Old Story. New Story: We're Stuck With Him

Nope, There's NO WAY This Is A Cult,...

And, yes, this is a real photo from a Borders bookstore.

Happy President's Day!!!

Go Ahead: Make Our Day

"The beginning of the end is setting in for Hugo Chávez.

The authoritarian Venezuelan president is holding a referendum tomorrow on a constitutional change that would allow him to run for president indefinitely. Pollsters say Chávez leads slightly, but the election is mostly irrelevant. Barring an oil miracle, the former army paratrooper is slowly being undone by his economic mismanagement and corruption, like any of a number of populist strongmen before him."

-- Edward Schumacher-Matos, at The Washington Post.

Kim Jong Mentally-IL (This Feels Very Familiar)

Kim Jong-Il's Birthday 'Improves North Korean Weather’

North Korean State Media Have Credited The upcoming Birthday Of Leader Kim Jong-Il For A Spring Thaw On The Mountain Where He Is Said To Have Been Born.

The snow has begun melting around Jong-Il Peak at Mount Paektu on the border with China and the temperature is warmer than normal, making willow catkins open, the Korean Central News Agency said.

An “unprecedented phenomenon of moon halo” was also observed on Sunday evening, making the night view above the leader’s birthplace “brilliant”.

“Those who witnessed the opening of willow catkins earlier than the previous years and the unprecedented nocturnal view said excitedly that even the nature and the sky unfolded such mysterious ecstasy in celebration of the birthday of leader Kim Jong-Il,” the agency noted.

Kim Jong-Il, like his father before him, is the subject of an officially inspired personality cult which ascribes almost supernatural powers to him.

His official biography is steeped in myths, such as the rainbows that appeared over Mount Paektu, his official birthplace, when he was born, or his 11 holes-in-one in a single round of golf.

Independent experts say Kim, who turns 67 next Monday, was actually born in Russia.

His birthday will be marked with rallies, gala events and flower shows featuring the national bloom, Kimjongilia.

--Telegraph

The North Koreans got nothing on the Obama-heads.

Obama Cultism: Funny How That Happens, Huh?

Just a short note to remind you folks of the transformation of “Yes We Can”, “Hope” and “Change” into warnings of “Catastrophe” and gloom and doom.

Along with a presidential snivel that he inherited this problem.

Of course, there was no sniveling when he used the pending inheritance as a campaign weapon.

As in used car sales, the Dems need the deal signed in a hurry, before you kick the tires too much.

Check this out from the brilliant Michele Malkin.

He's A NewAge Cult Leader - What Do You Think?

"There’s no picking or choosing or cherry-picking of groups. That was allowed before, but it will not be the practice moving forward."

-- Joshua DuBois, the Pentecostal minister who led "religious outreach" for President Obama during the election, when asked whether he would work with "the world's most dangerous cult," and the only one to have once infiltrated the FBI - Scientology - in The New York Times.

Joseph Nigro At The TMR News Center: Soledad O’Brian Repeals The Laws Of Cause And Effect

While covering events leading up to the inauguration, Wolf Blitzer at CNN recounted the following conversation he had with Soledad O’Brien:

“I think that airplane that went down, the US Air flight and the pilot -- and Soledad and I were talking about this earlier and -- she was saying metaphorically in some ways, the pilot of that airplane is very much like Barack Obama -- that he got the plane down safely, but everybody else had to join together to get out of the plane and pull together to get through that adversity.”

What?

The pilot, Chelsey B. Sullenberger III, made a series of hard, critical decisions and then used his experience, skills, composure and intelligence to save 155 lives.

Done deal.

But O’Brien, while gushing like a soggy fruit loop, has no grasp of the obvious – when pilot Sullenberger reported for work at the airport that day, he was not greeted with applause.

When he got to the gate and prepared for the flight, he did not get any awards.

During the take-off run and initial climb, no one called him a hero.

Until he was one.

Now, spaced for slow comprehenders like Soledad:

Obama-has-not-done-anything-yet.

What’s even more pathetic, Soledad made her brilliant statement before Obama was even sworn in. In terms of her metaphor, he hadn’t even arrived at the airport to report for work.

So from now on, Purple Hearts will be awarded prior to battles, and every Monday you will get a traffic ticket in the mail, just in case you run a red light later in the week.

Soledad, you have insulted and demeaned Capt. Sullenberger, just so you could feel good about pretending to be intelligent.

The Only "Miracle" Seen So Far (Is That He Won)

"In the Washington Post, E. J. Dionne tried to break it gently to us: 'No occupant of the White House has ever been able to walk on water.'



Yeah, sure, no previous occupant of the White House has been able to walk on water—your Eisenhowers and Roosevelts, your Chester Arthurs and Grover Clevelands and whatnot. But Barack Obama didn’t run as just another of those squaresville losers. He was gonna heal the planet, and lower the oceans. So, even if he couldn’t walk on water, he should at least be able to paddle in it. 'He is a community organizer like Jesus was,' said Susan Sarandon, 'and now we’re a community and he can organize us.'

