Two and a half years ago I was sent a copy of Kit Lange’s, “My Predictions for the New Obama ‘Presidency'”. Kit recently saw an earlier posting and asked if she could respond, and I said sure; below is the continuing scoring of the original predictions and my original rejoinders; added to these are Kit’s responses from today, and my additional retorts.
It was exciting to get Kit’s request and to be able to quip – if you will.
Kit: Israel will understand this election was the end of any type of assistance, military or otherwise, from the U.S., and will stop holding back their defense at the request of the American administration. Look for a first strike on Iran soon, as well as increased activity by the Israeli military in general. Israel is on her own now, and God help us all because of it.
LT: This is still a complete unsubstantiated pile of right-wing speak. Israel is still receiving substantial aid from the United States in the forms of funding, intel and military support; 0-1
Kit: First of all, Israel has, in fact, seen a definite shift in relations with the U.S. One only has to refer to the recent demand by Obama that Israel revert back to the previous borders, giving up even more of their land. As anyone knows, this puts Israel in a completely indefensible position with the Golan Heights. Relations with Israel are incredibly strained at the moment, and everyone knows it.
LT: It wasn’t a “demand” it was a “request” of Israel to accept the President’s proposal as a basis for negotiations and as a way to head off Palestinian plans to unilaterally declare an independent state. We’re still waiting for that “first strike” on Iran, which I will agree will happen the first time they fire up a reactor, but that would occur regardless of who was President. Still 0-1 …
Kit: Look for Iranian retaliation–against American targets. That goes doubly for other terrorist organizations.
LT: Still waiting, and thus far nothing …
Kit: Secondly, two months ago the Supreme Leader of Iran called the U.S. terrorists, and pledged continued support of groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Just because the actual acts haven’t happened yet doesn’t mean they won’t. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/06/25/ml_iran_terrorism_conference
LT: Wow, the Supreme Leader of Iran called the U.S. terrorists, and pledged continued support of terrorist groups? OK, you need to find some other kind of proof beyond what every Iranian leader has said since the overthrow of the Shah … there’s a great deal of difference between a bully threatening to do something and actually doing it; 0-2…
Kit: Look for far-left justices appointed to the Supreme Court, effectively tying up the entire government in a trifecta of liberal humanism, the buzzwords of which remain empty platitudes like “hope and change,” and the ultimate goal of which is socialism–and soon, sharia law.
LT: Thus far President Obama has appointed two highly qualified women to the Supreme Court, neither of which could be classified as “far left”. And so-far there is no evidence of Sharia law being enacted anywhere in the country as a result of any Obama appointee …
Kit: The two new female justices are quite liberal. Sotomayor has voted with the liberal bloc on every decision she has made thus far. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/08/nation/la-na-court-sotomayor-20100609
Kagan, also, has voted strictly within the liberal bloc. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303627104576414211191945474.html
In addition, she has a pointed conflict of interest within cases involving Obamacare.
LT: Voting against Thomas et.al, doesn’t make Sonia Sotomayor “liberal” as much as it makes her sane. Considering the recent decisions of the Supreme Court, i.e., “Citizens United” I’d say she’s downright main stream; at any rate, the two appointees are not “far-left”, and the only folks trying to insert Sharia law into America appear to be the far-right uber-conservative Republican Tea Partista (GOTP) candidates calling for basically a Christian Theocracy with the likes of Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann at the helm; as far as Kagan having a “conflict of interest” regarding Obamacare, that charge extends far more to Thomas – whose wife is financially tied at the hip to health care – than to Kagan; 0-3 …
Kit: Military cases of troops being tried and convicted for killing the enemy in combat will continue to rise – and the conviction/plea – bargain rate will stay at nearly 100%, as the government seeks to use the best men and women this country has to offer as sacrificial lambs on the altar of global appeasement. Those brave and honorable men who currently reside in prison cells across the country, stripped of their rank, their careers, families, and their good name, will not taste free air again for many years. Their sacrifices and their stories will be forgotten by the general public, remembered only by those of us who continue to fight for them.
