An absence of consistency

Dee Ranged

Right on Melanie.

Say no to President Flip Flop NObama!

Ann

'Incorrectly'? Yes ...

How do you know when Obama is lying?
His lips move.

cuffleyburgers

Frankly I would find it hard to take any politician to task for generally harmless pronouncements over such a crazy situation such as the Israel-Palestinian situation.

He hasn't condoned terrorism by the Palestinians and he hasn't condoned provocative (even though possibly necessary acts) by the israelis such as wall building or settlements. He has wisely tried to avoid being pinned down. If he becomes president then he will obviously seek to steer a pragmatic path towards a negotiated settlement, the shape of which most outside observers can guess at now but daren't articulate given the opprobrium any kind of remark attracts from one side, the other side or both.

The fact is that if this mess is to be sorted out both sides are going to have to make concessions and inevitably there will be the risk of appearing to make concessions to terrorism.

As happened in Northern ireland. I don't pretend the N Ireland settlement was perfect by any means, and in my view the loyalists were let down by their leaders and by HMG, but in the wider view the key thing is that the killing stopped and a framework was made on which to build a lasting solution.

Neil Turner

Nice article Melanie.

Two issues are of interest

1. Obama is "charming". So was Blair, and it just means that he has an ability to suspend sound reason in our ears and eyes, whilst he performs a sleight of hand with his real intentions

2. Is it me, or is "doublespeak" on the increase? Politicians making statements to differing stakeholders, and telling them what they want to hear. Recent examples include Sarkozy on the Irish EU vote; Gordon Brown on the UK defence spend

patricia

Expect the usual litany of anti Obama tripe and Cult of Mel idolatry and glorification any time now -

Where is everyone?

JJS

Exactly right!

patricia

Come on Moderator - let s see some antagonistic posts... for a change....

Bob Latchford

I notice the Daily Mail article is devoid of the attempts to wrench Obama out of this mythical Islamic closet that this blog seems obsessed with

steve

Melanie: Are you concerned at all about John McCain's misstatements over the last few weeks like referring to Czechoslovakia as if it still existed or getting the date of the surge wrong or in stating that Iraq bordered Pakistan or in confusing Shi'tes and Sunnis? Does it worry you at all that he may be president?

Miranda Rose Smith

Nobody I talked to seems to be charmed by Obama. I was impressed that McCain has yet to meet with the "Palestinians." Nobody with the slightest desire to see Israel survive would suggest dividing Jerusalem. The Jordanians held the West Bank and the Old City in 1967 and they STILL attacked Israel.

michael

Ann

Your posts get dafter and dafter. But that's no surprise to anyone who has read them...

The rest of us see how Obama is already the President in waiting. Not the President Elect, the President.

Small wonder given the mess Bush and his pro Zionist Neocons have made of whatever they turned their hands to, and the contempt the civilised world holds them in.

Obama is the right man for the US and for the Middle East, particularly if he treats Israel in an even handed way, gives Muslims the reassurance that the US will not ALWAYS cowtow to the Israeli right, putting the search for peace above the fear of the Israeli lobby and its demands for bias.

michael

Ann

Your posts get dafter and dafter. But that's no surprise to anyone who has read them...

The rest of us see how Obama is already the President in waiting. Not the President Elect, the President.

Small wonder given the mess Bush and his pro Zionist Neocons have made of whatever they turned their hands to, and the contempt the civilised world holds them in.

Obama is the right man for the US and for the Middle East, particularly if he treats Israel in an even handed way, gives Muslims the reassurance that the US will not ALWAYS cowtow to the Israeli right, putting the search for peace above the fear of the Israeli lobby and its demands for bias.

Adam Smith

...inspired by many a corking "Brownie", perhaps?

I expect Geppetto is so very proud of his two sons! Although, one is curiously less wooden than the other...

