to go on television and cast accusations.”



Then she start whining about those "State Laws" and says Anthony Weiner is "Ignorant about Health Care Issues" - to which Weiner then proves he absolutely IS NOT without losing a breath.

Ultimately she finally admits that her primary method for cutting costs --- is the increase the eligibility age for Medicare up from 65 to 70!

Ok, so while she railing that all these bills in Congress are going to hurt seniors her final answer is to TAKE HEALTH CARE AWAY FROM SENIORS, until they're 70 years old. Brilliant.

There's more but it's truly classic. Even better than John Stewart Take Down of McCaughey.

Vyan