Mr. PJ Crowley, Obama & Firedoglake

.

As you know by now, State Department spokesman PJ Crowley was effectively given the Shirley Sherrod pull over to the side of the road and resign order by the Obama White House, and the announcement was made public this morning. As Phoenix Woman noted it was reminiscent of the Saturday Night Massacre.

Pj Crowley told the truth, and it is now pretty clear, meant it when he said the treatment being occasioned on Bradley Manning is “ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid”, and it is NOT hunky dory like Mr. Obama shamefully bleats.

But the best observation was made by Rosalind in comments noting the side splitting non-comedy of the Commander in Chief last night at the annual Gridiron Club Dinner meeting of moldy MOTUs and their press lackeys:

Obama’s whole “act” last night at the Gridiron is now up. While his minions were forcing Crowley out, he was spewing this:

But whatever challenges we face and however history unfolds, we rely on all of you — the press — to tell the story. Those of us who are fortunate enough to be in positions of power may have our gripes about how the media covers us, but that’s only because your job is to hold us accountable. And none of us would want to live in a country without that failsafe — without a free press and freedom of expression. That’s what people all around the world are fighting for as we speak. In some cases, they’re dying for those rights. And that’s what many reporters risk their lives to uphold — from Kandahar to Tripoli.

tee hee, oh my sides! s/

extra bonus: FDL got a shout-out early on:

And while I know I have my share of critics out there, I don’t focus on the negative stuff. I just don’t pay much attention to it. Most days I barely skim through the comment section of Huffington Post — Daily Kos — Fire Dog Lake — The Daily Dish — boingboing.net. (Laughter.)

Bald faced craven comedy AND a dedicated shout out to Firedoglake during our membership drive, what else could you ask for from a Torturer-in-Chief? I would like to personally thank Mr. Obama for the plug and endorsement; though, I must say, if he is reading Firedoglake daily, he sure is not learning and retaining much. Please work on that Mr. President; we know you can do better!

Now, back to Mr. Crowley. Turns out Ozzy Osbourne, of all people, presciently wrote an ode for this exact occasion. I kid you not, it is scarily spot on for for what happened to Mr. Crowley, who indeed “uncovered things that were sacred”. The video is above, the prophetic lyrics below. Come, sit with us PJ, you will find kindred spirits here at Firedoglake; you are one of us now, trying to speak truth to obstreperous power.

Mr. Crowley, what went wrong in your head?

Oh, Mr. Crowley, did you talk with the dead?

Your life style to me seemed so tragic

With the thrill of it all

You fooled all the people with magic

You waited on Satan’s call

Mr. Charming, did you think you were pure

Mr. Alarming, in nocturnal rapport

Uncovering things that were sacred manifest on this Earth

Conceived in the eye of a secret

And they scattered the afterbirth

Mr. Crowley, won’t you ride my white horse

Oh, Mr. Crowley, it’s symbolic of course

Approaching a time that is classic

I hear maidens call

Approaching a time that is drastic

Standing with their backs to the wall

Was it polemically sent

I wanna know what you meant

I wanna know

I wanna know what you meant

image_print
      • sadlyyes says:

        id say a black Nixon,but it took Barry 46 years to get a dog for his kids,Nixon had Checkers without much fanfare

        he is a sociopath,as eChan sez…he is more than a bit off

        • hackworth1 says:

          Nixon on tape to Haldeman regarding Jack Paar:

          Is there any way we can screw him?

          Haldeman: We’re Trying.

        • earlofhuntingdon says:

          If Bill has too much soul and testosterone, Obama hasn’t enough. Both enable disaster capitalism, hidden behind homely concerns. Obama seems to relish in it. It’s almost as if he’s getting back at his own time of want, like a twisted version of Dickens, lashing out at those in poverty rather than those enriched by it.

          It’s still hard to imagine Obama as the motivator behind his own political success. He has the raw intelligence and the overweening self-confidence, but he seems as wimpy as David Brooks when compared to street brawlers like Daley and Emanuel. Is he his own boss or a figurehead?