Ben-Tsiyon (ha rishon)

patricia, the most disgusting aspect of life in the UK today is seeing so many Establishment figures wilfully cowtowing to the Muslim / Arab lobby and its enthusiastically obliging poodle UK media.

No other lobby enjoys such wide support among political and journalistic hopefulls.

Ann

"provocative (even though possibly necessary acts) by the israelis such as wall building"

Err, right ... the Israelis protecting the lives of their people is 'provocative' ... thanks for revealing where you come from.

Ann

Oh, great: the loonies have crawled out from under their stone and are screeching 'Joos under the bed! Joos under the bed!'

Melanie's A Nutter

An Absence of Consistency?

Obama is a POLITICIAN!

Obama is extremely consistent in preventing people like Melanie Phillips from being able to land a punch on him.

Despite her best efforts.

What a nasty stupid post.

raymond joseph douglas

This man wants to remove soverienty over the whole of Jerusalem from Israel.Any Christian knows this is both dangerous to the fortunes of the U.S.A and Obama himself.Don't believe me?Look up Zech 12v2-5.I would say this to Obama,"Don't touch the issue of dividing up Jerusalem with a bargpole"!Leave the city of God,for God to dispose of!

Ronnie

Oh Melanie you are so right, my knees are trembling.

The silly man doesn't realise that he is running for two offices now - President of the United States and (the real) Israeli Defence Minister.

Miranda Rose Smith

Dear Patricia: The poodle US media that prints PLO propaganda as facts and repeatedly referred to the 60th anniversary of Israel as the "Nakba?"

Miranda Rose Smith

Dear Steve: I worry quite a bit about McCain being President. I worry even more about Obama being President.

Miranda Rose Smith

Dear Michael: Just exactly when did the U.S. kowtow to the Israeli right? What do you mean by "treat Israel in an even handed way?" Behave the same towards one peace-loving Democracy as you do towards 16 primitive dictatorships committed to wiping it off the map? Incidentally, Israel has remained a staunch ally of the United States. Most Arab states view the United States as "the Great Satan."

Miranda Rose Smith

Dear Michael: Just exactly when did the U.S. kowtow to the Israeli right? What do you mean by "treat Israel in an even handed way?" Behave the same towards one peace-loving Democracy as you do towards 16 primitive dictatorships committed to wiping it off the map? Incidentally, Israel has remained a staunch ally of the United States. Most Arab states view the United States as "the Great Satan."

Ronnie

Oh Ann. Such depth and profundity. How could anyone ever disagree with you?

You take us all back to our playground days and those moments of boiling, inexplicable rage that were never really satsified.

George

Patricia and Michael, I would take you both a little bit more seriously if you could spell. The word is kowtow.

Hereford

Patricia, You seem to post, not to make a point, but to initiate negative and hateful output from others. Indeed you seem almost dissappointed when there is none.

That's an interesting behaviour.

So, do you just come on here to have your moral outrage with the Jews refreshed and reinvigorated? Or do you have an issue with Melanie? Or just a need for a fight?

I would like to see your counterview expressed and argued positively and with evidence.

That might create a stimulating and enabling debate. But somehow I doubt that is what you are looking for.

Pete Hoskin

patricia: we have had to remove one of your comments, as it overstepped the bounds of what we can permit, and should not have been approved in the first place.

Maurice, MD

I do not often respond directly to comments of other posters, but do feel obliged to make a point about the comment of Cuffleyburger.
There is absolutely no comparison or parallel to the situation in Ireland.
The Irish never, to my knowledge, set out to destroy England and kill all the English.

But the repeatedly stated goal of the Arabs is to destroy Israel totally, and kill or drive out all of the Jews.

This is thus not a dispute in which a compromise is possible.

I love Mel

oh Mel this Obamaphilia has to stop!!! one might say you ahve a crush on him!! what would Joshua say.

FinanceDoc

Melanie

Reading your article in the Mail today reminded me of a metaphorical piece for Obama and his adoring acolytes.

