Jeff Jarvis:
What are you thinking, Mr President?
Is this really the legacy you want for yourself: the chief executive who trampled rights, destroyed privacy, heightened secrecy, ruined trust, and worst of all, did not defend but instead detoured around so many of the fundamental principles on which this country is founded?
And I voted for you. I’ll confess you were a second choice. I supported Hillary Clinton first. I said at the time that your rhetoric about change was empty and that I feared you would be another Jimmy Carter: aggressively ineffectual.
Never did I imagine that you would instead become another Richard Nixon: imperial, secretive, vindictive, untrustworthy, inexplicable.
I do care about security. I survived the attack on the World Trade Center and I believe 9/11 was allowed to occur through a failure of intelligence. I thank TSA agents for searching me: applause for security theater. I defend government’s necessary secrets. By the way, I also defend Obamacare. I should be an easy ally, but your exercise of power appalls me. When I wrote about your credibility deficit recently, I was shocked that among the commenters at that great international voice of liberalism, the Guardian, next to no one defended you. Even on our side of the political divide, I am far from alone in urgently wondering what you are doing.
As a journalist, I am frightened by your vengeful attacks on whistleblowers– Manning, Assange, Snowden, and the rest – and the impact in turn on journalism and its tasks of keeping a watchful eye on you and helping to assure an informed citizenry.
As a citizen, I am disgusted by the systematic evasion of oversight you have supported through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) courts; by the use of ports as lawless zones where your agents canharass anyone; by your failure on your promise to close Guantánamo, and this list could go on.
As an American often abroad, I am embarrassed by the damage you have caused to our reputation and to others’ trust in us. I find myself apologizing for what you are doing to citizens of other nations, dismissing the idea that they have rights to privacy because they are “foreign”.
Hillary & Obama Cares Less? Please give me a break. Both are disasters just like the Dear Leader.
I have to shake my head at Democrats like this. Obama promised to be the most transparent of administration, but fought hard to keep anyone from knowing about him except the media hype. As soon as he gained office he locked down most of his records, and Democrats still believed he was a straight shooter. His administration has blocked and delayed Congressional information gathering at every turn, at all levels, and only release either favorably skewed summaries or heavily redacted files. Yet their paranoia has ordered Federal workers to spy and report on each other, while the agencies it controls has all Americans being spied on with massive amounts of information on them gathered.
Democrats wanted “Big Brother” and now they have him.
yes they took so long to admit it, at nice to have one testimony coming to expose the wrong devastating actions of who they vote for,
and because he is not being gag by being employed by the leader he is free to talk,
but the GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES WILL ONLY TALK AFTER HE IS GONE,and that is UN-AMERICAN,
THEY DON’T DESERVE THEIR POSITION BECAUSE THEY FAIL THE PEOPLE, WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN THEIR PRIORITY, THEY FORGOT WHO PAY FOR THEIR GOOD LIVING,
I must ask: What are you thinking, Mr Liberal?
Why did it take 4.5 years to come to these conclusions?
Was victory in the election so important, you were willing to inflict four more years of an incompetent fraud on the nation, and now you are acting bewildered.
In the rest of the article, you worry that Obama’s dismal performance will affect the next election. Good God man, what about the last election? A little soul searching might be in order, to determine where the rot in the Democrat party exists that allows you to be willing to inflict this damage to our country in the guise of Democrat election victory, without concern for the damage to our country Obama has created, damage that will not be corrected in your pathetic lifetime.
Indeed, what were you thinking?
Many of the things happening under Obama would be front-page news if a Republican allowed them.
Median family income for black Americans has declined 10.9 percent under Obama.
It’s down, but not so much for other Americans.
Down 3.6 percent for non-Hispanic whites.
Down 4.5 percent for Hispanics.
Also the poverty rate for blacks was 25.8 percent during Obama in 2011.
The black unemployment rate is 13.4 percent in Obama’s ”recovery.”
But it is even worse for black high school dropouts where it is 95%.
Democrats SHOULD be disgusted with Obama.
72.3 percent of black children born to unmarried mothers.
