The one positive outcome I had expected from an Obama presidency was a more sympathetic attitude toward the Palestinians. Now we learn that Rahm Emanuel, son of an Irgun terrorist, is the new Chief of staff.
Well, it could have been worse. Obama might have chosen Hillary. And that would have pissed off the progs. After all, she voted for the Iraq war -- and she was allegedly cozy with the dreaded DLC, the locus of all evil. Thank G_D for Rahm!
16 comments:
There goes Obama, palling around with terrorists again...
I know! I thought to myself, well, thank heavens we're rid of those old 'n' tired DLC warmongers.
Heh.
Joe, I'm sort of starting to look forward to all this. Laughter, I believe, is the ultimate resistance. And oh, how Obama&CO hate to be laughed at!
If neo-progs could become revisionist historians on **Colin Powell**, they will provide such theater as will keep us in tears of laughter for four years. Good time to be a contrarian, indeed.
Emanuel's father is STILL a terrorist? I thought he became a pediatrician.
If the Obamasphere will swallow Colin Powell, the FISA betrayal and ACORN, they can hardly be expected to blink at Rahm Emanuel.
I'm so glad their pathetic hypocrisy has been exposed. I haven't given them hits for months.
Get your "I Told You So" graphics ready. We should be able to use them as soon as the rest of the gawdawful Cabinet pickst come out.
I'll bet there won't be more than three or four women in the whole bunch.
Yes he is a "consistent" supporter of Israel. But also helped with peace.
"One of his proudest moments during the Clinton administration "was an event that touched his political sensibilities and his personal ties to Israel: the 1993 Rose Garden signing ceremony after the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Emanuel directed the details of the ceremony, down to the choreography of the famous handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.""
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahm_Emanuel
And Joe have you seen this?:
"Chalabi’s Lobbyist Was Sarah Palin’s Spy"
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/11/06/chalabis-lobbyist-was-sarah-palins-spy/
It should interest you in your quest to find out how things are linked.
Maybe this was a way to placate Jewish voters.
This whole thing makes me nervous. It's one thing to have a Jewish person part of your cabinet, but one who has legit and scary ties to facism is a problem. I wonder what Isreal is thinking? I wonder what Iran is thinking? I wonder if Isreal buys it? This whole thing could blow up.
What is with him and terrorists? You would have thought he would learn.
And for all you pro women people out there, don't worry. Obama is considering Larry Summers. Which means all of our gender inequality will dissappear.
Because women will be considered sub humans at the end of four years. Who needs equality when women are no longer humans!
I think Rahm's probably NPD (or at a minimum, extremely narcissistic) as well. This choice for Chief of Staff signals real trouble (not that I'm surprised).
Narcissists tend to surround themselves with a combination of 1. other narcissists and 2. weaker suck-ups.
From Wikipedia:
He [Rahm] reportedly told British Prime Minister Tony Blair, prior to Blair appearing in public with Clinton for the first time after the Lewinsky scandal, "This is important. Don't fuck it up." Emanuel is said to have "mailed a rotting fish to a former coworker after the two parted ways." On the night after the 1996 election, "Emanuel was so angry at the president's enemies that he stood up at a celebratory dinner with colleagues from the campaign, grabbed a steak knife and began rattling off a list of betrayers, shouting 'Dead! ... Dead! ... Dead!' and plunging the knife into the table after every name." His "take-no-prisoners attitude" earned him the nickname "Rahm-bo"....His first name, Rahm, means "high" or "lofty" in Hebrew....Emanuel trains for and participates in triathlons.
Political notes (unrelated to the point above):
Centrist (not liberal).
Was senior advisor and chief fundraiser for Richard M. Daley's victorious campaign for Mayor of Chicago in 1989.
A senior advisor to Clinton at the White House from 1993 to 1998.
DCCC chairman: He declared that in his new role "winning is everything", and he urged Democratic candidates to adopt more centrist positions.
"I wonder what Israel is thinking?"
That they can get away with ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING now, even more egregiously than they have in the past 50 years?
Yeah, the Palestinian question was the ONE, the only one stinking thing I might have warmed to Obama on. I was thrilled that he was friends with Rashid Khalidi (source of much anti-Muslim invective on another anti-Obama blog that shall remain nameless). But I see that we must make room under the train car (bus became too small) for Khalidi and the Palestinians.
Yeah, it is highly amusing in a sick sort of way. As I noted at Dr. Socks's place: Hillary was eviscerated daily by the Obamaverse for her connections to the hated DLC whose members were all vile bloodthirsty savages. Now we shall learn that Rahm Emanuel has magical twinkly fairy dust that spills from his butt and bathes him in a magical glow.
Feel the change. Smell it.
Geez Joseph, This was Clinton's (Bill & Hill;'s) fundraiser and he worked in the White House under Bill. How quickly they forget ....this was a point of contention I had with Clinton- and why I really saw little difference between Obama and Hillary, with the exception of how Obama got people involved in the country.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/clinton/interviews/emmanuel.html
You can put the Clinton's on a pedestal but they worked with these very same people- as fundraisers, which was what I had a problem with.....