In the (prescient) Jerzy Kosinski novel and film "Being There", naïf gardener “Chance” is propelled toward the heights of US political power as those around him project their own ideas and ideals onto his vacuous statements about tree trimming and seasonal planting.

Obama is the perfect pool into which those who desperately wish for “change” can view their own reflection, reading whatever they like into his comments and activities.

If you hold in contempt his embrace of a vile anti-Semite like Louis Farrakhan, he will remind you of his love for the Jewish people by praying at the Western Wall. If his acceptance of a united Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty infuriates you, there is always the rejoinder the following day that what he meant was no more barbed wire. And if you wonder in awe how he could sit through 20 years of the most wretched anti-American polemics at church, he will tell you he was in the bathroom at the time.

Welcome to the age of reason in American politics!

Mladen Andrijasevic

Barak Obama's site http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/christian
says : "Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised as a Muslim"

Daniel Pipes's site shows that this statement is false
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5544

How is it possible that there is not a single journalist with the guts to publicly ask Obama the following question:

Senator Obama, we know that you are not a Muslim, as some have claimed. Your camp has clearly and explicitly denied that. However, tell us clearly: have you been a Muslim in your youth, as many commentators (outside the mainstream media) have indicated with good evidence? There is of course nothing wrong or dishonorable in being - i.e. having been - a Muslim. The reason we are asking is not to imply that, but simply to clarify the truth. And, if indeed you were a Muslim, please also tell us why have you been consistently implying that you were not? Implying both by your silence in the context of much talk about this issue, and by your camp occasionally even directly stating that you were not. Thank you

Mladen Andrijasevic

Barak Obama's site http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/christian
says : "Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised as a Muslim"

Daniel Pipes's site shows that this statement is false
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5544

How is it possible that there is not a single journalist with the guts to publicly ask Obama the following question:

Senator Obama, we know that you are not a Muslim, as some have claimed. Your camp has clearly and explicitly denied that. However, tell us clearly: have you been a Muslim in your youth, as many commentators (outside the mainstream media) have indicated with good evidence? There is of course nothing wrong or dishonorable in being - i.e. having been - a Muslim. The reason we are asking is not to imply that, but simply to clarify the truth. And, if indeed you were a Muslim, please also tell us why have you been consistently implying that you were not? Implying both by your silence in the context of much talk about this issue, and by your camp occasionally even directly stating that you were not. Thank you

Brian O'Connor

Mel wrote:

Nor did he explain yesterday what the big difference was supposed to be between ‘preconditions’ and ‘preparations’. That’s because his people are using this word ‘preparations’ to pretend that it means ‘preconditions-lite’ and thus enable Obama to speak out of both sides of his mouth at once, both to those who want him to appease Iran and those who want him to attack it.

Bingo!

Preparations: What I need to do before we talk.

Preconditions: What you need to do before we talk.

(Logically, one preparation could be winning a precondition. But in this case, Obama specifically said he'd meet tyrants and dictators "without preconditions.")

Bob Latchford

oh dear, we have people talking about the "muslim lobby" and others quoting the Bible in reference to Obama. This place is slowly descending into farce

Norm

Melanie,
Keep those "flip-flop" Obama comments coming! His "smooth operator" look needs a reality check! Thank you for all your work. I'd like to see all of his flip-flops put into a 'before-&-after'chart.

Huldah

Hereford

'Patricia, You seem to post, not to make a point, but to initiate negative and hateful output from others. Indeed you seem almost dissappointed when there is none.'

Hereford, the type of post you describe is called 'trolling', and there's a well known internet saying 'Don't feed the trolls'.

Verity

Melanie's whole piece is running in Little Green Footballs today. So far, she has 373 comments on her piece.

Ahad Ha'amoratzim

Who the heck cares whether Obamessiah is a Muslim? There are so many other reasons to vote against this inexperienced, incompetent, dishonest, deluded, narcissitic creature of the media that I don't care to waste time on side issues that deflect attention from his substantive deficits.