  1. Teddy Partridge says:

    omg omg omg Barack Obama knows who we are!!!!!

    jeebus kee-rist, what a world, the leader of the free world cares what get typed in comments here, or pretends not to, hahaha.

    Sad.

    Oh, and: Ozzy, represent! Otherwise known to an entire new generation of stay-at-home moms as the dotty long-hair husband of that nice Sharon of ABC’s View knockoff The Talk.

  2. Suzanne says:

    if obama actually knew about Firedoglake, he wouldn’t have said the name as 3 distinct words. twas a pathetic performance to distract from his saturday night massacre.

    i’m proud to be a card carrying member of the professional left (or will be as soon as my Firedoglake member card arrives)

    • CTuttle says:

      I’m anxiously awaiting mine too, Suz…! *g*

      I’m not shedding any tears over PJ’s departure, I damn sure hate the circumstances… However, that is but one noble gesture out of hundreds of ignoble deeds he’s covered up…! 8-(

    • AitchD says:

      if obama actually knew about Firedoglake, he wouldn’t have said the name as 3 distinct words.

      Unless the teleprompter script divided it that way for left/center/right ‘eye contact’.

  3. PeasantParty says:

    “And none of us would want to live in a country without that failsafe — without a free press and freedom of expression”

    That is exactly right, Mr. President. Too bad you used it as a joke at the Grid Iron. Your jokes are just not funny.

    • PeasantParty says:

      Exactly! I also think that is why they are in such fear of Wikileaks. Some twooph might ooze out of there into the open about WMD’s, terror, 9-11, and all that stuff nobody has good answers for.

    • rosalind says:

      for me, he already reached that depth with his 2009 TV & Radio Correspondents speech where he joked about a new tv show, “Leave It To Uighurs”, cause joking about innocent men imprisoned for years on end is hi-lar-ious. it was at that moment i realized behind that smile lurked something very ugly.

      • Masoninblue says:

        And then there was absolutely gut clenching hilarious joke about using predator drones to protect his daughters from undesirable male attention. That is, undesirable from his perspective regardless of his daughters’s feelings in the matter. What a guy!

  4. rosalind says:

    Dear D.C. Follies Press Corps,

    At the next press conference, can you ask President Obama for one specific example of your holding him accountable?

    kthxbai!

    (hey, i can be funnee too!)

    (and thx bmaz for the shout-out)

  5. phred says:

    Most days I barely skim through the comment section of Huffington Post — Daily Kos — Fire Dog Lake — The Daily Dish — boingboing.net.

    Wowser, we really do crawl right under his skin, don’t we? Heh. heh. Evil bastard, serves him right.

    By the way bmaz, funny you mentioned Shirley, I’ve been thinking about her and PJ all day. By now we must have accumulated enough honest civil servants who have been forced into exile over the past several years to start a new government in pseudo-exile, haven’t we? We need to get these folks primed so when the revolution spills over from WI we have an interim government in place, while we make arrangements for something better.

    • bmaz says:

      You know, I would kill to get Shirley Sherrod and Bunny Greenhouse in the same room and let them rip about bullshit administrations that sold out and trashed strong black women, Obama for Sherrod and Bush for Greenhouse. Wow, the I am getting shivers thinking about the dynamic that could come out of them teaming up to let loose and compare notes.

      • prostratedragon says:

        Amen—one of the most consistent trends.

        And how about Ozzy making the leap from mere aptness to actual prophecy. That must have been a clear day.

      • earlofhuntingdon says:

        I’d rather put you and Marcy in a room with Mr. Obama and a list of questions, lots of orange juice and coffee for the president, and no potty breaks. All captured on tape.

      • phred says:

        Now that would be one heck of a double team. I bet there are some former US attorney’s who might want in on that action though ; )

      • 300SDL says:

        And if they need any inspiration, they can remember the struggle of Shirley Chisholm, who was Unbought and Unbossed:

        “You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.”

