existentialist
existentialist's JournalDisappointed with Obama, but not outraged
I don't like what the Obama Administration appears to have done with the tools provided him by the Patriot Act, but I can't say I'm outraged.
I was outraged by its enactment, and by the Bush Administration.
I'm not thrilled with Obama, but my deepest anger is with the Republican Congress.
It is, at any rate that Congress that must be changed if the Patriot aCt is to be repealed--or even improved.
Ranting against the Obama Administration would only be an exercise in misdirected outrage that would improve nothing, and make it more difficult to improve things.
To that extent I agree with the original post here--but I'm still less than thrilled with Obama's actions with regard to domestic spying.
Of course then again, I'm less than thrilled with his failure to stand up to Republicans on numerous points--but if he is going to do that he needs support rather than outrage against him.
On many points I support him as strongly as I can, and I can't think of a single point on which I would prefer a Republican--any Republican--to be President.
I am definitely not OK with NSA snooping, but
I do think that the focus on precisely what NSA is snooping into at any given moment misses a larger point.
Phone records, internet messages (including everything posted here), who even knows how many records are constantly created on an ongoing basis.
The NSA (and numerous other agencies, companies, countries and individuals) have the capacity to access very large parts of those records at any time.
That is an even larger problem, of which we should, at a minimum, be constantly aware.
"falsehood or fantasy"
““The fiscal math has to work, more or less. It doesn’t for a flat tax. Nor does it for a balanced budget amendment that assumes an unrealistically low level of spending for an aging society that also wants a lethal, power-projecting military. At some point, simplicity edges over into falsehood or fantasy.”
I'm sorry--I can't remember where I lifted that quote from, but I remember that it was a GOP friendly article in a semi-respectable online publication that seemed aimed at bringing Republicans back to reality (good luck with that). The rest was my comment which I posted (on Huffington Post) in response to the original article:
Republican rhetoric edged over into falsity and fantasy on these points and others long ago.
In so far as voters perceive this, the game is up, and Republicans lose.
Therefore Republican rhetoric gets more and more outrageous and incendiary in an increasingly desperate attempt to prevent voters from rationally considering the issues and the politicians that they chose to represent them in dealing with those issues.”
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Member since: Fri Aug 27, 2004, 10:27 PMNumber of posts: 2,190
