things thru before he rushes blindly in.

The one thing you can count on is that he is doing everything he can often behind the scenes. It often isn't obvious until after the fact.

It pisses me off to no end that the media repeats the lie spread by republicans
that Obama's weakness allowed Putin to take over Crimea w/out giving the
whole story about the history of Crimea, Russia's control over a huge % of
western Europe's natural gas supply, or that Russia took over and still controls
large section of Georgia and they did then when "Little Boots" aka W was in
power.

who are whining about him have nothing but posting bullshit propaganda.

http://www.nationofchange.org/straight-talk-us-and-ukraine-1394799785

In reality, there seems to be little correlation between the willingness of Moscow to assert its power in areas within its traditional spheres of influence and who occupies the White House: The Soviets invaded Hungary in 1956 when Eisenhower was president; the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968 when Johnson was president; the Soviets successfully pressed for martial law in Poland in 1981 when Reagan was president; the Russians attacked Georgia in 2008 when Bush was president. In each case, as much as these administrations opposed these actions, it was determined that any military or other aggressive counter-moves would likely do more harm than good. Washington cannot realistically do any more in response to Russian troops seizing Crimea in 2014 in the name of protecting Russian lives and Russian bases than Moscow could do in response to U.S. troops seizing Panama in 1989 in the name of protecting American lives and American bases.

<snip>

There is also the fact that the Obama administration appears willing to accept Morocco’s illegal takeover of occupied Western Sahara (under the autocratic monarchy’s dubious “autonomy” proposal) in defiance of international law, a landmark 1975 World Court decision, and a series of UN resolutions. While illegitimate, the Russians are at least willing offer the people of Crimea a choice in a referendum. By contrast, the United States has effectively abandoned the United Nations’ insistence that there be a referendum in occupied Western Sahara, apparently in the recognition that the vast majority of Western Saharans would vote for independence.

In short, given the history of U.S. support for its allies’ land grabs and its own history of illegal invasions, this leaves the United States with little credibility to take leadership in this crisis. This in no way justifies or minimizes the seriousness of Russia’s aggression, of course. However, it underscores the fact that international leadership is not just a matter of being “tough.” It means being willing to abide by and defend the same international legal norms for yourself and your allies as you demand of your adversaries. Until there is such a change in policies, there is little the United States can do.

Obama don't know wtf they're talking about.

.... was our next door neighbor's brother when I was boy in PA in a very middle
class neighborhood. He was the governor of PA too. His name was Ray Shafer
and he was smart, worked for education, infrastructure, unions, civil rights,
and the environment.

What pisses me off is that the press helps them by repeating their lies time after
time unchallenged by the facts.

Hadn't heard of Ray Shafer.. thanks.

..... he would play ball with the neighborhood kids when he was around,
"the gov" was just "one of the guys," and his simple decency shown through
but this was before cell phone cams, 24 hr cable news, or lots of other things.

I grew up knowing all about "good republicans" but ever since Reagan the vast %
have been un-American shits.