BS: Obama Gets Lost

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 28 Jan 10 - 07:41 AM

For the benefit of the smartarse PDQ, I quote Peter T's opening line: -

"In the continuing saga of Obama losing the thread of the thing, it now appears that in the teeth of massive unemployment and a populist uprising, he is proposing a freeze on discriminatory spending --"

So what's "discriminatory spending" - precisely?

If it means "discretionary spending", what's that - precisely?

It seems to me that spending on the military is discretionary - one could decide to cut back the military.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Jan 10 - 05:51 AM

"If nothing else, we (the USA) can remain an object lesson for our fellow nations."
quote Sen. Thiefmus


Iran should be the object lesson for America, should Palin tea baggers want a religious State revolution.


Ake I think Peace should get out more and not stay at home.

As for change I am picturing a man in rags ringing a bell with a cart of bodies rolling alongside him. "Bring out your change...   ~*DING*~... Bring out your change!

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: mousethief
Date: 28 Jan 10 - 05:17 AM

Oh, good gawd! We just DID unite in a huge, unprecedented way to elect President Obama. His speech tonight exemplified exactly why we did...he inspires, leads, can be subtle and overt...his honesty is almost breathtaking.

And the effect of this on tomorrow's Senate session will be exactly.... squat.

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 11:31 PM

Naw, biLL..yer not handwringing and he did look kinda funny a time or two!:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 11:17 PM

Geeezuz .... did you notice Joe Biden .... his head was bobbing up and down like one of those silly things you in the back of someone's car window

oh

I better go off and find a corner somewhere


biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 11:02 PM

Oh, good gawd! We just DID unite in a huge, unprecedented way to elect President Obama. His speech tonight exemplified exactly why we did...he inspires, leads, can be subtle and overt...his honesty is almost breathtaking. You hand-wringers go off in a corner and boo-hoo to yourselves while the rest of us carry on.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 10:03 PM

Oh, yes indeed! We watch very carefully, just like a gazelle watches a hungry lion.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: mousethief
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 10:00 PM

If nothing else, we (the USA) can remain an object lesson for our fellow nations.

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 09:53 PM

You can't achieve a progressive or even a moderately realistic political agenda in a nation where the word "socialist" is used much the way the word "satanic" would be in most places.

As for uniting the American people...the only thing that seems to unite them for long is a "Pearl-Harbour type of event", if I may go by past history...a major attack on the USA by somone...and the problem with that is that it unites them in the very WORST way possible. It sends them out thirsting to kill a few hundred thousand or a few million "evil" foreigners.

I see no hope of uniting (in a good way, I mean) a public that is as bitterly divided against itself as the American public is now.

If I were an American, I would simply be in despair over the political future of my nation. I'm not an American, however, so I am not directly faced with that problem, just observing it with some trepidation and not a little horror from across the international border, that's all. We already have a sensible health care system here in Canada, thank God, and a reasonably decent and moderate society too. Let's hope it remains that way. There are no guarantees.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: akenaton
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 08:22 PM

Peter T puts it well, "liberalism just doesn't cut it!

But we all knew that didn't we?

Thats why Americas "lefties" didnt get behind a real leader.

You want real change you got to box clever, and in the case of the US, that means uniting the people. The people, whether you like to believe it or not, will never unite to the left, but they may end up there...if they can get the hang of the steering.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: akenaton
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 08:12 PM

Donuel......You want real change AND peace at home?.....Who are you kidding?

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 07:54 PM

There is an interesting op/ed piece in the NYTs HERE.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Peter T.
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 06:54 PM

It's so interesting. Obama doesn't seem to get power at all. He doesn't seem to have any fight in him. You would think that with an election 10 months away, he would finally start fighting, calling the Republicans a do-nothing bunch of negatives, and go for the throat of the bankers and others -- head for the working class that has been betrayed, the poor blacks, all his own constituency (you would think, hello, Democratic Party). He has to take the fight to the opposition. Instead he waffles around still trying to find one or two (no?) bipartisan Republicans so he can -- what, spread warm feelings around?

I'm beginning to think that maybe it was because he had no father.

I never thought that I would long for LBJ.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 05:01 PM

The Godfather?

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 04:35 PM

Reminder: We have been bombing Yemen. Twice last December 26th 29th
and several times this year however I have no details of those.