As for military troops being tried and convicted for doing their jobs…really? You may not be reading the news, but there are currently more than ten troops incarcerated at Leavenworth for just that. Add in the Fort Lewis cases, and you have yourself a true prediction. “Hasn’t happened?” Try again. [In all fairness, Spc Jeremy Morlock, and Spc Adam Winfield did plead guilty to their crimes….however, as someone who has sat in on some of the proceedings in person, I can say with absolute certainty that Spc Michael Wagnon and PFC Andrew Holmes are innocent of their charges, as is SSG Calvin Gibbs.]
LT: If, as you say, SPC Wagnon, PFC Holmes and SSG Gibbs are innocent of the charges then the military court will discover that. The charges being brought against these soldiers are extremely serious, these are not trifling charges lain on the altar of “global appeasement”. These men are charged with committing premeditated murder of civilians in “staged combat” situations. In effect they were “hits”. If the evidence supports the charges then these are hardly “brave and honorable men”. If these soldiers are acquitted,
On 15 Jan 10, in the village of La Mohammad Kalay fifteen year old Gul Mudin was doing farm work for his father. He was unarmed and allegedly murdered “by means of throwing a fragmentary grenade at him and shooting him with a rifle,” an action carried out by SPC Jeremy Morlock and allegedly PFC Andrew Holmes under the direction of Gibbs.
On 22 Feb 10, using thermal imagery, the soldiers discovered Marach Agha curled in a ball by a roadside. Gibbs and SPC Michael S. Wagnon allegedly shot him and placed a Kalashnikov next to the body to justify the killing. SPC Jeremy Morlock plead guilty for his death. The army later said it believed Marach Agha to be deaf or mentally retarded. The soldiers allegedly kept part of his skull.
On 2 May 10, Mullah Adahdad was attacked with a grenade and fatally shot, allegedly by Gibbs, Morlock, and Winfield. Three days after Adahdad was killed members of a Stryker platoon returned to his village. Tribal elders had complained to Army officers that the cleric had been unarmed and that the shooting was a setup. “This guy was shot because he took an aggressive action against coalition forces,” Lt. Stefan Moye, the platoon leader, explained to village residents in Qualaday. “We didn’t just (expletive) come over here and just shoot him randomly. And we don’t do that.” This conversation was recorded by embedded photojournalist Max Becherer.
The Military Court will determine the validity of the charges; 0-4 …
Kit: Look for the slow but steady erosion of rights you have enjoyed for your entire lives–all the while being told it’s “for your own good.”
LT: Can’t name a single one my rights that has been eroded in the past two years; 0-5
Kit: Restrictions on gun ownership,
LT: Hasn’t happened. In fact thus far, President Obama has done more to guarantee the free exercise of the Second Amendment than any of his recent predecessors.
Kit: “President Obama has done more to guarantee the free exercise of the Second Amendment than any of his recent predecessors…” Care to name any examples? Sources?
LT: President Obama has allowed gun owners to carry weapons on Amtrak trains and in federal parks. No other President – not even conservative ones – has ever extended gun rights to that extent; 0-6…
Kit: …“encouraged dependence on the ever-growing federal government” hasn’t happened either? Have you seen the exponential growth of people on welfare assistance since he took office? Or are you going to simply blame that on the “horrible” economy he “inherited” from Bush?
LT: There’s a difference between the President “encouraging dependence” and the fact more people have needed assistance. Unemployment numbers rose after Bush/Cheney left office – due mainly to their administration having tanked the economy. As the President approaches re-election he has to take partial blame now for the fact the economy is still performing badly, and he will be attacked on that. However, when almost every piece of legislation passed by the Democratic House was blocked by a record number of Republican filibusters in the Senate, and since not one jobs bill has been produced by the GOTP House, there’s more than enough blame to go around. President still hasn’t “encouraged dependence”; 0-7 …
Kit: More nanny-state provisions will be put into place to protect the “disadvantaged” and the “poor,” (read: lazy, uneducated, unwilling to better themselves) {Wow! Sounding a bit racist} even while groups like the unborn, the mentally handicapped, elderly, and terminally ill are slowly pushed toward euthanasia. Of course, this will be done with feel-good phrases like “death with dignity,” “not wanting to be a burden,” and “merciful release from suffering,” all of which ignore the basic fact that we are killing people without their consent for the “good of the people.” Before you tell me I’m crazy, let’s just remember that Barack Obama was the ONLY senator in the Illinois state senate to vote against providing medical care for babies who were inconsiderate enough to survive an abortion.