He could have used his bully pulpit to help fight all these things, but he did not.
Instead he uses his time in front of cameras to drag other people down so as to appear better than he really is.
Most of the people he slams are imaginary ones….straw men.
Obama has been a dismal failure for black Americans and our entire country.
What if those are his intentions? Does what he is doing make any sense then?
Jeff Jarvis
Your comment about Obama becoming another Jimmeh (the way they say it in S. Georgia) Carter was my instant first reaction to a candidate who was an obvious backlash to the poor/weak “W” Bush administration but when he was elected, I was determined to suck it up since “four years isn’t that long”. I STAND CORRECTED– 8 YEARS SEEMS 10x AS LONG AS THE ORIGINAL 4.
I suppose I will be equally as unpopular as you by stating that I WANTED THE MODERATE McCAIN TO WIN in 2008. Oh well.
As far as Hillary, I always found her a little too full of sleazy smiles and fake sincerity (like a low end used car dealer) to even contemplate voting for her. HOWEVER, I have for a number of years thought that this jug eared fool almost makes her look like a patriot in comparison. Until the Benghazi crimes I almost felt sorry for her with the disrespect she always got from this administration and its few attempts to back her up! AGAIN I STAND CORRECTED!!! She is artful at concealing her true nature and I now think that she is smarter and far more energetic than Obama and capable of even more harm.
So, how’s that ‘Hopey Changey Thing’ workin’ for ya Mr Jarvis????
Not workin’ too well for your likin’ is it … (?)
You were warned…by those of us who Liberal’s MOCK as ‘narrow minded’ …oh, and, RACIST too! but, who saw this coming… who saw the BIG PICTURE??
I read some of the comments after reading your article…Yikes!!
I borrowed this but, I do believe it’s a good fit for this article:
It isn’t that our Liberal/Progressive friends are ignorant, there is just so much they know that just isn’t TRUE!
FAITH7
THEY WHERE SO PROUD TO SAY, WE PUT THE FIRST THIS AND THE FIRST THAT ON THE TOP JOB,
ANY ONE AS LONG AS IT’S THE FIRST, NO MATTER WHERE THEY COME FROM,
NO MATTER WHERE THEY WHERE, NO MATTER WHAT THEY CHEW, THEY WANT THE FIRST,
NO MATTER HOW IT HAS CHANGE AMERICA, WHO CARE FOR AMERICA THEY GOT THE FIRST ONE,
the mindset of AMERICA IS CHANGING RADICALLY INTO A WORLD MINDSET,
AND IT’S NOT PRETTY TO SEE, NEXT YOU WILL SEE THEM REMOVING THE 10 COMMANDS ON
THE PUBLIC PLACE WHICH HAS BEEN THERE FOR THE PEOPLE TO REMEMBER THEM,
SPECIALLY THE ONE: THOU SHALL NOT KILL, FOR THOSE YOUNG 16TEEN TO REMEMBER,
BUT THEY NEVER WHERE TOLD THE COMMANDS OF GOD, AND THEY DID KILL,
KILL AN OLD WARRIOR OF THE WORLD WAR 2, THAT IS A SACRILEGE,
NOW THE BEST THING FOR THEM IS TO RETURN THE BEATING THEY EACH GAVE TO THAT HERO, TO MAKE THEM FEEL THE PAIN OF BEING BEATED TO DEATH WHICH MEAN STRIKE REPEATEDLY, SOMEONE WILL DO IT TO THEM, SO THEY WILL NEVER FORGET WHAT THEY DID AND THEIR FRIENDS
WILL KNOW THE COST OF KILLING OTHER, THEY TAKE A LIFE THEY HAVE TO GIVE THEIR LIFE, NOTHING IS FREE,
So true Faith7!
