Last evening Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now!, the Marxist “news” program bankrolled by the multi-billionaire George Soros and his Open Society Institute–one of the world’s leading funders of the Left–offered its viewers a predictable and soporific interview with John Pilger, the Australian anti-American Marxist.

Pilger, in case you are unfamiliar with him, calls himself a “journalist” and is a longtime critic of all things American. He is a terrorist-sympathizing Marxist who has thrown his lot in with leftist causes all over the world. He is a huge admirer of Cuban dictator and leftist icon Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s soon-to-be-President-for-life Hugo Chávez, going so far as to sign a 2007 letter in support of Chávez’s refusal to renew the license of Venezuela’s largest television network, Radio Caracas Televisión. Yes, Pilger signed on to the idea of suppressing the Venezuelan people’s freedom of speech–a remarkable achievement for a journalist!

Pilger’s hatred of America is so profound that he once admitted, in a 2004 interview, that he approved of “the killing of American, British or Australian troops” by their enemies in Iraq, because “they’re legitimate targets.” His other favorite target is Israel, and it is his contention that Western support for that country is the main cause for the persistent unrest in the Middle East.

Last night’s interview with Amy Goodman, who nodded admiringly while Pilger predictably enumerated the evils of America, Israel and George Bush, was pretty much par-for-the-course for guests on Goodman’s program. What was surprising, however, was that a small measure of Pilger’s venom was reserved for Barack Obama, whose socialist-leaning administration evidently does not tilt far enough to the left for Pilger.

Citing Obama’s Cairo speech, Pilger characterized as mealy-mouthed the President’s condemnation of Israeli settlements–a condemnation which, according to Pilger, “… didn’t add up to anything. It had different language, it didn’t use Bush’s aggressive ‘you’re with us or against us;’ it was very soothing … supplying a kind of mood music to the middle east, but in the end, he offered … nothing.” In the final analysis, Pilger portrayed Obama as merely being “Bush light.”

Because Obama hasn’t done anything to address the “injustice” of the Israeli settlements (or the very existence of the State of Israel, if you read between the lines), the Australian journalist considers the current President to be, like Bush before him, just another American leader to despise.