Friday Open Thread [3.22.13]

Filed in National by on March 22, 2013

It seems that the Israeli left and center is really really pleased, even excited, but President Obama’s speech yesterday. From Haaretz:

Sometimes it takes someone from the outside, like U.S. President Barack Obama, to show up and tell it like it is to the Israelis: You’ve got a wonderful country, you’re wise and just, you suffered and you deserve a state, and as long as the United States exists you’ll never stand alone – but for God’s sake, enough! Stop the settlements, stop the occupation, stop the deportations, stop the ongoing abuse of the Palestinians, and stop the settlers’ violence. Enough.

Haaretz’s Bradley Burston :

For Barack Obama to come to Jerusalem, and speak to Israeli students and talk persuasively of the possibility of a secure and peaceful future, for him to do that and garner a roaring ovation of approval, he would have to have given one hell of a speech.

He did.

This was the speech that these young Israelis not only needed but wanted to hear. A speech that radically redefined centrism in Israel, bringing it down to extraordinary common denominators in directions Israelis have learned to think of as diametrically opposed.

He spoke of security and peace as inextricably and necessarily linked, not a narrow choice between options, but a conscious choice for both.

They roared.

Is Hillary Clinton too conservative to win the Democratic nomination? Well, her 2008 platform probably is. From Ruby Cramer at Buzzfeed:

Hillary Clinton’s reversal on same-sex marriage is a sign she is “ready to revisit a campaign platform that has been all but frozen in amber since she left the political stage for the State Department four years ago.”

“Because the former Secretary of State jumped from the campaign trail in 2008 to Washington’s Foggy Bottom, where she was barred from talking domestic politics, Clinton will have to dust off, and likely shift, her policy positions, Democratic strategists say, if she wants to run for president in 2016 in a party that has moved sharply to the left in recent years.”

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  1. Jason330 says:

    The GOP house would benefit immensely from similar straight talk.

  2. V says:

    http://jezebel.com/5991820/your-evening-cry-how-we-wish-history-had-gone-down

    try and not cry watching this. it’s REALLY HARD.

    all the feels you guys. ALL THE FEELS.

  3. puck` says:

    Clinton will have to dust off, and likely shift, her policy positions, Democratic strategists say, if she wants to run for president in 2016 in a party that has moved sharply to the left in recent years.”

    How exactly has the party moved to the left? The party that voted to cut taxes on the rich? The party that has an unwritten cap of 20% on taxes for the richest?

  4. Jason330 says:

    Gay marriage. Pot.

  5. puck` says:

    I guess dope will get you through times of no money, better than money will get you through times of no dope.

  6. socialistic ben says:

    “The doctor asked me if i have any conditions that could be alleviated by marijuana. yes, i told him. I get bummed when i run out of weed. Pot CURES that!” ~Ron White.

    2016 is Hillary’s to win or lose. honestly, so was 2008. No one could have predicted Obama. Her vote on the Iraq War will have been so long ago, no one will care at that point. I read that piece too, and i think someone had to make a deadline, so they created a potential issue. Honestly, who the heck else is there on the Dem side…. not “who would wonky progressive nerds like to see” but in real life, who IS there?

  7. Geezer says:

    I’m trying to think up reasons why this shouldn’t worry me: A just-posted Allan Loudell podcast interview with Mayor Williams after his budget address, in which the mayor says he had no idea Wilmington’s budget was under $200 million. He thought it was $500 or $700 million.

  8. mynym says:

    try and not cry watching this. it’s REALLY HARD.

    all the feels you guys. ALL THE FEELS.

    Seriously?

    If you didn’t love having your feelings manipulated by others you might wonder why the ADL didn’t include names like Rachel Corrie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz0Vef4Fu8U and other Palestinians. Because apparently the ADL likes to create theatrical productions about pretty much everything and anything else other than the actions* that have typified their own Zionist tribe. Who put them in charge of keeping a record of or defining all the victimization in the world, again? *For example:

    The Corries have become fixtures in the anti-Israel movement since their daughter’s death. They have organized several events through the Rachel Corrie Foundation, which they established, and regularly give presentations at events sponsored by established anti-Israel groups, including Friends of Sabeel in North America, and Students for Justice in Palestine and Muslim Student Union at UC Irvine. The Corries have also endorsed a range of anti-Israel initiatives, such as the U.S. delegation being organized in conjunction with the upcoming Freedom Flotilla to Gaza… (The Anti Defamation League)

    They’re “anti-Israel”?

    Imagine that.

  9. auntie dem says:

    I love Hillary and think she would be a great President. Having said that, she’s spent all of her adult life inside the bubble. Her brain isn’t conditioned to move with the times but rather to maintain the status quo. And the people she listens to fall into the same mould. Obama took advantage of that weakness in 08 and somebody else may come along and knock her off again in 16. If she decides to run.

  10. PainesMe says:

    Geezer –

    Link!?

  11. mynym says:

    We need less Clinton/Bush, enough with these families and the ruling class in general. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTIXRy7ssbI Without new people you’re going to be stuck even farther in the same old establishment and the same “top $ecret” political networks that “stimulated” the corruption we’re living in now. Just find some new people already, crazy local politicians, whoever… because you probably couldn’t do any worse than the corruption in the old Bush/Clinton networks and their links to the banksters.

  12. mynym says:

    Pretty much everyone incorporated into American politics at high levels for the past few decades probably needs to go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=gP6rny-E1Cw#t=954s

  13. mynym says:

    I’d bet that Catherine Austin Fitts is more intelligent and principled than Hillary, have her run as a Democrat. Great point about JP Morgan’s food stamp business, 18 minutes in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=gP6rny-E1Cw#t=1075s

  14. V says:

    mynym, way to shit in my cornflakes.

    The Israeli guy was the one I needed to google. I was more affected by all the other folks.

    go ahead and be mad.

  15. V says:

    but that is a little funny that your example of a palestinian martyr is a american white girl.

    shame though, it looks like she clearly was passionate about doing good in this world.

  16. citydems says:

    Glad the President finally went to Israel – the only democratic nation in that part of the world. Happy he visited the young people in the one forum- but they are not th decisionmakers – give that process 15-20 years for a new generation. We have entered a dangerous phase- Syria has/is a failed state offering a vacuum for the various terroists. Israel has more than a right to be concerned. we are facing a seroius crisis with Iran/Syria and the outcome in Afganistan once we leave- but our REAL challenge is dealing with the ascendant China- and all the issues that brings with it- and it is about time we understand what the consequences of our economic policies will cause in foreign relarions decisions

  17. puck` says:

    You don’t think the decision-makers were watching? Obama’s gift is to speak to the people over the decision-makers’ heads. Yes, it’s about time he brought that to Israel.