2008—–> Hope and change
2013—–> Despair and more of the same DC B*!!$**t
I was way more trusting and compassionate when I was younger. Obama reminds me of the young black guy I picked up (mid ’70s as I recall) who was hitch hiking from the deep shade of a live oak on a HOT august day. He climbed in with NO reply to my “how you!” while sitting there blankly staring out the windshield and before I shifted the ol’ truck into high he said “this is where I get out”. I could almost have thrown a rock as far as he was going and the experience gave me the creepy-crawly feeling that he was just sucking something out of me with disdain of having to make even that effort. I have lived around, worked with and even socialized with MANY blacks in my life and I want to state that I DO NOT CHARACTERIZE THIS ONE AS TYPICAL, but as the prototype (my first, anyway) of the current speciman in the WH. This evil SOB will destroy our country if he can!
@Dink Newcomb:
Hillary is pretty much the same politically as Obama. They are both far-left socialist-progressive who see the “Big Brother” government of 1984 as an eventual goal to reach for in transforming America into their utopian dream. With both her and Obama’s goals, if/when they can get us to state controlled socialized healthcare with a new bankrupt nation, can a Logan’s Run type of solution be far behind?
O-blama came out of the same slime as the rest of them including Filner!!
Ditto #11
I see the paralells to socialized health care in your “Logan’s Run” metaphor but I will counter with my own– “The Time Machine” as a glimpse of a post-political future Utopia with its overtones of “Soylent Green” minus the necessity of using soy-lent as a disguise for reality!
BTW– I first read “The Time Machine” 50+ years ago and somehow I could NEVER feel any affinity for the beautiful Eloi whatsoever and despite Welles presenting the Morlocks as evil, I understood them even at that early age and they sounded far more realistic as descendents of humans. That whole scenario sounds so Freudian with the Superego driven Eloi (The Left) versus the Id driven Morlocks (The Right) in a world purged of Ego. My lord, I would hate to pick sides in THAT stew of maladjustment– or is it MY maladjustment floundering in that utopian balance? This is intended as humor, of course, but the book was indeed written in 1895, in the time of Freud’s heyday and those sophmoric comparisons might not be so unreasonable but if you could get someone less snarky and more knowledgeable (or even, one with any real understanding, if you can still find a Freudian psychologist) to scrutinize them.
@Dink Newcomb:
We have to remember when reading The Time Machine and later works by H. G. Wells that he was on the executive committee of the socialist Fabian Society. The society was not as active for socialist change as Wells wanted them to be. His own fantasies of a socialist utopia were of course intermixed in his writings. This work glorifies the preferred elite society of his utopian dream in glowing adoration, while denigrating his opposition by describing them in harsh subhuman terms. Wells, not only drank the kool-aid but refilled his glass multiple times.
For myself, I don’t see so much “Left”/”Right” or Democrat/Republican in The Time Machine films, but an extremist development and division of the opposite ends of the social spectrum, with evolution of the elite into an “enlightened” society, and the forced down-driving of the under caste until they become considered brutish animals. Either capitalist extremism or socialism could lead to the same end result so long as society does away with a middle class and becomes fractured into elite oligarchy and the enslaved they rule over.
Jeff Jarvis is a barely competent writer, and is evidently a less than adequate thinker. Worst of all, Jarvis seems to be missing any intuitive sense, as evidenced by his blathering on Obama and Clinton.
That he is a disillusioned liberal now whining about the inadequacies of someone whom he knew nothing about 5 years ago but voted for, is pathetic. That he voted for this disastrous administration a second time evidences the mindlessness which afflicts the ideological blindness of the Jarvis ilk.
Now Jarvis will support Clinton who has nothing but failures to show for having collected cash from taxpayers. He’ll go back to supporting someone who leached from people who wanted “access” and who paid her and her glad-hander husband for it – to the tune of nearly a billion dollars. Perhaps Jarvis is entertaining fantasies of a Lenin reincarnation to return, providing him with the ecstasy of a socialist utopia. He is disappointed that the creation which he and the MSM constructed was only an invention of their dreams. He still doesn’t get it.
Nothing in what Jarvis writes, or where he’s going, indicates that he understands, or suggests that he has awakened his slumbering intuition.
Jarvis disgusted? Yah, more like disgusting comes to mind.
This line from Animal House fit’s all the Obama crew: (Warning adult language)
@Dink Newcomb: #10
He can, and he is.
