It's All Smoke And Mirrors, Baby (Or Is That "Sweetie"?)

According to the majority of the American "press," Obama's Magical Mystery Tour was met was fawning, adoring fans everywhere he went. Oh, they just FLOCKED to him, didn't they? Especially in Berlin - oh, yes, never mind the free food and two hottest rock bands in Berlin playing first, they were there to see HIM!! Yes, they were!!! At least according to what WE were told. Well, I know this will just surprise the bejesus out of you, but that is not exactly true. I know, say WHAAA??? Yeah. Susan Nieman had an Op-Ed in the New York Times, of all places (what us be sycophants?), telling the REAL deal in her piece, "Change Germans Can’t Believe In."

In her very good piece Ms. Nieman had this to say:

Barack Obama's speech in Independence, Mo. (6/30/08)WITH gestures that ranged from a wink to a sneer, most anyone you met here this week volunteered the view that Barack Obama’s visit to Europe caused unprecedented frenzy. But it’s been hard for me to find a European, aside from two Harvard-educated friends in Paris, who confessed to excitement — not just about the visit, but the prospect of an Obama presidency.

It is true that Der Spiegel, the German newsweekly, featured Mr. Obama on its cover, topped by the words “Germany Meets the Superstar” — but the cover was satire, and nasty satire at that. The editors managed to find the ugliest photograph of Mr. Obama ever taken. It caught the senator at a moment that might be exhaustion but looks like conceited smirking. When Der Spiegel featured Mr. Obama on its cover in March, the cover line was “The Messiah Factor.” Must one add that this, too, was not meant to be taken at face value?

Europeans will be as relieved as 72 percent of Americans to see the end of the Bush administration, but their attitudes toward the Democratic candidate are far from being the same as the ones he arouses at home. Mr. Obama makes Europeans uncomfortable.

Well, yes - of course Europeans, and the REST Of the planet, will be relieved when Bush is out of office. One little problem with that - Congress. Most of those Bush Enablers will still be IN office once he is gone. And heaven knows, they have done BLESSED little to rein him in. Nope - rather, they have gone along with just about every single thing he has requested, including shredding the Constitution, and I don't just mean with the recent FISA debacle. Anywho, more than Bush need to leave office before there is REAL change: Pelosi, Hoyer, Reid, Dodd, Kerry, Leahy, to name just a very, very few, but I digress...

From our media, would you have ever gotten that the Berliners were anything less than thrilled, or that the Der Spiegel cover was a SATIRE?? Um, no. No, you wouldn't. I don't know about you, but I am pretty damn sick and tired of the media manipulating us to promote Obama. Sick of it. And I am not overstating the Berlin case. Here's a little more:

In Germany, politicians in front of large, shouting crowds evoke images that nobody wants to see repeated. But genuine worries about demagoguery are not all that’s at issue. The mocking undertone that accompanies most descriptions of Mr. Obama in the European news media signifies a trans-Atlantic divide. George W. Bush made matters far worse than they ever were, but the neoconservatives who advised him were right about one thing: Europe is gripped by a world-weariness that resists American dreams.

There's more, particularly about Obama's speech and from where he drew his "inspiration, " but you can go read about it if you wish. The point is that it was not all a bed of roses for Obama, despite the attempts to paint it otherwise (remember how when Obama went to Iraq, all of the newspapers were blaring how the Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki supported his plan?? Then come to find out, not so much, but they did not blare THAT correction, oh no...).

And to address this whole US Military Hospital in Landstuhl that Obama did not visit, since I am talking about Germany. He is now claiming that it was the Department of Defense that derailed his big plan to go visit our wounded soldiers there. I guess in a sense, they did - they said that he could go as a SENATOR, but not as a CANDIDATE. He could take a few of his staff, but not his entire entourage of staff and press. That is to say, he could not use a visit to the wounded warriors as a freakin' PHOTO OP for his campaign. How DARE they!!! So, instead of going to see them, as a US Senator, he went and worked out in the Ritz Carlton hotel where he was staying. Oh, if I was in the military, that would sure make ME want him as my Commander in Chief - NOT!!!!