Robin

Hey, people. Relax a bit about Ann and Patricia.

One of the great things about this blog is who posts what. Many times I think that either Ann or Patricia have posted utter nonsense - although I found Ann's first post this morning spot on.

Obama makes my flesh creep. I don't trust him, believe what he says or have any positive views about his candidancy. As I'm a Brit, my views don't matter in this election. Pity...

john doe

FinanceDoc: That's a good analogy.
The situation with Obambi is strikingly similar to that of Chance in the film Being There. Both are surrounded by gullible fools desperate to see their own dreams made manifest.
The only difference I see is that Chance was an innocent simpleton whereas Obambi is a cynical manipulator, a Machiavellian and sinister figure..a veritable wolf in sheep's clothing who knows exactly what he is doing and behind the facade is sticking steadfastly to a treacherous agenda.
He is downright dangerous and a clear and present danger to the free world.

Samantha Jones

Like you Melanie, i too find this adulation of Obama rather creepy. Who is behind this 'second coming' i think America should find out before they allow him to run their country. McCain is by far the better candidate and i hope they can see that. Another liberal is not what the world needs, haven't they done enough damage?
I'm not fooled by him or who is behind him, making this happen, please God America isn't either.

stanley Jerusalem

Financedoc - Remember that the final scene in 'Being There' shows Chauncy Gardner walking on water - the ultimate demonstration of a politician's perceived divine powers with which our Mr Obama appears to be being currently invested

Kiwi

Mladen Andrijasevic wrote: "How is it possible that there is not a single journalist with the guts to publicly ask Obama the following question:

Senator Obama, we know that you are not a Muslim, as some have claimed. Your camp has clearly and explicitly denied that. However, tell us clearly: have you been a Muslim in your youth, as many commentators (outside the mainstream media) have indicated with good evidence? There is of course nothing wrong or dishonorable in being - i.e. having been - a Muslim. The reason we are asking is not to imply that, but simply to clarify the truth. And, if indeed you were a Muslim, please also tell us why have you been consistently implying that you were not? Implying both by your silence in the context of much talk about this issue, and by your camp occasionally even directly stating that you were not. Thank you"
Followed by... Exactly when and where did you apostacise from Islam to embrace Christianity?'

Surely Obama must know the punishment prescribed by the Sharia for apostasy is death? Even if one is born a Muslim and then apostates (Murtad Fitri) he is to be killed even if he repents. His repentance might be accepted by Allah but he still has to go through the punishment prescibed for his treason in this world.

Bukhari - Volume 4, Book 52, Number 260:
Narrated Ikrima:

Ali burnt some people and this news reached Ibn 'Abbas, who said, "Had I been in his place I would not have burnt them, as the Prophet said, 'Don't punish (anybody) with Allah's Punishment. 'No doubt, I would have killed them, for the Prophet said, 'If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.'"

kitchener

A VIEW FROM THE U.S. HEARTLAND
We have given this charlaton and poseur the bennifit of the doubt over his shady friends...out of a sense of fair play, we have listened to his seductive patter,but we are slowly turning away and will never listen again!!...Mr Obama is an obvious FRAUD...a SNAKE OIL SALESMAN par excellance!!
The more we see of him,the less we like him!!...sunlight is the best disinfectant!!...Mr Obama is slowly decomposing before our very eyes...it will be over ,long before November!!..he is unelectable,finished,kaput..DONE!!.."Rough and ready" JOHN MCCAIN wins by default!!!

Kiwi

Ahad Ha'amoratzim "Who the heck cares whether Obamessiah is a Muslim?"
Agreed. The problem is his denial, despite evidence to the contrary. A matter of integrity, surely?

Verity

I can't wait to see Blair and Obama shake hands! Twins separated at birth.

One white; one semi-white - but with one mission! The destruction of the civilised, Christian West.

