Perception is reality. ~ Lee Atwater
Bill Maher has a problem. On Tuesday of this week, he tweeted this:-
Obama's pathetic: "the political culture blahblah..." - BLAME THE REPUBLICANS! Besides better politics it has the added virtue of being true
And on Wednesday, he tweeted this:-
Rick Perry says he's not sure if Obama loves his country and the response from President Wayne Brady is "I'll cut him some slack"? HIT BACK!
OK, I get it that Bill's less than pleased about the President. We know (because Bill never ceases to remind us at every opportunity) that he was the first celebrity-talking-head-pundit-until-he-says-something-that-draws-the-ire-of-the-viewing-audience-then-he's-only-a-comedian-political-commentator ever, ever, ever, in all this time, ever, on the Left to criticize the President.
And we know that Bill also remorselessly and ceaselessly (well, at least from 2007, when it became reasonably safe to do so with a Democratic Congress)chastised George Bush.
And we know that when Bill decided to criticize the President, he ended his snide and snarky critique with a heartfelt wish that Obama would be - yes - more like George Bush. Here's the clip, itself, to jog your memory:-
Keep in mind that this rant occurred in June 2009, not even five months after the Inauguration, and keep in mind that, not only did he he compare the President to Lindsey Lohan ("in the papers a lot, but not doing very much"), he also went on to say that, after less than six months, the President had failed to make real progress on health care, the banks and climate change. Keep in mind that the previous week, he'd chastised the Republicans for saying the exact same thing about Obama - basically, that he was always in the papers and on television.
But the final punch was the clincher:-
"What he needs in his personality is a little George Bush ... What we need to do is to marry the good ideas that Barack Obama has with a little bit of that Bush attitude and certitude."
The Bush swagger, the alpha male, the codpiece moment.
Five months into the first year of Obama's administration and Bill's wanting this?
Well ...
Keep in mind what else happened in Bill's tranche of the entertainment world that spring:-
- Jay Leno left The Tonight Show (for the first time).
- Conan O'Brien debuted as host of The Tonight Show.
- Stephen Colbert broadcast a week's worth of his programs from Iraq, with special satellite appearances by the President and also Bill's latest man crush, George Bush.
- Jon Stewart eviscerated Jim Cramer on The Daily Show.
Everyone was talking about all of these things, but no one was talking about anything Lil'Boy Bill had done or said, until he said this.
That started the snarkball rolling, ending the year with Bill referring to the President as "Barry" and then pushing the pejorative meme of him being no different from Bush. (Pardon me, but wasn't Bill one of the biggest big mouths in 2000, trolling the country with the message that Bush and Gore were one and the same and that we should all vote for Nader? How well did that work out?)
Looks as though Bill fell prey to the disorder affecting most of the EmoProgs, resulting from the election of Barack Obama: Magic Negro Syndrome. Elect the cool black man, and he'll wave the magic wand which extends naturally from his manicured fingertips, and his wish is your command. Free healthcare for all? No problem (even though he never uttered a word about the fabled "single-payer", there are people abounding who fell under his magic spell and would swear on their lives that he promised that and more). Banish the bankers to the nethersphere of hell? Done.
The Magic Negro Syndrome assured its victims that the first African-American President not only was faster than a speeding bullet at righting the economy and putting people back to work with six-figure salaries, not only was he more powerful than a locomotive at getting whatever progressive legislation the EmoProgs demanded through a recalcitrant Congress, he was able to leap tall orders of legislation past Congress in a single bound and ensure that he got everything he wanted, when he wanted it and all within the requisite 100 days.
Yep ... a lot of people believed that. A lot of people totally tuned out everything Candidate Obama said, instead, treating him the way a gaggle of adolescents would treat the ubiquitous rock star on whom they had a teenage crush - projecting all their hopes, beliefs and desires on a veritable tabula rasa, which only existed in their brainful of latent teenaged kicks.
But Bill Maher knew better. This, and everything which ensued thereafter, was all about Bill and the promotion of Bill's brand.