And now, for more smoke and mirrors. By now, you have probably heard that Obama is considering yet another Republican to be his running mate. Before I get to that, allow me to digress - again - by bringing up Chuck Hagel, whose name was ALSO floated as a potential Obama VP choice. Hagel, the one who accompanied Obama on his "fact-finding" tour and demurred to him all along the way, even though HAGEL has actually been in the Senate for a while. But wait, there's more - Hagel is one of the owners of Diebold. You know, as in the Diebold VOTING MACHINES. As in he won re-election in 2002 with a whopping 83% of the vote. It was unprecedented. Care to take a guess what kinds of voting machines they use in Nebraska?? Well, I imagine it came as a surprise to Ol' Chuck that the Obama people are looking at another Republican, this time, a woman. Someone who served in BUSH'S administration. Ann Venman, the Secretary of Agriculture, is the person at whom they are currently looking. Amie Parnes and Ben Smith have written a comprehensive article on her, and the Democrats reaction to this news, in this article, "Obama Considers GOP Running Mate". Thanks to my buddy, Diamond Tiger, for sending this to me this morning. She warned me to not be drinking anything when I read it - I suggest that to you as well. (There will be more posts on this, to be sure!)

See, here's the thing. I have long thought that Obama was more Republican than Democratic anyway. When he started praising Ronald Reagan as a "transformative" president, a president who did VERY little for the African American community, and DISSED Bill Clinton's two-term presidency, I became very suspicious indeed. When he went further and said that he wanted to return to the Foreign Policy of George H.W. Bush, i.e., Donald Rumsfeld's policies, I knew, just KNEW, that he was a closet Republican (and if rumors can be believed, that is not the ONLY thing about which he is in the closet, if you know what I mean!). And of course, choosing a WOMAN is supposed to both appease all of us Hillary supporters (as if that is the ONLY reason we want her - it's all about her being a woman, not that she is far more qualified) and to prove that they aren't a bunch of misogynistic pigs. Oh, yes - choosing a Republican woman just covers ALL of those bases - they get cross over votes, and appease all of us PUMA people mad that the woman in the race was treated like pure-T crap. Yes, we ARE mad that Senator Clinton, and by extension, all women were treated horribly in this election season by the DNC and the MSM, but just picking any ol' woman, especially a REPUBLICAN woman, is not going to change the fact that they trashed the most qualified candidate in the field. And it does not give Obama any more experience, or integrity, or honesty.

Wow - they must really think we are stupid.

One last little smoke and mirror for your entertainment. And by entertainment, I mean another way a SD was arm-twisted to support Obama. That would be John Edwards. Yes, this is about John, his mistress, and his love child. Apparently, this has been known for some time in DC circles. Had it been anyone else (whose name happened to be Bill or Hillary), it would have been screamed all over the media 24/7/365. But the Obama/R/DNC could use this to their advantage, and boy, did they ever!! I trust that now the cat's out of the bag, it might make it to the MSM, but there again, I'm not holding my breath on that. You know we cannot cast any aspersions on Obamessiah, without being damned for all eternity, that is. I always liked Elizabeth way more than John anyway, but especially now - it makes her disappearance from the public eye that much more telling. I guess she knew this was coming down the pike. I hate it for her, though. She doesn't deserve this. Frankly, John was lucky to have her. She was what made him seem more believable. Well, that mirror is broken, and the smoke cleared now.

Holy cow - talk about your hoodwinking bamboozling. Please, please, PLEASE tell me why all of these so-called progressives (and I consider myself very progressive - and I make my own cappuccinos every single day. Oh, and I am highly "edumcated" too!) are supporting this Republican Lite?!?! I sure don't get it. His version of "change" is looking more and more like the Same-o Same-O to me, especially if you are a REPUBLICAN. Way to go R/DNC!! We now have ONE party in this country (nod to you, WorkingClassArtist and rosieriter)!! Wait, that isn't a good thing, is it?? Yikes.