Current ArticleBy Charles Lemos on July 20, 2008 at 11:30 PM in Barack Obama, Israel, Ralph Nader
2008 Presidential candidate Ralph Nader discusses the situation in the Gaza strip and challenges Senator Barack Obama’s comments to AIPAC.
From my blog, By The Fault.
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Obama’s Israel speech to AIPAC was inconsistent. Pledging your support for Israel is necessary to win a US election, but his pandering was so over the top.
He probably feels like he has to lay on the Israel support extra thick because of his ties to the muslim world. He feels he has to prove himself even more because of that. He wants to distance himself from that side, because it has absolutely no political benefit for him. Being a staunch pro-Israel supporter, on the other hand, means much money, many votes and a lot of political support from lobbies and groups.
Obama belonged to a church with an anti-Semitic pastor and which supported Hamas. What more proof does anyone need about his true attitude towards Israel and the Palestinians?
‘Hope’ is dead, so is ‘Change’, Long live America.
That why his blind support of Israel is so troubling. What does this really think? What will we get if he is president? What will he do? He says whatever is politically expedient at the moment, frequently while being vague enough to contradict himself in the future. In this case he made his statement to AIPAC on the disavow himself the following day. I didn’t think it was possible to through oneself under the bus until Obama did it.
No, it show again that Obama only cares about himself and has no values let alone core values. He will do and say anything to get the election.
Why is this far-left-wing anti-semitic garbage being posted here? The graphics/music are meant to dehumanize jews, and some of the statements like Israel’s “blockade” of Gaza are like some marxist fantasy pre-internet, before the time people could easily see that gaza has a border with Egypt and that the Egyptian blockade is real, a real near-total blockade.
The undivided Jerusalem statement by Obama was a real blunder and should be attacked. But it was stupid, not indicative of Obama’s core beliefs, but how he will say anything to pander, even more than what the pander-ees need to hear.
Hes an opportunist. He’d support the martians over the venusians if it got him votes.
Funny I was just thinking that making Nader a Puma would really liven up the general election.
Works for me. He’ll lose, but we don’t have to feel slimy voting for him.
Obama is FOS. His position will be whatever you want it to be. He talks out of both sides of his neck.
I guess thats why he can not talk straight into the camera in his speaches. The amazing boble head.
That’s the twin teleprompter screens, arranged about 45 degrees to the left and right of his podium.
Obama’s getting lazy. He doesn’t even bother reading his lines to the middle of the audience anymore. It’s not exactly rocket science, remembering a single well rehearsed line long enough to speak that single line off-axis, but he doesn’t even try anymore.
Was this a recent speech to Israel?
It was very recent - but this ad is weird.
This ad gives me the creeps. I didn’t like it at all.
Yea–what’s with the creepy sound effects and the voice droning on in the background?
Yeah it sounds very Orwellian. Might be time for an Ad Agency instead of some kids at community college doing pro-bono work for school credits.
My thoughts exactly. Some kids on the bong made that ad and everybody is thinking, “What?”.
Obama’s AIPAC speech was a blunder of epic proportions! Not only did Obama make a statement about Jerusalem not being divided which, as Nader points out, seriously undermines the two-state proposal, he also clearly did not know that Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem, is the capital of Israel. Why is he getting a pass on this? Even Nader is ignoring the ignorance of basic facts like what the capital is. McCain is also letting him get away with it, even though it is a good innoculation against the charge that he is too befuddled to get facts like the Shiite-Sunni distinction correct. (That could have been just a slip of the tongue. I have made that mistake several times because the names are not that distinct.)It is a much bigger mistake than Gerald Ford’s asserting in a debate that Poland was independent and autonomous because the status of Jerusalem is a hotly debated issue in this critical peace negotiation.
EVERYONE PLEASE SPREAD THE NEWS OF THIS. Write to you local paper asking why this is being ignored, contact the media, etc. I urge everyone to email Dan Abrams show. Just last week he did a segment about how the media gave McCain a pass on some foreign policy gaffe (I forget which) and said they do not do that for Obama. He clearly had no idea about the AIPAC debacle. Abrams seems to be really trying to be fair and asks us to email the show about media bias.
