BS: Obama's first anniversary

Subject: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: michaelr
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 03:20 PM

Sworn in a year ago today. Are you better off?

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 03:27 PM

Than we were a year ago?
Yes, we have real leadership.
Than we would be if McCain/Palin were elected?
Judging from McCain's reaction to the financial crisis... Hell Yes!!

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: DougR
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 04:16 PM

I believe, Michaelr, you got your answer from the senate election in Mass. last night.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 04:24 PM

Too bad. Obama's initiatives are dead.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: CarolC
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 04:26 PM

One year is not enough time to make that determination, in my opinion. He's certainly no Kucinich, but I'm willing to give him a reasonable amount of time before I make a judgment about the impact of his presidency on my life, and one year is not a reasonable amount of time.

Look at Bush. By the end of his first year in office, he'd only accomplished a small fraction of the total amount of damage he was ultimately responsible for by the time he left office.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 04:27 PM

The economy is still ruined for the next 16 years, and that loss is forever.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 04:28 PM

Oh? So now a "blue state" gets to decide for the whole country? LOL!!
Shall we just have the 2012 presidential contest in Mass?

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 04:29 PM

The above was in response to DougR. YOU FOLKS ARE FAST!!

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Bobert
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 04:55 PM

Are we better off now???

Well, yeah... We are... We don't have two oil-crooks running the show... We don't have to worry that Obama is going to call up a new war to steal other folks resources... That alone makes US better off...

But as for fixing stuff that needs Congress??? No, we are still stuck with the same broken legilative system now as we have been going back a long, long time except that it's getting worse by the year... No presdient will ever again be able to lead the country toward fixing problems until that is dealt with... Minority rule is what we have and it ain't workin' for US...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 04:58 PM

Look at Bush. By the end of his first year in office, he'd only accomplished a small fraction of his total amount of damage



ha haha hahahaha ha aum ah a hmph sniff sob

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 05:06 PM

I am really puzzled as to what the fuck people want. Do any of them consider Congress when they complain that Obama has done nothing for them or that his initiatives are dead? If it were just up to him, we wouldn't have a democracy, no checks and balances, etc. kind of like what the shrub, rove, and chaney would like to have had...a dictatorship.

I also agree with Carol. A year is not time enough to judge, esp. when one considers the gargantuan mess he inherited and has been working on with not much support from the spineless Dems., the recalcitrant GOP, and the people who are mad that "daddy" didn't just "fix it" in one fell swoop.

This country is sick...everyone has to have a hand in its healing and that means compromising, getting together to find our commonalities NOT fight over our differences. Speaking positively and going forth with a positive outlook can do wonders.

Oh, and from a friend in MA: the reason the GOP won was because they guy ran a good campaign and is quite glib and likable...he knows the right things to say to whatever type audience. The DEM, while she's been a good attorney general, ran a negative campaign and looked like an idiot, almost, my friend said, "as if she didn't really want to win." THAT is not a vote from the whole nation as to what Obama is or is not doing and it does not open the floodgates for GOP landslides.


Stop using Obama for a scapegoat and see what the hell you can do to help change things for the better, but oh, that is so much easier, isn't it? Sit on your ass and complain whilst doing nothing.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 05:28 PM

Lessee, he was presented with 2 wars, Guantanamo, a fiscal crisis, environmental issues, immigration issues, all the bad will left over from 8 years of Bush, about 200 Republican legislators dedicated to making sure he got as little cooperation as possible, a whole bunch of other folks who hate the very idea of someone who's not 'white' being there at all, a White House years behind in technical wiring for modern communications, ....and a few dozen other 'minor' issues like gays in the military, leftover Katrina problems and a press corps which wants immediate answers...in detail.

   I see he's not done with all those yet! Failure, huh?

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 05:45 PM

I really do wonder just what some people expected. Everybody knows that we were in seriously bad shape and everybody should know that repairing the damage and instituting lasting reforms and laying out a sustainable path for the future is going to take time, money and above all, inspiration and not to mention, perspiration.

You out there who are ready to jump on President Obama and everyone who is trying to fix things: Just what did you expect? Just what do you think that a President McCain and Vice President Palin (Yikes! would be doing and have achieved at this point in their administration?