@Smorgasbord:
Obama makes it quite clear in Dreams of my Father The “dreams” of his father is to humble America, to make them just another country on equal standing with the lowest. To do that he must break the living standards of Americans, our spirit, our economy, our ability to produce, our military might, and our influence.
Evil indeed and to be frank, treasonous to have a President with the goal of bringing us down to the same level of the third world nations he was raised in. Obama does not want America to be strong, but to weaken us, and he has many far-left supporters who have a similar goal. It’s all there in his own writings.
Ditto #14
Thanks for the reply. I have tried to answer this 3x previously and I kept losing it. Grrrrr!
Let me restate that my metaphor was truly just an attempt at snarky sarcasm rather than a real astute look at the book. I knew about Wells’ politics but my memories (from 50 years ago) insist that I never felt that Wells was presenting the Eloi as being in a state of golden bliss but rather just a plot device more in the sense of reducio ad absurdum. It also served to heighten the tension and adventure of the traveler’s plight. They were merely a
mindlessnon-intellectual food source for the Morlocks as I recall without any real redeeming qualities other than the trials of the workaday world had been replaced by Molocks. I might not remember that correctly but even as a kid I never had any great longing to have a placid, dull life but wondered about what was on the other side of the mountain. Certainly much of the nuance of this story could be lost over the years but I have to say that if he was lauding them, he did not make them very sypathetic and it would have been a crappy story if they had been his heroes.Ditto #16
In my dotage I have edged ever closer to being a reclusive paranoid and I have to say you are right about the Obama camp, but then again I feel that way about almost ALL politicians and anybody who, in a public forum, tries to get me to believe the old “Trust me kid. We know what we are doing” routine.
@Ditto: #18
I haven’t read any of obama’s stuff, but I agree with EVERYTHING you said.
@Dink Newcomb:
In fairness, would have to say I feel similarly about all DNC/GOP “progressives” and most other politicians, with a few exceptions. Three of the exceptions are Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz & and Rand Paul. (You will note I don’t include his father). Wile the Establishment GOP outright lied about the strength of their opposition to Obamacare, and mislead on that they would secure our border before considering a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, none even come close to the continual pack of lies and obfuscations of Obama and the Democrats.
@Ditto: #22
Like many corporations, the democrats and the republicans have merged into ONE political party. They are now a monopoly.
Ditto
the CONSERVATIVES ARE best to hold POWER,
BUT THEY ARE NOT EXPOSING THE OPPOSITION LIES STRONGLY ENOUGH, WHILE THOSE IN POWER ARE YELLING AND BLAMING THEM FOR THEIR OWN FAILURE,
THE CONSERVATIVES SHOULD GET LOUDER AND DEMOTE THE LIES OF THE OTHER
IN A STRONGER VOICE, THE OTHER ARE MAD AS HELL, COMPARE
TO THE CONSERVATIVES WITH COMPOSURE AND BRAIN,
Smorgasbord
not really true but they are too polite and pass over accusations from the other party,
which become credible when shout out loud from the DEMOCRAT ALL OF THEM, THAT SHOW THE LACK OF RESPECT FROM OBAMA FOR THE AMERICANS, HE HAS MORE RESPECT FOR THE ILLEGALS THAN THE PEOPLE,
THE PEOPLE believe what is shout in their ears now, in the new AMERICA,
more than what is told in a CLASSY POLITE WAY WHICH USE to be the more respected way to address THE PEOPLE,
but doesn’t work anymore, THE BULLY are the one attracting the attention
all the time,
this is now a BULLY STYLE IN FASHION, FOR PUBLIC GOVERNING ,
it does it to intimidate THE PEOPLE, not to inform,
but to impose, it’s not the style of THE CONSERVATIVES who will take power in a equal term of governing NOT TO IMPOSE BUT TO GOVERN AND PROTECT, WHICH IS NOT DONE NOW,
@Ditto: #18,
I just don’t think that he possessed competence enough to write a book, much less 2. The little evidence which exists of his having actually done any writing at Harvard and as President of the Harvard Law Review, is barely coherent if at all. Having held such a position, mountains of evidence should exist of the brilliance his handlers and worshipers have claimed. None Exists. On the other hand, too much evidence supports that he didn’t write either of his narcissistic autobiographies. When you add to that the past 5 years of evidence, it makes it incredibly difficult to argue against claims of his dubious and questionable talents, other than as an excellent teleprompter reader.