Juan Williams is the only pundit on TV that I have heard bring this up. He has really gottem good the past few months and has been very independent. Not afraid to go after the right or Obama if he disagrees with them. That has to have caused him a lot of trouble like Tavis Smiley has experienced.
Are you for real? Jerusalem IS the capital of Israel. Whether or not it should be divided the way it was before the war in 1967 is a different matter, but this is one thing Obama does get right.
Cory Doctorow:
You may not want to have anything to do with politics, but politics want something to do with YOU.
Did anyone see BO’s airplane on HuffingtonObamaPost all decked out-blah.
Yes…some plane. This ego thing is remarkable.
Let em eat cake!
We don’t even get cake. It’s “let them eat arugula!” Bitter greens for bitter small town people clinging to their guns and religion. I am The One I have been waiting for, come to bring you the arugula!
I get what he is trying to say…but that was a very creepy ad. He’d be a hard guy to vote for.
Obama should be here campaigning for votes-of course he thinks he is president already lol
We are losing our constitutional rights. It is a creepy WORLD.
Cappy,
Nader/Gonzalez are just saying that the speeches by the nominees don’t match up with what’s real, with what the people of both Israel and Palistine want. AIPAC is not reflective of what the majority want there.
Lemos is right. Obama should be ashamed of himself for the planned posturing in Germany.
AIPAC represents Israel no more than Oblhaha represents Americans.
It’s a sham. It’s a movie he’s projecting. He is “none of the above” to us because the majority of Democrats and Republicans have moved on to other things.
I enjoyed this video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-H1c6p4JY0
To Howard Dean from the Puma’s
Cool video.
Thanks.
Love that video.
Howard, it basically comes down to this: Do you want a Democrat to be the next president, or do you want Obama to be the nominee?
Has Obama started calling the airplane that he is now traveling on “Air Force One”? Or more accurately “Air Farce One”?
You bet–complete with Presidential Seal.
ROFL
Nader is a nice 74 yr old Lebanese American who still lives in his mother’s basement. What is this his 4th or 5th run for POTUS? Poor guy, he’s only made about 2 million in the stock market. Why won’t he just stick to consumer affairs? But if he can garner 1 or 2% of the Dem vote that otherwise would go to Obama that works for me. Cynthia McKinney will probably get another 1\2% of the Dem vote from Obama. On the other side of the ticket Bob Barr will proably get 1 to 2% of the Repug vote from McCain. The way it looks to me the race is stacking up to be Obama’s to loose. Nader’s video is spooky.
The AOL straw poll should give anyone serious pause who doesn’t think BO will lose in a landslide. Sure, it isn’t “scientific” (like the ones that are apparently being concocted by mad scientists!), but when hundreds of thousands are giving McCain upwards of 30% leads in a vast majority of states, and we can’t ignore the fact that the bots are undoubtedly eyeing the poll like trolls under a bridge and putting in their two cents whenever possible–well, what are we to believe? The NY Times “scientific” poll says 70% of whites don’t trust him, and ABC (I believe) gives Mac around 30% over BO in reliability as Commander in Chief. The latter figure is even higher among indies than the general pop. The man is young, black, unestablished, and believes he has problems with “racist” white folk. So what does he do on a presumably important foreign trip? Plays basketball.
Nader was one of few voices on the left who saw through the vapid trappings of Obamania. It still amazes me that so many suckers on HuffPost, The Nation and DailyKos fell for this unqualified manipulator.
I’m not as far left as I used to be, and disagree with Nader on many political points (I think the DLC’s statements of goals and principles are more coherent and achievable than anything anyone on the left has seriously proposed; reaction is always easier than action, and opportunism will put on any guise that’s fashionable).
