Photo from WhiteHouse.govYesterday I argued that Barack Obama's presidency is shaping up to look a lot like George W. Bush's presidency.
I offered as evidence the lies and broken campaign promises, the fear-mongering, the disregard for the Constitution, the unrestrained executive power and chilling CIA renditions, the shameless hypocrisy, the Federal money for faith-based initiatives (yeah you read that right... Obama supports those), the out-of-control spending, the warmongering, and the corruption.
Then today, one of the frontpage stories on Digg was this:
Firing Back on the “Fiscal Responsibility" Lobby
The very same folks who just dragged us along on an eight-year drunken binge during which they borrowed-and-spent us into the deepest financial catastrophe in nearly a century are now standing there, faces full of moral rectitude, fingers pointing and shaking in our faces, righteously lecturing the rest of us on the topic of "fiscal responsibility"
Which reminds me of a snarky little article popular on Digg a couple weeks back:
Generational High Crimes and Misdemeanors
The conservative blogosphere, led by up and coming right wing-nut Michelle Malkin have been frantically pushing to label the stimulus bill the “Generational Theft Bill,” and impressionable republicans on the hill are echoing this ill-conceived branding quip. Generational Theft? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
These folks are (correctly) calling out Republicans on their hypocritical partisanship, but then dishing out plenty of their own hypocritical partisanship Democrat-style. I say both sides are being hypocritical! It is correct to point out that Republicans ran record deficits under Bush and are now only changing their tune when the other party is in power. But watch this and tell me Democrats haven't suddenly changed their tune as well:
You want to know who hasn't been hypocritical? Me. I haven't been hypocritical. Libertarians haven't been hypocritical. Bush gets to win his political victories while Democrats point out the flaws in his policies. Then when he makes a mess of things, Obama gets elected on a platform of change and gets to win his political victories doing the same stupid thing that Bush did, while Republicans fault him for making the same mistakes they supported under Bush. Both sides get to feel smug, self-righteous and satisfied for "standing on principle" and opposing the other side's flaws, both sides get to take turns wielding power and winning their political "victories" ...and I never get to win. America never gets to win. She just keeps losing and losing.
There's only one thing more annoying than the pot calling the kettle black, and that's the kettle saying back to the pot, "No I'm not. You're black. And you're a hypocrite too," to which the pot responds, "I'm not the hypocrite. You are. And you're black..." over and over and over again, ad nauseam. And meanwhile both are taking turns mugging and robbing us.
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...................................,<`.._|_,-&``................`\.............. PS: Here's just more evidence that Obama is no different than Bush:
The Obama administration, siding with former President George W. Bush, is trying to kill a lawsuit that seeks to recover what could be millions of missing White House e-mails.
Two advocacy groups suing the Executive Office of the President say that large amounts of White House e-mail documenting Bush's eight years in office may still be missing, and that the government must undertake an extensive recovery effort. They expressed disappointment that Obama's Justice Department is continuing the Bush administration's bid to get the lawsuits dismissed.
...
Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, noted that President Barack Obama on his first full day in office called for greater transparency in government.
The Justice Department "apparently never got the message" from Obama, Blanton said.
We could tack that on to Item 1 in the list: "Lies and Broken Promises."