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Amos
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 05:50 PM

I think I feel a LOT more certain about things with Obama at the helm. He has wrestled with really gruesome situations, of the kind GWB never faced when entering office, and has consistently used reason and dialogue to find ways through them. I disagree with some of his financial policy decisions, but they are surely not my call to make. At least they have not made things worse.

Under the Reagan-Bush Axis of Indifference, the financial and economic fundamentals of the country gradually collapsed--Glass Steagall being one of the major steps. Over the last eight years we went from surplus to heart-stopping deficit. To elect to blame Obama for trying to find a balanced way out of these conflicting catastrophic demands is really ridiculously partisan.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: mousethief
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 06:02 PM

Any Repuglican who can, with a straight face, complain that Obama has not met any legislative goals, either has the honesty of Machiavelli, or the intelligence of blue-green slime mold. When Obama came into office, the Repuglican members of congress and Senators swore to obstruct him in any way they could. To do so, and then a year later complain that he hasn't gotten anything done -- it beggars belief. It's like your jailer asking why you haven't been jogging around the outside of the prison parking lot every day. It's nearly enough to make you wish a meteor would fall on the restaurant where they were having a Repug-only all-Representatives-and-Senators dinner. Although I am held back from wishing that by the sobering thought that the waiters might be honest people.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: mousethief
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 06:07 PM

Plus, he hasn't lied his way into any new wars.

I wish he'd get us out of the two we're in a bit faster, but I don't know all the details so it may be he's doing what he can. I do know Repuglicans complaining that he's too hawkish is deliciously absurd.

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 06:20 PM

Obama could have steered Congress with a different over arcing strategy that would have succeeded where the single huge bipartisin reform model has failed.

To govern is VERY different than hoping everyone gets along and plays well together to create needed reform.



yes mouse theif there is no Santa Clause,

it is true that if Obama started to bring dead people like Nixon or Reagan back to happy healthy life, the Republicans would still call him the devil.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 07:17 PM

With McWar and Hunting Barbie at the helm the US ship of state would have had such an economic disaster that the US would be a failed state like Somalia, the sequel to the "Grapes of Wrath" would be being written, and the economies of the rest of the Western world would have gone after.

Do Americans (well, maybe not all of them, maybe only the Murkans) actually want to re-live the Mad Max films?

If not, thank your deity of preference that the Obama-Brown axis saved you.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 07:42 PM

Being elected president at a time like this must seem like being named the new captain of the Titantic, and discovering there were even more icebergs than you expected.

If I remember right, that captain was 'blamed' for his decisions, and it wasn't till 80-90 years later that the designers and the rivet makers got part of the credit...

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Bobert
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 07:52 PM

Good point, Donuel...

Yeah, Obama could have just said the the Repubs "screw you" and had a bill on his desk several months ago...

Guess the lesson to be learned here is that the majority party should be this "one party rule" party that the crybaby Repubs are crying about...

That was Obama's biggest mistake...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: mousethief
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 09:31 PM

When can the left coast secede? Just Washington, Oregon, and California? Please?

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Beer
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 09:42 PM

Like what you said Amos.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 10:17 PM

Gee, mousethief.... how many 'countries' would we need to split into so that all the like groups could be kept together? *grin*
You think Gerrymandering was complex and funny looking?
Some states would be polkadots.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: GUEST,mark-s(on the road)
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 10:28 PM

Lets give Obama the benefit of the doubt.
His biggest mistake was handing over implementation of all his agenda to the Dems in the Senate and House. That was like handing a bunch of teenage boys the car keys and the keys to the liquor cabinet.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 10:41 PM

"...handing over implementation of all his agenda..."

Ummm.. that's sorta what presidents do. They outline and suggest. The Congress implements by passing legislation. He can twist arms a little bit maybe, but his 'agenda' IS at the mercy of what the legislators do.

He can then veto bad stuff or sign good stuff...but he has to wait and hope a lot!

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 11:09 PM

Mousethief, please include Alaska. We can make it worth your while. Even without oil, we have a lot of resources.

(Sorry about the Eastern Coast, Bill D.)

