Thursday, November 12, 2009

On the Eve of President Obama's Elmendorf AFB Refueling Stop

In 2008, Judy and I campaigned & canvassed for, and donated to President Obama's campaign. Many, many times.

Here we are, with Valdez resident, Nancy Lethcoe (who ran against John Harris for House District 12 last year), writing postcards to hunters and gun owners in the upper midwest, encouraging them to vote for Obama.

President Obama will be on Anchorage's Elmendorf Air Force Base briefly today, while Air Force One is being refueled there on the way to Asia. That's the occasion upon which most American presidents visit Alaska. I believe the last one to leave the base was Bill Clinton, who strolled through downtown Anchorage with then-Gov. Tony Knowles. At least three of my students who also serve in the military will be there to help other service members greet him.

My friend Jonathan Teeters, the head of the Alaska chapter of Organizing for America, has asked Alaskans to show support for President Obama by rallying outside the base's Boniface gate:

The news is out: President Obama is coming to Alaska. He'll be taking time to thank our service men and women - our neighbors! Let’s welcome President Obama to Alaska and show him how much we appreciate all he’s done! Please join us at a rally outside of the Boniface Gate to Elmendorf Air Force Base at 12:00 noon on Thursday, November 12th. We encourage you to deck yourselves out in Obama-gear and bring your Obama signs, whether they are campaign yard-signs or homemade posters with positive messages. This is our opportunity to send a clear message that Alaskans are still fired up and ready to go! Along with welcoming the President, we need to join him in recognizing the invaluable contributions of those serving in the military and those who have already served. Please encourage any veterans you know to join us as we will take time to recognize them on this historic day. See you there!


I won't be there. I'll be teaching. It looks like The Mudflats might have some people there, though. AK Muckraker posted Jonathan's letter yesterday, along with some encouragement:

With all the issues swirling around health care and Afghanistan and a host of other issues that frustrate us, let’s take a moment to think back on the first 10 months of the Obama administration, and recall the major legislation that has been passed.


  • January 29: Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
  • February 4: Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act
  • February 11: DTV Delay Act
  • February 17: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
  • March 30: Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009
  • April 21: Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act
  • May 20: Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act
  • May 20: Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009
  • May 22: Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009
  • June 22: Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act
  • August 6: Cash For Clunkers Extension Act
  • October 22: Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act
  • October 28: Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
  • October 30: Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act
  • November 6: Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009

  • And let us not forget the nomination and approval of Judge Sonya Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, and the fact that he does not say nookular.


    AND let’s not forget that the administration before this one was busy doing things like vetoing stem cell research, authorizing The Patriot Act, and No Child Left Behind, torpedoing our economy, lying us in to a war, and a whole lot of other stuff we’d rather forget about.


    Perspective and reflection are good things.


    Yes they are. A balanced perspective is even better:

    • Expanding the role of private contractors who are above the law, in Iraq and Afghanistan
    • Expanding the devastatingly inaccurate roles of Predator and Reaper drones in Afghanistan and Iraq
    • Continuing illegal extraordinary rendition
    • Continuing to hold detainees at several locations, without charge
    • Seeking to uphold many questionable legal decisions or moves made during the Bush administration
    • Quietly moved, behind the scenes - through his chief-of-staff, Rahm Emanuel and Pentagon officials - to keep overseas contractors from having to be held accountable for sexual assaults on their overseas workers

    My friend Jane Hamsher summarized Rahm Emanuel's devastatingly effective anti-progressive role very well, just after 2009's November elections, in an essay titled Lessons Learned in VA, CA and NJ: Is Rahm Emanuel Orchestrating 2010 Democratic Massacre?

    Today - November 12th - is the anniversary of a very unfortunate statement by Rahm Emanuel's dad, Benjamin Emanuel, when he found out that his son had been chosen as the newly elected Obama's chief-of-staff:

    Rahm Emanuel's father, asked about whether his hire signaled closer ties to Israel, said: "Obviously he’ll influence the President to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn’t he?


    "What is he, an Arab? He’s not going to be mopping floors at the White House."

    Benjamin Emanuel was an Irgun terrorist.

    Rahm was named after an uncle who was killed while trying to smuggle arms being used to kill British soldiers in Palestine:

    Rahm Emanuel is the son of a terrorist who directly plotted the assassination of Count Bernadotte, a Swedish diplomat and United Nations envoy who tried to broker peace in Palestine. But Irgun didn’t seek treaties. It instead sought racial cleansing and genocide. According to Elisabeth Bumiller in
    The New York Times, Benjamin Emanuel passed secret codes to Shin Bet bomber and future Prime Minister Menachem Begin. These very same Jewish terrorists eventually became the recognized Israeli government in 1948, as well as predecessors to Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party.

    I'm not going to take this issue any further today, but Emanuel is no progressive and his ideas and actions are alienating many Democrats and independents who helped elect Obama. If it weren't for that wave of support, many of the newly elected Representatives and Senators who helped pass the landmark legislation noted above by AK Muckraker wouldn't have gotten their bills out of committee, let alone passed and enacted.

    Rahm's total rejection of
    Howard Dean's 50-State strategy in the aftermath of the 2008 election was one of the most anti-progressive moves made by a Democrat in the past 50 years.

    If I was able to be outside EAFB today, I'd be carrying signs like these. To me, Jonathan, and AKM, they are a positive message:
    I should note that two of the three students of mine from UAA and ERCC who will be at Elmendorf today in uniform, fully support President Obama. The other one admires him, but does NOT want to go back to Afghanistan.