Nonetheless I have a respect for honesty and consistency, be it on the right or left, and Nader has that; he was right to call Gore a hawk (he was, after all), and he’s absolutely right to call out Obama on his opportunist pandering (which is 98% of his political platform). I won’t vote for Nader but if he convinces a few folks not to vote for charlatan Obama, it’s good work for democracy.
Apropos Obama’s shifting stands on Israel, please see today’s interesting article in Jerusalem Post drawing lessons from Obama’s lack of principles in dealing with Columbia.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331037115&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
That is an amazing article, very informative. “Poses not Principles” is right! To think that Obama will meet with Chavez, but will throw Columbia under the bus. Has Obama never met a marxist he didn’t like? I recall reading hearing (more than once) about FARC rebels being found with a communication from the Obama campaign. Anyone have a link to this? From the Jerusalem Post article:
“Colombia is surrounded by hostile Venezuela, led by FARC patron Hugo Chavez, and Ecuador and Peru, run by Chavez allies. According to the US government, Chavez, close ally of Iran, has opened his country to Hizbullah for training and recruitment, and spread oil and money around the region to support other anti-American Marxist leaders in Nicaragua and Bolivia. Chavez, of course, is on the list of dictators with whom Obama has promised to meet without preconditions during his first year as president. (Now, there’s an Obama principle.)
With American assistance, Uribe charted a course for defeating the Chavez-backed terrorists, not accommodating them. The results? Kidnappings are down 78%. FARC forces have been cut by more than half. Troops have liberated most FARC-controlled territory. Uribe has extradited over 600 drug dealers to the United States. The notoriously violent drug capital of Medellin has been transformed into the regional capital of…flower-growing. Columbia now dominates the cut flower market in America, and has created a booming job market that is lifting millions out of poverty. Homicides are down 94% from their peak-Medellin is now safer than Washington, DC.
In March, Uribe’s troops raided FARC bases two kilometers inside Ecuador, and seized computers revealing Chavez’s extensive FARC involvement. Chavez’s reaction: “The Colombian government has become the Israel of Latin America…. We have to liberate Colombia.” Credibly threatening invasion, he massed thousands of troops and tanks on the Colombia border. (Obama’s promised chat with Chavez, however, still stands.) Last month, Colombian forces conducted an Entebbe-esque operation to free FARC-held hostages, including a former presidential candidate captured five years ago.”
Obama is playing American abroad while stealthily meeting emirs
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2008/07/21/ovama-vs-obama-abroad/
OK. So Obama doesn’t consider himself a Muslim; neither does Bush but I think we all remember that kiss he gave the Saudi Prince when he came to Crawford.
Actions speak louder than denials and a whole lot of un-Democratic actions were taking place during Obama’s visit with the Sheiks. Suddenly the wannabe candidate who still doesn’t have enough votes to be the Democratic nominee; let alone claim a victory in November is seemingly setting policy for the U.S.
Obama’s visit wasn’t a public one, the kind American officials get, according to the Kuwait News Agency, but a private tete-a-tete accompanied by his delegation consisting of a U. S. Ambassador to Kuwait and two state senators, one of which has been mentioned as a VP candidate.
We all realize by now that in this “new” Democracy the more secret something is kept the more important it is to discover what that secret is. Secrecy got us into invasions and treaty breaking and torture which we’re now frantically trying to stop. We don’t need to start off the next decade with another “secret agenda” by a candidate who appears to be another selected candidate rather than a Democratically elected one, and certainly not one who thinks he need needs his own “security force”!
Obama stuck his hoof in his mouth about the most dangerous conflict confronting us. Yet he criticizes McCain for not knowing the difference between Shi’a and Sunni. Pot meet kettle.
He is truly a neophyte lacking any fundamental understanding of the ME. I find myself shuddering to say that Shrub knows more about it, which I find disturbing–and Dubya still screwed it up. Condoleeza Rice is a genius in comparison–and I wouldn’t want her leading the country, either.