So how’s that going? Jesus took a handful of loaves and two fish and fed 5,000 people. Barack wants to take a trillion pieces of pork and feed it to a handful of Democratic-party interest groups."

-- Mark Steyn, noticing the messiah's metaphysical mumbo jumbo just ain't cutting it in the real world, at the National Review Online.

Many "Thanks" to our Uncle Irwin at WFMU!!!

Delusional Thinking: To "Believe" And "Hope" For "Change" From An Unknown Politician With A Big NewAge Cult Following But No Accomplishments

"This is not the kind of change Obama promised us in 2008."

-- The Charlotte Observer, now crying like the children Obama supporters have proven themselves to be, having drank the Kool-Aid everyone with a brain told them to avoid, only to discover there's nothing (but a bit of poison) in it.

And it ain't homeopathic.

Borat Was Right: Kazakhstan Is Smarter, I

"A group of students held a protest in Almaty today to demand an end to the growing personality cult of President Nursultan Nazarbaev.

One protester, Muhammet Ziadin, told RFE/RL's Kazakh Service that the purpose of the demonstration was to challenge the practice of pouring praise on Kazakh leaders.

He said all the officials in the country are competing with each other in their attempts to compliment the president. The protesters had helium-filled balloons with the names of Kazakh officials on them and let them go into the sky, saying that the "masters of adulation should leave Kazakhstan like the balloons."

The protest was held in front of the offices of the presidential Nur-Otan party. Police did not interfere."

-- Kazakh Service, proving this problem (of unthinking cultists blindly following politicians) is big everywhere, and needs a healthy dose of Radio Free Liberty.

And isn't this a nice graphic for a cult-driven administration that - only two weeks in - hasn't gone one day without an ethics scandal?

Oh, hallowed be thy name,...

"Never Trust A Politician," They Said. Really. It Was Just Muffled By His Dick In Their Mouths!!!

"This is a big problem for Obama, especially because it was such a major, major promise. He harped on it, time after time, and he created a sense of expectation around the country. This is exactly why people are skeptical of politicians, because change we can believe in is not the same thing as business as usual."

-- Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, who - like everyone else who voted for the "Lightworker" - can't seem to stand the dark (or handle the truth) even in The International Herald Tribune.

Our Uncle Irwin writes in with this:

Imagine the AP writing such a sympathetic story about Bush:

http://tinyurl.com/cj6vze

"I think the Obama folks' intentions were great here," said Ethics watchdog Melanie Sloan. "But sometimes you realize you can't actually govern on just what you campaigned on."

Even Republicans are quoted expressing "realistic" views of the way government works.

A First Black President Wants His First Black Eye

"One can’t get away with that disconnect forever,...Americans can and will forgive almost anything other than hypocrisy."

-- Victor Davis Hanson, pointing out what's becoming an obvious difference between Obama the "Messiah" and Obama the man, on Pajamas Media.

Ladies And Gentlemen: You Just Got Played

"The Light of the New Age Is Here."

-- Forest Whitaker - a huge NewAger - on The Oprah Winfrey Show, acknowledging Barack Obama's role in the cult of NewAge beliefs (just as TMR has always said) on NewsBusters.

UPDATE: Chris Locke of the Mystic Bourgeoisie writes:

He actually said 'new age' twice in his inauguration speech. The full text is available at the NY Times -- and probably 9000 other places. 

And yeah, searching google images for 'obama oprah' sure yields creepy results. 

Christ on a crutch, I hope not. 

Namaste! 

The Pied Piper: Killing Us Softly With His Song

"Fascinating speech. It was so rhetorically flat, so lacking in rhythm and cadence, one almost has to believe he did it on purpose. Best not to dazzle on Opening Day. Otherwise, they'll expect magic all the time."

-- Charles Krauthammer, once again using the language of cultism - "magic"? - when talking about a man who's supposed to be a politician (and you don't trust politicians, do you?) in the Town Hall.

Hat Tip: Althouse

When A Magician Walking On Stage Is The Show

"If Obama deliberately takes on the trappings of a messiah, why shouldn’t we expect messianic solutions?"

-- Victor Davis Hanson, asking the only question that matters - now that The Cult of Obama wants to "lower expectations" - in The National Review.

Ann Althouse Agrees: Barack Obama Is A Cult Leader (And The Campaign Was A Political Cult)

"The entire plan to bring Obama into office depended on the glorification of the man, whose actual experience was so bizarrely limited that it took some nerve to claim to be ready. Magic was required. The cult grew up not as he held power and needed to respond to a crisis. The cult was the campaign to bring him into power. It depended on our projecting all sorts of hopes and dreams onto him, and he knew it. Inside, he may have felt embarrassed by the whole enterprise, but he'd figured out that it could work, and he was right. Now, I think this worked because he really is a solid, normal person who remained grounded in the middle of all this craziness. And I like to think that, now that he's President, with his steely nerve, his intelligence, and his groundedness, he'll do the job that must be done. The trickery is over."