So in the interest of "Bill's Brand," his craven self-promotion, let's look at some of the memes Bill introduced in the past three years or so, which are taken as irrefutable gospel truths for the EmoProgs ... because, ya know, Bill, you're just so ke-wel and so funny and so sexy, speaking all that truth to power, without ever facing power down in the face ... because, ya know, it's just so easy to lob missiles from a distance rather than meeting the danger right up front ... Oops ... that sounds like something Bill said once ... Oh, yes ... I remember now ...
Anyway, let's look at some of the deliberate lies Bill's propagated about the President, lies which his abject followers now insist are truths:-
1. Obama is needy and desperate to make friends with Republicans who wouldn't wipe their handmade designer shoes on him. In fact, he has a constant need to reach out and make friends with Republicans.
Rather rich, coming from someone who regularly pals around with Ann Coulter, Darrell Issa, Jack Kingston, Bill Frist, P J O'Rourke and Arianna Huffington. Even richer, that a regular guest on his program is Andrew Breitbart, whom he regularly protects from panel onslaughts.
In point of fact, the "need" the President feels to "reach out" to the Republicans, from the very beginning, resulted from the fact that he had to do so. The Democrats have only hit the magic number of 60 in the Senate for a grand total of 2 months, in 2009, when Al Franken was finally certified as Senator. Prior to that, for the big stimulus vote, the President needed Republican support. In January 2009, there were 56 Democratic Senators and 2 Independents who caucused with the Democrats. One of those Independents was Joe Lieberman. That should tell you a lot. Al Franken wasn't certified until June 2009. Ted Kennedy was ill at that time, so that brought the number of actual Democrats down to 55. They needed at least 3 Republicans to cross the aisle to vote for the stimulus package.
That's why the gals from Maine were courted so assiduously, that's why the stimulus amount was reduced significantly - to attract their support. In the end, the whole thing passed by one vote, and they managed to garner a defection from the Dark Side, when Arlen Specter came back to his roots. So in June 2009, they actually managed to have 60 Democrats in the Senate, until Ted Kennedy died in August of that year. Now, also, consider that the Democratic make-up of the Senate includes the likes of Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, Kent Conrad, Max Baucus and Joe Manchin.
Now fast forward to November 2010. Bill's constant denigration of the President results in hoardes of his sheeple sulking out the vote. Result? A Republican House. Divided government means negotiation and compromise between the two parties. Bill Clinton had to do it. So did Reagan. And Nixon. Nothing new there, but with Obama, it's forbidden. Oops ... forgot. The Magic Negro can hypnotise his opposition into fulfilling his every demand. Or else, he just goes "gangsta" - you know, the way Negro men mostly are, according to Bill.
2. The President is a terrible negotiator. He's weak. He caves to Republican demands. He's wimpy and wussy. He has no spine.
Like every other "Progressive," Bill whined and moaned about the extension of the Bush era tax cuts, and like every other "Progressive," he failed to see what the President got in exchange for those tax cuts. The rich and the Republicans got everything they wanted, but did they?
Charles Krauthammer certainly wasn't happy with the compromise. He called it the swindle of the year, you know, similar to the way Obama was accused of shaking down BP for compensation money. Bill failed to realise that, in exchange for a two-year extension of the tax cuts, the President obtained many measures that ensured an easier life for the long-term unemployed, the poor and the working poor; but Bill, like most rich, white and affluent "Progressives" never thinks of that demographic, and when he does, he has to have an antiseptic bath. But that doesn't include all the rest of the Lame Duck legislation he was able to effect, because the tax cuts had been dealt with - things like DADT, the First Responders' Health Bill, and START. Bill doesn't consider any of those things.
Now the latest gnashings and wailings and accusations of weakness come in the face of the debt ceiling negotiations. I don't think Bill understands the intricacies of the compromise effected here, so I'll let Bob Cesca tell him how, instead of John Boehner getting 98% of what the GOP wanted, it was another sleight-of-hand effected by the President.
While everyone is fixated on how terrible this debt-ceiling deal is for Democrats, If one pauses long enough to really analyze the details and all of their implications, one finds that, in the long term, this deal is actually wildly in favor of the President’s position.
