Althouse: "Okay, so as a looney leftie who is constantly told by liberals I can't dislike Obama for things like..."

March 12, 2016

"Okay, so as a looney leftie who is constantly told by liberals I can't dislike Obama for things like..."

"... ramping up the drone war, finding legal justification to extrajudicially murder American citizens without trial, and so on and so forth, because of his "other accomplishments" that just outweigh that so much. You know, like that hand-out to the insurance industry instead of giving us Single Payer healthcare we all asked for, oh and don't forget, he's cool with gay people! So *waves hands* just forget all this icky shit happening, he loves teh gays! Isn't that just progressive? So, for real, considering this is fucking flat out going down the 1984/Police State hole, can I officially hate Obama for such obviously fascist positions? Can I just say I hate him, just this once, and not be told that I'm not a good liberal because of it? That I need to let it go because he's done some minor stuff for regular people? What the living hell is going on with our government? How can they make these kind of arguments with a straight face, and why am I expected to take them fucking seriously, and treat them with respect when they pull this kind of shit? How am I supposed to take Democrats seriously when this is just as bad, or worse, than anything Bush II ever pulled while in the White House? This was a moment that the shoe incident needed a fucking repeat. Maybe a swift redwing to the noggin might make Obama realize he's being the worst he can fucking be. He may have skipped Nancy Reagan's funeral for this, but god damn did he position himself on the coattails of Reagan with this speech. Seriously, I am so angry right now. I can hardly even contain it over this shit. Honestly, any government official suggesting this kind of thing against their citizens should be fucking impeached."

A comment on a Metafilter post about "Obama, at South by Southwest, Calls for Law Enforcement Access in Encryption Fight."

44 comments:

traditionalguy said...: Police States ARE what Marxist Community Organizers do. Did he think anyone in the USSR or Cuba was free from coercive police intervention for one second?; 3/12/16, 11:30 AM
MaxedOutMama said...: Well, I have to agree with the sentiment, if not the language.

This just cannot be HEALTHY.; 3/12/16, 11:31 AM
pm317 said...: heh, 8 years too late.; 3/12/16, 11:33 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: 51% approval rating and rising.

And, I disagree with him on the privacy issue, but imagine the fuss if the president took sides against the CIA, FBI and NSA.; 3/12/16, 11:33 AM
Birkel said...: Welcome to the party, pal.

(Bruce Willis voice); 3/12/16, 11:35 AM
Curious George said...: He also called for online voting. I guess he wants to make voter fraud more efficient and user friendly. No more schlepping down to the polls, or the county building for an absentee ballot. Nope. You can now do it from the comfort and security of your own home, internet cafe, or Dacha in Russia.; 3/12/16, 11:36 AM
Birkel said...: "AReasonableMan"

Imagine the approval rating if the MSMFM wasn't polishing that turd to a high gloss. I wonder how they picked it up by the clean end; I really do.; 3/12/16, 11:38 AM
David said...: AReasonableMan said...
51% approval rating and rising.

In today's world that's a great score. Hoo boy.; 3/12/16, 11:40 AM
rehajm said...: Somebody's just lost all their 'friends'.

Enjoy your cats.; 3/12/16, 11:44 AM
David Begley said...: I don't hate Obama. I just disagree with his policies. No question he is the worst President ever and it will become obvious to everyone in time. The rise of ISIS, $19t in debt, breakdown in the Rule of Law, millions of illegals here, healthcare system in ruins, millions moved into Europe and Iran with nukes and ICBMs. And it was Tony Kennedy and Lambda Legal that gave us SSM.

And there was no way Obama was going to be impeached. He's the historic first Black president. Immune to impeachment. It would have been racist to impeach him.; 3/12/16, 11:48 AM
Charlie said...: He was smart enough to bring in Biden as impeachment insurance!; 3/12/16, 11:52 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: 15% of the population receiving food stamps and rising.

That 46M adults. Obama got 59M votes in 2012. The Democrats have been wildly successful at keeping people in poverty and dependency.
Which is why that slimy piece of shit Hillary is a sure thing in 2016; 3/12/16, 11:55 AM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/12/16, 11:56 AM
Ambrose said...: The progressive left just cannot abide by the fact that there is an African American president.; 3/12/16, 11:59 AM
Anonymous said...: @AreasonableMan

Why?

