obama

Weasel Zippers has this headline up:

Obama: My “Deepest Condolences” to Joplin Tornado Victims, Now Watch Me Drink This Beer!…

And it is followed by this picture:

Even the commenters are chiming in:

But Bush would never do that - would he?

That would be then President Bush strumming along the day after hurricane Katrina wiped out New Orleans and while the whole Gulf region was still in disarray, thousands were trapped and people were still dying. But just ask the wingnuts - this never happened!

The measure already passed the Senate by a 97-0 vote and wouldn’t take much time to pass on the House floor either:

House Republicans say they have no plans to follow the Senate in passing a resolution honoring the military mission that killed Osama bin Laden.

The decision by GOP leaders follows new rules they enacted in January scrapping the tradition of congratulatory measures, which they complained clogged up the House floor.

The Senate on Tuesday passed a resolution, 97-0, commending “the men and women of the United States Armed Forces and the United States intelligence community for the tremendous commitment, perseverance, professionalism and sacrifice they displayed in bringing Osama bin Laden to justice.” The measure commended President Obama and reaffirmed the Senate’s commitment “to disrupting, dismantling and defeating al Qaeda.” It also recognized former President George W. Bush’s efforts after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The lack of House action drew criticism from some Democrats, who said an exception to the new rules was more than warranted for the killing of America’s No. 1 enemy.

Republicans had no problems a couple of years ago pushing a resolution to recognize “the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith”, shouldn’t the brave men and women who were in harms way deserve the same amount of attention? I guess not, especially since John Boehner considers every lost soldier a “small price to pay”. Absolutely disgusting.

Yesterday, while speaking at a college in Virginia, President Obama laid the blame of high oil prices at the feet of speculators:

Obama said that global oil supply is adequate and that speculators are driving up prices significantly.

"It is true that a lot of what's driving oil prices up right now is not the lack of supply. There's enough supply. There's enough oil out there for world demand," Obama said.

"The problem is ... speculators and people make various bets, and they say, you know what, we think that maybe there's a 20 percent chance that something might happen in the Middle East that might disrupt oil supply, so we're going to bet that oil is going to go up real high. And that spikes up prices significantly."

Obama's comments echoed those of members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which insists that markets are well supplied and that speculation drove oil to $127 a barrel for Brent crude and $113 a barrel for U.S. crude earlier this month.

Saudi Arabia said earlier this week that markets were actually oversupplied, forcing it to cut production by 800,000 barrels per day in March to counter slowing demand -- a strong signal the cartel would not act to quell soaring prices.

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) is out blasting President Obama over the Libya decision:

“The United States does not have a King's army," Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) said in a statement released Monday evening. "President Obama's unilateral choice to use U.S. military force in Libya is an affront to our Constitution."

Bartlett said Obama's team has repeated "the mistakes" made by the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations when they plunged U.S. forces into the Kosovo and Iraq conflicts without first seeking congressional approval.

[SNIP]

"It is self-evident that the tragic situation in Libya is not an emergency since the Obama administration sought and obtained support from both the Arab League and the United Nations Security Council to authorize military force against [Gadhafi]," Bartlett said in the statement.

But what did Bartlett say about Iraq? Well here comes the wonders of the internets:

This morning, Dave Weigel tweeted “Unpopular/overreaching GOP governors in OH, WI, FL -- good or bad for GOP's prez ticket?”. That really got me thinking about the upcoming general elections.

• The first actual poll of Ohio Governor John Kasich was released this morning. In it they find his approval rating at a dismal 40%, with a 47% disapproval. That is lower than his three predecessors at the same point in their tenure.
• In Florida, Rick Scott’s approval rating was at 35% last month (the last available data).
• Then we hit Wisconsin and the infamous Scott Walker. His approval rating is the highest of the three, at 43%, even though that was a poll from Rasmussen.

But in all three of these states, their newly elected governors are behind President Obama in approval ratings, even in their own states:

Colin Powell is wanting answers:

Ex-secretary of state Colin Powell called on the CIA and Pentagon to explain how he was given unreliable information which proved key to the US case for invading Iraq, the Guardian reported Wednesday.

Powell's landmark speech to the United Nations on February 5, 2003, cited intelligence about Iraq leader Saddam Hussein's bioweapons programme gained from a defector, codenamed Curveball.

But he has now admitted that he lied to topple the dictator, in an interview with the Guardian.

"It has been known for several years that the source called Curveball was totally unreliable," Powell told the British newspaper.

"The question should be put to the CIA and the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) as to why this wasn't known before the false information was put into the (report) sent to Congress, the president's state of the union address and my 5 February presentation to the UN."

The entire world deserves answers to this, especially the soldiers and the families of those that died in a war based on lies. This is the greatest intelligence failure our nation and the world has ever seen, not Leon Panetta getting it wrong on when Mubarak would step down, as the right wants you to believe. This lie has cost our nation trillions of dollars and countless lives, yet our leaders are just shrugging their shoulders. W

e need a full investigation into the lies and even prosecutions. Yeah I’m pissed at George Bush and company for buying this lie, but I’m equally pissed at President Obama and his administration for not demanding answers. The blood of the fallen lies on the hands of those who bought the lies and those who ignore them. Let’s get the investigations started.

Today debate will heat up in the house over the spending bill for the rest of the fiscal year. One of the biggest issues is going to be over the F-35 fighter jet, specifically the engine. President Obama and Secretary Gates have called for putting a hold on spending for the engine. Even George Bush did the same thing in his last year in office. None of that matters to people like John Boehner though:

The engine battle pits Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates — who say the engine would waste almost $3 billion over the next few years — against GOP leaders like House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, whose state is a chief beneficiary. The spending measure includes $450 million for the engine, which would be built by the General Electric Co. and Rolls-Royce in Ohio, Indiana and other states.

This is an earmark, plain and simple, but to show how bad of an earmark it is, let’s have a look at the history of the F-35 development.

The new generation fighter jet has been in production since 2003, with the first test flight was in 2006. The original contract, which was awarded in 2001 for ten years, has been extended to 2016.

Just like deciphering the start of a problem in grade school, you always got to look deep into the facts to distill rightwing rhetoric. Since the Tucson shooting the right has strummed up the chorus to scream and shout that the left needs to stop politicizing the event. While there was some politicization from the left, none of it has been as vitriolic as that coming from the right. It’s the old “practice what I preach, not what I do” rhetoric we have sadly become used to.

I pointed some of this out earlier this week when wingnut blogger Jim Hoft started a big stink saying that President Obama lied at the memorial service when he said Gabby Giffords first opened her eyes. It got so bad that the doctors actually had to stop treating patients to go out and answer questions about it, backing up what the President said. Of course to the right these doctors are nothing but leftist liars, which is really ironic when you think about how the right always says doctors hate Obama because of health care reform.

Sadly though that smear was just the start of it. Jim Hoft is continuing to point out the evils of the memorial event:

Just when you think popular right wing blogger Jim “Dim” Hoft (Gateway Pundit) couldn’t possibly post anything more stupid than his last post, he finds a way to take it to the next level of numbskullitude.

Today’s entry in the “Hoft Chronicles of Sheer Stoopit” has him trying to claim that the White House prompted the audience to applaud at the “Together We Thrive” memorial (with his usual taste and class, Hoft calls it a “pep rally”): If White House Was Surprised by Applause at Tucson Pep Rally… Why Did They Ask For It On Jumbotron?