Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

T R E 4 5 O N

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

You can’t love your country only when you win.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Don’t pin a medal on me yet

Don’t pin a medal on me yet

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I have many older colleagues who are mostly liberal but who hate Obama with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns because of Obama’s insufficient fealty towards Bibi Netanyahu. Israel is such a contentious issue, and it’s important to realize that not all Israelis think Obama is evil for opposing some settlements:

Israel will award President Barack Obama the country’s Presidential Medal of Distinction during his upcoming visit.

Israeli President Shimon Peres’ office said Monday that Obama will be recognized for his “unique and significant contribution to strengthening the State of Israel and the security of its citizens.”

It will be fun watching Jennifer Rubin’s and Jackson Diehl’s heads explode over this.

Reader Interactions

72Comments

  2. 2.

    NonyNony

    I’m fairly certain that accepting an honorific like a Presidential Medal from a foreign country is an impeachable offense for a black Democrat.

    (Just a Time Traveler, presenting you the Fox News chyrons of the future.)

  6. 6.

    Tim F.

    Maybe they’re just giving him a medal for visiting. My family voted for him, but they complain all the time that Obama seemed to visit everyone but.

  7. 7.

    MikeJ

    Free Republic (various commenters):

    Israel was probably blackmailed. Literally. No medal = less money.

    Yes, and some Jews admired Hitler for his economic policies — before they were loaded on the trains.

    Them Jews ain’t as smart as I thought they were.

    Keeping your enemies close is oen thing, but jumping in bed with them? What THE HELL is wrogn with hte Jews?

  8. 8.

    Cassidy

    I’m fairly certain that accepting an honorific like a Presidential Medal from a foreign country being black is an impeachable offense for a black Democrat.

    They don’t need an excuse.

  9. 9.

    Origuy

    @Tim F.: He never writes, he never calls…

    GWB only visited Israel once during his presidency, in May 2008. Clinton four times. GHWB and St. Ronald never did.
    Source

  12. 12.

    AIMAI

    To quote a quaker who was probably a jew “All the world is mad but me and thee…and thou art a little strange.”

  14. 14.

    BC

    They will just denigrate it like they did the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. “You don’t deserve it, so you should refuse it!” Even the “liberal Scott Simon” on NPR Saturdays had an editorial in 2009 that Obama should have refused the Peace Prize because he “didn’t deserve” it.

  15. 15.

    Ben W

    So is this better or worse than Obama getting the Nobel Peace Prize? I can’t even tell who will flip out over what anymore.

  17. 17.

    srv

    Since the AF is cancelling Air Shows, and Republicans are always complaining his big 747, I suggest cancelling the trip as a sequestration hit.

  20. 20.

    Tonybrown74

    He should take Chuck Hagel with him.

    Then I would just sit back and read all the wingnut websites for the resulting calamity.

  21. 21.

    kindness

    For so long the Right thought they owned this issue. In their minds they refuse to see anything outside of their perceptions of the world. With respect to the Israel issue you gotta wonder if they even have ever gotten to the point of seeing an end. The right both here and in Israel is so caught up in their own victimization and the anger and rage that comes from it (The Fox Syndrome?) they never considered actually tackling the issue. And sadly I think that is purposeful for some of them. I fear the Israeli Right really would like to exile all non-jews. That is their preferred end result. But the world and the Israeli people won’t permit it.

  22. 22.

    Linda Featheringill

    It would be very rude to refuse the honor.

    I wonder if people in other countries think that Obama is mean to Israel? Or do we live under a propaganda cloud?

  24. 24.

    chuck

    This is the sort of thing that will cause higher-information lefties who live in “safe” states to vote for third party lefty candidates. Just sayin’.

  25. 25.

    Disco

    It would be very rude to refuse the honor.

    I don’t like changing my kid’s dirty diapers, but somebody’s gotta do it. I just plug my nose and look the other way.

  28. 28.