        Shirley Chisholm

  6. earlofhuntingdon says:

    Obama’s firing of Crowley happened faster than I predicted. It’s usually less directly tied to public statements about inconvenient truths. I guess we have the refined investment bankster from Chicago to thank for that, “Hillary, honey, he’s out. Or you’re next and we set the dogs on Bill.” Can’t let the truth put them off message, or prevent them from intimidating the hundreds of potential whistleblowers out there who have been seething since Bush v. Gore.

    • bmaz says:

      Problem with that is, there is no way in hell Obama could piss off Bill Clinton heading into the 2012 election; Bubba is still the best campaigner they got.

      • earlofhuntingdon says:

        Like most threats and commitments from the Chicago White House, it never had to put up or shut up. I don’t think it’s ironic that the White House got what it wanted; I’d say that’s true of its relationship with the Hill, too.

  7. skepticdog says:

    You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth. Or so it goes. Will we ever hear the truth from our elected officials? I guess the Tea Party would never be able to handle it.

  8. 4cdave says:

    Breaking tweet: 1,000 bodies just reported found on shore here in Miyagi Pref.’s Ojika Peninsula.

    • earlofhuntingdon says:

      Link? A front-page article in Sunday’s Independent was among the first to point out that official pronouncements about the number of dead and injured were so carefully phrased that they probably underestimated the true tally by at least an order of magnitude. One town alone is missing 9,500 souls.

      For emotional release, there are sometimes these stories: a man washed 9 miles out to sea on his house is rescued.

  9. tremoluxman says:

    “Free press holding us accountable…”

    The press may be free, but it is holding no one accountable and is enabling the violators.

  10. skepticdog says:

    I think Obama should be asked about Manning’s treatment at every press conference. WTH, does he get photos? Fu@kin’ perverts!

  11. sfmikey says:

    Hillary Clinton should have refused to accept Mr. Crowley’s resignation.

    But she didn’t.

    Oh, my!

    Barack Obama is quite the POS isn’t he?

  12. skepticdog says:

    Obama has endorsed torture. The Democrats should join with the Republicans to impeach his ass. This will be a win-win situation.

  13. allan says:

    I’m surprised that the Gridiron Club Dinner didn’t feature a video of Obama
    crawling around the Oval Office floor looking for Bradley Manning’s clothes.

  14. Oscar Leroy says:

    So, the president wants our country to have an adversarial press that preserves freedom by holding his government accountable. . . but he refuses to read the words of people who criticize him, and in fact actively derides such people?

    • phred says:

      So, the president wants our country to have an adversarial press…

      Nope. Obama’s defining trait is dishonesty.

      If he says he favors, supports, or will fight for something, that means he will use every means at his disposal to obtain the polar opposite.

      He is a liar and a fraud and cannot be trusted at any level.

  15. tanbark says:

    How about this, Preznint Gerald:

    We’re going to boing-boing your bi-partisan ass right out of a second term. Enjoy your new status as two things:

    …a well paid think-tank bullshit artist, and the poster boy for a failed president. :o)

  16. freepatriot says:

    democracy fell apart

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

    Surely some revelation is at hand;
    Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
    The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
    When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
    Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
    A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
    Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
    Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
    The darkness drops again but now I know
    That twenty centuries of stony sleep
    Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

    sucks to be us

    • mekathleen says:

      I keep seeing that poem everywhere. It’s becoming quite the meme, especially the part that goes, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst
      Are full of passionate intensity.”

  17. hackworth1 says:

    Obama includes them in his list of critics – I thought they liked Obama at The Huffington Post.

  18. spanishinquisition says:

    “I was clear throughout this campaign and was clear throughout this transition that under my administration the United States does not torture,” Obama said, when asked at the news conference whether he would continue the Bush administration’s policy of harsh interrogation. “We will abide by the Geneva Conventions. We will uphold our highest ideals.”
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28574408/

    “Torture’s Loopholes” (New York Times, Jan. 20) is by Matthew Alexander, a 14-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserves. In 2006, he led the U.S. interrogation team that tracked and found Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the insatiable killer who commanded al-Qaida in Iraq and was then terminated by coalition forces. Alexander went on to write a book that was not endorsed by Dick Cheney: How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq.