-- Ann Althouse, saying what so many have previously denied (as TMR insisted it was so) in the Althouse.

"Go to 3:54: 'I pledge to be a servant to our president and all mankind.'"

-- David Bernstein, watching Hollywood's Presidential Pledge video, below, and saying "This is Just Creepy" (which a lot of people have said since The Obama Cult has revealed itself) on The Volokh Conspiracy.

The Threat To Obama: People Who Like Obama

"If his presidency is to represent the full power of the idea that black Americans are just like everyone else -- fully human and fully capable of intellect, courage and patriotism -- then Barack Obama has to be subject to the same rough and tumble of political criticism experienced by his predecessors. To treat the first black president as if he is a fragile flower is certain to hobble him. It is also to waste a tremendous opportunity for improving race relations by doing away with stereotypes and seeing the potential in all Americans.

Yet there is fear, especially among black people, that criticism of him or any of his failures might be twisted into evidence that people of color cannot effectively lead. That amounts to wasting time and energy reacting to hateful stereotypes. It also leads to treating all criticism of Mr. Obama, whether legitimate, wrong-headed or even mean-spirited, as racist.

This is patronizing. Worse, it carries an implicit presumption of inferiority. Every American president must be held to the highest standard. No president of any color should be given a free pass for screw-ups, lies or failure to keep a promise.

During the Democrats' primaries and caucuses, candidate Obama often got affectionate if not fawning treatment from the American media. Editors, news anchors, columnists and commentators, both white and black but especially those on the political left, too often acted as if they were in a hurry to claim their role in history as supporters of the first black president.

For example, Mr. Obama was forced to give a speech on race as a result of revelations that he'd long attended a church led by a demagogue. It was an ordinary speech. At best it was successful at minimizing a political problem. Yet some in the media equated it to the Gettysburg Address.

The importance of a proud, adversarial press speaking truth about a powerful politician and offering impartial accounts of his actions was frequently and embarrassingly lost."

-- Juan Williams, pointing out some of the already-readily-seen-but-also-readily-denied perils of political cultism surrounding the president, in The Wall Street Journal.

TMR Pledges To Haunt These People

MySpace Celebrity and Katalyst present The Presidential Pledge


"If ever you doubted that Obamamania is fundamentally a religious movement, at least among nitwits like this, watch and note how few of their pledges are tied to Obama’s policy agenda. It’s mostly personal pap about smiling more and being a better parent, forms of self-improvement which, it seems, simply couldn’t be undertaken until the GOP was out of the White House."

-- Allah Pundit, barely scratching the surface of their cultism - just as everyone else seems to - which allows it to continue, adding their bad breath (and bad faith) to the Hot Air.

Rush Limbaugh Is Channeling TMR!!!

TMR doesn't know if anyone else is listening to The EIB Network (right!) but the man behind The Golden Microphone is singing our song: it's cult, cult, cult all the way now!!! There's talk of Jim Jones, drinking Kool-Aid, and every other aspect of political cultism this site has been dedicated to exposing - and all of it tied to Barack Obama.

Rush has been dancing around this for a while, so his listeners aren't exactly up to speed (one caller had to ask where the phrase "Kool-Aid drinker" came from) but The Great One is closing in on this phenomena, and how it's infected our political class, so (hopefully) it's just a matter of time before someone makes him aware of TMR so we can outline this for Rush and his listeners. Of course, fans of TMR can help:

Call The Rush Limbaugh Show (1-800-282-2882) and ask "the last man standing" to get in touch.

TMR would be honored to speak with him.

Taking Them To School (For A Proper Education)

"After seeing the responses that threads about the Bible, voodoo, and circumcision always get, I'm certain that most people are irreversibly gullible and superstitious.  There was a time when I cared about helping people learn actual shit about the real world, but fuck that.  I want to make some money and starting a cult is a piece of cake.
 
You just find some emotionally vulnerable people with little to no education and start making ridiculous promises that can't really be disproven because they involve undetectable spiritual realms or events that happen after death or whatever else you want to throw in there.  It doesn't matter how stupid it is.  Large numbers of people will believe anything that a charismatic person says.
 
Make sure you program the persecution complex in there.  That way, when the skeptics inevitably start calling you out on your bullshit, your followers will rush to defend you.  Perhaps they'll even use violence!  Hooray!  Now you've got ultra-loyal bodyguards, worshippers to boost your ego, lots of money, and basically all the women are your harem, no Elijah Muhammad.
 
Then you buy some politicians and you're set for life."

-- "niggasislikeohmygodnotyou", declaring "My goal in life is to be a cult leader" in the comments section of the Hip-Hop blog called The Ill Community.

You gotta love it: the next post asks, "What you gonna base it on?"