William Rivers Pitt: The Missing Piece Meets the Big O

[babylonsister]

The Missing Piece Meets the Big O

Saturday 31 July 2010

by: William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed


(Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: Douglas Mappin, Angela Wolf)


I've been trying to wrap my mind around the dispiriting sense of failure that seems to have enveloped the Obama administration on the eve of the November midterms. The right hates him because he won, because he's Black, and because he won. Their utter intransigence has completely upended Obama's knee-jerk instinct for compromise and bipartisanship, making it appear that he's not getting anything done, and so the middle of the electorate feels a deep sense of disappointment exacerbated by unrelentingly bad coverage in the media. The left is up in arms because he hasn't met the lofty goals set after his election, and because he's allowed himself to get rolled by the right and their corporate paymasters on half a dozen occasions, resulting in several half-a-loaf pieces of legislation that look more like giveaways than accomplishments.

snip//

A light went on in my head while reading the words "Age of Revisionism" and "qualifying the performances of the Bush era." For USC, that means Reggie. For the rest of us, those lines can just as easily apply to George W. and his own disgraceful tenure as president. That's the missing piece, and though it should be obvious, we seem to have forgotten how much of a wretched impact his years in the Oval Office had and continue to have on this nation and the world.

Part of the reason we've managed to forget, of course, is that he's been gone for almost two years now. Under normal circumstances, that tends to put the onus on the current president; Obama has been holding the reins with a Democratically-controlled congress on Capitol Hill for eighteen months, and therefore all eyes tend to fall on him. The problem is that no president in American history has done more damage and screwed us worse than George W. Bush did. In the nearly 3,000 days he spent in office, Bush cut the country to ribbons in ways that have never been seen before, and the impact of that era lingers to this day.

The main reason for our forgetfulness, however, can be found on your television and in the pages of your newspaper. The media has completely redacted the impact of the Bush era from their coverage of the Obama administration, a continuing act of deception that I believe is completely deliberate. The entire Bush administration is a lesson in media cowardice and complicity; they rolled over for him for virtually every one of those 3,000 days, and would now like to have us all forget it happened. If as Bush falls in the forest and the media doesn't cover it, did it happen? Certainly, but when the daily grind of the 24-hour news cycle omits the idiot elephant that remains in the room, the narrative of the present becomes skewed and distorted.

more...

http://www.truth-out.org/the-missing-piece-meets-big-o61887

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. During Clinton's years, everything good was because of reagan, and all bad was his fault.

During Shrubbie's years, everything good was his fault, and everything bad was Clinton's. And there was nothing bad that was new - because under Shrubbie, everything was good.

During Obama's years, everything good was a leftover from Shrub (or more likely, Reagan) and everything bad is Clinton and Obama's fault. And under Obama, there is nothing new that is good, because it's all bad.

But, as the freeps, teabaggers, and conservatives constantly tell us, What else should we expect from a radically liberal media with ties to socialist communistical fascism and Ivy League elitism?

[Kurovski]

2. K&R.

If Obama actually let investigations go ahead into the Cheney/bush era, we'd be reminded regularly of where the responsibility lies.

Obama (and us) are in for a real ride should repubs gain seats, it'll be 'round-the-clock investigations. And he could have struck the first circumventing blow, just by doing what any decent law enforcement agent would have done.

It's disgusting that what appears to be criminal behavior has been forgiven by Obama's admin.

[bertman]

3. Thank you, Kurovski. That would have been the game changer, but

Candidate Obama himself said that investigation and prosecution were "off the table" so to speak when he famously talked about looking forward, not backward.

From that moment on they had him by the throat.

The Corporate Media which is nothing but a propaganda arm for Corporate America, ALWAYS HAS and ALWAYS WILL go after a Democratic President as if he were Satan himself. What's amazing is that President Obama's vaunted counsellors have acted as if they were going to be given a pass. This was all too predictable, but somehow we find ourselves once again blaming this on the Media instead of the Administration and the Democratic Party leadership.

When was the last time you heard President Obama give the Republicans HELL about anything? When was the last time he held a prime-time Press Conference to hold up the Republican party to America as the bullies and obstructionists they are? He has never done it and he never will. He will make some smarmy chiding remark about "the other side" then go right on capitulating and compromising away everything that matters to the working class.

I have given up on the illusion that the Democratic Party is not under the control of the Banksters and the Military-Intelligence-Corporate Complex.

[JTFrog]

4. The last time I heard him give the Repubs HELL about anything? Today...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100731/pl_nm/us_usa_smallbusiness_obama_1

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Saturday accused Republicans of holding American small businesses "hostage to politics" after Republican senators refused to back a $30 billion small-business lending package. Senate Republicans blocked the package on Thursday, dealing a fresh blow to Obama's efforts to show Americans, in the midst of a tough election year, that his administration is focused on tackling stubbornly high unemployment.

With opinion polls showing eroding support for Obama's handling of the economy, Democrats fear voters will punish them for the 9.5 percent unemployment rate come November, when 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 37 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be in play in mid-term elections.

"I'm calling on the Republican leaders in the Senate to stop holding America's small businesses hostage to politics, and allow an up-or-down vote on this small business jobs bill," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. "Understand, a majority of senators support the plan. It's just that the Republican leaders in the Senate won't even allow it to come up for a vote," he said.

Democratic leaders failed on Thursday to muster the 60 votes needed to advance the measure over Republican objections.

And most every time he's in front of a camera or microphone. But obviously that is just going to continue to be distorted everywhere one turns. :shrug:

I know, I know... too mild, too little, too late... let's see what have I forgotten? :eyes:

[bertman]

5. Where I come from that's called "a complaint". If you think that is "giving them hell"

then I'm sure you are just happy as can be about how the Democrats are dealing with Republican obstructionism--or rather, NOT dealing with it.

[JTFrog]

6. Well if you're sure I'm happy,

then I'm sure you don't know me at all.

:shrug:

[bertman]

10. If I misinterpreted your comment, my sincerest apologies, JTFrog.

[fasttense]

7. If he had prosecuted them, they would come.

If President Obama had formally prosecuted every torturer and war criminal, the corporate media would have covered it. They wouldn't be able to help themselves.

But instead, President Obama acts as if war crimes, murder, torture and illegal wars are nothing more than spilled milk. So, all those criminals, murders, torturers and traitors got more powerful.

We needed a fighter, a take no prisoners, fight until you get what you absolutely know America needs warrior. Instead, we got a compromiser. Too bad because it's going to be another six years of wishy washy. And by then, the RepubliCONS should have accumulated all the power and money they need to put the country into a complete never-ending Depression.

[RainDog]

9. exactly. n/t

[bvar22]

8. The Republican brand was dead, dead, DEAD after 2008..

The Democratic Party Leadership resurrected the corpse of the Republican Party, and breathed new life into it with the sickening "seeking bi-partisan consensus", reaching across the aisle, rejection of its own Democratic Wing, validation of Republican Trickle Down Big Business Economics, and refusal to confront the LIES during Tea Bagger Summer.