Man, I've been listening to different news stuff all day while driving. What absolute liars some people are. A small amount of factual info goes a long way. This speakes for itself. The idiot fox news talk shows, and others I guess, have been deploying this nuke all day long. Fuckers.
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/did_obama_say_we_are_no_longer.html
To think our forefathers fought and died for the right for our nation to be a Christian Nation
and here all these years i thought our founding fathers fought for freedom of/from religion ? and setup separation of church and state.
So many other statements made by him (and his wife) were upsetting enough, but I never thought the day would come when we would hear something like that from a presidential candidate in this country.
I would bet the first of those other upsetting statements started with.
"I confirm I am standing as a candidate for president"
It just stings - a slap in the face for all god fearing hypocrites.
Wonder why God, since he told Bush to attack Iraq and they seem to talk rather frequently, didn't tell Bush he was fixing to fuck up the entire world with his stupid decisions concerning our current mess? I guess God was to busy then. :(
Man, the repubs are losing damn mind. Pitiful, just pitiful. It's not even funny.
It's only fair, now they can talk to the Democrats at the same level. Too bad we can't flush both parties down a toilet somewhere...
I would never claim to be of either party.
However, right now, we have two choices. And just as we've had in the past a choice of the lessor evil for President, except this time, we have to choose one. We have to vote for a member of one of the parties for President.
I don't feel everything the democratic party stands for is always good, as in the basics. But after seeing or hearing some of the crap the repubs come up with now, and in the past, I don't see how I could ever vote republican again. Maybe things on that side will change, but I think they are at the bottom of the pit right now. And McCain kinda showed America this with his choice for Vice President. She is a ignorant, ignorant, person.
I simply can't understand this mentality the repubs have any longer. I've heard all day the last few days how they just can't understand why President Obama wants to talk to North Korea and the leaders of Iran. It's sick. Why can't they understand that talks could resove problems.....instead of going to war where many people will be killed, on both sides. Why must they prefer war or threats of war over peaceful talks? Goddamn it pisses me off. The repubs have simply lost their fucking minds. Thye cowboy Bush mentality. Just insane.
I really hope President Obama is damn successful at his every attempt to solve some of the problems he's faced with. And I hope he does it his way, the smart way, the thoughtful way.
I really must have been out of my fucking mind not to see this until now. I'm ashamed of my ignorance especially as I voted for Bush not once, but twice.
I'm really new at this political stuff. I don't know much about politics. But the more I learn, the more I just can't believe the large amount of people who eat this rebublican conservative rotten shit up everyday. Never look at any other options. Just go along with the shit for who knows what reason.
If Prersident Obama doesn't get it done, I think I can truely say he tried his best to fix the problems the republican dumbasses caused and they were so huge he just couldn't do it in 4 or 8 years. he can't really fail. Not really.
Hookbender — Apr 09, 2009 However, right now, we have two choices. And just as we've had in the past a choice of the lessor evil for President, except this time, we have to choose one. We have to vote for a member of one of the parties for President.
Wow... A perfect example of what's wrong with American politics and
exactly what those two parties would like you to think!
I live in a world reality Craig. Why would I trash my vote and take the chance that someone like McCain and Palin would lead this country? Plus, Obama was a very good choice this go round. Better than the rest!
Leading up to the election, if you look at the polls and Ron Paul has an estimated 10% support vs 90% split between the other two parties.....do ya think you really are gonna make a statement by wasting your vote?
like religion there is no third way in the politics of power.
yes - you can be agnostic about the parties involved - most sane logical people are.
But like with religion - agnostic is not an active political position, it is the absence of one.
Campaigning is an exercise in influencing and then measuring mass human behaviour.
Convincing them that you represent a 3rd way is a trick.
The masses are asses - even if those masses were all professors of reality.
It always turns into a binary choice.
Vote that amalgam of interests in over that other amalgam of interests.
Are you for the people in power or do you want them out
a very grey decision - not black and white.
And it is touchingly naive to think that it could operate otherwise.
3rd party candidates are either politicians with egos bigger than their ability or politicians who prefer to be in perpetual opposition and not take the chance they actually have to lead.
Ron Paul is the latter
Ross Perot was the former.
For a politician - If you can't even win over and change a party to your cause - then what chance can you do it with a nation.
Politics is the art of the possible.
And there are only two sides in politics - those broadly on your side and those against you.
Anything you do is within that constraint.
It does not matter how many groups are against you - only the weight of power against vs for
And of course the agnostics are fodder in that equation.
But going back to Hook's original post.
As an outsider on all this - I would not pay any attention to US internal politics if it wasn't for this site and the WH,
The Bush years have dumbed down being a republican to the point it has become a party based on playing to ignorance.
A party for the ignorant.
It doesn't try to educate, it wants to promote ignorance as a virtue and make competence a dirty word - the Sarah Palin strategy.
It is based on shock jocks propagating nasty cynical propaganda.
That is all it was - no vision or direction, just a ragbag of manipulators of the media.
Republicans are far easier to define by what they hate than what they stand for.
Republicans are defined by shlock jocks crying and whining on camera about causes they give no shit about - they only care about one thing, the personal power and money they can make out of exploiting the ignorant mob.
Bottom Line - Republicans have wrecked the US reputation, near bankrupted it and have accelerated an unrecoverable decline in power prematurely.
Obama is doing a fucking good job in recovering the situation so far with the reputation.
You can't divorce that from the financial system, as confidence is the key commodity involved.
So he will save a catastrophic slide hopefully.
But even if he is successful in retrieving the situation - the US is a shadow of the power it was when it peaked just a decade ago
It is inevitable that the US would slide in relative terms as China et al came on line as powerhouses.
But the dramatic nature of the decline under Bush is no accident, it was driven by stupidity.
The $ will lose prime reserve currency status at some point in the next decade or two.
That will be very painful for the US, an economy wrecker - read up on history to see it.
Without the Bush years that would probably be 30- 50 years away and it is ultimately inevitable anyway - every dog has it's day etc.
But the US could have managed it better without the massive fuckup during the Bush years.
The US is a big vehicle with a large engine.
Presidents are supposed to drive this vehicle with care as it has to last.
Bush just took it for a drag race razz around the block with his buddies and crashed it.
:D
History will not be kind to Bush - he was a disaster.
Good post Fingers! As usual!
"Republicans are far easier to define by what they hate than what they stand for."
So true! And wow.....kinda the same could be said about religion.
I don't want to know all there is about politics. I want a good sensible stance that entails an open mind on such a non-absolute subject. I want to be able to vote with some integrity and knowledge. In other words, not do as I did with Bush again.
Also Fingers, to add to your points. The real disaster of this meltdown for the U.S. is the possibility of being set back years in improving our country. We're having to go backwards to start moving forward again, it seems. Which will also hurt other countries as well as our means of assistance will be now be limited big time.
Hookbender — Apr 10, 2009
The real disaster of this meltdown for the U.S. is the possibility of being set back years in improving our country. We're having to go backwards to start moving forward again, it seems. Which will also hurt other countries as well as our means of assistance will be now be limited big time.
One of the biggest myths in US politics is that it bankrolls the rest of the world somehow in aid.
It is proportionally one of the meanest contributors of the first world block.
Japan gives as much.
Scandanavia is extremely generous.
But your point stands - the US has massively defaulted on debt and it has fucked up the plans.
And poor countries will bear the brunt of this.
http://www.poverty.com/internationalaid.html