AllenCic

For all of you old enough to remember the early days of television you may remember the wonderful "Amos and Andy Show". I knew that I'd seen Obama somewhere before and finally it hit me, he's simply a youthful version of the hilarious character, The Kingfish! Yep, he's a lawyer too and just as transparently incompetent.

Ahad Ha'amoratzim

As an American, I apologize for my countryman Marcus. Some of us know a thing or two about history. Some of us don't know and don't want to, which lets us reach conclusions that Israel is an enemy of the US.

jerry

I am as anxious as someone who has had a large insect alight upon him unexpectedly. I cannot believe that people are not suspect of their own feelings of support for Obama, given the nature of the adulation heaped upon Adolph Hitler before WWII. Hitler's speaking style, though not similar to Obama's, also enthralled his audience. The German people went to war believing in the changes that Hitler had outlined. It scares me silly when otherwise reasonable news analysts and reporters admit their personal support for Obama. Just the people we rely upon for objectivity. Quite aside from any ideas, good or bad, Obama might espouse, aren't people frightened by their own effusive reactions to him? Aren't people petrified that they will place in office someone for his golden tongue, his race, his differences, rather than the cogency of his ideas. No one needs a charismatic leader in the 21st century. Doesn't everyone know that any point of view can be justified before or after having acted on that idea? People need reason and lucidity more than ever, not glowing warmth and adoration that should be saved for loved ones. "Change we can believe in!" Save us, somebody, anybody!!!

Pete Hoskin

Alexandrovich: you're right. That comment shouldn't have made it through. It has now been taken off the site.

I have not posted your comment as it quoted from the offending comment.

john doe

Verity: Little Green Footballs should be called RentaLynchMob.com. I was banned from there just for stating that Karadzic is innocent until proven guilty after a fair trial and accused of supporting genocide. Another poster was condemned and banned for reminding everyone of atrocities perpetrated by Croats and Muslims and told that ethnic slurs were not acceptable. Meanwhile comments insulting and slurring all Serbs were passed. The threads there are nothing short of hysterical and hypocritical, exhibiting the same fanatical characteristics they condemn.

john doe

StanleyJerusalem: If you look carefully at the end of Being There, you can see that Chance is in fact walking on submerged stepping stones. The viewer likes to think he is walking on water and thus the director brilliantly implicates us in the same dynamic as those in the film who imagine Chance to be what he isn't.

Ben-Tsiyon (ha rishon)

Verity and john doe, I've always maintained that the Serbs are the Israelis of the Balkans. The Biased Broadcasting Corporation churns out propaganda and slander against the Serbs in exactly the same manner as it does against the Israelis.

Someone connected with the ICJ who was recently interviewed on radio 4's 'Today' programme with regard to procedure in the pending Karadzic trial, mentioned the fact that there are Croats and Muslims who stand accused of war crimes, but there has not been any mention of this by the UK media.

Israel is accused of "collective punishment" every time action is taken against Gaza terrorists who deliberately site themselves among the civilian population, but, oh no, the NATO bombing of Belgrade during the 1999 Kosovo War was not "collective punishment" of the civilian population. Double standards, as always !

Verity

Ben-Tsiyon (ha rishon)- I am absolutely baffled as to why you would address your comment to me.

The Serbs and the Balkans are so far outside my frame of reference, I would not be able to pinpoint the areas on an atlas. I have no interest in their background or the conflict, if there's a conflict.

There seems to be some sort of quarrel going on, but this is not my fight. (If it's a fight.) Why on earth was I addressed?

stanley Jerusalem

John Doe - Thank you for the clarification.
You have now ruined the entire film for me!
It may well be that an intense scrutiny would reveal Chauncey Gardener a.k.a.Peter Sellers R.I.P. to have been walking on stepping stones but in the spirit of the film's story-line and my unlimited regard for
Goon No. 1 3/4, I prefer 'my' version.

john doe

StanleyJerusalem: I would never wish to violate your appreciation of the film. It's just my interpretation. I can never accept Chauncey as a messiah...he's a simple minded ignoramus. I know people who see the film and really believe he's Jesus or some kind of Zen master. But they are just like all the lost impressionable souls in the film. This is the New Age crowd indulging in wishful thinking, who need a saint and they are the same ones who have fallen for Obambi's charms and vacuity and who will vote him in.

