Ask not what your Obama can do for you…
I was originally somewhat disappointed by Obama’s State of the Union address. I found his “feistiness” about as compelling as the “zestiness” of a nacho cheese triangle. His tone was too concilliatory for my tastes, especially after a year of tea partying. Asking the Republicans to lead? No! He should be asking them to lick his licorice whip! What’s the goddamn point of owning Congress and the White House if you have to keep curtsying to the hillbillies?
But I may need to rethink my distaste for “cool ranch” Obama. He scored some points against the rage machine the day after the SotU by appearing at the House Republican’s retreat in Baltimore. There he conducted a spirited Q&A with the Army of Darkness which undercut a lot of their right wing talking points about Obama’s first year on the job.
If Obama can keep up this political judo, his Mister Nice Guy routine may yet win the day. Conservatives have already voiced regret about letting the event be recorded, either because it allowed Obama to look reasonable, or because it made them look that way.
Stop worrying about the two-party system. Obama is Bush is Clinton is Reagan is Carter is Ford is Nixon, etc. There are two groups of people in the world, those in power and those who are powerless. The foundations of the power party are as follows:
1. Global hegemony through fear-mongering and xenophobia
2. Control of all energy, both the source and the output
3. Powerful, unaccountable central banks (with the ultimate goal of one all-powerful government-sponsored-but-not-run bank)
4. Military might
5. A docile, obedient populous
Look at the power players and top donors in BOTH political parties in the U.S.:
– Banking interests
– Military contractors
– Energy companies
– Pharmaceutical companies
– The American Bar Association
– Accounting firms
The stupidity of siding with either Obama or the GOP, is almost insurmountable.
Yeah, YB! I mean why should we focus on the shitty job he’s been doing for the past few months. I mean it’s not like he closed a prison so we don’t have a place to try the criminals that were held there. Oh wait. He did do that. Ok, ok, well at least he isn’t considering making peace with the masterminds behind the 9/11 attacks. Oh damn he is. Look I’ll admit, Obam-huh is a terrific speaker but a shit slinger is still a shit slinger. He couldn’t run a scout troop effectively much less the “free” world.
Guantanamo isn’t closed yet, to my consternation. But prisons aren’t where criminals are meant to be tried. It is where they go afterwards.
As for cozying up to the “Masterminds of 9/11”, I believe he is trying like hell to actually get some justice for the US vis a vis KSM, and getting an awful lot of pushback from Republicans who enjoy war and fear more than victory and closure.
Yeah, cause everyone knows that victory involves losing ground! I’ll grant you we need closure and a victory, but not at the expense of making the sacrifice that our soldiers made worthless. My sister happens to have been in both Afganhistan and Iraq and she can tell you that the people not only need us over there but they want us over there. I want our guys homes just as much as any american, but not if it means making peace with the guys they have been fighting and dying against. I know you will probably skewer this as some ridiculous right wing diatribe but I don’t rightly give two shits if you do.
I should think that “victory” would be, at best, the fulfillment of one’s goals, or, if those goals are unclear, the fulfillment of what could reasonably be interpreted as a goal.
Regarding KSM, there is no doubt: the right wing simply cannot resist moving the goal post. Here is the mastermind of 9/11 floating for years in a legal limbo, and the Republicans seem content that he should remain there evermore. Not prosecuted, not punished, just… sitting. Republicans still talk seriously of holding detainees until “the end of the war”, as if the War on Terror were itself a conflict which can possibly end.
What can end is KSM’s status as Schroedinger’s cat, half criminal/half victim. Put him on trial and convict him! Where is the harm in that? Unless, of course, this would offer some sliver of political victory to Barrack Obama, in which case NEVER!!
As for “peace with the guys they have been fighting and dying against’, I will point out, as has been pointed out a great deal recently, that not all “Taliban” are necessarily Mullah Omar, nor are the Taliban to be confused with Al Qaeda. Your sister and her friends have my full permission to win this war any time they want. But please do not say you want them home, but not if it means making peace. There is no doubt any more that this war is not going to end in any way like a Star Wars movie. Why must we continue to pretend that it will?
In the meantime, since you are gung ho for the perpetuation of our adventures overseas, can I at least assume that you are in favor of the tax hikes that this will require? You are aware that a large chunk of our apocalyptic debt has come from the wars, and that kicking the can even as far down the road as the next administration has ceased to be an option?
