(If you’re not familiar with the “Kill List,” see here.)
Sure, ask Paul Ryan, too, but we know the answer he’ll give.
It’s the answer we expect. On the other
hand, this question instantly and dramatically reveals that you’re never going
to get from the Democrats what you are led to expect.
What can Biden (and Democratic supporters of Obama) say? It’s a done deal. Mitt has a kill list, because Obama handed it
to him. He can put anybody he wants on
it, and kill them at any time, and the Democrats can have nothing to say in
objection. This is what Obama
has wrought.
This is also why I reacted somewhat negatively to this smart
and funny cartoon a friend sent me the other day:
It’s easy to mock Republican absurdity, and Romney certainly
deserves our ridicule, just as Big Bird deserves our support. But it becomes a lot less funny when we have
to acknowledge that it’s the liberal Democratic Obama-Clinton team who actually
are sitting around watching (or, because it's so banal, not even bothering to
watch, while nonetheless presiding over) the assassination of real 16-year-old
American kids, who (along with fundamental constitutional rights) deserve our
support even more. Thinking for a second
about this cartoon, and watching the sputtering Democrats in the video above,
it would seem that we should not be so selective with the mockery, and anger.
As Glenn Greenwald summarizes
the Obama campaign’s argument: “it’s absolutely vital that we know all about
the GOP nominee’s tax shelters and financial transactions over the last decade …
but we need not bother ourselves with how the Democratic nominee is deciding
which Americans should die, his claimed legal authority for ordering those
hits, the alleged evidence for believing the target deserves to be executed, or
the criteria used to target them.” That’s
not a parody.
In fact, is this cartoon not a picture of the future, where,
thanks to Obama, the Romney (or some other reactionary Republican) team will be presiding over the assassination
of whomever they want, with liberal Democrats having nothing they can say to
object? Ha. Ha.
The Obama campaign is based entirely on scaring you about
the possibly worse Republican ogre while ignoring and obfuscating the precedent-setting
crimes of the actual Democratic Emperor. The possible future Lord High
Executioner cannot be worse than the present one, who is also responsible for
creating the position.
I’ll leave the last take to the following
illustration, by Tom Tomorrow, which is just as funny, and sad:
Links Cited:
John Cook, “Ask the DNC: Is Romney Ready for the Kill List?”
(http://gawker.com/5941326/ask-the-dnc-is-romney-ready-for-the-kill-list).
Jo Becker and Scott Shane, “Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will” (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/obamas-leadership-in-war-on-al-qaeda.html?pagewanted=all).
Tom Junod, “The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama,” (http://www.esquire.com/features/obama-lethal-presidency-0812).
Glenn Greanwald, “Obama the Pioneer” (http://www.salon.com/2012/08/04/obama_the_pioneer/.)
http://truth-out.org/art/item/11899-return-of-droney. (Tom Tomorrow also has a great take on Romney’s
vision of Sesame Street in the US Budget: http://thismodernworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/romneygraph2.jpg)
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