SoonerBlue

President Obama greeted Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko with a polite bow as he arrived at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Saturday.

It sure didn't take long for the rightie rage puppets to zero in on it like flies on dung and start taking political cheapshots. They whine that a US President shouldn't grovel before furriners.

Oh no!...this will lead to terrible things! Next thing you know, we'll all be driving Japanese cars and watching Japanese TV...

Everyone else saw Obama playing the part of polite guest in a part of the world where this sort of formal protocol counts for extra.

At least he didn’t vomit in the emperor’s lap ...ala Poppy Bush.

Anyway, see the bow here...and don't blink or you'll miss it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kyD_e0Y7FQ&feature=player_embedded

Don't righties realize that bowing is what the Japanese do instead of shaking hands? They don’t equate bowing with groveling...just with being polite. Notice that they never shake hands with each other...they always bow.

And where were these outraged wingnuts when their hero GWBush was holding hands with the Saudi king? Or when he gave Saudi prince Abdullah a big old smoochy? And if you want to talk about breach of protocol, what about when he gave a sneaky little neck rub to the female German chancellor...treating her like she’s a customer in a massage parlor?

I'm glad that Obama bowed knowing that righties would freak...shows that he won’t be bullied by small mean minds.

This was a deft move by Obama, but the wingnuts are too blinded by hate to see it....and if he had not bowed, these same wingnuts would attack him for committing a horrible, unforgivable breach of protocol.

There is absolutely nothing President Obama can do that righties would approve of...NOTHING. He’s too personal...he’s too aloof...he’s too polite...he’s too rude. You just have to laugh and enjoy their antics as comedy skits.

I am proud to have a President who is knowledgeable about another country’s culture. To show respect is very smart for him personally, and for our country generally.

You know, maybe we should start this bowing thing here...it would be more hygienic. Think of all the flu germs that are spread by shaking hands.

Our country has so many serious problems. How sad that we don't have a rational opposition party that would discuss these problems without rancor, and maybe offer solutions or alternatives. Even if we didn't agree, sometimes a good discussion can often bring about new ideas.

But no, all these guys want to talk about is Obama’s bowing style...

Looky here, the Tea Party is legit. It's been registered with the office of the Florida Secretary of State...and is going to run candidates against both Republicans and Democrats in state and national races.

Now they can officially parade around in those silly costumes and complain about everything and hate everyone under the sun.

Ah well, this is just another chance for the wingnuts to split the GOP vote and give elections to Democrats on a silver platter.

Be my guest!

So let crazy Michelle Bachmann and her angry teabagger mob storm the steps of the US Capital to give seditious speeches...and spread more seditious lies about the President and the democratically-elected government.

See, President Obama's opponents HAVE to do everything they can to stop him NOW...no matter how wild and outrageous, no matter how many lies they have to tell, or how many Nazi and death camp signs they have to carry. They have to pound him down, call him a socialist, fascist, Communist, Muslim and say he isn't an American.

Teabagger rabble-rousers and their congressional leaders are fighting like crazy to keep Obama from gaining a toehold...it's curtains for them if he succeeds at anything.

They have to cause as much partisan hatred as they can because they have only a short time before we go into the mid-term elections. It would be bad news for teabaggers and birthers if, say, the economy started to improve, or if a healthcare bill passed that actually helps the working class poor.

That's why they're fighting healthcare reform so fiercely -- they think it will work, and will be quite an historic victory for Obama. Which will drive the GOP even further into the wilderness.

Look at some of them in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-fXUedC5GQ&feature=player_embedded

PJ O'Rourke - famous Republican writer - said about the rally -- "Democrats belong to the silly party, Republicans belong to the stupid party...but you don't want to be stupid and crazy at the same time."

Teabaggers always holler "photo op!" whenever President Obama shows respect to the military, but he didn't take any press or TV cameras along when he visited wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Hospital the other day. He spent time with 19 soldiers and visited the families of 3 soldiers in intensive care. He also awarded two Purple Hearts.

So...now the righties can say that's just like a Communist to do things in secret...and guess who else visited the troops without the press? Hitler...

Today the President and the First Lady will attend a memorial service in Texas for the victims of the Fort Hood tragedy.

At least they aren't going to just fly over...

Right in the middle of President Obama's deliberations on what to do about US presence in Afghanistan, Foreign Service officer and former Marine Matthew Hoh became the first US official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war...he says he has doubts about our current strategy and planned future strategy.

Matthew Hoh said about our Afghanistan policy:

"I believe that the people we are fighting there are fighting us because we are occupying them. Not for any ideological reasons, not because of any links to al-Qaeda, not because of any fundamental hatred toward the West, the only reason they're fighting us is because we are occupying them."

Indeed.

This soldier Hoh was in the fight...he knows what he's talking about. There has to be a better way for this terror situation to be worked on.

~~U.S. official resigns over Afghan war ~~

"Foreign Service officer and former Marine captain says he no longer knows why his nation is fighting"

From washingtonpost.com: "When Matthew Hoh joined the Foreign Service ... he was exactly the kind of smart civil-military hybrid the administration was looking for to help expand its development efforts in Afghanistan.

A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. By July, he was the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed.

But last month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, Hoh, 36, became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency.

"I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan," he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department's head of personnel. "I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end." [..]"~~~

Matthew Hoh is a hero to the men and women on the battle field. It took guts for him to write this letter and speak truth to power. A majority of Americans agree with his statements...which ring loud and clear.

I truly hope his message will give courage and a wake up for others to follow.

The fight against terrorism is not central to Afghanistan. The cost in precious life and the cost in national treasure is not justifiable. This is the longest war the US has ever fought...and we are no closer to an end than we were almost 9 years ago. Afghan corruption and fraud are rampant. The NYT is reporting that Karzai's brother is a drug kingpin on the CIA payroll.

Everyone from Alexander the Great to the Mongols to the British has invaded Afghanistan. We are just the latest in a long line of foreign invaders with an agenda.

After Russia invaded in 1979, we used Afghanistan to fight the Cold War. Then, after the USSR withdrew in 1989, we lost interest in doing anything to help the Afghan people... which left a vacuum that the Taliban was happy to fill. Bin Laden was the result of our backing the mujahideen...and not until 9/11 did we start paying real attention to the region again.

Yes, I know there is fear about the Taliban having power in nuclear armed Pakistan.

But, if it's really only the nuclear arms that we are worried about, maybe we should just say that our strategy is not allowing nuclear arms to fall into the hands of terrorists or supporters of terrorists. There would probably be a lot of support for that policy from the rest of the world. Instead of this silly unworkable nation building.

But we have no stated objective in Afghanistan or Pakistan. And even scarier, our military presence there is strengthening all the terrorist groups, making the threat to nuclear armed Pakistan greater.

This has been the deadliest month ever for our forces in Afghanistan, nearly a year after millions of us voted for a President we thought was going to bring our troops home.

Time to hit the streets again, kids? Obama might not get out of Vietnam 'til we force him to...