“They want and need us over there.” Yeah, the Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Spanish and British all said the same fuckin’ thing.
Everyone needs a boogeyman to justify his/her own existence, if not purpose. That’s about as close to reality justice will ever come without argument.
I’m so glad that everyone has such a glass half empty view of this issue. I’m well aware that this war is ONE of the causes of our current economic problems. Keyword: ONE. If you want to use the economy let’s talk about the shlubs who are living off the welfare. Before everyone wants to grab their torches and pitchforks, let me clarify. I don’t mean the people who have NO choice but to be on welfare but the illegals and lazy asses who use it as a MAIN source of income. Let’s cut off everyone who hasn’t had a job in the last five years and has made no attempt to get one and that will help the economy exponentially. No it won’t solve ALL the problems. I mean lets be real here. No one, not even the unholy Obam-huh, can solve those problems. But it is a step in the right direction. Blaming the economy on the war is just assinine. Eventually, you’ll all have to stop playing the “lets blame Bush” card and start noticing that our new president is the definition of a trillionaire bleeding heart liberal as set forth by the late Richard Jeni who said of them, “people who are going to change the world even if they have to spend every buck of YOUR money to do it.”
Venom-
The age of unlimited welfare ended a generation ago. Cash assistance of the kind you describe is much more constrained than in the days when Republicans first began to ballyhoo about it. The entitlements that consume the largest share of the federal budget are Medicare and Social Security.
Blaming at least part of the depression on the wars is not assinine, it is honest. They were paid for entirtely by deficit spending, and their actual cost mushroomed well beyond anything the country was led to believe they would cost. Need I remind you that it was under Dubya that they had to add an additional numeral to the debt clock in New York?
The conservatives, like everyone else, are justly panicked about what all this debt means. But do remember: none of Obama’s “big spending” has gone to an entitlement program like the prescription drug bill, or for wars to benefit the vice president’s stock portfolio. The enormous additional spending was what was needed to stave off an abject economic collapse.
If things like GM left a bad taste in your mouth, fine. You are then arguing that it should have been allowed to collapse and take every ancillary job in the nation with it. Do you think it would be right wing tea bags in the street screaming blue murder then? It would be the masses of the unemployed. But go ahead and describe your optimal economic scenario that includes all those job losses on top of the 10% (and rising) that we have now. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
As for the bank bailout (TARP), more money was lost than had to be in the process, but the bulk of the money that needed to be spent would have been the same under Obama or McCain. The AIG bonuses are one topic, but they do not mitigate against the bailout in general. Sometimes a turd sandwich is the only thing on the menu.
The stimulus? Makes for a great Republican talking point, because there at least Obama theoretically had a “choice”. NOW they can finally claim that he is spending the people’s money recklessly! But research the actual opinion of economists, and you will find that there is a solid consensus that the stimulus was too small. Listen, for example, to the recent rundown of state-of-the-state addresses. There isn’t a Democratic or Republican governor who turned that money down.
Any attempt to put this crisis on the backs of welfare queens is a non-starter. Check out these graphs (http://rationalrevolution.net/articles/american_income_taxation.htm) if you want a full picture of who’s really getting a hand job from Washington. It isn’t the poor.
So, to sum up: the main components of the budget apocalypse are:
1) The enormous Bush deficits (thank unfunded wars and upper-bracket tax cuts that did not lead to compensatory ecomomic stimuls).
2) The sub-prime crisis (thank deregulation, lax attention paid by Congress to to Fanny and Freddie, and unprincipled lending practices by banks).
If you don’t believe me, show me where Obama is spending in the kind of areas a Democrat would really like to spend, like universal health care. That whole agenda is on hold now. Meanwhile, the military budget has been increased by tens of billions! Obama is playing firefighter, Venom. He’s not on a shopping spree.
I would like to clarify something in your statement, JY, Gov. Sanford of South Carolina only took the stimulus money because the courts made him take it. Also, Obama isn’t playing firefighter, he’s playing hole digger. I’m no economic specialist but last time I checked spending more money than you have to spend is just digging the hole deeper, not filling it up. I know you have fallen for the hype about Obama being this country’s economic messiah, but he is just another liberal trying to push his agenda. He did try pushing government run healthcare but the people around the country screamed no. So what does he do? He tries to go through the back door and get it that way. You can try and convince me of how wonderful our Elmer Fudd of a president is but the truth is that he isn’t as good as he wants everyone to believe.