    Patricia Kayden

    “because of Obama’s insufficient fealty towards Bibi Netanyahu.”

    I would like to know exactly why President Obama owes Netanyahu or any other foreign leader absolute fealty.

  30. 30.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @chuck:

    This is the sort of thing that will cause higher-information lefties who live in “safe” states to vote for third party lefty candidates.

    Hopefully the Obama 2016 re-election campaign is looking at ways to limit the damage, even as we speak.

  31. 31.

    Jay C

    @Linda Featheringill:

    I wonder if people in other countries think that Obama is mean to Israel?

    Probably not: I’m sure that in most other countries, the general opinion of Pres. Obama’s attitude towards Israel is most likely the same as for other US Presidents, i.e. that he’s much too deferential to them, rather than too antagonistic. The “Obama hates Israel” canard seems to be mainly an American (right-wing-nut-job) meme.

  32. 32.

    DPS

    Well, I guess if I had to come up with something for JRub to say, I’d say that this is an instance of Israel doing everything it can to keep American-Israeli relations strong, even though there’s no reciprocation from Obama. Either that or the Chicago thug twisted Israel’s arm because he needed the good press because his policies and attitude are so anti-Israel.

    Actually, that second one sounds pretty good. I bet they go with that one.

  33. 33.

    Disco

    Can we please stop calling him Bibi? That seems almost like a term of endearment to me. I am not at all endeared to him.

  34. 34.

    NonyNony

    @Cassidy:

    They don’t need an excuse.

    They need excuses for the general population.

    The True Believers know that being a Democrat is enough to impeach a Democratic president, but unfortunately the rest of the country is full of brainwashed sheeple, and for them a charge is needed.

    I guarantee that at some point I’ll hear (again) about Article I, Section 9 over this. Because it’s equivalent to Obama being named the Baron of Tel Aviv or something.

  35. 35.

    burnspbesq

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I would like to know exactly why President Obama owes Netanyahu or any other foreign leader absolute fealty.

    That is a Profoundly Un-Serious perspective. All the HeathersSerious People say so.

  40. 40.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @BC:
    Obama earned that prize for not being George Bush. What the conservatives didn’t understand is that not being George Bush DESERVES the Nobel Peace Prize. Bush was that hated by the rest of the world, and Obama reversed it.

  42. 42.

    BBA

    Holy shit, there’s still someone with guts among the Israeli centrists.

    Granted, he’s a 90-year-old in a ceremonial office who’ll never have to run for election again, but it’s a start.

  47. 47.

    RosiesDad

    It would be fun to watch Jennifer Rubin’s head explode for any reason. Or for no reason at all.

    Boom.

  48. 48.

    BC

    @Frankensteinbeck:Were you around in 2009 and did you hear the freak out about Obama getting the Peace Prize? It was one of the right’s finest hours – they got all the centrist pundits to agree that the Peace Prize was just awarded to Obama as an affirmative action remedy and he should decline to accept it as he had done nothing to earn it. I agree with you – but I’m not a part of the right or a fan of the centrist punditry.

  49. 49.

    Heliopause

    It will be fun watching Jennifer Rubin’s and Jackson Diehl’s heads explode over this.

    Will it be fun watching the Palestinians’ heads explode for the umpteenth time?

  50. 50.

    Ash Can

    @Frankensteinbeck:
    @BC:

    When I first heard the Peace Prize news announced, my very first thought was “Whoa — is that ever a message!” I was amused by all the people who just thought it was an example of the prize committee being silly. Evidently not too many American ears are tuned to the frequency at which genteel Europeans blow “FUCK YOU” on their dogwhistles.

  52. 52.

    AxelFoley

    Israel will award President Barack Obama the country’s Presidential Medal of Distinction during his upcoming visit.

    Israeli President Shimon Peres’ office said Monday that Obama will be recognized for his “unique and significant contribution to strengthening the State of Israel and the security of its citizens.”

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    Eat it, Fox News!

