I can't think of a better example for the utter stupidity and masochism of the anti-war left than that.

@ABS

What about the pro-Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid left?

What about the anti-austerity left?

What about the ACTUAL left?

I can just imagine the shock and fury of my democratic, "liberal," Obama-worshipping relatives and friends should they see this. But they never will because they can't conceive that anyone but a black-hearted republican would post it.

No, not the enemy, just a hired agent of the enemy.

To post the President's picture at ATR and to label it "This is the Enemy", is disgusting.
C'est tout.

I think my definition of "enemy" must be a little less visceral than yours, Rupa, because I feel no disgust. Or were you searching for a robust way to say "I disagree"?

@ weaver

No, that is what I meant.... just to see this, it made me sick... because, for whatever reason, it reminded me of the Sarah Palin/Gabrielle Giffords awful incident.
And I do not for a moment think that only "mentally stable" individuals visit the ATR website.
As you said, not everyone will have the same kind of reaction that I did but I just had to express what I felt..... which I usually do.

ps to make things clear, I absolutely do not agree with many of the administration policies and some, I vehemently oppose and try to do everything possible at individual level to change them.

Here's the real question: why did Caruso post a portrait of Obama from four years ago when he looked much younger? It's just this kind of suspiciously-supportive "dissent" that has to make you wonder who Caruso's really working for.

I believe he is the enemy of the environment. But we shall soon see - if Obama approves the tarsands pipeline, than my assessment is correct. If not, then I am wrong.

Could you expand on this? Maybe throw in a few specifics? I don't disagree, I'd just like to see the arguments.

Well at least it isn't Codpiece, The Pet Goat, sitting in office, OR WORSE, his owner Deadeye, sitting in office.(their motto: "Love your enemies and fuck your friends.") I TRULY wouldn't mind having a beer and a decent conversation with this man.
SURE, he's going to try to take YOUR social security or YOUR life(without charges or a trial), BUT he does seem to be waking up to climate change and he is willing to at least pander to equal rights, in word if not action. One hell-of-an-orator and frankly a pleasure to listen to, even when he's spewing nonsense which is a MAJOR improvement over the last two treasonous bastards.
He walks away from The Constitution just as fast as the last two but in a more palatable way, that's what "WE The People" apparently want.

Yes, absolutely the enemy, except compared to all the other people who have been elected president in my lifetime.

Loving Your Enemies.

by Martin Luther King, Jr.

The following sermon was delivered at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, at Christmas, 1957. Martin Luther King wrote it whi1e in jail far committing nonviolent civil disobedience during the Montgomery bus boycott.

Let us be practical and ask the question. How do we love our enemies?

http://www.salsa.net/peace/conv/8weekconv4-2.html

then we should invade, and turn him over to the chinese government to torture trade deal secrets out of him.

Since 1963 the foreign policy of the US has been in the hands of the military-industrial complex. When Nixon showed the slightest independence he was removed via the testimony of every "ex" CIA agent within five miles of the White House. He was replaced by the only appointed President, Ford, who had recently sat on the Warren Commission. When Carter and Stansfield Turner tried to clean out the CIA's black ops people from Langley we got the October Surprise. Reagan, a spokesman for the CIA's Nazi importation program in the early fifties (Christopher Simpson's BLOWBACK), and Bush I, they named the building after him, ran the country the next twelve years. Clinton, who was able to ignore the sanctioned cocaine dumps in Mena as governor of Arkansas, took over and helped to NAFTAize our economy. Then Bush II.

I'd say that at this late stage in the empire that you simply can't get into the White House without being in some way a collaborator. Having said that, as long as most citizens keep assiduously ignoring that little thing that happened fifty years ago they won't be able to change the dynamics of D.C. and America.

amen.

I'm guessing the best explanation for this is that John has not yet gotten on board with Twitter, what with that being the currently preferred format for extremely pithy inanities (speaking of which, I really need to get an account myself one of these days), but it's hard to say. I don't suppose this is him:
https://twitter.com/thatniggajohnc

@mistah charley, ph.d

Thank you for the MLK link.
Rightly, it was being read in a class to teach Non-violence!!