    This is what Alexander, who describes himself as “an investigator turned interrogator,” has to say about Obama allegedly banning torture — and the accompanying decision last August by Attorney General Eric Holder to remove responsibility for interrogating detainees to a new FBI-directed High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group that will constrain itself to use only “noncoercive” methods or those approved by the Army Field Manual.

    Unequivocally, Alexander states: “If I were to return to one of the war zones today…I would still be allowed to abuse prisoners.” How come? In August, Holder’s task force on interrogation, commissioned by the president, “recommended no changes” to the Army Field Manual, thereby retaining the torture loopholes focused on now by the tracker of al-Zarqawi.

    To begin, an appendix to the Manual allows a detainee (a.k.a. prisoner) to be kept in solitary confinement indefinitely. As Alexander point out, “extended solitary confinement is torture, as confirmed by many scientific studies.”
    http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11228

    End the Use of Torture and Extreme Rendition. Military and intelligence experts agree that torture is not an effective means of interrogation, and our using it threatens American troops serving abroad. From both a moral standpoint and a practical standpoint, torture is wrong. Barack Obama will end the use torture without exception. He also will eliminate the practice of extreme rendition, where we outsource our torture to other countries.

    Restore Habeas Corpus. The right of habeas corpus allows prisoners to ask a court to determine whether they are being lawfully imprisoned. Recently, this right has been denied to those deemed enemy combatants. Barack Obama strongly supports bipartisan efforts to restore habeas rights. He firmly believes that those who pose a danger to this country should be swiftly tried and brought to justice, but those who do not should have sufficient due process to ensure that we are not wrongfully denying them their liberty.
    http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/CounterterrorismFactSheet.pdf

    Why Barack Obama Got My Vote
    …I first started trying to alert people about the ramifications of the Military Commissions Act, and how it gives the US power to seize innocent people off the street simply by the president’s naming them ‘enemy combatants’, I pointed out that nothing would prevent the US from rendering an EU minister off the streets of Belgium — and flying him or her to a ‘black site’ for torture — if he or she opposed a US pipeline plan, or was prosecuting US war criminals such as Rumsfeld in the Hague….
    I have noted it is always true that societies that begin by torturing people at the margins end up torturing members of their own citizenry…
    What is leadership? Leadership means getting out in front of where people are and waking them up. Right now, given these violent possible threats to us and our families, we are sleeping.

    Which is why I am formally coming out of the closet with my support for Senator Barack Obama. Of all the candidates running now, he is the leader on understanding the threat to the Constitution and actually taking action, not just mouthing sound bites, on the need to deny torturers space in our nation and to restore the rule of law.

    “Lawyers for Gitmo detainees endorse Obama,” read a recent headline on the Boston Globe’s political blog. In the article, reporter Charlie Savage notes that “More than 80 volunteer lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainees today endorsed Illinois Senator Barack Obama’s presidential bid. The attorneys said in a joint statement that they believed Obama was the best choice to roll back the Bush-Cheney administration’s detention policies in the war on terrorism and thereby to ‘restore the rule of law, demonstrate our commitment to human rights, and repair our reputation in the world community.'”…
    Integrity has something to do with it.

    That is why Barack Obama has my vote. Of all the leading candidates, he is the only one on these issues who has consistently acted like a true American.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/why-barack-obama-got-my-v_b_88956.html (In Naomi’s defense it doesn’t look like she’s been an Obama lapdog since he got elected)

    Hopefully more and more people will wake up out of their dogmatic slumbers and recognize that Democrats are just as bad as Republicans. Far from Obama rolling things back, he’s steamrolling things forward to make Bush look like a moderate.

    • Gitcheegumee says:

      Did you by chance read that Chris Floyd piece I recommended to you about WHY Obama getting re-elected is a given?