Am I the only one who thinks that a President should be above party lines? B/c let’s face it; the Rep’s are going to do what’s best for them. The Dem’s are going to do what’s best for them. The President should do what’s best for the country and all of its (legal) citizens. He (or she) is the Face of the Nation; not the party that they came from.
Pushed government run healthcare but the people screamed no?
The polls say 81% of American citizens want single payer health care. Its the private interests, the insurence industry and their bribed congressmen that destroyed it.
Funny KiZeR, That’s not what I saw the news reporting on.
Exsailor- I do not think any politician can really be above party politics, but they can always be for the best solution, even if it comes from an adversary.
As for you, Venom-san, I don’t think you have said much to nullify my argument. I’ll have to research the Sanders thing a bit, but as counterpoint I offer the Governor of Arizona Janet Napolitano (R). Her state-of-the-state was full of conservative piss and vinegar, and yet she had plenty of ideas for how to spend the stimulus money, as well as some marching orders for Washington: don’t close down even a single one of Arizona’s military bases. In other words, save taxpayer money, but not in my backyard (of course, maybe Arizona is on the front line in the War on Underwear).
In what way is Obama trying to “go through the backdoor” on healthcare? Since the Massachusetts election, the entire healthcare agenda has been frozen in carbonite, and nothing in the budget advances it an inch as far as I know. You will either have to provide an example or just admit that you are beating a comatose horse.
The debt issue is like the greenhouse effect: everyone knows it’s real but no one wants do do anything substantive about it. Congress is who writes the actual budget. Senators Evan Bayh (D) and Judd Gregg (R) were on Charlie Rose the other night (http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10840) in an illuminating discussion where they both agreed that the lack of political will for addressing the debt has to be laid at the feet of the legislators, not the president. And if the Republicans want to take credit for sidelining healthcare, when are they going to be honest about all they’ve done to swell the debt? They have scared cows too, you know.
Tell me something you’d be willing to give up, Venom, on par with what the Republicans are asking the citizens to give up, like a century-long effort for public healthcare, and then I can take you seriously.
Anyone who thinks the multi-trillion dollar deficit is the fault of ‘welfare’ is not paying attention.
Or, they might be paying attention, it’s just that our national media is so atrocious at pointing out the obvious. In Fox News’ case, this is entirely deliberate. In the case of other corporate media, it’s slightly less so, but still applies since big business benefits from keeping the masses misinformed.
Point being. The money has been flowing upward in the US for a very long time now. Since “trickle down” mainly, but it’s always done it a little. Meanwhile, the GOP have been using ‘welfare’ as code for ‘brown people’, and finding it gets middle class whites happily voting against their own best interests.
And whadda ya know, it works.
And anyone that thinks Obama is a liberal, after his entire record in office indicates that fifteen-twenty years ago he’da been a moderate Republican, CLEARLY spends too much time in the Fox News/AM radio propaganda feedback loop. That’s a big part of the problem in the US today; the brainwashed masses are choosing to stay that way because it lets them stay good and angry.
That’s fuckin’ hilarious. I work for one of those big medical corporations and they’ve come down TOTALLY IN FAVOR of single payer. It’s a great benefit to them. They, like Lockheed, Halliburton and Raytheon, their counterparts in the defense industry, will get all the slush from the all-inclusive government program while the average person gets stuck with the increasingly-devalued currency resulting from all of this idiotic spending. It’s the BANKERS and the CORPORATIONS that are MOST in favor of universal health care! And of course Obama wasn’t the Democrat candidate, just like McCain wasn’t the GOP candidate, they were both the BIG BANKING candidates!
And the AGW scare is exclusively the domain of CORPORATIONS who will benefit to the tune of TRILLIONS of dollars, I mean GE, fucking General Electric, one of the major fucking war profiteers of the 20th century, one of the biggest corporate villains of the last 100 years, is coming down in favor of AGW legislation and is a major player in cap-and-trade. The “greenhouse effect” is scientific fact, as in scientific, repeatable. However, there is NO proof that the earth is warming, no proof of a greenhouse effect being related to carbon levels, and no proof that the increased carbon levels are a result of human activity, and finally, NO PROOF that if governments did A FUCKING THING that anything would improve! As a matter of fact, the OPPOSITE is true!