The idea that the government has absolute power is destroyed by the 4th and 5th Amendments. Moreover, the 3rd Amendment provides for an absolute bar on specific military activity by the executive in both times of war and peace. So the 3A provides a notable historical example of an absolute bar to executive activity that does not require any accommodation on the part of the people. The Constitution itself sometimes unreasonable.

This isn't to say that Obama is wrong as a normative matter that there SHOULD be an accommodation to the FBI. It does mean, however, that as a descriptive matter he is wrong when he says there MUST be an accommodation for the FBI.

This matters a great deal because it shifts the burden of proof. The government has to justify why it needs what it needs. It can't run around saying there must be an accommodation to the executive on encryption or (insert parade of horribles here) because a parade of horribles is not a justification, it is a buttress.

I'd argue that encryption just is the digital version of our homes. If a citizen can absolutely bar the government from being quartered in her home then it makes perfect sense to say that she can absolutely bar the government from entering the digital equivalent of that home. The fact that negative social consequences flow for this is a big "so what?" There are obvious negative military repercussion that flow from not being able to quarter troops in homes, namely an additional expense to the government for housing. We accept those negative social consequences as part of an implicit bargain that guarantees our fundamental civil liberties.

BTW, it is the executive agencies that have a duty to the President and not vice versa. If there were any fuss from those agencies should the president side with the people on encryption the proper term for such a hue and cry is sedition. I would prefer not to imagine seditious federal agencies.; 3/12/16, 12:02 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: David Begley said...
No question he is the worst President ever

You are wrong about almost everything, aren't you.; 3/12/16, 12:03 PM
David Begley said...: ARM

Give me your worst President.; 3/12/16, 12:11 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: They're the DINOs.

As bad as the RINOs.

Two sides of the same coin. Caring only for meaningless tribal labels while they promote the same agenda of abusing our values and liberties on the altar of political/government power.

The left is poised for a take-over, but it will be an empty and meaningless and despised one unless it is true to the ideals that the Clintons and Obamas wrecked. And it will be voted out within one term or determined to be as meaningless as Obama's second term if it holds on with all its screeching fingernails for longer.; 3/12/16, 12:11 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: ...imagine the fuss if the president took sides against the CIA, FBI and NSA.

Imagine the approval he would get (over 51%) if he got testicle implant surgery.

I think Americans just assumed that a black president would have the balls to not be such a nail-biting, cowardly placeholder of a president. Boy were they wrong.; 3/12/16, 12:15 PM
jr565 said...: He is highlighting how the lefties argue issue. If you disagree with obama or the pervailing lefty wisdom you are a racist/sexist/homophobe (straight up) Welcome to reality, lefty.; 3/12/16, 12:24 PM
n.n said...: Yesterday's liberal is disenchanted by the variability or selectivity of generational liberals. This is the same epiphany experienced by human beings generally as we leave childhood to become adults. Principles matter.; 3/12/16, 12:24 PM
jr565 said...: A reasonable man wrote:
51% approval rating and rising.

And, I disagree with him on the privacy issue, but imagine the fuss if the president took sides against the CIA, FBI and NSA.

and I actually agree with Obama on the security issue. But agree with the writer about how toxic and hypocritical the left is. he is highlighing how they are. Lefties need to stop denying they are anything BUT that.; 3/12/16, 12:25 PM
Gahrie said...: Short answer?

No.; 3/12/16, 12:29 PM
jr565 said...: a REASONABLE MAN wrote:
You are wrong about almost everything, aren't you.

Terrible ecomomy, terrible on foreign policy. Obamacare sucks (even NPR has essentially come out and said its broken). putting up red lines on Syria which he lets Syria cross and does nothing. Signs deals with Iran that they violate and he persists in saying is a good deal. Removes all troops from Iraq, then finally says we need to put troops back in, but doesn't provide any actual troops.

what has he done thats positive?
We are more divisive as a country AFTER 8 years of obama then we were under Bush. And while I know you will say its because of Republcians, this article shows where the real divisiveness is coming from. Because when he, a liberal has legitimate criticisms of Obama and his policies, the liberal mob turns on him and uses the exact same tactics that they use on the right. Which are intentionally divisive.