LT: Then Senator Obama voted against the bill because it was a bill that would restrict a woman’s right to choice, not just to provide medical funding to help babies who survived late term abortions.
Unfortunately you chose to make claims that people voted for the President because he was black, not I. In conservative speak, when you refer to the “lazy, uneducated, unwilling to better themselves” that means minorities, specifically blacks and Latinos. It goes back to Reagan’s “welfare queens in Cadillacs” reference. He wasn’t referring to poor Appalachian families. You chose to use the phrase, “We have traded experience for color, freedom for slavery – and the irony is that the average American sheeple thinks their vote somehow righted an ancient wrong, somehow ENDED the specter of slavery and ushered in some beautiful era of liberty”. Those words were meant for the angry whites out there wanting to be angry at a President because of his race, and angry with those who voted for him by believing it was solely because he was black. The idea Bush/Cheney sucked so badly, or had screwed things up so badly, never entered yours or others minds when evaluating McCain/Palin’s loss.
Also, I haven’t seen the “push toward euthanasia” you spoke of … 0-8
Kit: Also, look for taxes to go up. Yes, they’ll go up.
LT: Actually, the majority of Americans got a tax cut shortly after President Obama took office and he supported extending the Bush Tax cuts, 0-9…
Kit: You think the economy is bad now? Just wait. You’ll have the most expensive “free” health care ever. Bread lines aren’t just for Russians anymore.
LT: An economy driven into the ground by the failed policies of the Bush-Cheney Administration; which has given our country the largest expansion of the Federal Government ever, coupled with the largest Federal deficit ever, 0-10 …
Kit: We have traded experience for color, freedom for slavery – and the irony is that the average American sheeple thinks their vote somehow righted an ancient wrong, somehow ENDED the specter of slavery and ushered in some beautiful era of liberty.
LT: I’m just a simple guy who happened to grow up in the south hearing racist comments all of the time, and this is a racist commentary. I did not vote for President Obama because he was black. Or because I felt I needed to somehow correct the “specter of slavery”. I voted for him because I could not continue to support the failed policies of President George W. Bush. I could not continue to support an Administration that had prosecuted an illegal war based on half truths and lies, and that allowed my brothers and sisters in uniform to be used as thugs and bullies. I can no longer say, “American soldiers don’t torture prisoners.” Of course if you’ve never bothered to serve, or to swear an oath to protect and defend, or buried buddies who have died in combat, or later committed suicide because they couldn’t live with themselves any more, than you couldn’t begin to understand why I voted the way I did.
Kit: “…In reality, we are about to be less free than you ever thought possible.”
LT: This has already been addressed …
Kit: I watched the faces of those crowded into the mob (excuse the pun) in Chicago. They stared at Obama like he was a god, an idol, a panacea to their every want and need. We have truly failed as a nation if we are at the point where we feel we must look to one man to take care of us all, to be our father figure and our sugar daddy. We have lost not only the “can-do” attitude of past generations, but the “MUST-do” attitude of our forefathers. We have allowed ourselves to become reduced from Patrick Henry’s proud cry of “liberty or death” to the sniveling, whining idea that we are owed something. We have gone from being the honorable defenders of freedom, to being told we are the problem.