      News for of arms and the man:war profiteersOf Arms and the Man: War-Profiteers and Progressives Make Common …
      With both progressives and war-profiteering plutocrats making common cause on his behalf, the re-election of Barack Obama looks more certain all the time.Empire Burlesque – 3 related articles

      ../Of-Arms-and-the-Man-War-P-by-Chris-Floyd- 110312-329.Of Arms and the Man: War-Profiteers and Progressives Make Common …Mar 12, 2011 … Of Arms and the Man: War-Profiteers and Progressives Make Common Cause … And the bulk of the Obama arms bazaar is going to one of the most …
      http://www.chris-floyd.com/…/2101-arms-and-the-man-war-profiteering-bolsters- obamas-re-election.html

      Of Arms and the Man: War-Profiteers and Progressives Make Common …Mar 13, 2011 … Of Arms and the Man: War-Profiteers and Progressives Make Common Cause for Obama . Yet even now, the “progressive blogosphere” is ablaze with …
      whatreallyhappened.com/…/arms-and-man-war-profiteers-and-progressives- make-common-cause-obama-0

      • wavpeac says:

        I knew it was a given when Rove made it clear that the Republicans had no front runner and everyone thought it a diss to Palin. My thought was that this statement came immediately following his tax cuts for the rich and his handouts to the banks…one more time. I knew then, that the fix was in. Obama is not worried about re-election. This was the signal, among many since then, that all is well.

        • papau says:

          I agree

          My reading of the tea leaves gives the same conclusion – namely that the GOP will drain a billion or two from their billionaire friends as contributions that they will enrich themselves with in return for theft of more local elections to reduce taxes on the rich – but that Obama was safe as long as he continued to be the cheap whore he has proven to be to date.

          I expect that the Senate will resist the destruction of the social net – but that in the end, as with the public option, just as we feel we are safely home with a win, Obama will order the Senate to agree to all cuts requested – and as with the public option – the Senate will go along – with Obama telling us afterward how hard it is to get what he really wants through the Senate.

  19. AppleCanyon2 says:

    Have you found those comfortable shoes yet Mr. President?

    You know, the ones you said you would put on to join us on the lines when we rallied to protect our rights to collective bargaining etc.

    Yeah, that is what I thought, you just use the rhetoric, but cannot spare the time right now.

    (Really, the above is just a jab, I am really happy that he did not show up in Wisconsin to muddy up the real effort of real Democrats.)

  20. sfmikey says:

    As many commenters have pointed out, Obama is a liar and a fraud. (Question: Will Oprah walk this back, or does being Black trump everything? Fair question, I think.) And Republicans are insane. The crystal ships aren’t coming, so…what now?

  21. hackworth1 says:

    Democratic Strategist Paul Begala and Bill Maher were very critical of Obama on Health Care Reform and other big issues. One of the nutty Conservatives chimed in. Begala replied: Obama is a Great President.

    Won’t quite let the facts allow them to draw the conclusion that Obama is a really lousy President.

    Liable to fired if they admitted the truth.

  22. tanbark says:

    Imagine his confounding us with Kos!

    I haven’t been over there in a while. Have they given up on the turd-polishing-for-Obama? :o)

  23. tanbark says:

    As this clown continues stumbling from one fuckup to the next, we’re going to be treated to a rare sight, I think.

    The republicans who would very much like to ensure that they’ll have him to run against…

    and the centrist democrats who are too dishonest and too chickenshit to admit just how badly he’s fucked over the democratic party…

    Will both praise him some…for different reasons. :o)

  24. earlofhuntingdon says:

    One constitutional lawyer to another, Mr. O was probably afraid to cite Glenn Greenwald.

  25. Gitcheegumee says:

    I would be curious if the President ever has the courage to read the commentary over at Black Agenda Report website.

    The analysis and critique there is searing. Says it plain,doesn’t suck up -or back down.

    One of my favorites.

    • Gitcheegumee says:

      Here’s an excerpt from a piece entitled “Peace Prize Torture”:

      Manning’s treatment is not an aberration of American policy.”

