Robed Obama picture ignites row

[BBKing]

I for one welcome our new KGB overlords...

Don't you mean FSB?

The Komityet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti has been superseded, dont'cha know.

Different name, same tactics.

[BBKing]

It is the FSB. It has always been the FSB. I've never said anything else, comrade.

Originally Posted by BBKing

It is the FSB. It has always been the FSB. I've never said anything else, comrade.

I think you may have just confirmed a number of posters' suspicions.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Originally Posted by foreverwar

Don't you mean FSB?

The Komityet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti has been superseded, dont'cha know.

Different name, same tactics.

Don't forget the SVR, too...

[BBKing]

What's the Severn Valley Railway got to do with it?

---------- Post added at 00:33 ---------- Previous post was yesterday at 23:01 ----------

Back to Barack for a bit, this story shows again how the loony right is shooting itself in the foot with every attempted smear:

At Cincinnati, [talk radio host] Bill Cunningham, according to the LAT, "introduced presidential candidate John McCain at a rally here today accused Barack Obama of sympathizing with 'world leaders who want to kill us' and invoked Obama's middle name -- three times calling him 'Barack Hussein Obama.' " John McCain repudiated Cunningham's low tactics and said that using the middle name like that three times was "inappropriate" and would never happen again at one of his rallies.

http://www.juancole.com/2008/02/bara...r-bradley.html

Rather an obvious thing to point out, that Middle Eastern/Semitic/Arabic names are all over the place. Therefore if you want to smear Obama and you try and suggest that it's UnAmerican to have one, you're smearing quite a lot of key historic figures, like Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Originally Posted by BBKing

What's the Severn Valley Railway got to do with it?

LOL.


The SVR is Russia's external security service. Used to be the KGB's First Chief Directorate. Responsible for foreign espionage & intelligence.

The FSB is the internal service. Used to be the KGB's Second Chief Directorate. Responsible for counter-intelligence & counter-espionage.

Originally Posted by BBKing

Back to Barack for a bit, this story shows again how the loony right is shooting itself in the foot with every attempted smear:



http://www.juancole.com/2008/02/bara...r-bradley.html

Rather an obvious thing to point out, that Middle Eastern/Semitic/Arabic names are all over the place. Therefore if you want to smear Obama and you try and suggest that it's UnAmerican to have one, you're smearing quite a lot of key historic figures, like Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin.

I read about that in the Grauniad today.


Interesting link.


I'm still wondering which side started this thing with the robe photo...

[BBKing]

I'm still wondering which side started this thing with the robe photo...

I suspect the Clintons, for the obvious reason that they're in trouble and it was an easy way to distract the Obama campaign, which is doing very well. The Obama-Secret-Muslim stuff is entirely made up by right-wing propagandists, of course (with the unspoken 'Muslim = UnAmerican' racist overtone). You can tell, because it's got no basis in reality.

Elsewhere in the US the Democrats won two 'by-elections', or the local equivalent, where there had been a safe Republican majority before.

[punky]

McCain wasn't on stage or, he says, in the building when Cunningham made the comments, but he quickly distanced himself from the radio talk show host after finishing his speech. McCain spoke to a couple hundred people at Memorial Hall in downtown Cincinnati.

"I apologize for it," McCain told reporters, addressing the issue before they had a chance to ask the Arizona senator about Cunningham's comments.

"I did not know about these remarks, but I take responsibility for them. I repudiate them," he said. "My entire campaign I have treated Senator Obama and Senator (Hillary Rodham) Clinton with respect. I will continue to do that throughout this campaign."

McCain called both Democrats "honorable Americans" and said, "I want to dissociate myself with any disparaging remarks that may have been said about them."

Asked whether the use of Obama's middle name — the same as former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein — is proper, McCain said: "No, it is not. Any comment that is disparaging of either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama is totally inappropriate."

McCain said he didn't know who decided to allow Cunningham to speak but said he was sure it was in coordination with his campaign. He said he didn't hear the comments and has never met Cunningham, but "I will certainly make sure that nothing like that happens again."

Responding to McCain's apology, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said, "It is a sign that if there is a McCain-Obama general election, it can be intensely competitive but the candidates will attempt to keep it respectful and focused on issues."

[BBKing]

It's a sign of how weird things are over there that McCain offering (doubtless genuinely) to respect his opponents is seen by some as a sign of UnAmerican Activities amounting practically to treachery. They *really* hate Hillary Clinton. Unfortunately for McCain, they're probably the only people who'd vote for him right now. He certainly needs them if he's going to win - here's the latest indication that the usual tactics don't work on Obama:

Originally Posted by McCain

' “…I am told that Senator Obama made the statement that if Al Qaeda came back to Iraq after he withdraws -- after the American troops are withdrawn -- then he would send military troops back, if Al Qaeda established a military base in Iraq. I have some news: Al Qaeda is in Iraq. Al Qaeda, it's called Al Qaeda in Iraq, and my friends if we left they wouldn't be establishing a base, they wouldn't be establishing a base, they'd be taking a country. And I'm not going to allow that to happen my friends. I will not surrender. I will not surrender to Al Qaeda.� '

Originally Posted by Obama

'“I've got some news for John McCain, that is there was no such thing Al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade.

“I've got some news for John McCain. I've got some news for John McCain. He took us into a war, along with George Bush that should have never been authorized, never been waged. They took their eye off the people who were responsible for 9/11 and that would be Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, that is stronger now than at any time since 2001. I've been paying attention John McCain!

“John McCain may like to say that he wants to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of Hell. But so far all he's done is follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq that's cost us thousands of lives and billions of dollars and that I intend to bring to an end so that we can actually start going after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and in the hills of Pakistan, like we should have been doing in the first place. That's the news John McCain! '

Talks a bit funny, but he's firmly kicked that argument where it hurts.

[jkat]

lol obama gets my vote!

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by BBKing

Talks a bit funny, but he's firmly kicked that argument where it hurts.

That would be the bit where he's saying he'd gladly have had Saddam remain in power murdering, torturing, raping civilians? I'd mention mass graves, but as the substantial numbers of victims found isn't apparently as substantial as first reported, yet still portrays Saddam in a bad light, some people try to suggest they're insignificant and shouldn't be discussed. I wonder why...
You probably missed the bit where he made the distinction over the balls up that happened and how it would have been done properly if he had been President.
Oh no, wait, he didn't make that distinction, nope, instead he re-affirmed the "screw them, they're only Shia and Kurds" view that some "liberals" portray.
Next someone will be suggesting that the lack of support was down to nations caring more about their soldiers than playing politics due to the financial gains that would be missed out on should Saddam have been removed from power.
Then there'll be the suggestion that those who took action only did so for financial gain, while ignoring the paradox of the two views.

[TheNorm]

Originally Posted by BBKing

... Abraham Lincoln ....

Lincoln was, of course, a Republican. His vice president was a Democrat.

How times have changed.

[BBKing]

How times have changed.

Not so very much - Bush's remaining friends are currently bigging him up as being like Lincoln, Churchill and Truman rolled into one.