In the end, his vaunted judgment consists of gainsay on the one hand and platitudes on the other. HRC was right-we need experience with requisite competence.
for a lighter look at bo…
—–
The Greatest Obama Story Ever Told
By Opiate of the People
CHAPTER 1 - THE BEGINNING OF THE START
Barack Obama was born Steven Urkel in a log cabin near Springfield, Illinois. His father was a militant piano tuner from one of those African countries where they change the national boundaries every other week. His mother was a loan officer at the Oppressed Proletariat Bank and Trust Company where she spent her days rejecting loans to people who had little more to cling to than God and guns. read more…
http://www.thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=2144
I am so tired of hearing about the plight of the palestinians. They had their chance at a two state solution, and they threw it away when Arafat started up his intifada.
The palestinians do not want a peace deal with Israel. They are counting on Iran and Hezbollah to help them destroy the Israelis, so they can have it all.
Israel is our only real ally in the middle east. Anyone who gives in to the Palestinian, or Iranian thugs is selling out America too.
Um, ok. So tomorrow I’ll walk into your house armed with a multitude off high-powered weapons, take over your master bedroom, bathroom and living room, and tell you you may keep the rec room and basement. If you protest, I’ll shoot you. And I’ll tell the world that the violence is YOUR fault, because, dammit, I AGREED to let you keep PART of YOUR house!
How is that an appropriate analogy? The palestinian’s had a peace deal on the table in 1999. In 2000 Arafat decided to throw it away and start up the intifada. 8 years later they still don’t want peace with Israel.
Palestinians will never be satisfied until Israel is destroyed, and they think that that will happen with the aid of Iran through Hezbollah and Hamas. There is no negotiating with them. They are terrorists, and Israel has the right to defend itself from them.
To me, the palestinians are so intertwined with Iran and Hezbollah now that one can’t support one without supporting the other.
I guess you are referring to the 6-days war in 1967? When Israel was attacked by all of its neighbors?
Using your analogy, I wouldn’t have been so nice to you. If you had come into my house, I would have shot you dead.
You would have shot me dead if you had the weapons to do it. And if I had shot YOU dead instead, I would have blamed you for attacking me first- and then claimed your house as my own.
There’s your reference to the 6-days war. I wonder how people manage to do mental gymnastics to make the attackers of Israel the bad guys here. Look, it’s very simple: land was taken away from non-Jews and given to Jews. The non-Jews tried to fight back and were pulverized. Now, you use their fighting back as an excuse to say “screw ‘em, we tried to reason with them and allow them to keep a percentage of the land they had in the first place.”
And they had a “deal on the table in 1999.” Gee, that’s super. That deal would have given them roughly half their original land back. I hoped they would take it. But the Evil Palestinians, loving violence and refusing to be rational, continue to illogically fight to get back all their land. No other people in the world would do such a thing- ummm, except ALL OF THEM.
But I get it- the Palestinians refusing to accept a payment of one-half what was stolen from them are evil for doing so. Makes sense- to somebody.
Jews had been emmigrating to what would be Israel since 1900. The british did all they could to limit Jews from emmigrating to Israel. THey got so fed up they put it to the UN to decide in 1947. The Jews accepted partition, but the arabs would have none of it.
Jews wanted to live in peace with the arabs in what everyone knows is the Jewish ancestral homeland. Arabs would rather destroy Jews than live together in peace.
John, what is your solution now? Would you like to see the destruction of Israel? If you don’t, what should the two side do, if not partition the country?
Check your facts. Jews were living in Israel long before 1900. Remember Jesus? That guy was Jewish!
Well, let’s make you the leader of a tiny country that is the receipient of frequent, devastating suicide bombings and missile attacks. Sit on your hands, hope for the best, and see how long you or your country continues to exist.
John,
You are a[EDITED OUT]idiot.
Wow, I have no argument against such a well-thought out, consise rebuttal.
Except, I love the way people are so willing to ignore the fact that Israel was created by European Powers to give the Jews a homeland- outside of Europe. The land for the homeland was taken away from non-Jews who had nothing to do with the German persecution of the Jews, but who were made to pay for it regardless. (A much more just solution would have been to carve out a piece of GERMANY and given THAT to the Jews, who clearly needed a homeland.)
