What the Fuck Has Obama Done?
If you have earnest Obama fans among your friends in a social network or perhaps even real life, you may well have been sent a link to the hiply profane "What the Fuck Has Obama Done So Far?" site. It is designed to instruct the prog-leaning who might be slightly disappointed in our world leader's accomplishments thus far in how and why they need to man up and join the parade of Democratic Party triumphalism.
To the extent that it has worked to rally the soft-left troops, the site, and the spirit behind it, is sorely disappointing, consisting almost entirely of "he's spending nonexistent money on helping people we think you might be sympathetic to" or "he's restricting the actions of people we think you might be unsympathetic to", or non accomplishments such as "signing executive order" to close Guantanamo, when he has done little to actually ensure it would happen, or to end the policies that led to its existence in the first place.
All the issues where libertarians like to dream they can win left-progressives' cooperation on–anything having to do with government leaving us alone or not acting like a villain–are ignored as if unimportant.
Luckily, some other cheeky progressives made a site mirroring its look in every way, "What In The Fuck Has Obama Done So Far?", highlighting such Obama administration accomplishments as "Won the right to invoke "state secrets" protecting the Bush administration from criminal prosecution," "Failed to disclose visits by industry executives while crafting health care reform legislation," "Authorized the assassination of US citizens abroad, an unprecedented declaration of executive power," "Censored reporters covering military tribunals at Guantanamo," "Fought for government immunity in prosecutions for domestic spying," "Awarded $250 million in government contracts to Blackwater," "Dramatically increased the use of drone bombers in Pakistan, resulting in hundreds of civilian casualties," "Won the right to keep identities of prisoners at Bagram "black site" a secret," "Cracked down on government whistleblowers more than any President in history," "Used cluster bombs in Yemen, resulting in the deaths of 14 militants, and 35 women and children," "Sent 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan," "Passed a massive bailout of Wall Street, at the taxpayers' expense," and "Pushed for a 5 year prison term for Charles Lynch, the operator of a medical marijuana dispensary, legal under California law." Each entry comes with accompanying link to a citation.
Send the latter "What In The Fuck Has Obama Done So Far?" link along to a progressive you love today!
The founders of the actually pro-Obama site showed up on MSNBC last night, humbly talking up their signal service to the Great Leader, using the more TV-friendly "What The Heck Has Obama Done?" name. Sellouts! My esteemed colleague Michael Moynihan tells me they got the booking at the behest of Michael Moore. It is strange to type the words "Michael Moore has let me down," and yet, there it is.