      It is important to note that Manning’s treatment is not an aberration of American policy. Even supporters like Kucinich miss that fact, asking “Is this Quantico or Abu Ghraib?” The answer is that Quantico and Abu Ghraib are one in the same. It is United States government policy to torture prisoners both domestically and internationally, petty criminals, “enemy combatants” and whistle blowers can all expect the same treatment.

      The question now is about Barack Obama and the treatment he deserves. Will he be punished for betraying his supporters in this country and for continuing to bring death and destruction in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia? He shouldn’t be tortured, but he should experience what is torture to a politician. He must be opposed and his policies must be resisted. He should see usually reliable Democrat voters vote for third and fourth parties. If not, then Manning will have suffered for no reason and no one will again dare to bring the truth to light.”

      Freedom Rider: Peace Prize Torture | Black Agenda ReportMar 9, 2011 … Freedom Rider: Peace Prize Torture. by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley. “Manning is denied the use of sheets and now is …
      blackagendareport.com/content/freedom-rider-peace-prize-torture – Cached

  26. bgrothus says:

    The torture of Bradley Manning by the Obama administration has become the very last fucking straw for me. Politically, Obama is dead to me.

  27. lsls says:

    Oh dear…I’ve called him President: Audacity, Tranparent, Obummer, to name a few, and lately Gaddhafidoodledoo and Gaddhafidoodledandy.

    He must hate me…oh my.

  28. greglbean says:

    What Obama really thinks about journalists: “teacher was a journalist but decided to get into something useful” minute 58:10 http://tinyurl.com/4rbc4oq

    He’s a jerk and the tart in red with him is the Australian PM, you know the one who said what Assange did was, “…a grossly irresponsible thing to do and an illegal thing to do.” see the inquisition into her pathetic performance laid out in full embarrassing detail here: http://wlcentral.org/node/1460

  29. freesociety says:

    Did Obama really need to tell us of his plain contempt and opposition to “the Left” and to his political base?

    His policies, his choice of friends, and all his “Presidential” actions make that clear each and evry single day.

  30. nonpartisanliberal says:

    Let me get ahead of some of you.

    If you have to hold your nose to vote for someone, then you are a fool for casting that vote. Either don’t vote or else vote for someone who doesn’t repulse you. Don’t legitimize evil.

    We’re going to have a Republican president in 2013. Get used to the idea. Don’t be frightened into voting for the fascist Obama. Give him the finger on the way out. It’ll be the only satisfaction you will get till there is a revolution.

  31. Stephen says:

    Anonymous, a hacker group sympathetic to WikiLeaks plan to release emails obtained from B of A early Monday morning exposing “corruption and fraud”. Now, talk about water off a duck’s back.

  32. wayoutwest says:

    I think BO’s remarks are telling, they show that he and the ruling class have no fear of the Left. They know that we are not willing or able to do what is necessary to confront them.

    It’s interesting that he reads what we are saying just like Nixon was listening to us in the ’60s. The difference is that Nixon feared the power of the Left and did things to appease the Left.

    BTW BO will win easily in 2012.

  33. conradcelledge says:

    Oh stop Barry. Please stop. You’re killing me. No, really you’re killing me. How about some drone jokes or maybe a little of that campaign rehash you do so well. If you really must continue then go with the nuclear contamination jokes. You know, like the one where you guarantee loans for nuclear plant development with our money because no sane person would ever do it with their own money. That was so funny. You really are a joker. No joke; you really are a joker.

  34. radiofreewill says:

    This blog, and FDL, in general, is important to me because it’s one of the last places left still rooted in universal principles – like everyone is equal, majority rules and the rule of law – that hasn’t been swept away by the ‘war on terror’ and militarized into compliance with a culture of brute authoritarianism.

    We need everyone we can get to rally around and protect this flame of Principled Action from the deadening ideological hurricane of Meine Ehre heißt Treue (“My Honor is Loyalty.”)