I find it depressing that people would happily deny other people health care based solely on the fact that the people who have always profited from us will figure out another way to do it.
I also find it tragically amusing that people would rather shriek “global warming is a lieeeeee” then look into technologies that have notable, obvious benefits such as, you know, improving air quality. America could have led the world there, having extensive wind and solar resources. But now, because dullards insisted on showing the world they could be as dumb as they wanna be, Germany has taken the lead on solar technology, and China is getting a lock on wind turbines. Industry that could have helped reinvigorate America was spurned, thanks to political ideology and out-and-out brainwashing. People that could have gotten those jobs decided it was better to call Al Gore a fag.
JY, this is the reason that I enjoy monitoring some of your blogs. It entices even the most brazen of liberals and conservatives (like yours truly) to come out and spew their ingnominious sewage to the masses. I tried to make my point but you have thoroughly held firm on your point. I must admit, however, that it kinda kills some of the fun when people like Jody feel the need to insult people like me who, umm, WORK FOR A LIVING. I find it amazing that people tend to be more conservative the more stuff they own. I’m sorry to reveal the big secret but this is stuff that must be said.
Mikey-
So, just to be clear: the governments of the entire world, including Russia, China and the US who have no natural reason to cooperate in this matter, keep holding one international summit after another and continue declaring that man-made global warming is, in fact, a reality, because they know less than you about what is really happening to the atmosphere?
Hey JY,
Just a fun fact, no attack on your statement intended. Scientists have recently said that the hole in the ozone layer may have actually been staving off the greenhouse effect and that CFCs don’t have a huge deal to do with the ozone hole. It has to do with the lack of oxygen being produced at the poles. That would be because……..THERE ARE NO TREES AT THE POLES. Again, no attack on your statement to Mikey intended.
It’s sad when someone tries to fly the victim banner while lobbing insults like milk-fueled phlegm globbers. However, I do enjoy the little dick waving bit about having to work for a living when part of my point was that we as a nation had a golden opportunity to reinvigorate the work force, but declined SOLELY DUE TO IDEOLOGY.
I especially enjoy the blind eye people turn to the obvious benefits of greener energy I pointed out, because it doesn’t fit in neatly with their little worldview. Instead, we get gobbledygook about there not being any trees at the poles. So what if there’d be less smog around cities! Who CARES about air quality!!! The ozone hole has always been there! *facepalm*
Forget about these guys, Jason. They’re in too deep. They have too much emotional capital invested in shrieking \fuck you\ to the left. Ideology trumps reality, and even common sense to them. They’re not interested in improving the country. They just want to spew ‘ignominious sewage’.
Says the asshole who just spent an entire paragraph to just say fuck you. You know Jody, without guys like me and the other conservatives, Jason doesn’t have something to aim his sharp wit at and neither do jackasses like you who feel the need to make yourself sound superior by talking shit about the opposing viewpoint. Thats like watching a debate on tv and all the politicians say is fuck you back and forth.
Excuse me gents, but I think you have confused my humble, gentlemen’s club of a comments section with Fox News. No name-calling, flame wars or other such rude conduct allowed.
As for you, Venomsaurus, I’d like to see your sources on your Ozone statement. Provide a link, please.
…and still, I get no response as to why reducing emissions and introducing new industries would have been a good thing. Because his ideology will not permit him to do so. It would mean the left was actually correct. And see, to admit that the ‘other side’ is even the teeniest, tiniest bit right could potentially bring down the entire Fox News/AM Radio-fed house of cards these guys have built up around themselves.
It might mean that Obama is NOT a Islamo-socialist-atheist-marxist-fascist who plans on making us all burn our guns and get gay married. Why, it might even mean he’s trying to fix the mess this country is in, and the constant stream of ignominious sewage he’s getting from the other side might even be *GASP!* counterproductive.
I’ve had my issues with a lot of what Obama has done. But I have NO delusions about the situation he is in, or what he is up against. And what he is up against is a cadre of sociopath billionaires and bible-floggers and their legions of useful idiots who have been trained, by way of wedge issues and outright bigotry, to vote against their own best interests.
Now. Explain how my advocating better air quality and bringing business to the depressed US workforce amounts to me saying ‘fuck you’. Especially since it was the right who, at the behest of their ideological masters, flung poo at the whole idea like so many flying monkeys.
Oh. That last post wasn’t aimed at you Jason. I hadn’t refreshed the thread in a while.