Needless to say, I wasn't expecting better from Obama, so I am not delusioned or betrayed nor do I expect Emanuel to serve under Obama for the entirety of his administration. Obama will have to learn the hard way. Or- he will be undermined by Emanuel - which is no different than what Clinton experienced in his administration.
tru-t
Just in reference to my prior comment - hypercompetitiveness, an absence of empathy and often a certain streak of meanness (though camouflaged to varying degrees), and an exercise fetish are all common features of narcissists.
The vast majority of people who exercise heavily are obviously not narcissists, but among narcissists, it's extremely enriched (in part because many are ultra-concerned with appearance/body image). Because of their entitlement and their concern with image, exercise routines are often prioritized over other obligations (note "O as W"). [side comment: I think Bush's high level of narcissism directly led to many of the debacles of his administration, though personally I don't perceive him as fully qualifying for the NPD label].
Hypercompetitiveness is more indicative (though it's often made less obvious by a "nice guy" patina).
A friend of mine (who has plenty of personal experience with NPD) sent out an e-mail to several of her friends yesterday entitled "Dead Eyes Club" - with links to Youtube videos of some of Obama's buds. Today - with Rahm - one more has been added to the list.
Few more comments - mostly speculative in nature.
Apparently there's talk of possibly keeping Gates and Paulson (regarding Paulson, note that Goldman Sachs was one of Obama's largest contributors), and talk of possibly appointing Lugar or Hagel at State. But I suspect that he'll only retain/appoint one or two of these individuals - would calculate that there'd be too high a cost among Dems if he retained/appointed this many Republicans.
One possibility that seems likely to me - the Daley strategy. In addition to being known for ruthlessness and corruption, Daley is often seen as being a master at co-opting his enemies into his administration/patronage system. The Illinois corruption machinery largely ignores the party divide.
I also find myself thinking Nixon (in terms of strategy/tactics), but with a far higher level of charisma and support from true believers. Pragmatist mainly concerned about power.
Another aspect of Rahm - he's a money machine (incredibly skilled schmoozer-fundraiser), so Rahm's appointment as Chief of Staff might say something about the access/power given to the elite contributors.
I checked out the Kos kids. They're all busy rationalizing the Rahm choice. Rahm pushed the Dems to the right? Doesn't matter. Actively sought candidates on the center-right to challenge the seats of liberal Dems? Doesn't matter. Pro-Israel hawk? Doesn't matter. One page had a poll - overwhelming majority voted that the Rahm pick was a good decision.
A few items of interest:
http://www.truthout.org/article/special-report-democratic-house-officials-recruited-wealthy-conservatives
http://firedoglake.com/2007/09/07/rahm-emanuels-war/
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2006/11/rahm-emanuel-may-not-have-had-much-to.html
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2006/11/not-enough-rahm-today-were-just.html
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2008/11/did-we-elect-rahm-emanuel-last-night-i.html
g, why am I completely unsurprised at the parroting sippy-cup Kossers? I am ROFLMAO at the thought of those slackjaw dittoheads chanting "Obama good, Rahm good, Powell good, Obama good, Rahm good..." ad nauseam.
"I really saw little difference between Obama and Hillary, with the exception of how Obama got people involved in the country."
He didn't get anyone involved in the country. He got a lot of gullible children to get involved in the Obama Movement. Nothing to do with Democratic politics, the Democratic party, or anything to do with the country.
Are you aware that most Obamatrons didn't vote for a single other issue on their ballots because they were utterly clueless about them? The ONLY thing on their zombie minds was Obama, because the only thing Obama stands for is Obama.
And if you truly couldn't see any differences between Hillary and Obama, then you weren't paying attention, which is a typical failing of the Obama Fan Club. Critical thinking is discouraged in mass cult movements but the rest of us who weren't taken in saw many, many differences.
The difference in the Clinton administration cabinet holders to being a BZero cabinet holder - the Clintons were stand alone professional statesmen who actually care about America and did provide government. BZero is owned - totally nothing more than a symbolic figure. The extreme number of NPR's it took to select him is going to be fun to watch. Rahm showed us his narcissism immediately - "he did not know if he would be COS or not". The old timer Clinton people all have more experience and truly feel they are superior to this present selected POTUS.To say they are opportunistic is an understatement. Bill Clinton was far superior and held them in check. BZero can't - he is a cipher - there is nothing there -0-
Welcome to the "rap tour". We are going to have a "show" of egos that makes Bush look good - even Pollyanna. That's the whole point.
A better attitude towards Palestine? You what? Obama declared in Israel his support for Jerusalem's role as the 'eternal and indivisible' capital of Israel. As everyone in the Middle East knows, that means permanent war. Even Clinton and Bush never went that far!
b
So Rahm Emanuel gave up his dual citizenship of Israel and the US when he was 18. And since then he's been a citizen of only the US.
Given that he hasn't publicly renounced his 'right of return', that's obviously a ridiculous thing to believe.
But there's more.
14 years later, his supposed renunciation of Israeli citizenship didn't prevent Rahm from joining the Israeli armed forces during Gulf War I in 1991.
Are we really expected to believe that the Israeli authorities related to him as they would to a non-Israeli, a foreigner?
Does American law actually allow US citizens to enlist in foreign armed forces?
b
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