No one knows what he wants, I suspect. He doesn’t seem to be engaged or inquisitive. His handlers, on the other hand, such as Jarrett and his wife, seem hell-bent on wreaking havoc on the Nation which made them wealthy. It almost seems as if they hold a deep hatred for America. I’m not convinced that he cares either way. IMHO, he is very much the “vacant suit.”
So consider changing parties.
James Raider #26
@ilovebeeswarzone: #25
It is like one conservative blogger said (I don’t remember which one), when McCain and Boehner are ALWAYS getting positive press from the propaganda media, you know they aren’t conservatives. The two even went to Egypt to try to work out a deal with the Muslim Brotherhood. The only proper way to deal with the Muslim Brotherhood is with force. Look at how many republicans are in support of obamacare, and are for the amnesty bill.
@James Raider: #26
I strongly disagree that he is an, “excellent teleprompter reader.” When he reads someone else’s speech and doesn’t know it, and when he hardly ever changes his tone when he is reading the TOTUS, that makes him a lousy reader of his TOTUS. As I have mentioned different times, he sounds like a computer voice. This makes me think that he doesn’t even read the speeches ahead of time, or he would know when he is reading someone else’s speech, and he would know when to put more emphasis in parts of his speech.
@Dink Newcomb: #28
That is what is scaring me the most. Just how big is the conspiracy, when all of this info is blocked or destroyed? FOI requests result in info vanishing, even from the National Archives. This is going on in many different agencies.
@Smorgasbord: @30,
Smorg, I completely agree with you. I was just making a bad attempt at being facetious. Particularly since reading a teleprompter is something a child should be able to do without much training, and he can’t even get that right. I really don’t think this guy’s got much going on of import in his head. That he can outright lie so consistently and so seamlessly, confirms it for me.
Smorgasbord
maybe the BOEMER AND MCCAIN AND THEIR OWN DEMOCRATS ARE TOO SCARE OF THEM,
REMEMBER THE SECRET MAFIA OPERATION,
THEY WORK NOT IN THE FACE OF PEOPLE BUT UNDERGROUND SECRETLY,
AND THOSE WHO SEE IT ARE TOO ASTOUNDED TO EXPOSE IT BECAUSE THEY MIGHT BE HIT ON THEIR PERSONAL LIVES, REMEMBER BREITAR ‘S DEATH, AND THEY KNOW NOBODY WILL BELIEVE IT, BECAUSE IT’S HARD TO GRASP FOR THE PEOPLE THAT THIS HAS HAPPENED TO THE GREATEST NATION ON EARTH BEING DESTROY CHUNK BY CHUNK, AND WE KNOW ONLY THE TOP OF THE STORY,
WOULD YOU HAVE BELIEVE THAT A PRESIDENT WOULD HAVE TOLD HIS PEOPLE, VOTE FOR REVENGE, THAT,S WHAT THEY DO UNDERNEATH SO NO ONE CAN DISCLOSE IT,
THEY MUST ALWAYS HAVE A EXIT DOOR TO NEGATE THE EXPOSE TRUTH, THINK OF
THE PHONEY SCANDALES, THEY HAVE A FIX THAT THEY CANNOT BE CORNER,
OR ELSE WILL HAPPEN TO THOSE TRYING, THEY ARE A SCARY BUNCH AND MUST BE DEFEATED, WHEN THE TIME COME IF T’S NOT TO LATE FOR AMERICA TO RECOVER,
LOOK AT THE DEPRESS WARRIORS BEHAVIOR, LOOK AT WHAT THE SEQUESTER DID TO THEM.,
AND YES YOU HAVE A GOOD ARGUMENT AS ALWAYS, BUT DID YOU EVER THINK THERE ARE SOME WHO WHERE PLANTED IN THE REPUBLICAN GOP PARTY? I BELIEVE SO, THEY ARE THE ONE STIRRING THE POT AGAINST THE PARTY, SO TO DISCREDIT THEM,
and they have eroded the POWER OF THE PEOPLE,
IS THEIR SOME LEFT?