Its telling that feminists have been making issues about colleges being rape centers. Colleges, some of the safests places on earth with incredibly low levels of rape. ANd run by liberals. Yet they are are suddenly hotbeds of rape and rape culture. the same colleges are some of the most inclusive places in the country, yet sudenly are hot beds of racism because to the point where multiple college administrators are being asked to resign for some perceived racism that is not ever proveable. and students are now asking for segregated spaces where people of color dont have to be around white people. This is all being pushed by the left.; 3/12/16, 12:33 PM
Anonymous said...: AReasonableMan said...
51% approval rating and rising.

In today's world that's a great score. Hoo boy.

*******************

If you would only come out from under your wet rocks, you would see a political revolution going on in the real world. If Barak REALLY has a 51% approval rating, you would not see Bernie and Trump doing as well as they are.; 3/12/16, 12:36 PM
Unknown said...: "Okay, so as a looney leftie who is constantly told by liberals I can't dislike Obama for things like..."

Dr Frankenstein, Monster. Monster, Dr Frankenstein.; 3/12/16, 12:47 PM
pst314 said...: "Single Payer healthcare we all asked for"
Speak for yourself, leftie fool.; 3/12/16, 12:55 PM
damikesc said...: These idiots don't realize we have single payer.

It's the VA.

Isn't working too well.; 3/12/16, 1:11 PM
MayBee said...: Yeah. Lately the left wants to tell you what you can and can't dislike.; 3/12/16, 2:29 PM
Big Mike said...: At least the writer understood that he was a looney liberal. Now to get him to understand he was being redundant.; 3/12/16, 2:43 PM
John Henry said...: Back in the 90s when Gore and Clinton were trying to ban strong encryption someone wrote an article linking it to the first amendment.

The argument went, as I recall, that I have the right to say anything in any language I care to use. If I say:

mQENBFbkgmUBCACI0SGCG2ndiRQ4N2T5NaQuA1qM8zi98lhf7lXX7JndJ8XQz3mY
cm73F+77Y10WRlsOCyCaCxE9l1kAcfenj0HpkXEfzHtpeIRJ37Jrz5fsDBjIJ4pK
L7Tt5ZrX6fvhLZkeSSawjc32je9pQ6tkujNNzhVJ6Gk/dPT7N4gjc+BWjXU5qwSf
ausoyLfeMLKw/k1wP6VgeBw33dJrD6aQr/SZOSHXR0wkdeT+b2DV/ORGfPFZaBg9
eo7HS0IqEVPKv+ZWL/d5ZnqTecPZLpxt5CCW30zeEV7BYUarL825ul82wd98Qm/t
jmM6ny9YU4/ech5JiofdkKGYF8pDvaYFW21PABEBAAG0CGpvaDc4NDU2iQEcBBAB
AgAGBQJW5IJlAAoJEFKXJVsG8VzgpNkH/RCC8swFvVQpZlmORytXZPFRE9lYQMyi
IgQZ+wcSOCakgdQUF+x4u1kyvVVMQP7detgzboc9wF2qJ61fmsy+HKt7pVR7PIrO
W2A7c3aLJefx0TVW14Jmlbxz9GeyHeyeSwb1k6gfoCJYPZ6gYNjPh1LNqEKeWCyF
Ew1JXQRhAg7kenwA5r+GvoMy4QJ3fKtdkix+KACmVC/zR4x0MODQm42wy7PskCZC
cLwNSlcIVYhO3vHRb14LRC4GHk88qkPO+Tfm2SxTeU3EE55vUnAixPF3+0X3jgmC
M0unxnVvuNxI+8ErdkO8oKW3NPVfuApSEDJwEqSMmDZgftSWMLQlNFo=
=Sbyr

I have a first amendment right to do so. The fact that only I and people I designate can understand what it means has no bearing on first amendment protection.

This is PGP code which is theoretically unbreakable by the NSA or anyone else.