LT: After eight years of President George W. Bush’s administration people were relieved. Pure and simple; here was a chance for America to start over. Unfortunately, Airman Lange’s idea of “the honorable defenders of freedom” has lost its luster because of the Bush administration’s policies. Because of places like GITMO, and Abu Ghraib, places where Jefferson’s ideas of “all men being created equal” were spat upon; where people were tortured and humiliated, in the name of the American Ideal. My father, my father-in-law and others of the “greatest generation” fought against governments who treated prisoners like this. It was difficult to conceive of an America where common decency and honor no longer had a place. Perhaps now it will once again …
Kit: The eyes of Obama and McCain were also telling. McCain acted with class and grace in his concession speech, offering the most honorable response I’ve seen yet. I don’t agree with all of McCain’s positions, but it cannot be denied that the man has served his nation, at permanent and severe detriment to himself, for half a century. His eyes were clear and sincere, honest. His speech underlined the very reasons why, of the two men offered, he was hands down the best choice.
LT: Senator McCain served his country well and faithfully, but he was not the best choice. To continue four more years of failed foreign and domestic policies was not the better choice. To support four more years of torture, and the slow erosion of human liberties that we supposedly “hold to be self evident” was not the better choice. I too watched Senator McCain’s concession speech. He was magnificent. The crowd however, booed and acted shamefully when the Senator mentioned his opponent. Not a reaction I want to be associated with. Senator McCain is a hero. That doesn’t mean he should have been President. His choice of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate firmly shoved me into President Obama’s camp. She was not only unqualified, but was a pathetically transparent attempt to sway woman voters to vote for McCain. She was the best, most highly qualified, conservative woman Senator McCain could find? This – to me – spoke volumes about his own abilities to be President.
Kit: On the other hand, Obama’s eyes were cold, calculating. His manner was smug and still carried the arrogance he has always had. His facial expression was one of barely disguised disdain for everything people like me believe in. His body language was smooth, polished, too much so. He talked of patriotism as though it is a value he is familiar with, and yet, his horrifying attitude toward the country he now leads is as well-documented as his friendships with those who seek its demise.
LT: Oh no! He pals around with terrorists! Not true; in fact, not only documented, but well-documented as not true. President Obama served on a board with someone who allegedly committed criminal acts during an extremely unpopular war; acts for which, in 1973, the Federal Government requested the dismissal of the charges against him. Note, the charges were dismissed at the request of the Federal Government. I also have watched President Obama speak, as I also watched Senator McCain speak. I also watched each and every debate between the two. I saw nothing of what the author speaks. President Obama did not speak in any way that she – or any other veteran, or currently serving member of the military should take as “disdain for everything people like me believe in”. Who exactly are the people like Ms. Lange?
Kit: He is charismatic to those who don’t know what to look for …
LT: like an aircraft mechanic knows? Is this standard aircraft mechanic training in the Air Force now? Guess I somehow missed the “anti-charismatic training…
Kit: And he is inspiring to those who cannot or will not think for themselves.
LT: I made my decision to vote for President Obama not based upon his charisma, nor because – thank you very much – I can’t think for myself; as compared to the legions of “ditto-heads” who make up their minds based on this kind of hate-filled vitriolic prose, filled with half-truths and innuendo.
Kit: However, too many who voted for him are guilty of the most dangerous kind of hypocrisy. You see, we are told daily that we must not see color, just mankind. (We are all family, you know, or so we’re told.)
LT: Again, comments that are sounding more than a little racist, in my opinion.
Kit: And yet Barack Obama was handed the White House on a silver platter by a fawning media, a bevy of foreign donors (who, to this day and in violation of U.S. election laws, remain nameless and unaccounted for), and a populace who voted based on color instead of right and wrong, even in the face of the most damning evidence against a Presidential candidate in many years, perhaps ever.
LT: Voted based on color? Ms. Lange just doesn’t get it. George W. Bush gave Senator Barrack Obama the White House, not the color of President Obama’s skin. Hate-filled, fear mongering, gloom and doom right wing talk radio handed President Obama the White House. President Reagan – a self-proclaimed FDR Democrat – used to say, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me.” I feel the same way about my Republican Party. If Limbaugh, Hannity and Lange are the example of the modern Republican Party, than all I can say is the GOP is no longer the party of Ronald Reagan; it’s becoming the party of David Duke.
