It’s in! It’s out! The Graham-Lieberman detainee abuse photo ban, stripped out by the Democratic House leadership from the defense supplemental spending bill is now its own piece of legislation, passed unanimously by the Senate. This report explains:
The Senate passed by unanimous consent Wednesday a bill that would prevent the release of controversial photos of alleged U.S. abuse of prisoners and detainees.
Sen. Lindsey Graham says if necessary, the White House will classify the photos to keep them out of the public eye.
The bill, sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Independent, and Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, had originally been part of the war funding supplemental bill passed Tuesday by the House.
[ . . .]
Before the Senate vote, Graham told his colleagues from the Senate floor that President Barack Obama “would sign … an executive order” classifying the photographs unless Congress acted to prevent their release.
The ACLU has gone to court to argue for release of the photos under the Freedom of Information Act. The lawyers won a Circuit Court ruling agreeing they should be made public.
The Obama administration, which initially indicated a willingness to release the photos, bowed to fears of military commanders and reversed course, announcing it is appealing the ruling to the Supreme Court.
Where what will happen? As Fox reports, “The Senate bill now heads to the House, where it once again faces the likelihood of Democratic opposition.”
This seems to be a stand-off — between Nancy Pelosi and the White House. Will Pelosi and the House leadership relent and pass the measure? Or will the president have to keep his word and pass an executive order to prevent the release of the photos, which he thinks would trigger violence and the deaths of U.S. troops? It’s remarkable how hard it is to get this through. You’d think Congress and the White House would be arm-wrestling over who should get credit for rushing to the aid of our troops. Hardly.
Obama has got himself in a pickle. Humor is not part of a Messiah’s archetype. Attempts at humor on the campaign trail fizzled. His 57 states line, delivered by a Reagan, would have gotten a big laugh. If he had a history of quips the Special Olympics line would have been laughed off. He is a prisoner of his image. His only alternative is to play the Messiah part. Remember how that turned out.
Underneath this cold, prickly, uncomfortable, unfunny, and tedious exterior is an enormous lack of character (apologies to some wit).
I wonder if Michael Wolff will be on Hardball anytime soon?
I find it hard to imagine myself or any of my friends or especially members of my family making any kind of a joke about “Special Olympics.” The words would simply not come out, nor would they be formed in my mind. They would turn to dust in my mouth before I would speak them. I would be ashamed to speak them. Obama’s remark is less a cause for an apology than it is a cause for his own shame and embarrassment, which he has not expressed.
But Obama has repeatedly demonstrated a penchant for the cruel and contemptuous off-the-cuff remark–what he said about the mentally disabled, what he said about an elderly former first lady, what he said about Hillary Clinton (“You’re likable enough, Hillary”), what he said about working class and lower-middle class voters (“They cling to their guns and religion”), what he said about his dying grandmother (a racist “typical white person”).
These are all, except for the comment on his grandmother, remarks that simply slipped out. They reveal a great deal about Obama’s real character and how he views the lives of those around him. No wonder he seems so cool and dispassionate. If fact, he feels little for others.
Not only is Obama a horrible, horrible person, but he is probably really grumpy in the morning.
Don’t we all miss the warmth and charm of President Cheney?
Barack is a thin-skinned little man.
And yes, I miss the warmth and charm of Cheney. Anyone who listened to him objectively will admit that he could be charming. Oh, and he could put together coherent sentences without a teleprompter.
And he was a better painter than Churchill!
The more we are subjected to Obama on TV, the more his aura will fade.
Richard, there are many things to criticize about Obama. Certainly, you can talk about his skin, but saying that he’s not articulate is just odd.
And, unlike our current VP, he wasn’t a repeated plagiarist and didn’t make racist jokes about the ethnicity of convenience store owners.
Without the teleprompter he is demonstrably NOT articulate, fuster. To claim that he is, is what’s odd.
MAH say Bush three times, then talk about who’s not articulate.
#12:
Whatever the question, the answer is Bush
For people who think with their tush!
You’re last one was much better. This one was too easy. If you add three lines, it might make a decent limerick. Extra points if you can end it with babaganoush.
yes, it’s true, I am a sycophantic little twit and I do like to listen to speeches written by a 25 year-old and then read from a glass screen by a man who can’t keep his foot out of his mouth.
While your sister does what?
Fuster: I hope you realize that your postings, rather than distracting us, are treated as obnoxious quips from the 12 year old at the kids’ table, and ignored.
In other words: it’s a waste of your time. Not that your time is worth anything.
And you telling me this because…
Because he loves you, fuster. I love you, too.