Michael B

The Empath cum Rorschach candidate, who, with limitless supplies of politically motivated self-promotion and self-aggrandizement clamors about "change".

If it feels good, say it; if it doesn't feel good in some other locale or at some other time, say something else. And this, concerning primary issues, not secondary domestic issues.

It's called "change".

Ben-Tsiyon (ha rishon)

Verity, I addressed my comment on the Serbs etc. to you, as well as john doe, simply because his comment to you on Little Green Footballs was all about their blatant anti-Serb bias.

It's OK that you're not interested in the Balkans disputes. No harm done !

Verity

Ben-Tsiyon (ha rishon) - No, his comment to me was about a grudge he has against LGF because he was banned from the site and apparently imagined that I would not only be interested in that fact, but in an account of the details. Obviously, I didn't read it.

I was discussing LGF's coverage of Obama's having walked across the Mediterranean to award the Germans a visitation and make the valleys bloom, the wine flow and the oceans cease to rise.

Now we read today, again courtesy of LGF, that Obama has, at the last minute, cancelled a planned trip to a US military hospital in Germany to visit wounded American servicemen. The cancellation came about because his people had apparently failed to determine the rules of such visits ahead of time. No press and no cameras.

Obama's great empathy for America's wounded servicemen evaporated instanter. A military spokesman said he didn't know why Obama cancelled it. "We were all ready for him."

But Obama wasn't ready for an hour without cameras.

Point of interest: President and Mrs Bush have often visited military hospitals over the last few years with never a hint of publicity. No announcements to the media, no photos of them in the hospitals. Strictly private visits, genuinely felt and for no political advantage.

john doe

"The Serbs and the Balkans are so far outside my frame of reference, I would not be able to pinpoint the areas on an atlas. I have no interest in their background or the conflict, if there's a conflict."

Such crass wilful ignorance and philistinism is truly breathtaking and deserves little attention. Better scuttle back to LGF where they love this kind of vulgar plebian provincialism.
Given that the Balkans is the number one flashpoint for Christian/Muslim conflict in Western Europe,comparable to what is going on with Israel and the Arabs, I would say the above comment from Verity is beneath contempt.

logdon

Last night I watched a recording of the documentary, Hitler in Colour. It utilised recently discovered footage of his meteoric rise and astounding adulation amongst the German people. He promised hope, a new future for them and a restoration of international respect. (Hmm, sounds familiar?) It's a shame they didn't know what they knew in 1945 at that point. And so we see another wunderkind blinding all with hollow rhetoric and hypocrisy. In reality Hitler despised his very own Germans. Maybe a bit like Obama's cosying up to white hating preachers and kuffar hating muslims. Or his obvious disdain for the white working class poor who 'cling to guns and religion'. Even Hamas are now rooting for him. Try this for how he views his US point men. http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.702/pub_detail.asp

Verity

John Doe - You are clearly someone who cannot tolerate dissent, and if your abusive, dismissive response to me on this site is a mirror of your behaviour at LGF, I am not surprised that you got yourself banned.

Given your contemptuous attitude to posters at LGF - some of whom are very witty - why were you so eager to post on the site? Getting registered is not easy. It takes persistence.

Or perhaps you developed your contempt for them after you got banned?

I am out of this conversation.

paul hill

Popcorn?............soft drinks?

Ann

I am with John Doe. Not to know where the Balkans are ... unbelievable.

Presumptive Misfit

PRO-OBAMA BLOG & SELF-PROCLAIMED NIECE OF JOSEPH R. BIDEN, D-DE, SOLICITS MURDER ON THE INTERNET

Posted on July 27th, 2008

http://larrysinclair0926.com/