The Atrocity of Hope, Part 4: No Pictures, Please

ObushmaJust saw Jonathan Turley on Maddow’s show, talking about the latest torture cover-up, and saying “This administration is turning out to be the greatest bait-and-switch in history; Obama is morphing into his predecessor” – with Maddow nodding gloomily.

While I think “greatest bait-and-switch in history” is hyperbole (the Russian Revolution surely edges it out by a bit), I’m glad to see that not all of Obama’s supporters (cough, Olbermann, cough) have signed away all their civil-liberties principles upon the accession of the President Incarnate.

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10 Responses to The Atrocity of Hope, Part 4: No Pictures, Please

  1. MBH May 13, 2009 at 10:13 pm #

    Wow! So much substance in that seven minute segment.

    Turley and Maddow both seem to think Obama is coming out against the release of the pictures in order to provide political cover for their eventual release.

    Hopefully, when they are released, we can have a national dialogue about apples, barrels, and barrel makers. Then some disbarment. Then a Special Prosecutor.

    • Roderick May 13, 2009 at 11:23 pm #

      Turley and Maddow both seem to think Obama is coming out against the release of the pictures in order to provide political cover for their eventual release.

      Well, they thought it was possible. They didn’t seem to be gloriously confident of it.

      • MBH May 14, 2009 at 10:48 am #

        *gloriously confident*: fair enough.

  2. Kevin May 14, 2009 at 12:50 am #

    That picture is amazing. And it is tripping me out. Where’d you get it?

    • Robert Paul May 14, 2009 at 2:14 am #

      I’ve seen it before as part of a set of five – from pure Bush to pure Obama.

      • Roderick May 14, 2009 at 2:31 am #

        Just click on the picture to see the five-part version. And I believe I got it from a link in a comment in one of the previous “atrocity of hope” posts.

  3. dennis May 14, 2009 at 3:46 am #

    Before the election I remember thinking that whoever won, they’d end up being even worse than the last doofus. I hoped that Obama might present improvements in a few areas, however, not surprisingly said hopes have gone unfulfilled. While the bloom may have come off of the rose for some of the best of the Left, I fear that Obama will keep an even larger chunk of hardcore supporters than Bush the Younger did. I still see a superabundance of Obama t-shirts being sported by hipsters. Much of the Left seems to have become emboldened to spout their nonsense with the same “if I say it loud enough it’ll be true” attitude that characterized the Right for the last decade or so.

    While I am ranting I should express my disappointment at how, now that they are in charge and in open opposition to all things libertarian, the bulk of the Left seems such a feeble adversary. Your former debate partner Matt Yglesias (who seemed entirely out of his depth in his debate with you) recently launched a breathtakingly weak salvo against Tom Woods. I actually think that the run-of-the-mill figures on the Left might actually be less capable opponents than their Right wing counterparts (which is saying something when the Right seems to be exemplified by Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber.)

    • Roderick May 14, 2009 at 10:40 am #

      Yeah, Yglesias’s article was embarrassing. “I haven’t read Tom Woods’ book but I know it’s wrong because Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman says so (even though Nobel prize winner F. A. Hayek says the opposite) and because Tyler Cowen and Bryan Caplan, a couple of libertarian types I ordinarily wouldn’t cite because I rarely agree with them about anything, say so.”

  4. Anna Morgenstern May 15, 2009 at 1:31 am #

    Well frankly, I … don’t have too much good to say about Tyler Cowen.
    Bryan Caplan sometimes isn’t too bad, but when he’s bad, he’s BAD.

    As for Obama, I think he’s actually doing about as well as can be expected. Which is to say, he’s leading us further into full-on 1984-style totalitarianism.
    At least he’s kind of hesitant about it.

    • dennis May 15, 2009 at 1:39 am #

      Bah, the hesitancy is a cunning ruse! If you look at the way King Leopold II of Belgium was able to gain full control over the Congo (or modern day Zaire) it was by constantly assuring everyone that he didn’t want said control. Obama’s a smart one, he’ll gain more power through charm and “hesitancy” than Bush the Lesser could have imagined. And like Han Solo he could imagine a lot.

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