  54. 54.

    chuck

    @Alex S.:

    Yeah, I was probably reacting to the misplaced rage of a post from a few days ago. I won’t apologize for any of my third-party ballots cast.

  55. 55.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @chuck: Eh? Shimon Peres delivering a public fuck you to Bibi and the American neocons and theocons of both Testaments drives “high information” lefties to vote for Nader?

  56. 56.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @BC:
    I immediately thought of the Nobel Peace Prize too, because it was the Nobel committee’s way of saying “fuck you” to Bush, as I expect Peres is taking a swipe at Netanyahu with his award.

    [Crossposted with many.]

  57. 57.

    pajaro

    I’m an American Jew. I have lots of Israeli relatives. We are really different. As much as Jennifer Rubin and the Hammer of Kraut want to mislead you, we are not the same. Israelis do not deserve to be beaten about the head over the sins of Washington post neo-cons, and American Jews are not responsible for the sins committed in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

  58. 58.

    Another Halocene Human

    @BC: Obama de-negro-ated the value of the prize by accepting.

    On a serious note, was the NPP kind of a bribe/exhortation/guarantee of future good behavior by an American president? Did the Skandies get their money’s worth? I can’t read Scandahoovian, too many øøøååå, so I don’t know what they think about it all.

    Does one Obama cancel out one Kissinger? (I don’t think so… you can’t wash out that much blood.)

  63. 63.

    Bill Arnold

    @Patricia Kayden:

    why President Obama owes Netanyahu

    Part of this is leakage between domestic Israeli and domestic American politics. Pretty sure that if Labor were in control in Israel, there would be much less of this by the American right.

  64. 64.

    Bill Arnold

    I have many older colleagues who are mostly liberal but who hate Obama

    OK, I’ll bite. Some of the older jews (you don’t say anything about the religious affiliations of your colleagues) I’ve talked with socially who dislike Obama say they’re liberal but when pressed acknowledge that they consume conservative media. What media do the colleagues who you talk to read/consume, that helps them form these anti-Obama attitudes?
    I’m not seeing objective, rational reasons. There is some clear chilliness (bad blood is too strong) between Obama and the current Israeli leadership, perhaps related to perceptions (founded IMO) about political interference by the Israeli right in American politics. But it hasn’t had any obvious objective effects on the broader USA/Israel relationship.

    So I’ve been wondering for a long time about the root sources of these attitudes. Does it trace back to the allegations in the 2008 election?

  66. 66.

    TGC

    @Bill Arnold: I find it hard to believe that anyone would buy for one second that President Obama was anti-Israel or anti-Jewish if he weren’t black and named Barack Hussein Obama. People who accuse him of this are projecting their own bigotry.

  67. 67.

    cat48

    I’ve been laughing about this all day, especially while reading Rubin’s blog where you can find out what the latest Hagel smears or lies are. She has not mentioned this award for some reason…..

  68. 68.

    LosGatosCA

    I think Obama has shown that he’s a master of sustaining a clear edge in collecting message sending honoraria that are essentially meaningless in the real world but are cataclysmic events in Georgetown salons.

    This looks like simple, practical fence mending by an entity that may be starting to realize their client state status in the relationship with the US. ‘Don’t keep biting the hand that will be feeding you for the next 4 or more years.’

    If Bibi attends, have no idea if that’s feasible or part of the plan, that would be a major event. If not, or if he and Obama don’t even meet, then this is just another skirmish in the continuing failure of the re-education of Netanyahu.

  71. 71.

    Paul in KY

    Like to know where the ‘Medal of Distinction’ is in the pantheon of Israeli medals that foreign civilians can get.

  72. 72.

    mds

    @TGC:

    I find it hard to believe that anyone would buy for one second that President Obama was anti-Israel or anti-Jewish if he weren’t

    a Democrat. Remember, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, etc, etc, etc, all hate Israel, too, because they aren’t far-right fundamentalist Protestant Republican dumbshits.

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