The truth is — there actually is revenue included in this deal, and here I will briefly defer to Ezra Klein:
In a presentation to his members, Boehner says (pdf) that the rules governing the committee “effectively [make] it impossible for Joint Committee to increase taxes.” Specifically, he’s arguing that using the Congressional Budget Office’s “current-law baseline” makes tax increases impossible, as that baseline assumes the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, and so, if you touched taxes at all, you’d have to raise taxes by more than $3.6 trillion or the CBO would say you were cutting taxes and increasing the deficit.
Confused? That seems to be the point. Boehner is misleading his members to make them think taxes are impossible under this deal. But make no mistake: The Joint Committee could raise taxes in any number of ways. It could close loopholes and cap tax expenditures. It could impose a value-added tax, or even a tax on carbon. The Congressional Budget Office would score all of this as reducing the deficit under a current-law baseline. The only thing that wouldn’t reduce the deficit is going after part of the Bush tax cuts. That means they’re likely to go untouched in this deal.
In case you don’t understand — allow me to elaborate.
John Boehner is selling the current CBO baseline to his caucus to pass this bill, and the current baseline includes an expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts. The only way for the Bush Cuts to be extended is if the “super congress” committee offsets it with tax hikes or tax reform in other areas. Going after the Bush Tax Cuts in the committee would not count as reducing the deficit, because the baseline already assumes they will expire.
John Boehner knows this, but most members of his caucus and, admittedly, many members of the Democratic caucus don’t realize it. I didn’t put two and two together myself until late last night.
If you view this deal from the perspective that there is a guarantee the Bush Tax Cuts will expire, then suddenly the deal swings wildly in favor of President Obama.
The president offered John Boehner a 4:1, cuts:revenue deal, but what he ended up getting instead is a 1:2, cuts:revenue deal.
The Bush Tax Cuts account for roughly $3.7 trillion dollars in additional revenue over 10 years. The spending-cuts tentatively agreed to in the deal account for only $2.7 trillion dollars over 10 years. This means there is $1 trillion more dollars in revenue contained inside the deal over 10 years than there are spending cuts.
Furthermore, the spending cuts contained inside the bill do not come into effect until 2013, after the Bush Tax Cuts expire, meaning the revenue and cuts come into effect at roughly the same time.
If the rabid members of John Boehner’s caucus realized this, they would probably be calling for his head.
It’s no coincidence that President Obama came out last night and bluntly said this is not the deal he wanted. It’s no coincidence that John Boehner and Eric Cantor both told their caucus that President Obama “caved.” They have to say this, because if it appears that President Obama got anything in the deal, then suddenly it can’t pass the House of Representatives. There is nothing they hate more than giving the president a victory, so it has to appear as if he got nothing, and they have been pretty convincing.
President Obama knew this would look bad for his administration in the short term, but he took that risk in exchange for winning further along down the road. As I mentioned above, none of this policy actually comes into effect until 2013. Not even the spending cuts. Only 1% of the spending cuts will be felt in 2012.
This deal masterfully accomplishes the task of kicking the can down the road for the Republicans without actually appearing so unless you really dig deep into it, and it leaves most of the details up to the next session of Congress beginning in January of 2013.
We all owe the president a great deal of respect for being willing to take the political hit in the short term to save us in the long term.
3. Obama's a failure. He didn't do what he said! Waa-waaa-wahhh!
Bill says he didn't close Gitmo. Not true. He signed the Executive Order, and then the fiscal and organisational responsibility for closing the place - dealing with the cumbersome logistical duties of moving and re-housing the inmates there until they were brought to trial on the mainland - reverted to Congress. Ninety-four Senators voted against funding to close Gitmo, including Al Franken and Bernie Sanders. Then, when attempts were made by the Department of Justice to effect a civil trial in New York City for Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand objected. Attempts to move the trial to Pennsylvania were met with strenuous objections from Arlen Specter. A third attempt to have the trial in Virginia was met with objections from James Webb and Mark Warner. All these Senators were Democrats.