Ford could laugh at himself. He even spoke at a symposium “Humor and the Presidency” held at this Presidential library in 1986. And he tripped Chevy Chase.
Good God!
I can’t believe the creatures over at Vanity Fair are beginning to see the emperor has no clothes. He’s not even been in there three months, NOT EVEN 90 DAYS, and they’re already seeing they inflated an empty suit, hyped a morbidly fixated on race man into something that he never was.
Where is this tremendously incompetent administration going to be 9 months hence?
Is it breadth and depth of your soul love? Or do you toy with me? Remember that we at the kid’s table are tenderhearted, unlike Darkness and the alter cockers.
Ford could laugh at himself and even held a symposium on “Humor and the Presidency” at his Presidential library in 1986.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,962422,00.html
He apparently became friendly with Chevy Chase too.
FUSS POT,
Why are you engaged in some futile rear-guard defense of this man, this administration? VANITY FAIR, ———————— REPEAT THAT, VANITY FAIR is now coming out and ripping him apart.
Which means they’re joining Maureen Dowd, the editorial board at The Washington Post, the staff over at The New Republic, and even most recently, the paper of record, The New York Times.
EVERYBODY in on the know is OPENLY talking about his incompetence, his nastiness, how gauche he is, how how oafish his actions, how cring-inducing his comments, ———————- it’s ALL falling apart.
And everybody on the know acknowledges as much, and only questions how much worse it’s going to get.
The commentary that has bled into the public discourse is but a pale reflection of those much more damning made privately.
Don’t you get it?
Dan, see my comment at 9. In the course of this thread, the extent of my defense was that I thought it wrong to say that Obama is not articulate.
I not familiar with Vanity Fair, but have a fair amount of respect for the WaPo, more for it’s foreign reporting than for it’s ed board. The New Republic, with some very notable exceptions such as Rosen and Judis , features the nasty and semi-senile Marty Pepper and no longer worth spit.
Anyway, whatever opinion you have of Obama, he’s not going to disappear any faster than any of other presidents did.
Enjoy.
The ugly truth is going to come out eventually: That Oba-one is, in fact, like, lame. L-A-M-E. And once all the cool kids at snl, the daily snow, and colbert finally apprehend that colossal fact, well just watch how fast everyone else leaves the building. Noone wants to be seen getting stuck on the wrong side of cool. Just watch, it’s going to be a very lesson-rich three-and-a-half more years…
26 RPM,
Well, if it succeeds in getting this society refocused on common sense, and puts and end to the racial grievance theater of the Jesse Jacksons, Sharptons, and Wrights, and thoroughly and once and for all marginalizes the Nation of Islam, perhaps it will have been worth it.
But I’m not holding my breath.
How much longer before the criticisms to be heaped on The One in the months and years ahead start being categorized as racist?
Perhaps, with the economy in a shambles, and many Americans living hand to mouth, no one will have any patience for the racial hucksters and their ‘liberal’ fellow travelers.
The above comment is racist and might qualify as a hate crime in Canada.
27- Putting an end to the mini-industry of payoffs that Jackson and Sharpton hustle, will indeed be sweet. Doing something to show the world how full of it that they are is worth a lot.
Fustian #14
Here’s a limerick from Buster’s two lines, changed for the meter:
Whatever screw-up, the answer is Bush,
At least for those who think with their tush.
It has never changed;
You see, they’re deranged,
Repetition? It causes no blush.
Thanks. It’s pretty good. Maybe, it being merely a limerick, a stronger final rhyme?
Fustian is the correct name for you. Attempting to criticize a limerick! Next you’ll note that my first line was not anapestic.
The One’s Teleprompter Speaks:
Ah, the time I’ve spent on retakes,
Gotta cover all those mistakes
But the public won’t fuss
Ya see, Media Я Us.
Hey, neo-cons, piece of cake!
Fustian
I’m answering too fast. I need a re-do just like The Messiah:
The One’s Teleprompter Speaks:
Ah, the time I spend on retake,
Gotta cover my every mistake
But the public won’t fuss
Ya see, Media Я Us.
Hey, neo-cons, piece of cake!
Inwood, I meant to tip my hat for the fustian on the first go-round. I enjoyed that and your retake is really fun. Thanks and thanks.
F
You’re welcome.
“You’re last one was much better”
“You’re” makes no grammatical sense here. Probably
“your” was intended.
You’re right,,,,
your write
yore rite
#14: “You’re [sic!] last one was much better. [...] If you add three lines, it might make a decent limerick. “
Learn, you illiterate lit-crit,
That brevity’s the soul of wit.
fuster’s such a huge ass
that you need mucho sass,
and it’s gotta be better writ