Tuesday, August 10, 2010

When You Don't Like What You See In The Mirror, Don't Blame The Mirror

I am pretty sure there will be a LOT of whining over this article where Robert Gibbs has this to say about the "professional left":

During an interview with The Hill in his West Wing office, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs blasted liberal naysayers, whom he said would never regard anything the president did as good enough.


“I hear these people saying he’s like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested,” Gibbs said. “I mean, it’s crazy.”


The press secretary dismissed the “professional left” in terms very similar to those used by their opponents on the ideological right, saying, “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality.”


Of those who complain that Obama caved to centrists on issues such as healthcare reform, Gibbs said: “They wouldn’t be satisfied if Dennis Kucinich was president.”
When I read the headline on twitter I was all set to be pissed off at Gibbs. But after reading the article I came to a different conclusion.

He is right.

Now I know a lot of folks who he wasn't necessarily talking about will take offense, after all a hit dog will holler. But there is a specific subset of the left he is talking about here and that's the professional left. Those "lefties" brought on TV or Radio or given opinion writing jobs in NewsPapers and some of the more prominent blogs. And guess what, a lot of them ARE batshit insane.

Here's the deal, I've been as frustrated as anybody about some of the things the Obama administration has done or not done. But anybody who takes a step back and objectively looks at what they have accomplished in less than two years. Hell I'll let Rachel Maddow do the honors.



Imagine the pedestal FoxNews would have a Republican President on if they had accomplished even half that in a full term.

That's not to say liberal or progressives in the media should blindly promote Democrats the way FoxNews does. But by the same token how about not doing the flip side and completely trashing the President at every turn no matter what he does for the country.

Think I'm being hyperbolic?

Allow me to remind you that the firebaggers were actively lobbying to kill the health care reform bill, including teaming up with that asshole Grover Norquist and using right wing language to demagogue.

Cenk Uyger who claims to be King Progressive, has called every bill remotely having anything to do with the financial system including the new financial regulatory reform bill a "bailout". Does Cenk have a background in finance? Hell no. So how does he comes to this conclusion? Because firebaggers and Matt Taibbi told him they were. Does he have any proof? Of course not.

But hey don't let facts get in the way of bashing a Democratic President who just at the very least with the financial regulatory reform bill put us back on the path to sanity with the banking industry.

Then you have jackasses like Ed Shultz who is too much of a damn coward to run for office his damn self, beating his chest night after night about what HE would have done. Well Ed your bitchass should've run for office if you have all the answers. Oh and lets not get on the Gold Line scam you're pimping just like Glenn Beck. And mind you this is the same cretin who gives that race baiting bastard Tom Tancredo a platform to spew his venom on a regular basis.

But for somebody to claim to be tough like Ed does every minute of every day, he sure does seem to be sensitive. His wittle feewings are hurt so he's telling Democrats not to vote in the midterms.

Look around asshole. Is the Republican party you see running for office this year the kind you would want running the country.

From the bottom of my heart man

FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

And lets talk Rachel Maddow, of the aforementioned clip. The same Rachel who pointed out all the things President Obama has done. Good, progressive things. Is the same Rachel Maddow who hits him nightly for doing what he said he would do in Afghanistan.

President Obama was never an "anti war" candidate. As he said several years back paraphrased he's "not against all wars, just against dumb wars". And from day one he said he was going to finish the mission in Afghanistan, the place 9-11 was planned. And you want to know the truth? I APPLAUDED him for that shit because whether we like it or not we fucked up that country and made it even more likely that terrorists would use it as a base of operations.

Its funny because some on the left have this joke about the GOP and tax cuts that goes something like this.

Tax Cuts + ? = Prosperity

Well on Afghanistan some on the professional left have the same kind of equation.

Pull Out + ? = World Peace

If only it worked that way. But it doesn't. And even in the midst of supplying more troops to the region President Obama announced the start of withdrawal.

Did the professional left give a shit?

HELL NO

They just bashed him for doing....what he said he would do.

Matter of fact we will end combat operations in Iraq at the end of this month and like i pointed out the other day the professional left don't want to even give him any credit for that.

Mind you back when it was announced I remember all the conspiracy theories about how General Odierno and General Petraeus were ACTUALLY the ones running US foreign policy and that they would never leave Iraq according some on the professional left.

Heard any of them admit they were wrong?

HELL NO

You can say what you want about the wingnuts, when they are in power they support their party even if they fight against some of their party's legislation.

Professional leftist are loathe to even say they are Democrats though and they heap lump after lump of shit on the party and then act like when the GOP wins they had nothing to do with it. Punk asses always criticizing, NEVER taking any responsibility.

Oh and here's the kicker, Gibbs actually did draw a distinction on who he was talking about.

In just over 18 months in office, Obama has passed healthcare reform, financial regulatory reform and fair-pay legislation for women, among other bills near and dear to liberals.


Obama is also overseeing the end of the Iraq war, with the U.S. on schedule to end its combat operations by the end of this month.


He’s also added diversity to the Supreme Court by nominating two female justices, including the court’s first Hispanic. Yet some liberal groups have criticized his nominees for not being liberal enough.


“There’s 101 things we’ve done,” said Gibbs, who then mentioned both Iraq and healthcare.


Gibbs said the professional left is not representative of the progressives who organized, campaigned, raised money and ultimately voted for Obama.


Progressives, Gibbs said, are the liberals outside of Washington “in America,” and they are grateful for what Obama has accomplished in a shattered economy with uniform Republican opposition and a short amount of time.

Again, he's right.

Of course the rub is that some of the progressives and liberals who he isn't talking about will feign offense to cover for the progressives and liberals they know he's not talking about.