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Amos
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 11:41 PM

As long as we don't have to issue Palin a passport...

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: mousethief
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 12:36 AM

Okay, Alaska can come.

Although now that I think about it, maybe we can just get Canada to annex the state of Washington -- British Columbia all the way to the Columbia? Why not?

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Big Mick
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 10:31 AM

Of course Doug R would pop in with a comment that is 10 miles wide and about 1/4" deep.

Yes we are better for all the reasons stated above. No need to restate the obvious about what he was handed and how he has governed, especially as compared to the previous eight years.

But how would I rate him? We were all over optimistic. His ratings are surely being affected by our citizenry wanting instant gratification, and damn us for that whole "fast food" cultural weakness. But I am disappointed in how he has moved on his agenda. He promised "change we can believe in", and "a new way of doing things". But he puts cabinet posts in the hands of Geitner and Bernanke, and a year after the bailout the banks are right back in the credit default swap swing and paying higher bonuses and making more money than ever before. But none of that is being invested in creating jobs. Change I could believe in would have been to break up businesses that are "too big to fail". Granted that cannot be done in a year, but I don't even see signs of him putting it together. I see no committment to the kind of health CARE reform we need, let alone health INSURANCE reform. While I do agree it is critical to get something passed so we have a starting point to work from, I am very distressed at the way he talked a good game, but has shown no desire to fight for his agenda.

His ratings are dropping and he will lay it off to what he was handed. I would probably say it is more due to him not showing enough backbone. He got elected with a pretty convincing mandate, but he has not shown the toughness to push it through.

I still have hope that this marvelous man will one day get tired of the unfair attacks and the partisan stonewalling and let that campaigner come out of the closet and take it to the people. He would be amazingly effective.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 11:37 AM

I agree fully, Big Mick.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 11:38 AM

On January 21 2010 Obama has been essentially voted out of office and virtually stripped of any authority to regulate banks.

Today the Supreme Court ruled that any corporation including BOA AIG Goldman Sachs etc may now fully fund election campaigns, make movies fictional or not to destroy incumbant elections and allow infinite amounts of contributions from such corporations.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Paco O'Barmy
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 12:20 PM

Who?

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 01:02 PM

Might as well ask who "Paco O'Barma " is. Seems that changes regularly

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Peter T.
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 01:29 PM

Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make to run mad. Watching a country self-destruct at the peak of empire is astonishing, mesmerizing, scary. Those of us in the colonies can only shake our heads and await the next act......

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 01:46 PM

Supreme Court Decision-
Business, non-profits and unions all given the power to spend freely in federal elections.
Justice Kennedy, writing for the majority 5-4 decision, said "When government seeks to use its full power, including the criminal law to command where a person may get his or her information or what distrusted source he or she may not hear, it uses censorship to control thought."
"The First Amendment confirms the freedom to think for ourselves."

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: mousethief
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 01:57 PM

Hard to argue with the underlying thought, but it boils down to:

Translation: May the candidate with the most money win.

That's good ol' American plutocracy.

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 02:16 PM

"May the candidate with the most money win."
This also assumes the electorate can't think for itself. This may be true, but it is a sad commentary on a country which prides itself on a "literate, educated" populace.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: mousethief
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 02:17 PM

It was Jefferson who said that. It's been a while since then.

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Amos
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 02:19 PM

The argument against it is not to dampen the freedom to think for oneself, but to dampen the flooding of media with bogus distortions. It cannot be gainsaid that the power of purchase has replaced thepower of rational persuasion. This means, for example, if Palin drums up the dough, she has the right to assert Obama has been promoting death panels, even though the idea is egregiously slanderous and false.

But ok. I honor and respect the underlying core principle that folks should think for themselves and not be hiundered therefrom. How about, then, we make false statements on public matters an actionable offense? This does not constrain the freedom to speak, merely the freedom to lie harmfully. Seems to me at least that full responsibility to slander and libel laws should apply.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: gnu
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 02:43 PM

Amos. All well and good, but who would we vote for?

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 02:59 PM

Hmm - party affiliations of the judges? It seems to me that there may be a fundamental problem with the Supreme Court. Maybe a Republican judge could sicken and die, so that a civilised human being could be appointed.