    9 comments:

    KaJo said...

    I've been harboring these opinions about Rahm Emanuel for a while, too. I read the Jame Hamsher essay you linked to.

    Maybe a few signs saying "FIRE RAHM EMANUEL" would be appropriate at that Elmendorf AFB rally...

    (there's a few others in Obama's administration that I think should be fired, too)

    Durruti said...

    Isn't this the same Obama who wanted to bring US troops home in dishonorable defeat just two years ago ? The same Obama who was willing to see a genocide in Iraq rather than for the surge to succeed ? It is a disgrace that this man, who doesn't believe in victory (we mustn't hurt the feelings of our enemies must we ?),
    is missing in action when it comes to the war in Afghanistan.
    As for the anti-Americans holding placards saying "Just Say No War", one can only marvel at the level of naivety of an adult who could scrawl something so utterly meaningless. Was this how we stopped Nazi Germany ...by mouthing utopian platitudes about "No More War"? Perhaps the energies of these protesters would be better spent in demanding "No More Jihad" but that would be "racist" wouldn't it ?

    Durruti said...

    This is becoming distinctly disturbing. According to this site all Obama's problems are being caused not by his hopeless inexperience or preening egotism but by the dark, behind-the-scenes plotting of the Jew Rahm Emanuel. It doesn't matter that most Israelis believe that this is the most anti-Israel US administration in history....no, that doesn't fit the narrative the Left is trying to construct. That narrative has an extremely frightening and centuries old tradition. The belief that the Jews are constantly working behind the scenes to support their own.
    It is becoming increasingly difficult to now separate the anti-Jewish conspiracy theories of the American Left from those of the Islamo-fascists. I suggest Mr.Munger and his fellow Leftists think very carefully about the road they are embarking on.

    Philip Munger said...

    Durruti,

    Mr. Emanuel's ethnicity or heritage has nothing to do with my longstanding and growing level of criticism of his acts, and of his influence over the President. Many of Rahm's most articulate critics are Jewish, most notably Howie Klein, Glenn Greenwald and Spencer Ackerman. And - unlike me - Howie is reluctant to criticize the Israeli government.

    If the Iraqis will have their bloodbath, it will happen whether we leave now or leave in 50 years.

    Makabit Bat Guriel said...

    Well of course Rahm's hertiage has nothing to do with anything...kind of like your constant freaking yammer about the USS Liberty has nothing to do with nothing.
    As for the Jews you mention, they are more than likely so steeped in self hate that YOU personally can't help but love them.
    Try another line sometime why don't you!

    Makabit Bat Guriel said...

    Here is a question for you Phil.

    On the Fort Hood Memorial(? yeah right) that just took the last ounce of your strength to paste a picture on your blog the other day because you had been working 14 hour days (wah, wah) and didn't have time for anything else.
    How is that when
    you had and still have time to post the bull shit you do now and then.
    I can give the correct answer and it's the fact the shooter turned out to be some whacked out Muslim and you are scared to death to say anything about it. Although I believe some where down deep in that aged skull of yours you feel he had the right to do what he did.
    Now let's see you defend yourself on that position and leave the Jews and Israel out of the equation for once.
    I bet you can't do it!

    Philip Munger said...

    Judith,

    I don't work 14 hours every day, just some of them.

    Maj. Hassan deserves a speedy and fair trial, just like you or me. Although I'm not proponent of capital punishment, Maj. Hassan is a better than average argument in favor of execution.

    Durruti said...

    Makabit Bat Guriel, I'm afraid you won't get a straight answer from Mr.Munger. He sees Hassan as "just like you or me" except he was mentally damaged by Bush's evil war. The religious motivation behind Hassan's terrorism is not worthy of discussion because it doesn't fit the Left's narrative. This is where only American citizens who oppose socialism are evil or terrorists and all their actions spring directly from the malign influence of neo-con Zionists, Fox News and Sarah Palin.

    People like Hassan and the Washington snipers and the dozens of other Jihadists caught plotting attacks on American soil are merely, in the Left's view, misguided victims of American oppression...more to be pitied as victims then condemned as terrorists. THe religious extremism that prompts their actions and the morbid anti-American propaganda from the leftist media that fuels their hatred must be ignored at all costs. And the fact that America is "evil" is evident in all aspects of Leftist propaganda.....this very site tells us every single day that America was responsible for over 1,300,000 Iraqi deaths. An easily-influenced, religious extremist of the Islamist type might see that figure alone as justification for his murderous rage. He wouldn't question the flawed figures, wouldn't ask who exactly had done the killings, wouldn't know about the Marsh Arabs or the Kurds : all he sees are the headlines "Iraqi Deaths due to US invasion". But even making that link is, of course, unfair to the Left...such a thing could never happen could it because only the evil Right are capable of making people do bad things. Well, at least that's what our leftist elites keep telling us.

    Makabit Bat Guriel said...

    Durrti,

    I knew that but I just wanted to see him dance around the subject.
    And he only works 14 hour days when it comes to NOT remarking on Muslim terrorists. Heaven forbid he refer to the murdering bastard(s) as such. I believe Herr Munger is just afraid of waking up some morning to find his decapitated head sitting on his blood soaked chest.
    Otherwise he has the time to spew his babble.