Because some folks are dear friends of Jane Hamsher and Cenk, and Ed, etc etc etc. And although they know these folks are on some bullshit right now, they will NEVER call them out publicly. Its funny because I thought the argument for hitting President Obama publicly and loudly was that the left didn't want to be like the right. That they wanted to criticize when its called for instead of exercising epistimic closure.

Funny how that only applies when the subject isn't a friend of theirs.

However as that great poet Jay Z so eloquently put it "Men lie, Women lie, Numbers don't"

Meanwhile, it's worth noting that this is largely a Beltway phenomenon: According to Gallup, Obama is at 81 percent among self-described Democrats and 76 percent among self-described liberals
.

So have at it hoss. I can't wait to see the poutrage over this one.

I'm just hoping that a few of the people this was aimed at as well as a few of those who it wasn't will actually speak the truth on it and start taking a long look in the mirror.

PS: Say this for the right wingers, whether its astro turfed or not they banded together to get enough attention to confuse the American people on a variety of topics. And because plenty of politicians on both sides of the aisle are poll watchers, the Tea Baggers helped to shape policy, legislation and voting records.

So what has the professional left done in response?

Not much.

You want to know who has been a failure?

THE PROFESSIONAL LEFT HAS!

They made their whole mission in life getting the public option in health care reform. And hell I supported it too. But did you see them getting a bunch of lefties to show up and heckle GOP legislators? Did you see them get enough people to shout down Tea Baggers at townhalls last summer? Did you see them do anything to actually influence the GOP rather than just trying to influence Democrats already sympathetic to them?

Of course not.

They are big time shit talkers, but when it comes to actually getting out and DOING something, most of them are just bags of hot air.

So when they lament what isn't in all these bills they seem to hate (which will help a lot of people) I hope one day they acknowledge that they had a hand in that.

I won't hold my breath though.

3 comments:

  1. this could have come from my own mouth...the professional left is like a "friend" who constantly treats u like shit and tries to embarrass u in public...and then one day u get sick of it and snap back at their ass...and they act all shocked and play innocent...u can even explain to them why u did it and they still will play dumb...i'm glad gibbs smacked them in the mouth after the bullshit they have done against the president since DAY ONE...BTW..it was the professional left who joined the right wing in the "obama's katrina" bullshit...then he secured the 20 billion...and now the well is capped...and they almost seem disappointed...fuckin assholes

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  2. Cenk Uygur = former republican who openly courted the teabaggers on his show

    Ed Shultz = former republican

    Arianna Huffington = former republican and mentor of Andrew Breitbart

    Jane Hamsher = who knows what she is , but she teamed up with Grover Norquist to kill HCR so that says alot

    Dylan Ratigan = former republican and current libertarian / wanna be teabagger

    these are just a few of the prominent ppl on the "professional left" who we are supposed to believe are progressives...when they constantly attack obama on a daily basis...i guess we are supposed to overlook their past political leanings and pretend that they are on "our side"...hamsher and uygur recently asked whether or not obama was SEXIST...despite having 2 daughters and appointing 2 women to the SC...this is the level of bullshit the professional left attacks obama with

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  3. Cenk, Rachel, Ed, Jane, Ariana, Keith, Bill Maher, Michael Moore et al are exactly right, and blind Obama allegiance by the Left is not only delusional but actively hurts the Progressive cause. We don't want a checklist of accomplishments in name only, we want for Obama to fight for Progressive legislation--even if he doesn't get it. When Gibbs said that Obama had "put two women on the SCOTUS, hooray, but these damn Libs were upset that they weren't Left enough," one should have nothing to do with the other unless he is so tonedeaf that he equates the advancement of token minorities with a Liberal judiciary. Does that mean Obama could have nominated Sarah Palin and Michelle Malkin to the SCOTUS and Gibbs would have had the same argument?
    This isn't that complicated. Just like we wanted LIBERALS on the SCOTUS (not just "women for the sake of diversity), we wanted Health Care that did not strengthen the corrupt Health companies and hand them our uninsured for dessert, or give monopolies and massively favorable deals to Big Pharma. We wanted Financial Regulation that might prevent the next crash, not cement its certainty as Obama picks bank-friendly "regulators". We wanted real stimulus focused on the middle class and a green economy, not a Conservative deficit commission to cut our social security or 42% of the bill going to tax cuts.
    Obama is chalking up "victories" and you are using them as bludgeons against the naysayers, despite that they are almost uniformly keeping things the same or making them worse. Bernanke. Bailouts to the corporations as he breaks or will break the unions when the states go bankrupt. New drilling contracts. Even wider invasions of privacy as per Bush's Patriot Act (which he re-upped) and even more leeway to detain or even assassinate terror suspects or stop granting them Miranda or civilian trials. A larger defense budget. The firing of Van Jones and Sherrod and de-funding of ACORN. Against gay marriage. Against prosecuting Bush war crimes. Trashing Bill Halter's support. Looking the other way on the possible end of Net Neutrality!!!!!! When Obama caps off Bush's 3rd term by attacking Iran, will you still be blaming the few on the Left who see that he is actually one of the most corporate anti-Left presidents in history?
    The reason your devotion to him is hurting him and the Left is that he and Emanuel and Gibbs know you have no place to go. They have you as Obama voters permanently. Read: No reason to listen to you. No reason to move any policy to the Left or try to upset the Establishment and all of that corporate money flowing in. No reason to stop calling us "fucking retarded" because they know we won't support Romney and there isn't enough organization on the Left to mount a primary challenge from our side. I agree that the Left didn't get up from our computer chairs to shout down the Tea Party maniacs and fight for real health care reform, and so we got crumbs, and even the crumbs are expensive and full of loop holes to screw us. But it does not help when most on the Left tout Obama as the great chess player fighting for change. He IS playing chess, and he is playing it against YOU and you think you are on his side of the table.

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