Clinton bombed Somalia. Finding a country we havent bombed is like a difficult answer on Jeopardy.

bzzz What is Tibet
Correct


Dear
Guest in our sanity land,

I would rather have Obama begrudgingly do some conservative things that goes aginst his/our grain, than risk an armed insurgency in the guise of a civil war against: socialism, black power, Goverment, Obama the fascist, godless non believers, and the rest of the tea bag of garbage. Violence is already up against police as well as violence directed at liberal targets made famous by conservative talk shows. It could be worse. The God and gun nuts have purchased more ammo this year than in all of the ten years preceding 2009.

So lets not forget the need for peace and tranquility at home as well as all of our Empire's foriegn wars.

It boils down to whom you trust to govern very dissparate groups with sanity and prudence. Its like delicately balancing the fears and reactions of hot heads with the needs and wants of a struggling middle class, while both hot and cold are getting screwed over by Wall St. and various other criminals from the Pentagon all the way down to Drug Lords.

Who do you trust?

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Amos
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 04:21 PM

"...A tricky thing about hope and change is that measuring success depends on who's doing the hoping.

And as President Barack Obama delivers his first State of the Union speech this evening, Bay Area residents and activists across the political spectrum have a wide array of hopes for what he'll say.

Local progressives might hope for inspirational words on the president's unfulfilled push for health care reform, or for a signal that he's ready to act on his promises to end the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy; to close the terrorism suspect prison at Guantanamo Bay; to eliminate tax breaks for oil companies; and so on.

Meanwhile, local conservatives might say what Obama has done — a $787 billion economic stimulus package; a more multilateral foreign policy; the "Cash for Clunkers" car buyback program; appointing Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, and more — as well as his health care hopes are putting the nation at risk, and fueling what they hope will be a Republican revolution in November's midterm congressional elections.

"If you care about the Constitution and the fundamental principles on which this country was founded, in some ways it's almost a blessing in disguise that Obama won because he has overplayed his hand, he pushed too hard, too fast and all of a sudden people are going, 'Whoa, slow down,' " said Mimi Steel, of Castro Valley, organizer of the Glenn Beck-inspired San Francisco Bay 912 Project.

"I think that what he needs to say is something that isn't even within his realm of experience," she said. "What he needs to say is that we need to get the economy going and the way to get the economy going is that government's going to get out of your way, and I don't think he would say that in a million years."

Instead of calling for far-reaching tax cuts, he's likely to give an FDR-style "what the government is going to do for you" speech, Steel predicted, and will keep pursuing his agenda by promising congressional Democrats that they can survive any potential conservative backlash.

James Kahn, a UC San Francisco health-policy professor and president of the California Physicians Alliance, might welcome such aggressiveness. He hopes the president will move off his incremental, compromise approach to health care reform. "He's gained very little at the center of the political spectrum, and what he's lost, I think, is establishing a target that's where he is, which is on the more progressive side.

"He's never really said, 'The best system is single-payer "... and let's keep that as the target,' " Kahn said. "I would love for him to say that now."

He hopes the president will note that other industrialized nations have controlled costs and improved care quality through single-payer systems, and will vow that "'we can no longer ignore their example. I will lead the country to learn from what our colleagues, other countries with similar economies learned long ago.'"

Instead, Kahn predicts "an 80 percent probability he'll criticize the insurance companies, and I encourage that. "... He will emphasize his resolve, he will emphasize the magnitude of the change we are talking about" in health care — even if that change isn't what either Kahn or Obama truly wants.

Electronic Frontier Foundation legal director Cindy Cohn hopes "to see the president commit that he meant it when he said it's time to return to the rule of law in this country."

From warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens to detention, treatment and extraordinary rendition of terrorism suspects, Cohn said, Obama's Justice Department has "enthusiastically embraced and extended most of the broad claims of executive power, which, when the Bush administration made them, he and most of the people now in his administration were up in arms against."

"It's not just that this is a promise he hasn't gotten to yet," she said. "It's not like we're in a holding pattern, that's not what's going on — these cases are being dismissed at the insistence of the Obama administration. And that's embracing the positions of your predecessor."

"What we'd like to hear the president say, of course, is that he has a plan to increase peace and social justice across the spectrum," said Mary Alice O'Connor, executive director of Walnut Creek's Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center.

The center this month released a statement opposing Obama's plan to send more troops to Afghanistan.

O'Connor said her center's board and members also hope to hear Obama respond to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision lifting limits on corporate and union spending for or against federal election candidates. And "I'd like to hear some praise for the troops in Haiti, I think we've done a monumental job," she added. "It's a time for us to feel really proud of them."

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Amos
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 04:18 PM

GfS:

I am SO sorry, but I don't think your analysis of Obama was accurate.