And in case Bill's in any doubts about what exactly the President has achieved during his first Administration, he can take a look here. This site will explain the President's achievements in words Bill will succinctly understand. I would suggest he study those achievements, because another lie he's been propagating is that Obama doesn't stand for any Democratic ideals, but then Bill doesn't give a rat's ass about people like the lady for whom Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was named. It doesn't surprise me that Bill ignores legislation like this; Lily Ledbetter probably bores him the way it bores other Progressives.
The Matthew Shepherd Hate Crimes Act? Repeal of DADT? Instructing the Department of Justice not to defend DOMA in court appeals? Those aren't Democratic ideals?
And Bill has the audacity of a dope to state blatantly that the President is pathetic, because he refuses to round on Republicans exclusively in apportioning blame on government legislative intransigence. Bill needs reminding that the President wanted the tax cuts repealed for the wealthy in September 2010, as a lede into the campaigns before the Midterms. Harry Reid and Russ Feingold, with Nancy Pelosi's support, refused to consider this. And during the actual tax cut negotiations, the President tabled the idea of having the Lame Duck Congress vote early on the debt ceiling rise, but that, too, was refused by Harry Reid, who wanted the incoming Republican House to own the responsibility for raising the debt ceiling too. And that worked out so well, didn't it?
Fair dos, to the President for rounding on his own version of Harry Truman's "Do Nothing" Congress; and if Bill wants to moan about Obama not tackling jobs - well, besides the fact that the President doesn't legislate, there are some forty-odd jobs' bills being deliberately held up in the House now, all of which were introduced by Democrats.
That's because that certain demographic of voter from the Left, devoid of critical thinking ability who listen to the self-promoting likes of Bill, Ed Schultz and Arianna Huffington, as well (of late) to concern trolls like Joan Walsh, stayed home; and because of that, we got a Republican House.
So why should the President give succour and sustenance to people who've never had his back, but who they expect to cover theirs when the going gets rough?
As for Bill, puerile attitude is on display in the following clip. All it took was for the bumbling, ineffectual President Sanford and Son, a President who didn't conform to Bill's standard of "blackness," to kill one Osama Bin Laden and this response was elicited:-
In praise of one black ninja gangsta President - in fact, week after week, when he's not talking about Sarah Palin's stupidity, he never ceases to remind the audience of the colour of this President's skin. It's like a weird word-association game: "Black-Obama" ... black-Obama-wussy ... black-obama-spineless ... black-obama-caving.
But that's ok, Bill. We know the cool kids are chasing Ron Paul's fire engine in the run up to election year, and you've always wanted to be a part of the in crowd. Pallin' around with Ron and Rand will now give you opportunity to be as racist as you want, considering they're backed by Stormfront, as well as the Kochs, who have close links with the Nazis as well.
Even if your new man-crush, Ron, doesn't make it all the way to the White House, you can live with Rick Perry, who's pledge to lower taxes would fit right in with the current little tax trick you're playing on Jerry Brown at the moment. Besides, President Perry is much better for your brand of comedy. He'll get more laughter from your audience, who won't be forced to squirm under your pithy references to President "Wayne Brady." The disaffected Left will wonder why so many people voted for this clown. Gee, it must be racism, huh? It would never occur to them that someone like Perry might stand a chance to win, because they stayed home.
But I'll leave the last word to a Facebook friend, Nia Jones, who has your number pegged, after reading your insulting tweets about the President of the United States.
Folks like Maher dont get clever slights like this. He has a steryotypical view of black men and is pissy because president Obama like most black men dont fit his sterotype, so they get mad and say stupid shit.
That, Bill Maher, is proof that you're not only an undermining ratfucker, but a racist as well.
So toddle off with your buyer's remorse, little man, and your disappointment that your vote in 2008 didn't secure, for you, the mythical Magic Negro, but just a Negro. In the meantime, here's a little song to help you over the disappointment of all your man crushes - from Carter to Clinton to Nader to John Edwards - and by the way, I've got a bet on how long it is before you actually use the real hardcore racist n-word on air in reference to the President. Not long, I'll wager.
Lee Atwater would be proud of you. You've proven, beyond doubt, that for some people, the sheeple variety, whatever they perceive becomes the undoubted truth for them.
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