"What do you mean?? What are your arguments?? How can you call him the enemy?? Isn't that offensive?? Cant't you explain yourself?? Why can't you replace this simple, straightforward posting with a more generic blog entry, the kind of which I am familiar??"

Maybe a simple, straightforward, elegant, Occam's Razor-based posting is the best because this basic thought, as is being shown above, literally does not compute with the left. Bush's picture and it would have been no big deal.

"Maybe a simple, straightforward, elegant, Occam's Razor-based posting is the best because this basic thought, as is being shown above, literally does not compute with the left. Bush's picture and it would have been no big deal. "

No, it would be a big deal to post ANY President's picture and label it "This is the enemy"

Whether because of disagreement with the administration's policies or genuine dislike for the chief, I hope, we are not going to lose sight of WHAT is really important and become like the Tea Party but of the Left!

Vote for the "lessor of two evils" and wadda ya get, the lessor of two evils, go figure. Apparently, SOME people ain't satisfied. Its ALL ya get here, Folks. Just like Bob In Portland says, nobody gets there without being a player. The two party system insures that.

Rupa: I could be wrong, but I think Caruso is showing his mastery of irony here. This is like having a cartoon of lovely kittens with the caption: "Natural born killers." This is technically true: kittens have it in their DNA to kill mice on sight. But they're just so damn cute. The contrast makes it great art. Likewise, we all know that Obama is the enemy of a number of people (Eric Cantor, the children of the Hindu Kush, Glenn Greenwald, etc.) So Caruso's title is technically correct. Yet, as Jon astutely observed, by posting this angelic face of our fearless leader, he's also reminding us of the fundamental humanity of "our friend Barack," the visionary who, as Kevin Drum likes to say, is so much smarter and knowledgeable than the rest we must be grateful for his leadership.

Maybe there ought to be a stipulation that if a person is elected Murderer in Chief (president for you liberals) then that person will be required to remain buck naked for the entire term. This should be true for congress, and the supreme court as well.

Molly Ivins wrote that when a dog killed a chicken they would tie the dead chicken around the neck of the dog and left it until it rotted off which cured the chicken killing. Perhaps we could tie a dead human body around Obama’s neck, it might cure him of his blood thirst. Probably not.

"Whether because of disagreement with the administration's policies or genuine dislike for the chief, I hope, we are not going to lose sight of WHAT is really important and become like the Tea Party but of the Left!" -- Rupa

How does that follow? One of the things that is most contemptible about the Tea Party is that they didn't oppose Bush's policies until they were implemented by Obama. Much of the Left has mirrored this disgraceful behavior by suddenly accepting such policies.

John is merely trying to be consistent. Bush worked against our interests and was our enemy. Obama is our enemy for the same reason. I don't understand your anger.

Well put, Syd. Also, I'd like to point out that the 'Tea Party' is/was an astroturf organization funded by deep-pocketed right wing interests. There is no such organization, and of course no such concentration of wealth earmarked for propaganda purposes, on the ostensible left. There are a relative handful of morally and ideologically consistent individuals, and a whole crapload of wishers, hopers, and other ethical invertebrates. Obama is the perfect president for the crapload.

I guess I am not really able to get myself understood....and probably will not be able to even if I say anything more. SO, I will end my comment here for this post.

I believe the original Tea Party folks were organized against the bank bailouts and were not an astroturf organization. It started in the fall of 2008.

Then Obama got elected and proposed a stimulus that went (marginally) to some common folks (read that as: brown and black folks) instead of the elites (all white people), and the Tea Baggers really took off, with corporate sponsorship.

i agree wholeheartedly, and for that reason, i would say that the true enemy is the XBox 360.

yeah, but i hate blankfein even more

I like this blog entry. Can Rupa Shah please provide a link stating he is not the enemy?

I think this should be plastered all over our cities and highways. Not because it may or may not(I believe he is the enemy of humanity, but enemy of my bank account? not so much.) be true but because it makes normally "rational" lefties to jump out of their skins and show them for the authority slobbering goons they are.

*this message is intended for entertainment purposes and must not be taken as a legal opinion.

