”The Republicans, Speaker Boehner or Majority Leader Cantor did not call for Social Security cuts in the budget deal. The President of the United States called for that.” John Conyers

H/T to my old friend Edger for the Conyers quote and linked video

This shameful attack on entitlements was an underhanded deception from the beginning. Entitlements add to the deficit in much the same way that we invaded Iraq for 9/11 - which Leon Panetta, Obama's Sec/Def, swears is true. These bastards don't even try to tell credible lies anymore. They just make shit up...and take what they want.

In many crucial areas, he has done more to subvert and weaken the left's political agenda than a GOP president could have dreamed of achieving. So potent, so overarching, are tribal loyalties in American politics that partisans will support, or at least tolerate, any and all policies their party's leader endorses - even if those policies are ones they long claimed to loathe. This dynamic has repeatedly emerged in numerous contexts. Obama has continued Bush/Cheney terrorism policies - once viciously denounced by Democrats - of indefinite detention, renditions, secret prisons by proxy, and sweeping secrecy doctrines. He has gone further than his predecessor by waging an unprecedented war on whistleblowers. And now he is devoting all of his presidential power to cutting the entitlement programmes that have been the defining hallmark of the Democratic party since Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Glenn Greenwald: Obama Gutting Core Principles of Democratic Party

This latest abomination shows our government for what it is – outright enemies of the American people. More importantly, it shows Obama for who he is, a willing dupe and loyal servant of the rightwing corporate plutocracy. Let's take a look at just a few elements of his legacy so far:

George Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove on national television bragging about torture and their other crimes against humanity. They are carefree. They've been given a Presidential pass. So much for justice or human decency in America.

Renewal of the shameful, destructive and idiotic Bush tax cuts for billionaires.

America occupying Afghanistan for 10 years and counting. Total estimated cost of unnecessary wars = $3 to 4 TRILLION.

American troops hunting Afghans for sport.

US soldier admits killing unarmed Afghans for sport Jeremy Morlock, 23, tells US military court he was part of a 'kill team' that faked combat situations to murder Afghan civilians

Didn't even try for single-payer. Took it off the table preemptively. Unilaterally.

The Military Industrial Complex continues to bankrupt the nation to pay for their stupid and immoral wars. The only thing Obama has done about this is to step it up. He immediately reappointed Bush's Sec/Def. Bob Gates for crying out loud.

Fabricated bogus rape charges against Julian Assange for the high crime of telling us the damned truth (and don't say the Obama administration had nothing to do with it - you know damned well they did). And tortured Bradley Manning for the same egregious offense.

Continued and unremitting persecution of whistleblowers. Just ask Jesselyn Radack.

The largest corporation in the world, Exxon-Mobil, earned $18 billion in profits and received a $156 million tax REFUND.

Bailed out crooked banksters with sixteen-trillion dollars of OUR money, and then refused to tell us where the money went.

Multimillion dollar Wall Street bonuses paid with taxpayer money after we rescued them from their own incompetence and thievery.

The richest 2% getting $850 billion in tax cuts while the rest of us are losing our jobs, our homes and our hope for the future.

Goldman Sachs paying 1% in taxes on their obscene and ill-gotten profits.

The brutal rape of the poor by the rich hasn't missed a beat.

A Democratic Party distinguishable from the Republican Party only by their rhetoric.

Dismissing Richard Holbrooke's dying words to our nation as a joke.

Holbrooke's Last Words On Afghanistan Clarified As Being Part Of A Humorous Exchange By Obama Administration WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration said Tuesday that the reported last words of veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke, its point person on Afghanistan and Pakistan who passed away this week, were meant as humor. Administration officials sought to clarify that, according to people who were present, Holbrooke's final words, "You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan," were part of a jovial back-and-forth with the medical staff.

And now this odious piece of excrement. He gave the Republicans everything they ever wanted and then some on a silver platter. This vicious attack on the American people would never have happened without Obama leading the charge.

”The Republicans, Speaker Boehner or Majority Leader Cantor did not call for Social Security cuts in the budget deal. The President of the United States called for that.” John Conyers

If Obama were merely incompetent we could say that he's a disappointment. But he's not incompetent and he's not merely a disappointment – he's a willing traitor to the American people. He has betrayed the movement that brought him into office. It's as simple and awful as that.

Hope? Change? We were fools to ever believe it.

So don't call Obama a moderate. Don't call him a centrist. Don't call him a blue dog. Call him what he is...a Republican.

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