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?
To explain what low-effort-thinking is please read this 13 page PDF whitepaper by Dr. Scott Edelson: http://tinyurl.com/kdh76qn
What low-hanging-fruit means when people choose to reach for metaphorical fruit from a fruit tree that hangs it fruit closer to the ground because it’s EASY (or lazy) to get at. The REALLY good fruit is nearer the top of the tree where it’s harder to get. So it means L.E.T. go for the low-hangers rather than dig hard for the real truth.
Case in point: Ilya Shapiro, Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute wrote “President Obama’s top 10 constitutional violations” at http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/04/president-obamas-top-10-constitutional-violations/
After reading through it you can see he too is a L.E.T. as he misses the salient mission Mr. Obama is trying to follow: “To help A-L-L American citizens survive in a new world order – rich & poor”. No I don’t mean NWO crap. I mean what POTUS HW Bush predicted would be the 21st century with new style of terrorism. Saying that Mr. Obama is being unconstitutional is highly debatable if not disingenuous.
Yes Mr. Obama has changed from his original promises. But in a highly changing world how can you remain static for 8 years and not evolve to keep up with the changing world? Some of Bush’s legacy is actually NOT his at all. Snowden’s PRISM is not a Bush legacy. It’s a JFK legacy as it was called Echelon back then. It has evolved over several presidencies and the public really didn’t know about it. Mr. Obama can’t be blamed for keeping the status-quo on ELINT/SIGINT to uncover the TRUE enemies of the state not the usual suspects.
For the record I never voted for Mr. Obama but I support his efforts as I can understand the stress he is under to do the right thing trying not to piss everybody off. Fortunately, a majority of Obama-haters doesn’t exist.
I am wondering how people decry racial profiling in the Zimmerman case yet look to Obama, the profiler in chief, to stop profiling and bring justice.
What is a drone signature strike if not profiling? What is declaring every male between the ages of 15 and 35 at terrorist when found dead or wounded near a drone strike, or attending a funeral, automatically a terrorist? Did I mention that killer Tuesday, presided over by none other than Obama, decided on killing a 16 year old boy and his 17 year old friend.
Obama cannot speak with any legal or moral authority on this issue. There are people of moral and legal integrity, Obama isn’t one of them.
Seriously? OK I’ll bite what is he? A Socialist Muslim huh? Did he run on that ticket? OK I see him bending to Conservative willpower which is just a sign of bipartisanism. Nothing wrong with that.
@SWM – When he was a Senator in Chicago he was with the CoC of Chicago. I guess he believes one Protestant religion is just like another I guess. But definitely no longer a Muslim.
What some people get confused is that socialized medicine is not SOCIALISM. Two different things ENTIRELY! They don’t even know that their gramps (or parents) is using socialized medicine right now started by POTUS FDR (who served 4 terms & died in the 4th). I don’t see anyone accusing FDR as being a Socialist. Why the Obama-angst? I can only think of one reason L.E.T. (low-effort-thinkers) would do this. Sarah Palin is not a L.E.T. she is a N.E.T. or NO-effort-thinker. 🙂
sonofthunderboanerges,
Shame on you … get with the program, man. It’s the The Obama Support-As-Psychosis Meme started in 2008 and morphing enroute to Greg Johnson’s Cult of Personality Surrounding Obama in June 2013.
You are so not with it!
LMAO!
Hey isn’t that “cult of personality” bit used mainly by Commies in history?
I think the DPRK’s “Great Leader” that has dinner with US Basketball players (Dennis Rodman) is being referred to in this manner. Also his show-tune loving (but dead) poppie “Dear Leader” was too. Commies as far as Romania where having “cult of personality” love-ins with Dear Leader’s poppie.
However, I don’t think C.O.P. applies to you and I (et al) over Mr. Obama. I just see what I see (empirically) and can find no MAJOR faults in him yet (in high-effort-thinking comparison to his predecessor) . Does he have faults – hell yeah! But the “ends justify the means” – that’s why I said Mr. Obama and I are a tad Machiavellian. If bugging your phone stops the next 911 then so what? You shouldn’t have been talking to Ayman al-Zawahiri’s body guard in the first place! 🙂
@2514kasu – If you need a POTUS war criminal I give you many besides Mr. Obama who has done nothing wrong despite low-effort-thinkers who think he has:
1. Let me remind you of BOTH Bushes who started SW Asian wars on hidden agendas (see old 1973 Sydney Pollack movie called “3 Days of the Condor” to see the most earliest clues on their evil future plans for SW Asia).
2. Nixon who bombed OTHER SE Asian countries OTHER than North Vietnam killing many.
3. LBJ who CNN reported allegedly used Sarin gas on defecting American soldiers holed up in Laos (see Valley of Death during Operation Tailwind). LBJ also betrayed his country in 1967 by allowing Israel to lethally attack our spy-ship USS Liberty. We already had 8 birds launched to the scene dispatched from the USS America on nuclear exercises in the Med. Admiral Martin lied for LBJ and said he recalled the birds because he thought it was the Russians attacking (???!!!!).
4. Abraham Lincoln had Confederate Soldiers held in Southern NJ for EIT (enhanced interrogation techniques). At The Fort Delaware Death Pen.
Obama is not a Liberal nor even a Democrat.
sonofthunderboangeres, Maybe jcalex47 thinks Clare Daly joined Ireland’s version of the tea party although I don’t think they have one and no longer believes in socialized medicine. 😉 Obama is a member of the episcopal church across from the white house now. An usher there showed me his name in the directory. He was from Nigeria and was very proud of Obama’s membership in his church.