Separated at birth?
http://www.troll.me/images/scumbag-obama/does-this-hat-make-me-look-like-a-nigger.jpg

What, no Serious Discussion of this response? How could that be?

OK, I suppose I should spell out my points, just because otherwise I'm afraid I'll be getting myself in trouble with that link. So my points are a) the link and this post are equally thoughtful and equally deserving of thoughtful discussion, and b) the link is representative of the crowd you attract as allies with this kind of stuff.

mistah charlie ph.d.: Its not some much the "Love Thine Enemy" that trips me. Its not too hard to visualize once one looks past prejudices and see the other side as human, also. No, its the "fuck your friends" part that chokes me down.
Sadly, Mister Obama shows those same tendencies, and has since FISA.

John is usually very good at laying out the antiwar case against Obama, and he's funny, but this just went over my head. I'm guessing it's something like what bobs said, but I still don't get it.

Anyway, continuing my last thought, what happened was I posted something I thought was clever, then realized it was stupid. Drag when it happens on somebody else's blog 'cause I can't just delete it.

"ps to make things clear, I absolutely do not agree with many of the administration policies and some, I vehemently oppose and try to do everything possible at individual level to change them."

-Posted by Rupa Shah at January 23, 2013 09:28 AM

Does that include not voting for him?

"Thank you for the MLK link.
Rightly, it was being read in a class to teach Non-violence!!"

-Posted by Rupa Shah at January 23, 2013 04:45 PM

It would have been better to be read in a class to teach violence.

"Does that include not voting for him?"

YES

Forgive me Pogo----"I looked into the face of the enemy and he am us."

Funny how people can come to a blog called "A Tiny Revolution" and be shocked to see the country's ruler called an enemy. "Can't we have a revolution that leaves the powers-that-be alone? If it's not too much trouble?"

@Tom Allen: "Every joke is a Tiny Revolution." I wonder if people would still object to this post if it had made them laugh.

I'm sure that to a certain 47% of the voting public, Mr. Obama is the enemy. That's well past ANY revolution, no matter how big. I'd call it a damn-near-majority minority. And lets face it, racism, while a wonderful elixir for a Rowanda Style Genocide rarely fails these revolutions to garner followers at every door step.

i like schwarz's comment (Why don't we have a like tab here? Where am I?)

Also my other point was that there's a certain blogger out there somewhere who writes stuff I don't agree with but doesn't have comments, probably for good reasons having to do with him being independently famous, but who still does attempt to debate via one-liners and haikus on twitter, which just doesn't work at all as far as I can see, and anyway I don't tweet and don't plan on it. Also yes I did see that Tarantino movie the other day, on whose influence I place some blame for my unfortunate crossing of St. Hubbins' and Tufnel's fine line. It's not my fault in other words. But as long as I'm saying stupid things, has anyone ever noticed that Donald Johnson has almost the same name as one of the actors in that Tarantino movie? I don't think I've ever seen anyone make fun of him for that although I do recall that Rittenhouse guy making fun of him for his infatuation with that Obama-voting turncoat Noam Chomsky and look what happened to him just a few years later (the Rittenhouse guy). It's a dangerous place in other words, the Internet is, which is why you see me tripping over myself to make light of the horrible horrible things I say on it.

"has anyone ever noticed that Donald Johnson has almost the same name as one of the actors in that Tarantino movie? I don't think I've ever seen anyone make fun of him for that although I do recall that Rittenhouse guy making fun of him for his infatuation with that Obama-voting turncoat Noam Chomsky and look what happened to him just a few years later (the Rittenhouse guy). "

Okay, I don't get that comment either, so maybe it's just me.

Spencer 'Big Daddy' Bennett, of Miami Vice fame.

Also I believe I've mentioned my "random bullshit" leanings before. No, actually it's just to profound for you to fathom, that's the ticket.

I got Songs for Swingin' Lovers cheap at the Amoeba sidewalk sale today and now I'm just typing along in time with it. This is what happens.

/tweat

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Any our other choice was ...?
It's easy to make a dramatic abstract point. Fox does it all the time. It is much harder to discuss political choices and trade-offs and consequences.

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Chancellor George Osborne's Tatton constituency in Cheshire is among the places phase two will pass through.