Kit: It is said that the people receive the government they deserve. Sadly, I fear that’s correct. We have become complacent, unwilling to see the writing on the wall, content to frolic in the warm water without bothering to notice that it’s been getting hotter by the minute. We are two seconds from a rolling boil, and perhaps it is already too late. So, liberals, enjoy your victory. Jump around. Have a party, file for your free grants. Scream “Gimme my handout!” and make fun of those of us who fought to make sure your “messiah” didn’t get access to the most powerful position in the world. Just remember when it all comes crashing down: You own the White House, the Congress, and soon the Supreme Court. You have no one to blame but yourselves for the mess you just created.
LT: It’s strange that only the right-wing “conservative” talk show types have ever referred to President Obama as the “Messiah”. I have never thought of him in this way, and nor would I. Again, as said above, the GOP has no one to thank for President Obama’s victory except for President George W. Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and now it would appear Kit Lange.
Kit: “if you’ve never bothered to serve, or to swear an oath to protect and defend, or buried buddies who have died in combat, or later committed suicide because they couldn’t live with themselves any more, than you couldn’t begin to understand why I voted the way I did.”
I did bother to serve, I did swear an oath to protect and defend. I have known those who died. And I can’t begin to understand why you voted the way you did. In addition, your characterization of the war as “illegal” is just more of the same liberal tripe that has been floating around for ten years.
LT: What else can you characterize the invasion of Iraq? It was based on lies – there were no WMDs; Iraq was not involved in the 9-11 attacks; there was no valid evidence Iraq was building a nuclear bomb. Bush lied, and sent us into a war that cost lives and treasure for what purpose, to get rid of a personal enemy? Al-Qaida didn’t exist in Iraq until after we invaded. Everyone – outside of right-wing world recognizes the invasion of Iraq was wrong, ill-conceived and illegal.
Kit: “My father, my father-in-law and others of the “greatest generation” fought against governments who treated prisoners like this.”
Yes, they did. And do you know how they won? By being more brutal than their enemy. By killing more of them than they killed of us. By doing whatever it took to win. War is brutal, said Sherman, and the more brutal it is, the sooner it is over. As for the idea that we are “humiliating” prisoners, I say that those who kill thousands of Americans gladly and with no remorse deserve no esteem, nor do they deserve anything more than the consideration they gave their victims.
LT: American soldier in World War II, Korea and Vietnam did not torture and murder prisoners. This is a sad and troubling line we crossed during the Bush/Cheney war years, and one from which it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to cross back over. Not one piece of valuable intelligence was gained from the torture of prisoners approved of by Bush/Cheney. When you adopt the ways of the terrorists you become as bad as the terrorists …
Kit: As for me, I’m buying my handguns this week so I have an answer for those who will come try to take them.
LT: What? She didn’t already own any guns?
Kit: Do we really need to go over Obama’s associations again? Two years later, they are MORE documented, not less. And it’s a lot more than one guy who had charges dismissed.
LT: “It’s a lot more than one guy who had charges dismissed” but I’m not going to mention any of them, I’ll just leave the accusation hanging out there, a few whispered innuendos if you will. If this is the logic that’s going to be used by the conservative-right, then it’s a logic that can be applied to their side as well. Does Michelle Bachmann have the same believes about gays and lesbians that her husband has? After all how can she have lived with a man who believes homosexuals are barbarians for so long and not also believe the same way?
Kit: I’m not even going to bother addressing some of the rest due to a lack of time, inclination, and a sudden realization that it’s a waste of my time. Most of your piece is simply a list of personal attacks anyway. I will say this though: I do own guns, and Obama has done nothing here in WA to ‘preserve” gun rights.
LT: What has he done to take away your gun rights? Nothing; there have been no presidential edicts curtailing your right to own guns.
Well, we still have 0-10 on predictions and whole lot of ring-wing hyper-bole. This is the type of nonsense that drove me from the Republican Party.
The Liberty Tree 