That you have been swept up in the yammer that inevitably comes with confronting hard times does not much surprise me. But let us be a bit more tolerant here.

As for the weisenheimer remarks about deficit spending, has anyone done a side-by-side comparison between the costs of Bush's miulitary adventurism and ruthless corporatism and Obama's efforts to turn the slide around?

C'mon. GYamme one break.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 04:11 PM

Amos, Being as this is primarily a 'musicians blog', and you are a musician,...ummm...do you know more than one tune?
For ALL the reasons I gave to you, during the 'election' (read: celebrity-fest), Obama is exactly what I said he'd be. How come certain people in here 'got it', and you don't....yet?? This guy has turned out to be a disaster, not only for his party, 'his'(?) ideas, but for the entire country! He's done more to promote conservatism than Rush, and Hannity combined!!! He's single-handedly given 'liberalism' such a black eye, they can't even see straight!...and at least some of them are even admitting it!

CarolC, Your first choice of Kucinich was WAY better. Should have stuck to your guns!

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: kendall
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 01:58 PM

It could be worse; if McWar had won we might be bombing Somalia and Yemen too. Who else? Chad would be a pushover, Mali, how about Barbados?

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 12:17 PM

everyone is going on a diet now..... except the military $machine$ .... they can keep gobbling away at all the pies they want.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: pdq
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 11:58 AM

Obama proposing spending freeze is like…

Says Michael Steel, spokesman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R., Ohio):

          "Given Washington Democrats' unprecedented spending binge, this is like announcing you're going on a diet after winning a pie-eating contest."

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 11:34 AM

A point of view relies on how you look, and not just where you look.

Similarites can be made figuratively, while differences naturally abound.

Octavian was in a position of being highly suspect by the Republicans (actual name of the wealthy Roman class) while hailing himself as a populist to the teaming masses.

The previous adminstration like that of Octavian had vested enormous powers in the executive/Cesear. While Obama has not divested himself from many of these new executive patriot act powers but a draw down of certain provincial wars as in Iraq is ongoing. Barak has made it clear that he claims no god like powers that his predecessor claimed in comments such as "God told me what to do in Iraq".

Octavian had great popularity. He accomplished this with carefully designed statues that revealed a much less militaristic pose and weaponry than other leaders as well as coins that all could view.

So far Obama's stimulus package hes helped some shovel ready road projects in some communites.

Obama is performing a balancing act between the Repubicans and the people much the same as Octavian as well as other leaders in similar circumstances of dichotomy.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: number 6
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 11:24 AM

It doesn't matter if he is respected by the Armed Forces or if they are loyal to him ... he has escalated the war he has inherited from the Bush machine.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Amos
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 11:11 AM

"n 27 BC, Octavian formally returned full power to the Roman Senate and relinquished his control of the Roman provinces and their armies.[108] However, under the consulship of Octavian, the Senate had little power in initiating legislation by introducing bills for senatorial debate.[108] Although Octavian was no longer in direct control of the provinces and their armies, he retained the loyalty of active duty soldiers and veterans alike.[108] The careers of many clients and adherents depended on his patronage, as his financial power in the Roman Republic was unrivaled.[108] The historian Werner Eck states of Augustus:

    The sum of his power derived first of all from various powers of office delegated to him by the Senate and people, secondly from his immense private fortune, and thirdly from numerous patron-client relationships he established with individuals and groups throughout the Empire. All of them taken together formed the basis of his auctoritas, which he himself emphasized as the foundation of his political actions.[110]

To a large extent, the public was aware of the vast financial resources Augustus commanded. When Augustus failed to encourage enough senators to finance the building and maintenance of networks of roads in Italy, he took over direct responsibility of building roads in 20 BC.[111] His construction of roads was publicized on the Roman currency issued in 16 BC, after he donated vast amounts of money to the aerarium Saturni, the public treasury.[111]

According to H.H. Scullard, however, Augustus' power was based on the exercise of "a predominant military power and that the ultimate sanction of his authority was force, however much the fact was disguised."[112]

The Senate proposed to Octavian, the cherished victor of Rome's civil wars, to once again assume command of the provinces. The senate proposal was a ratification of Octavian's extra-constitutional power. Through the senate, Octavian was able to continue the appearance of a still-functional constitution of the Roman Republic. Whilst putting on the appearance of reluctance he accepted a ten year responsibility of overseeing provinces that were considered to be in a somewhat chaotic state.[113][114] The provinces ceded to him to pacify within the promised ten year period comprised much of the conquered Roman world, including all of Hispania and Gaul, Syria, Cilicia, Cyprus, and Egypt.[113][115] Moreover, command over these provinces provided Octavian with control over the majority of Rome's legions.[115][116] While Octavian acted as consul in Rome, he dispatched senators to the provinces under his command as his representatives to manage provincial affairs and ensure his orders were carried out." (Wikipedia)

I fail to see the similarity. Obama is respected by the Armed Forces but he is not of them, nor do they have unusually strong loyalty to him.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 11:10 AM

I LIKE "senility" better!

