Despite the overwhelming evidence of the unfolding disaster of global warming, Obama has not acted to mitigate this disaster, leading the papering over of the abject failure of the Copenhagen Summit on the climate to act in this emergency with deceptive language in the jointly issued communiqu???? from the Copenhagen Summit. The difference between Obama and the Republicans on global warming: the Republicans claim global warming doesn't exist and refuse to do anything about it. Obama recognizes that global warming does exist and says in speeches and statements that it isn't useful to deny global warming but refuses, however, to actually do anything about it that rises to the level of the disaster that it is.
The Oppression of Women and Gay Rights
While Obama has stated that he supports abortion and the rights of homosexuals, when push comes to shove he caters to and caves to the extreme right every chance he gets. When Proposition 8, for example, which would ban people of the same sex from getting married, was being debated in California, Obama was silent until literally the day before the vote, finally expressing his support for the rights of gay people to marry, but he did not call on anyone to defeat Prop 8, thus de facto helping Prop 8 pass.
As Debra Sweet has written, Obama became the first president to overrule his own FDA by executive order in denying girls 17 years and younger access to Emergency Contraception Plan B without a prescription.
As Sharon Smith writes,
"[Obama's 2009 commencement speech at Notre Dame] called for those on opposing sides of the abortion debate to find '"common ground" to work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions by reducing unintended pregnancies, and making adoption more available, and providing care and support for women who do carry their child to term.' Obama's speech never articulated his own support for women who choose abortion to end an unwanted pregnancy. His speech was so conciliatory to abortion opponents that even the Pope expressed delight. The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano praised Obama's speech and noted that Obama had stated at a recent press conference that passing a Freedom of Choice Act, which would protect women's right to choose, was not high on his list of priorities."
If you prefer that someone say that they love you before they rape you rather than someone who spews verbal contempt towards you along with brutal physical assault, then you should definitely vote for Obama.
As Riley Waggaman wrote in "When Obama Whitewashed Rape" at Counterpunch, responding to Obama's retort that "rape is rape" to Rep. Todd Akin's statement that pregnancy doesn't result from "legitimate rape":
"In May 2009, Barack Obama announced he would not comply with a court order that would have brought hundreds of meticulously documented cases of rape and sexual assault from prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan to the forefront of public debate and scrutiny.
"The court order stipulated the release of an estimated 2,000 photographs taken from Abu Ghraib and six other prisons across Iraq and Afghanistan. According to Major General Antonio Taguba, who led the formal inquiry into prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, the photographs in question depict 'torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.'
"Explaining his decision to ignore the order, President Obama argued, 'The most direct consequence of releasing [the photographs], I believe, would be to inflame anti-American public opinion and to put our troops in greater danger.'
'I think I found the perfect keynote speaker for your college's next Take Back the Night rally!
"President Obama went on to add, apparently with no sense of shame whatsoever, 'I want to emphasize that these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational.'
"And as a precautionary measure against the possibility that rape is actually 'sensational -- especially when perpetrated (and gleefully documented) by the U.S military -- the Pentagon's official position on this matter is that the photographs in question do not even exist. Indeed, it's unlikely that any of this 'rape' stuff even happened. There's certainly no evidence to support such wild claims.
"But what about the video Major General Taguba obtained during his investigation, which shows 'a male American soldier in uniform sodomizing a female detainee'? Don't worry, that's not 'particularly sensational.' No need to fret! Move along! Also: that video doesn't exist, and that never happened.
"...
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