Mad_Machine76
Mad_Machine76's Journal"Any President"
is that sort of like "generic Republican?"
So, the Pubs now like Jimmy Carter enough to admit that he would've iced Bin Laden too? Cool.
Why do any of them
Frankly, as far as I'm concerned, hating government should automatically DISQUALIFY somebody from running for government office. I mean, what other jobs are there where a potential employer would be willing to hire somebody who flat-out says they hate the job they're applying for? What would we even think of employers whom were willing to do this?
Sideshow Bob (Simpsons) said it best:
"........Because you need me, Springfield. Your guilty conscience may move you to vote Democratic, but deep down you long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and RULE YOU LIKE A KING! That's why I did this, to save you from yourselves!"
Thanks WAPO
for catching up...........
Only took them, what, 30 years to figure this out? Well, better late than never, right?
President's Obama's "bipartisanship" initiative has been admirable
but clearly unsuccessful- though through no clear fault of his own. The question is whether or not the Republicans are going to insist that we keep this awful fighting going in perpetuity where they will prevent government from functioning correctly whenever they are not in power and then dominating and intimidating the minority whenever they are in power or if we can somehow get back to the way things used to be where both parties at least agree that some semblance of civility and bipartisanship- as well keeping the government functioning as it is supposed to be-is in the best interests of our country.
I would love to think so
but I doubt it. We need to have people out there making the case for functional government but so far I haven't really heard it. It's unrealistic to expect that either party- at any given time- will be able to have full control of the government. We the people/voters should at least expect both parties to work together to get stuff done and keep the government functioning properly. As long as people are o.k. with (or at least tolerate) one party or another deliberately throwing sand in the gears and preventing votes, nominees, and basically government functioning like it is supposed to, then the partisan fighting (and let me make it clear, I blame the GOP Tea Party) will just continue in perpetuity.
Yeah
I remember that anti-war activists and Michael Moore routinely outnumbered pro-war supporters in the corporate media during the run-up to the war and how the corporate media endlessly mocked Colin Powell's "performance" at the UN Security Council where he laid out the rationale for invading Iraq and how the UN Weapons Inspectors were lauded as heroes and given lots of airtime to refute the Bush (mis-)administration's rationale for invading Iraq.
Wait! What? You don't remember any of this either?
Of course, for those of us whom are sane and remember the whole of the Iraq war, coverage didn't get legitimately harsh until at least it was crystal clear that there were no WMDs to be found and our troops began taking heavy casualties from militants and people realized how much of an all around mess Iraq had become as a result of our invasion/occupation, which, unfortunately, did not really happen until AFTER Bush was safely re-elected.
I don't get the "overpaid" part
I never hear about teachers, librarians, or other public servants pulling down salaries or benefits ANYWHERE near Wall Street CEOs. There are some school administrators IMHO whom are pulling down some questionably high salaries (for their actual duties) but, in general, the outrage against public employees and their salaries/benefits is somewhat of a mystery to me. I've worked for my state in child protection services for nearly 10 years and am only pushing (close to) $40K and I've been all but priced out of anything but a high deductible health insurance plan yet some Wall Street CEOs are earning millions of dollars and public employees are the ones whose salaries/benefits people are getting upset over and governors in states across the nation are trying to cut in order to balance their budgets.
BTW did you read about an article that somebody put up last week (I think) that was saying that some states actually allow businesses to keep some tax revenues paid?
The GOP campaign (as I believe was telegraphed several months ago)
is to point out what President Obama campaigned for in 2008, and then accuse him of not following through. Of course, it's going to be hard for them IMHO to make these kind of hypocritical claims when either they have been doing this sort of thing for years and will be doing it again if Romney gets elected or they have been one of the biggest and most significant obstacle in getting things President Obama passed by Congress and signed into law. I guess they must be hoping that people haven't been paying attention.
Under the best circumstances
President Obama, particularly with a more moderate/progressive Congress, will be able and willing to push some decent moderate/left-of-center policies and, most importantly, SIGN THEM INTO LAW!
Under the worst circumstances, he will be able to block reactionary and regressive Republican Tea Party legislation from becoming law. He will, as others have pointed out, will be able to nominate SCOTUS replacements if any die/retire over the next 4 years, maybe not solidly ideologically liberals but some solid moderate/left-of-center justices whom will serve as counterweights against the more reactionary members of the court (i.e. Scalia, Thomas, et. al). President Obama will also still have significant control of the Federal Government and its regulatory agencies.
Until we can elect a much more solidly progressive Congress and/or the Republicans sober up and start acting like sane and rational beings again and refuse to stop obsessively pandering to the Pat Robertson/Fox News/hate radio crowds, the prospects for FDR/LBJ advancement of progressive policies seems somewhat limited at the Federal level, unfortunately, but handing election after election to the Republicans, particularly since they've become so increasingly radicalized, is inestimably worse by any measure IMHO.
Profile Information
Name: Mara Alis ButlerGender: Female
Hometown: Indianapolis, Indiana
Home country: USA
Current location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Member since: Sat Feb 28, 2004, 01:13 AM
Number of posts: 24,438