@James Raider:
I think that some on the right blind themselves by making such assumptions. We don’t know what his grades were because his college records were sealed however, Obama did after all graduate Harvard law school. While there is no evidence that he did anything as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, that doesn’t change the fact that he was made president and there must have been some reason beyond race for them to have selected him for that position. As to his books. It may very well be that he had a ghostwriter which is very common with public figures, but ghostwriting is a collaboration work, where the public figure provides all the raw information, and the ghostwriter works in concert with them to assemble the biographical data into a coherent, polished manuscript.
I remember quite well that some Democrats made similar claims; that Bush was only a puppet of Cheney, and backed that up with his verbal errors and sometimes clumsy speaking. While such thinking (that a leader of the opposition is a blithering idiot,) makes them feel better, it causes them to seriously underestimate their “enemy”. Without a doubt, there are a lot of nefarious characters working with Obama, but I consider it a dangerous mistake to assume that Obama is merely a figurehead and that he doesn’t have a personal agenda that he wants enacted. Especially as Obama has been so successful in getting his way and bringing down America. Even Putin has warned Americans about following in the past mistakes of socialism, that Obama, the Democrats (and RINO’s) are leading us in a downhill stumble towards.
As for the covering up of information on Obama, it doesn’t take a vast conspiracy to do so. It only takes the cooperation of a few key placed political cohorts. With so many in colleges and the government bureaucracies being loyal, die-hard Democrats it comes as no surprise that they would protect someone they idolize or who’s goal they fully support. While Obama might in many ways be incompetent for the office he holds, and may not be the “brains” of the operation, he is at the top of setting the base agenda. Valerie Jarret, as his chief adviser and mentor may guide his moves, suggest tactics and actions, and do most of the work of the office of the Presidency, But Obama is still the head partner.
@James Raider: #32
He was raised as a Muslim as a child, and they teach their children to hate us infidels from birth. I’m guessing that lying in the name of Ala is OK as long as it helps the cause.
@ilovebeeswarzone: #33
BUT DID YOU EVER THINK THERE ARE SOME WHO WHERE PLANTED IN THE REPUBLICAN GOP PARTY
I have mentioned that several year ago I guessed that congress had been infiltrated, but I didn’t know by who. Glenn Beck mentioned that he believes the same thing ,and that it has been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood. With obama siding with them all of the time, and members of congress not doing anything to stop their Common Core and other programs to spread their religion, I have to go along with that idea. Most of the commenters on Flopping Aces disagree with me, but I see some are starting to say the same thing.
It’s time for a third party.
Smorgasbord
RON PAUL DID NOT GET HIS CHANCE, AND MANY MILITARY HAD CHOSEN HIM,
and he had the big young crowd believing in his program,
what it would take is the most fill with loyals’s party, choose his leader secretly among their own,
till the time come to elevate him in the public,
so to prevent the vicious attacks from the opposition, and their dirty tricks,
AND THEIR DIRTY LIES,
why NOT PREVENT that new leader to be a target from those dirt bagger,
while their leader is one only,and shown as a pure bred AMERICAN
OR STAINED AMERICAN BY THE FOREIGN LAND VISITED AND MADE FRIEND WITH THEIR MINDSET AND AGREED WITH IT, EVEN EMBRACED IT,
SO TO HEAR THEM SHOUT: WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE AT THIS POINT….
OF HERO AMERICANS BEEN KILLED, AND NOT EVEN MADE AN EFFORT TO HELP THEM, WHILE THEY WHERE FIGHTING OUR ENEMIES
MORE NUMEROUS THAN THEY COULD HANDLE, BECAUSE THEIR MANY CALL FOR HELP WAS BURIED IN THE SAND IN AMERICA,
@ilovebeeswarzone: #37
As I have mentioned different times: What if they want the Muslims to win?
Smorgasbord
it look that way, they quack like a duck, they walk like a duck,
bye