But again, why am I bothering to explain something to someone who calls me a “fucking idiot” and thinks he’s made some kind of point?
You, sir, are a fucking moron. And a coward to boot. I hope your mommy is proud.
Here’s an example of over-the-top Obamamania, posted on the blog By The Fault:
This is just one step beyond the “I am fatigued and irritated” email posted here a few days ago, reflecting the views of the DNC and Obama supporters who want to treat Hillary supporters like POWs who must now fall in line, shut the fuck up, and be GRATEFUL for the OPPORTUNITY to get on the bandwagon.
First, we “fatigue and irritate” them. Then, they threaten us with physical violence (tar and feathers?) for daring to assert our right to choose the candidate who will get our vote.
Seeing as Obama reaches out across the political spectrum, has drawn MILLIONS of new voters into the process, and has HUGE appeal among Independents and Republicans, why the viciousness if us old fuddy-duddies prefer to cling to our guns, our church, and Hillary Clinton? Just run over us with the unstoppable freight train that is the Obama campaign already!!
But please, spare us the threats of violence if we don’t welcome assimilation into the collective. The last time I checked, this was still the United States and my vote was still my own.
Yeah that’s what the McGovern sycophants thought too. Look how well that worked out for them….
Mandy needs a little more knowledge of history than sound bites. The only important historical uttering is that she wants to do to anyone what the Germans did to those who didn’t agree with them - 12 million of them.
The American force that liberated France wasn’t involved in hair cutting and taring and feathering women. Mandy should think hard about what she is wishing for because if she’s really female she’s just a second class citizen in Obamaworld and every insult she heaped upon Senator Clinton and her supporters can be turned against her, too.
these Obamamanics are friggin’ sick and the fact a woman wrote that too is beyond my comprehension and understanding. Does that bitch know how many women fought and died for women’s rights?? What a stupid ass!!
Condi Rice? Oh, my. Thankfully, she won’t be on the ballot, so I have to make such a choice….because after all, Condi was more focused on buying expensive shoes in New York than she was on the plight of the poor victims of Katrina.
Our choice this year is stark. We don’t have much of a choice at all. The lesser of two evils has become the evil of two lessers [h/t to Confluence and Riverdaughter].
Some tell me I must vote. I don’t see it that way. I see a system of elections that has failed voters in every sense of the word. If–as Fowler and Germond argue–it’s PARTY UBER ALLES, then I’d have to say the Republican primary system was ultimately the more ‘democratic’ of the two. Because the Democratic National Committee has committed electoral fraud, stolen votes and given them to one nominee who didn’t earn them; short-circuited the nominating process to give the nomination to a candidate who hasn’t earned the votes; engaged in secret meetings to pre-select an outcome, and disenfranchised 2.3 million Democratic voters in 2 states.
That’s a crime, in my book. If I collude in this crime, I am no better than the Republicans who stole the Presidency in 2000 by having the Supreme Court stop the counting of ballots in Florida.
I am not like those Republicans. And, I won’t acquiesce in such crimes.
To all PUMAs, GOPers and Indies 4 McCain: Let’s get over to CNN and PUMArize this CNN poll about best commander-n-chief so far the OBamabots have managed to out-poll the McCaniacs 55%-45%: http://www.cnn.com/
It is now Obama 53% - McCain 47% . I just cast my vote…..Come on PUMA’S…cast your vote !!!!
NOBAMA
[...]The most striking thing about the Democratic tradition is that it presided over the beginnings of the three great conflicts that defined the 20th century: Woodrow Wilson and World War I, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and World War II, and Harry S. Truman and the Cold War. (At this level of analysis, we will treat the episodes of the Cold War such as Korea, Vietnam or Grenada as simply subsets of one conflict.) This is most emphatically not to say that had Republicans won the presidency in 1916, 1940 or 1948, U.S. involvement in those wars could have been avoided.[...]