I think we are getting near the point where we need to start encrypting everything including "Honey, I will pick up the milk on the way home"

I am not worried about the bad guys having unbreakable encryption. I am much more worried about the govt and others having access to everything we say.

John Henry; 3/12/16, 3:02 PM
John Henry said...: We also can't criticize Hilary! for being a grifter, incompetent, bereft of ideas, horrible speaker, corrupt and so on.

Because WOMAN!!!!

If I do I am criticized as sexist.

I've gotten used to being a sexist racist over the past years.

John Henry; 3/12/16, 3:06 PM
phantommut said...: 51% approval rating and rising.

Compared to Trump or Hillary, even I prefer Obama.

It doesn't hurt that he's phoning it in at this point. Considering the crap happening around the world, and given his track record when he gets interested in a problem, I have to hope he remains focused on his golf game and that things don't go totally to hell.; 3/12/16, 3:39 PM
Robert Cook said...: The writer is just saying what I've been saying for 7 years. Obama is a loyal functionary of the military/financial/corporate/spy complex, and he does the bidding of those whose bidding his predecessors also did.; 3/12/16, 5:26 PM
Rick said...: Robert Cook said...
The writer is just saying what I've been saying for 7 years. Obama is a loyal functionary of the military/financial/corporate/spy complex, and he does the bidding of those whose bidding his predecessors also did.

Note from past assertions that Cook thinks this lame commentary proves Obama is not left. In fact it proves he is. The left seeks to increase government power at every opportunity and power will be abused by whoever holds it, which puts the wielder in natural allegiance with the rich and powerful since they can provide what the wielder wants.

I find it incredibly amusing Cook thinks he's the breakthrough thinker when in fact he's confoundingly deluded. Some people are so far behind they think they're ahead of the people about to lap them - in his case for the second time.; 3/12/16, 6:07 PM
Michael Fitzgerald said...: Blind Squirrel Finds Nut!; 3/12/16, 7:57 PM
Jon Burack said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/12/16, 9:04 PM
Jon Burack said...: The part of this that seems key, to me anyway, is this: "seriously, I am so angry right now. I can hardly even contain it over this shit." That seems to be what relates this maniac to all the others, right, left, Trumpite, Bernieite, Cruzite, BLM, BDS, all the way from Keraga-Mason, the anti-Semite at Oberlin, to the Trumpite despisers of 11 million immigrants they fear in their bones. From Laura Ingraham and the nativist talk radio Elmer Gantrys of the right, to the nutjob rushing the stage to get at Trump. Being angry as being authentic, and being authentic as conferring legitimacy and dignity. Sorry, all it is is anger. Looney liberal or looney conservative. Who cares. All unfocused rage, utterly IN-authentic. Fake as a three-dollar bill. The age of feelings. Going nowhere.; 3/12/16, 9:07 PM
Mike Sylwester said...: He writes the word fucking frequently.; 3/12/16, 9:33 PM
Fen said...: ARM: 51% approval rating and rising.

Also, chocolate rations have been increased from 30 grams to 25 grams!; 3/12/16, 9:36 PM
gilbar said...: "Also, chocolate rations have been increased from 30 grams to 25 grams!"

well, it does sound weird when you use the raw data....
But if you look at the seasonally adjusted Chocolate ration size, you'll see that that is a 7.2 % increase; 3/13/16, 8:10 AM
glenn said...: When people use a lot of "F" words and "S" words in instantly recognize the work of genius.; 3/13/16, 8:34 AM
Robert Cook said...: "...Cook thinks this lame commentary proves Obama is not left."

Not in his governance, not at all.; 3/13/16, 9:30 AM
mikee said...: The commenter's semi-rhetorical question is whether he can refuse to accept any one part of the Great Leader's greatness. The answer is no.

The Great Leader is perfect in whole and in part, and claims that any part of the Great Leader is not perfect impugn him entirely, and cannot be accepted, and will be punished in inverse proportion to the offense.

Now, a mere President could be criticized up one side and down the other, and still be a great President.

This is the difference between a dictator and an elected official.; 3/13/16, 10:26 AM