As for the banks, did Obama not just today almost declare war on them? You have to admire the man, even if he is still learning how to wrestle in the ultimate slime-pit.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: akenaton
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 03:12 PM

Mr Obama cant and wont change anything.
America is too polarised, even if he really wanted change, to let him carry it out.

I'm sorry to say, but voting statistics prove that Obama was elected by "Black America" and as such is perceived by much of the country as a black president.

For meaningful change to be achieved first you need to unite your population...doesn't matter if it be on the left or on the right, but without unity you will always be pawns in the corporate financial game.

His worst mistake? Without doubt, inviting Bill and Hillary along for the ride....ever since the Mass. result she's been stroking her "stiletto"

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 05:04 PM

Another problem with a huge amount of money being pumped in is this country means that it will distort the news coverage.

Going back to Amos' example, will the news media call Palin on her lies if it means she can pull millions in ad revenue from their stations?

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 05:18 PM

As per the premiere post, are you better off?


Honestly yes.

My good Republican neighbors have stopped calling and mailing authorities annoymously the 4 branches of goverment that willingly accept unsubstantiated accusations which amounted to :
2 IRS investigations,
2 social service investigations,
2 police investigations (for using a duly authorized water meter on a hydrant to fill a pool)
2 State Tax investigations and 2 years running having my right to vote removed due to an accusation that I did not live at my address... PER YEAR !!!
> The other stuff they did was also costly but non official.

Having to respond to these unsubstantiated annonymous accusations could cost between2 to $4,000 per year for lawyers.

Now that people here no longer feel strongly that questioning the Bush administration policies is no longer blasphemy or a crime of treason or merely being unpatriotic, these attacks have stopped.
The power they once felt to punish the non believers has diminished. Its as if they were required to hand in thier arm bands.
They may still revel in the glory days and feel their heart quicken to the beat of tea baggers but at least they are leaving me out of thier plans of vengence.


PS
when I say neighbors, the conservative Christians we bought the house from were both IRS agents and remained in contact with my current neighbors. I assume the rest was done with rumor, amplification of those rumors and a concerted effort to punish my family for whatever those rumors purported. (such as saying Rush Limbaugh is a big fat liar) The support the troops for God and country crowd, are in it for the long run I am sure but they are a bit less confident in the current climate to attack us, even in the most cowardly ways.



I have to say we are better off simply in the sense we are left alone.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Paul Burke
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 06:36 PM

It's a shame that Obama seems to have taken his example from Tony Blair. It's sad, but we went through this a dozen years ago. It seems that there is no alternative. Oh, no, you can't. The future is indeed bleak.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 06:41 PM

The future is indeed banks.

and how we must serve them.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 07:07 PM

'm sorry to say, but voting statistics prove that Obama was elected by "Black America" and as such is perceived by much of the country as a black president.

..............

His worst mistake? Without doubt, inviting Bill and Hillary along for the ride....ever since the Mass. result she's been stroking her "stiletto"

ake, that's ridiculous. Your first assertion is palpably false. I'd like to know where you get that idea? True enough that most Black people voted for Senator Obama but tally the numbers, if you will please.

Second assertion: I have not read others' analyses but from my viewpoint, I think that Hillary Clinton is doing a great job, including supporting President Obama.

Where do you get that stuff??

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 07:20 PM

(Ebbie... he doesn't 'get' that stuff.... it just flows from his head like bubbling hot springs. When one is just against something, opinion is often no more than slogans and hyperbole. "Let's throw LOTS of mud at the wall, and see what sticks.")

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 07:22 PM

I have to wonder at the political acumen of people who expect one year to change things. It took the US people about sixty years to get into the mess it has, and folks think the present president will have had time in one year to 'fix it'? Please send some of what you're smoking to me.

The real question is 'has he tried to change things for the better/' and then 'who stopped him?'. Republicans can make accusations but never have to answer questions like "would you please explain to the great unwashed what Bush did for the US?" I'd like to know.

Some folks simply have their heads up their own arses. Warm and comfy there.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's first anniversary
From: GUEST, heric
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 07:38 PM

airamerica.com