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Ebbie
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 10:53 AM

And Octavian?

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 10:21 AM

Freudian spelling mistakes.


The discriminatory spending by Barak, rather the descretionary spending by the President is only about 20% of what FDR used to stimulate the economy prior to WW2.

The senility system in the Senate, that is the seniority system , allows a status quo approach to current events that may in fact worsen problems today.

Sarah Palin claims that military spending and support for our oil companies is the road to pubic safety and security, actually the public safety.

The huge procuction of SUVs by General Motors was a fuelish decision, I mean a foolish decision in light of more strategic emphasis on smaller cars by Toyota and other competitors.


*many federal agency offices program thier word processors to not allow the word pubic to be written since it is a number one spelling error.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 11:20 PM

Amos and BillD, as ever, well put.

BDL, you make me laugh..it is brill!

All we are saying
Is give him a chance...

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: number 6
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 11:00 PM

"Perhaps the term "discretionary spending" was replaced by "discriminiatory spending" by mistake? "

Good one pdq !   :)


biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 09:33 PM

Since I first stated my opinion of an Obama spending freeze as a terrible and self defeating Hoover idea,
I have noticed that 3 more people concur with my opinion.
Paul Krugman
James Galbraith
Robert Reich

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Bobert
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 08:33 PM

That's what I meant, Beezer, in sayin' that Obama was gonna throw the red-meat repubs a few softballs... Hey, keep the sumabcihes guessin' is a good start...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 08:03 PM

Tongue in cheek mode ON:

President Obama is faced with a huge number of influential people who want nothing more than to see him and his intiatives fail. They have no ideas of their own; they're simply automatically against anything he's for. Perhaps he's decided that the best way to beat them is to use psychology. He will propose ideas that are the exact opposite of what he really hopes to accomplish, in hopes that his enemies will support their opposites, thus accomplishing what he really wanted in the first place.

He'll do this for as long as it takes for the "Obama must fail" crowd to catch on. Then he'll go back to proposing what he really wants and the idiots, thinking that he's still trying to pull the old switcheroo on them, will support whatever he proposes, believing that he actually wants the opposite.

Brilliant!

Tongue in cheek mode OFF.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 07:53 PM

"If anyone ever dared check on my history posts, I already predicted that Obama would behave and rule exactly like Octavian for all the same reasons.

I see no need to explain why." Donuel

Everybody else here appears to be well enough educated to understand your statement. But I am not. Just what do you mean?

Off the top of my head, I'd say Barack Obama does not remind me in any way of Octavian. Please enlighten me. Failing that - since you have a history of never answering - will someone here please tell me what Donuel means?

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: pdq
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 07:34 PM

Perhaps the term "discretionary spending" was replaced by "discriminiatory spending" by mistake?

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Bobert
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 07:25 PM

Obama, as well as just about everyone else in the country now sees, has figured out that majority rule has been overtaken by minority rule so...

...with that in mind IO reckon he's gonna just pitch a few softballs to the red-meat Repubs...

The problem is that in this current political environment Obama could come up wit a cure for cancer and the Repubs would still blast him...

So, personally... I'd rather see him stick it in the Repubs eye and call for a freeze on defense spending, a rollback on all Social Security payments made to folks who don't need it (i.e., the allready wealthy) and a Constitutional Ammendment outlawing the fillibuster... And those are just for starters... Legalization of marijuana is also in my Top Five, of course...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: GUEST,mark-s(on the road)
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 07:11 PM

Gotta believe Obama is smarter than I am. (No great stretch - most people are that way)
Maybe this is an attempt to buy enough time to "nudge" the rudder rather than "Hard A-Port".
After all, the next chance the electorate gets to have a say is in November - and 10 months can be an eternity in politics.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 07:02 PM

Do remember everyone... Obama & his staff & advisors are not dumb folks. They have access to more information and behind-the-scenes manipulation vectors than any of us.
This simplistic attitude of "oh, I'm disappointed in what he has accomplished so far.." doesn't help much. He has been in a position where "the loyal opposition" has been willing to sell the country down the river, rather than to allow him any significant legislative wins.

