Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Sliding down the muddy hill

Tomorrow is the flight from Barcelona, Spain to Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
And therefore the most special friend has been asked to come to the airport to be picked up.

She must come to the airport to be picked up by the arriving passenger?
What is that?
Isn’t it so that an arriving passenger is picked up by the person that comes to the airport?
How come it is being turned around?

It is Barack Obama.
On January 21, 2009 he said in a memorandum honouring the Freedom of Information Act:

"The government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears."

But yesterday he refused to make public a set of pictures showing U.S. troops abusing prisoners.
Although it was court ordered.

This is nothing to be embarrassed or shocked about.
During his election campaign Barack Obama has made so many promises that already at the time it was clear he would never be able to live up to them.

The St. Petersburg Times has a website where they keep track of the achievements of Barack Obama.
Of the 500 promises he has made, most have not been kept, are stalled or in the working.
Until now only 29 promises have been kept.
6 promises have been broken.
5 are stalled.
63 are in the works.
And on a staggering 404 promises no action is taken.

Now we are facing a president who suggested he could change the world acting in the same way as the Bush administration.
Denying and disrespecting court orders.
Openly keeping information away from the public.

All this will happen more frequently.
Barack Obama is a man sliding down from a muddy hill he made himself.
While the electorate believed it was a beautiful mountain.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To see the Obameter, click on:


http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/





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2 comments:

Dawn Pier said...

Thank you for this link. It is most informative.

It is sad that the weight of the world's problems were put on BO's shoulders and he naively (or arrogantly) thought that he could carry that weight. In the end, he is a politician and will behave like a politician. It is only the people who are blinded by fanaticism for whom this will come as a surprise and a great disappointment.

Very early on in his tenure he disappointed the GLTG (Gay Lesbien, Transgendered) coalition. The most vocal and activist group in America. The group controlling a large segment of the film and t.v. industry. This I took as a sign that BO would fail. Unlike the GLTG I was not surprised. He is human and therefore it is impossible for him to please all of the people all of the time.

Of course, when you are lifted up so very high above the populace, almost as a deity, when you fall "down the mountain", to use your metaphore, it is a very long way to fall indeed.

As a side note: there are people (Jeanine Garrafalo for example) who are saying that those who participated in the tea party protests are racists because they did not organize something similar during the Bush administration. WHAT???!!! This is the lowest of the lowest tactics to try to gag people from expressing themselves. To throw such an accusation at people honestly expressing their anger at the way BO and his admin are throwing money around is an act beyond shameful.

Rajendar Menen said...

I hate to say this --- but I told you early on when you were ranting against Bush that Obama will not be able to do much. Please see earlier posts.

The hot seat is designed in such a way that the person who occupies it can only make compromises as diverse interests have to be fed. Plus it is very easy for all of us to sit back in the wilderness and criticise endlessly. We who criticise can't even change our simple bad habits and environmentally dangerous behaviours. Before we throw stones at others we should look at ourselves. What are we doing with our lives? Criticism is a luxury of those who are unable to act. Just like depression is a luxury meant for those who have the time, energy and space to indulge it.

Despite it all, there is still food, water, clothing, shelter, jobs and medical aid for the people of the United States. And that is saying a lot when you compare it to the rest of the world.