    Here you’ll find advocacy for the rule of law, and dissent against the rule of men – well worth standing and fighting for if you truly value your freedom!

  35. veganrevolution says:

    Ha! I also said they were reading our posts. But I never knew Barry Cocaine was. I thought some 20 something lackey straight out of Yale was skimming our stuff. Hey dude, now you know what the “little people” think of you. Truth hurt, don’t it?

  36. Angellight says:

    Crowley is right to speak out against any form of torture! And, one can rest assured that if Manning was abused in anyway, Pres. Obama would not allow this kind of abuse to continue! He Would Not! I would think Pres. Obama would get a little more support from those who should have faith in the goodness of this President and not get caught up in things they are not really privvy too!

    Pres. Obama always said “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for’! More than anything, Obama has been a catalyst for change, for revolution for movement. In his own quiet way he stimulates the people to make change; for after all it is only the united will of a people that can do so.

    President Obama’s March 13, 2011, letter to the Arizona Star – “We must Reform Gun Control Laws – We owe it to our children’s futures!”

    http://azstarnet.com/article_011e7118-8951-5206-a878-39bfbc9dc89d.html

    Something Main Stream Media, Fox News, CNN will not be telling you anytime soon….

  37. ralphbon says:

    Three points I haven’t seen made already, although with mega comment threads, you never know:

    1. The astounding thing about Obama’s quote is that in cataloging his “critics” he cited four liberal-left web sites, plus a center-right blog that often aligns with civil libertarians. Those are the critics! Not a single full-fledged wingnut site in the bunch!

    2. The last high-ranking Obama Administration official, speaking on the record, to call the treatment of a citizen accused but not convicted of a crime as “stupid” was Obama himself, with respect to the arrest of Henry Lewis Gates. In the current instance, however, we shall see no “beer summit” to smooth things over between PJ Crowley, Bradley Manning, and the Quantico commandant.

    3. His current statement notwithstanding, let’s not shed too juicy a tear for Crowley, who up to now has been a reliable mouthpiece for the administration’s lame justifications regarding the outrages it has either perpetrated or perpetuated.

  38. Staggerlee says:

    Is this where I go to tell our newest torturer in chief I will not be voting for him again? Scan that biotch.

  39. lysias says:

    Mary Beth Sheridan reported in the Washington Post this morning that Crowley has not been traveling with Clinton. State Department spokesman quits after criticizing WikiLeaks suspect’s treatment:

    A retired Air Force officer, Crowley ­served on the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton before being tapped as spokesman by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Affable and witty, Crowley was well-regarded by reporters and became a fixture on TV screens around the world through his daily briefings.

    But he was part of a State Department media operation that has undergone considerable turmoil. A State Department inspector general’s report last year said the office had problems with morale, staffing, communication and oversight. Crowley had a difficult relationship with Philippe Reines, a senior adviser to Clinton, and had less access than some of his predecessors to the nation’s top diplomat. For most of the past year, Clinton hasn’t taken a spokesman on her trips overseas.

  40. nusayler says:

    Wow. Obama’s shout out to FDL…must be the first time I got a chubby and a little throw-up in my mouth at the same time.

  41. gharlane says:

    And while I know I have my share of critics out there, I don’t focus on the negative stuff. I just don’t pay much attention to it. Most days I barely skim through the comment section…

    Now that sounds familiar. Um, let’s see, what was it again? Oh yeah, this:

    I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I’m the decider, and I decide what is best.

    Peas in a pod. Feel the Change!

  42. danw5 says:

    Obama is another Bush. He is a war criminal still practicing rendition and torture. He goes to court to defend Bush policies. he has done nothing about Bush, which makes him just as guilty.There is nothing “progressive” about him. He’s a Republican and I would love to see Clinton run against him, but she won’t.

    Obama sits while corporations and the rich steal our country. I really don’t remember a monolithic corporation dying to wrestle this land from the British. But they take it from us without even a measly whimper. The Shock Doctrine is alive and well in America!