This is not Venezuela or Iran, where power is narrowly concentrated in a few individuals. He does not rule by fiat! It's fine to wonder why certain things are happening, but I don't see anything he's done that was stupid.

"Remember- when you're up to your neck in alligators, it's hard to remember your objective was to drain the swamp!"

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: number 6
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 06:45 PM

It simply means the government has blown away, way too much money.

niLL

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 06:40 PM

In this context, what does "discriminiatory spending" mean, precisely?

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: number 6
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 06:39 PM

"Doomed to repeat it"

Even Michael Moore is starting to criticse the Obama Dems.

"Obama, a year ago, man, he just had it right in his hands ... this is the continual and historic failure of the Democratic Party in our lifetime, that they think the only way they’re going to survive ... is to be Republican lite. And every time that happens, it goes kaboom." â€" Michael Moore on Democracy Now!"

Some how I knew it was going to end up this way.

Where is Ralph Nadar now Mike?

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 06:36 PM

Yup. Right cross! You get knocked down. Left upper cut! You get knocked down again. Watch for the next right cross...

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: number 6
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 06:30 PM

Obviously the overspending and and economic danger signals have hit the radar and warning lights at the oval office ....

The military is exempt from this 'freeze'. Now it doesn't take a genius to realize most of the money has been spend on these ongoing wars. I'll probably not be suprised where the freeze is going to hit ... since the machine in power is just the same old left, same old right.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 06:28 PM

Now, Amos IF you were asked to justify yourself for a change,
Are you the paragon of Optimism?

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 06:25 PM

Cnn has a poll

Has Obama convinced you that he is a populist?



you know when you have to ask ...

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 06:21 PM

Thank you Amos,

Just remember that visual imagery and political cartoons are joined at the hip
As an amateur editorial cartoonist I too often write the cartoon instead of illustrating it, partly out of time limitations.
I do plan on going back and illustrating some of the vociferous, exaggerated, spiteful, inaccurate, heated attacks.

In that light you may see how they look better than they read.

I did try to remain academic in the start of the constitutional decision threads simply becasue of the import.

Jogging left and right and right and right still lands Obama out of bounds. Or shall I say Barak Octavian.

You however should know above most, reality is what you make it.

I am still assured that Barak is playing chess while the Repubs are playing checkers, or most recently, not playing at all.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 06:19 PM

How about if we hold our arms calmly at our sides and just wiggle our ears this time instead, Amos, knit our brows, and maybe breathe heavily? ;-) You will be relieved to know, at least, that I am not jumping up and down in a frenzy when I type on these political threads. Donuel probably isn't either.

If I thought I was in a position to "push Obama in a right direction", by golly, I would...but I am keenly aware that I am in no such position. ;-) It's a stretch to think I can even push the Dachshund in "a right direction". I do try to do that now and then.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Amos
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 06:11 PM

Donuel:

Your poetic imaginings always intrigue and delight, but on political issues they add more heat than light. In your sweeping, colorful metaphors you drift far away from the moorings of actuality. Obama is dealing with large-scale complex scenarios comprising lots of large vectors in collision. Some of these vectors--the right-wing of the Senate for example--are vociferous, exaggerated, spiteful and inaccurate in their heated attacks. Others are simply large, subdued and generally less noisy such as the under-privileged majority of citizens. I have no drum to beat for any individual decision the President makes, but I think you will find he speaks to the issues in as open and honest a way as he can, in general.

Sure, he may be in surprise at the vehemence of criticism and sniping and snarkiness that discolors the political environment in Washington--don't forget he is essentially an optimist who won the White House in a landslide. So all the backstabbing probably took him unprepared. And every problem he thought he understood clearly may have turned out to be several orders of complexity worse than he thought. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes, but he is in his shoes. I would be inclined to give him support and keep pushing him in a right direction rather than issiue arm-waving diatribes.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 06:03 PM

talking GPS

"Make a legal U turn at once.
recalculating.
Make a legal U turn
hmmm
recalculating
*
enter new destination
is anybody there?
recalculating
turn around or turn me off"

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: CarolC
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 06:02 PM

On a more serious note, it should be understood that this freeze on discretionary spending is not across the board. Some programs will be allowed to increase their spending, and some will have to reduce spending, and some, I guess, will remain the same. There will be no net increase, but that doesn't mean that all spending will be frozen.

Having said all of that, I haven't formed an opinion just yet on whether or not it is a good idea.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Gets Lost
From: CarolC
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 05:56 PM

He should get a GPS.