Swarthmore mom I see that you have a big problem with comprehension.Clare Daly is no longer a socialist.
What makes you think that? Clare is STILL a socialist. She just left the political party to join ANOTHER socialist-leaning party – “United Left Alliance”. Yes the Socialist Party left ULA in Jan 2013 but that doesn’t mean these people dropped their socialist feelings. Remember we have a Vermont Congressman who was a Socialist Mayor in Burlington VT (USA). Bernie Sanders is STILL a Socialist at heart.
But despite all that Mr. Obama has NEVER been one nor desires to be one. If I’m not mistaken Mr. Obama is a Liberal Democrat with Capitalist leanings. He is also all for Globalization. And he is a Church of Christ member NOT a Muslim. Yes he was once in Indonesia against his will (stepfather forced it on him) but his heart wasn’t in it. But since when is being a Muslim bad? Arabic-Terrorists are “criminal extremists” not “Muslim extremists”. They prove false to the Qur’an’s teachings.
2514kasu,
We fold under the pressure of personal responsibility, instead opting for a fall guy somewhere else… i.e. Who broke the banks a few years back? The greedy home owner that wasn’t qualified for the loan OR the greedy loan officer eyeing a pimp commission for pushing through unqualified loans?
Who got kicked out and who’s sitting pretty?
Gene H.
Just because…
Let’s face it. This has been the case in the US for many years. IF Obama is a war criminal (and I’ll give you that as someone who campaigned for him), so is Bush, Reagan, Johnson…. and I’m sure I’m missing a few. Anyone involved in the “Vietnam War”… anyone involved in Reagan’s arms for hostages scheme (so I am missing Bush I). Let’s face it – only non-Americans are war criminals. We are never held accountable for the evil that we do. A shame, a true shame.
‘Obama hypocrite of century’: Full interview with controversial Irish MP Clare Daly
Biblically a hypocrite is a person who destroys his neighber with his mouth. You are doing just that.
Biblically a hypocrite is a person who destroys his neighber with his mouth. You are doing that.
I don’t disagree with any of that, LK, but just because you believe something doesn’t mean it isn’t wise to seek the window dressing of propriety for your illegalities. Appearances and perception are a key to good propaganda. Hitler had the Homeland Patriot Act, er, Reichstag Fire Decree to back him up. Didn’t make him any less the fascist dictator.
If and when trials are had? Bybee, Addington and Yoo (and quite a few other DC wonk lawyers) need to be in the dock too for their role in this subversion of our government. I hate a fascist no matter what their job title is and even more so when they violate their oath to protect the Constitution.
Gene: ” They’ve all – both the pols and the bought and paid for MSM – bought into the Nixon meme: “It’s not illegal when the President does it.” ”
—–
If the pols, or at least the pols that commit the acts and defend those acts, actually believed that they wouldn’t have gone to so much trouble to find lawyers that would write BS legal justifications for doing it. The lawyers, the pols, the judges all, ALL know exactly what is going on. It’s a slow-motion coup.
And as usual, what Mike A said. 😀
Randy,
“I would hesitate to call it a personality cult since they could grant no favors politically speaking.”
That’s not a salient feature of the cult of personality.
The cult of personality is about public perception and willingness to forgive transgressions based on charisma.
It need not be uniform or by a vast majority either. Look at how many people loathe Micheal Jackson because of the huge amount of circumstantial evidence he was a pedophile and how many people still love him regardless. Look at charismatic preachers, some of which have gone to prison for crimes, and yet they still have large following. Look at that idiot Sarah Palin and her hanging on at the margins of political influence when she should be running a ski rental shop in Alaska. You betcha! Charisma has power.
It’s hero worship.
Just like some worship Lincoln despite his Constitutional abuses. And Obama for that matter. No man is my king. The Constitution is the law. No man is above the law.
Ms. Daly’s observations are entirely accurate. Pres. Obama has gradually abandoned the rule of law principles he so elegantly and passionately embraced during the 2008 campaign. I don’t pretend to understand why. She is being criticized solely because our alliance with Great Britain trumps everything else and the two governments are fully aligned in their efforts to prevent exposure of some hard and cynical truths about Iraq.
justateacher,
Obama has enjoyed an idealized and heroic public image and often through unquestioning flattery and praise. This is not changed by him having partisan detractors (or even non-partisan detractors). Even Stalin had critics. He just skipped the media circus and shot his or sent them to Siberia. On matters of Constitutional import and criminal in nature, Obama often gets a pass both in the media and from his more diehard supporters who – for example – would have been calling for Bush’s head on a pike if he’d claimed the ultra vires power to kill American citizens without due process. You don’t hear much about that ongoing Constitutional violation in the media anymore, do you? See Michael Murry’s quote of Orwell above. They’ve all – both the pols and the bought and paid for MSM – bought into the Nixon meme: “It’s not illegal when the President does it.” It’s a form of hero worship and it’s both factually blind and intellectually dishonest at the same time.
If you want to see hate and intolerance around here, just read Swarthmores posts
Swarthmore, how dare you call me a racist because I said “different breed”. Race doesnt have a thing to do with it. You truly are delusional and irrational.
Your hatred of anything that is not progressive partisan is disturbing.
You are obsessed with your rage against the middle and the right.You can see the venom dripping from every post you make. People like you scare me. You give the progressive movement a bad name.