Many civil libertarians around the world have rallied to support Clare Daly, Irish Parliament member of the United Left Alliance representing Dublin, after she challenged the prime minister and the reception given to President Barack Obama who she called a war criminal. The video of the speech is below. Daly called Obama the “hypocrite of the century” for lecturing children on peace while expanding drone attacks and funding civil wars around the world. Many in the United States particularly took note of her attack on the type of cult of personality surrounding Obama that seems detached from his horrendous record on civil liberties, privacy, and international law.
Daly noted that it is not just the government but the media fueling this cult of personality — spending endless time on what the Obamas were ordering for lunch rather than discussing his authoritarian policies. She is the former Socialist Party Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North constituency but resigned from the Socialist Party and joined the United Left Alliance TD.
Daly is being attacked as immature and radical in her comments.
What do you think?
oops… I find it unwise….
Blouise,
I used the word “if” because her implication was unclear. If I’d though she was openly saying or clearly implying I was a racist for criticizing Obama, I would have been both more direct and stern in my response. She seemed to be bringing race as a factor into the discussion of whether or not Obama’s actions in office are criminal when race wasn’t the issue nor were any comments made about his actions racist. Racism is (in this instance) both irrelevant and a distraction. That racism exists has no bearing on valid criticisms of Obama’s actions as CIC and POTUS. The criticisms that he is a war criminal and a hypocrite are both valid and indeed has more than some merit. It’s not like the nonsense of the Birthers which is little more than thinly veiled (and sometimes raw) racism.
Darren Smith, Maybe Obama will be viewed historically as a failure and maybe he won’t. More than likely he will be viewed as one who accomplished some good things and disappointed on other things. As to your hypothetical it really is just a hypothetical and I found it unwise to answer hypotheticals.
SWM
I am just curious. Could there ever come a point in which President Obama would do something so objectionable to you, that you would agree with someone who is what you refer to a right winger who says that President Obama was a failure of a president?
Or, is it the case where however wrong the president might be, others such as republicans, liberterians or other groups in the US are more wrong, thereby the actions of the president are excusable?
“We came. We saw. He died.”
Thus cackled the war-slut You-Know-Her about the U.S.-assisted murder of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi.
Sounds “centrist” to me, as long as one travels exclusively on the political right-hand shoulder of the American political road.
He’s doing well.
Blouise ,I miss eniobob. He was one of my favorite posters.
SwM,
Don’t worry about it … anyone who can read knows you weren’t implying anything of the sort. The inference is in the eye of the beholder.
I’ve never denied racism exists.
I’ve said it’s not always relevant.
One aspect of these systems is the ability for members of parlaiment to speak directly to the head of government with often some very direct and pointed words whereupon the head of government is obligated to respond. Wit is an absolute pre-requisite of this. I don’t think many of our politicians here would have the fortitude for such debate.
Here is an example on the British side of the sea: Very lively
Gene, Who introduced race into this thread? It was Jimmy Crack Corn with his video titled the “lynching” or maybe it was anon when he said Obama supporters are a “different breed”. Maybe you don’t see the racism in the postings here but others do.
Did not call anyone a racist. I said that I never heard anyone but a caucasian deny the existence of racism. Obama does a lot wrong but the birthers and racists were after him before he did anything, and they continue to be his loudest critics.
SwM & sonofthunderboanerges, (OT for everybody else)
Re: POTUS OHB – got this link from eniobob today
http://ideas.time.com/2013/07/22/viewpoint-the-bravery-of-obamas-trayvon-speech/
Darren,
Yep.
sonofthunderboanerges,
Re Daly … Ever see someone drum themselves out to the end of the plank?
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
Bookmarked your link for further study … thanks.
With some it seem two things are clear:
1) President Obama can do no wrong.
2) Anyone who criticizes President Obama is a right winger and/or a racist.
@SWM – In a modern world of concurrent “big issues” (endemic of our times I think), I believe it is the “low hanging fruit” for Obama-haters to use as part of their low-effort-thinking (NOTE: not meant as an insult!). They use that fruit instead of seeing the self-evident data which is not high-effort thinking on their part. Please read this study by Dr. Scott Eidelman to see what I’m talking about (it’s a PDF about 13 pages long – WORD WALL? But worth skimming at least to use as a future discussion tool (at least bookmark it): http://tinyurl.com/kdh76qn
Smom,
And I’ve never heard anyone but a personality cultist bring a totally unrelated case into the matter of whether or not the President is a criminal.
The Martin case has squat to do with the subject of this thread just as racism has squat to do with the subject of this thread. But thanks for proving that some cultists insist on using Obama’s race as a defense for their defense of his indefensible actions. However, if you want to try to intimate that I’m a racist because I think that racism is a distraction to this topic?
Good luck.
Get help.
You’re going to need it.
Obama in my opinion is a centrist.He held the center and was reelected. Whoever holds the center wins in the US. Hillary Clinton will hold the center unless Chris Christie runs, and then it will be close. If either Paul of Cruz is the nominee, she cleans up.
Gene, You said race is a distraction….. well, it is a lot more than that if you are Trayvon Martin’s family. I have never heard anyone but a caucasian say that racism is merely a distraction.