There are those on both the Right and Left who assail President Obama for not doing enough as President (or for some on the Right, for doing too much). Some have stated that he has not kept his campaign promises, others say that he has compromised himself and his principles in far too many cases.
Presented for your review, here is just a fraction of items from the list at Politifact.com of campaign promises kept by Pres. Obama. I recommend visiting their site to review the complete 7 page list, it is impressive http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/rulings/promise-kept/ :
A SAMPLE OF CAMPAIGN PROMISES KEPT BY PRESIDENT OBAMA:
No. 4: Extend child tax credits and marriage-penalty fixes
No. 16: Increase minority access to capital
No. 33: Establish a credit card bill of rights
No. 36: Expand loan programs for small businesses
No. 37: Extend the Bush tax cuts for lower incomes
No. 38: Extend the Bush tax cuts for those making less than $250,000 (couples) or $200,000 (single)
No. 48: Close the “doughnut hole” in Medicare prescription drug plan
No. 51: Require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions
No. 53: Give tax credits to those who need help to pay health premiums
No. 55: Require large employers to contribute to a national health plan
No. 56: Require children to have health insurance coverage
No. 57: Expand eligibility for Medicaid
No. 58: Expand eligibility for State Children’s Health Insurance Fund (SCHIP)
No. 63: Require health plans to disclose how much of the premium goes to patient care
No. 65: Establish an independent health institute to provide accurate and objective information
No. 69: In non-competitive markets, force insurers to pay out a reasonable share of their premiums for patient care
No. 70: Eliminate the higher subsidies to Medicare Advantage plans
No. 93: Reinstate executive order to hire an additional 100,000 federal employees with disabilities within five years.
No. 105: Increase the Veterans Administration budget to recruit and retain more mental health
No. 109: Fully fund the Veterans Administration
No. 113: Expand the Veterans Administration’s number of “centers of excellence” in specialty care
No. 121: Fully fund the Violence Against Women Act
No. 125: Direct military leaders to end war in Iraq
No. 126: Begin removing combat brigades from Iraq
No. 132: No permanent bases in Iraq
No. 161: End the abuse of supplemental budgets for war
No. 167: Make U.S. military aid to Pakistan conditional on anti-terror efforts
No. 172: Open “America Houses” in Islamic cities around the globe
No. 182: Allocate Homeland Security funding according to risk
No. 195: Seek verifiable reductions in nuclear stockpiles
No. 196: Extend monitoring and verification provisions of the START I Treaty
No. 197: Stand down nuclear forces to be reduced under the Moscow Treaty
No. 215: Create a rapid response fund for emerging democracies
No. 222: Grant Americans unrestricted rights to visit family and send money to Cuba
No. 225: Establish an Energy Partnership for the Americas
No. 229: Expand the Nurse-Family Partnership to all low-income, first-time mothers
No. 239: Release presidential records
No. 241: Require new hires to sign a form affirming their hiring was not due to political affiliation or contributions.
No. 244: Provide affordable, high-quality child care
No. 247: Recruit math and science degree graduates to the teaching profession
No. 259: Reduce subsidies to private student lenders and protect student borrowers
No. 269: Increase funding for national parks and forests
No. 275: Expand Pell grants for low-income students
No. 290: Push for enactment of Matthew Shepard Act, which expands hate crime law to include sexual orientation and other factors
No. 293: Repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy
No. 315: Establish ‘Promise Neighborhoods’ for areas of concentrated poverty
No. 359: Rebuild schools in New Orleans
No. 371: Fund a major expansion of AmeriCorps
No. 411: Work to overturn Ledbetter vs. Goodyear
No. 422: Create new financial regulations
No. 427: Ban lobbyist gifts to executive employees
No. 433: Sign a “universal” health care bill
No. 435: Create new criminal penalties for mortgage fraud
No. 449: Raise fuel economy standards
No. 458: Invest in all types of alternative energy
No. 483: Invest in public transportation
No. 495: Double federal spending for research on clean fuels
No. 500: Increase funding for the Environmental Protection Agency
No. 507: Extend unemployment insurance benefits and temporarily suspend taxes on these benefits
No. 513: Reverse restrictions on stem cell research
Again, please keep in mind that this is only a fraction of the promises he has kept. I don’t think there is another president in recent history who could present such a list.
Instead of opinion-based memes, I invite those on the Left and Right to consider the facts of what President Obama has accomplished to benefit the majority of Americans and if they maintain a negative view of him, list what items Bush accomplished to benefit most Americans in the first two years of his presidency or what a Repub candidate in 2012 would do in the first two years of theirs.
bito
AlphaBitch
Kalima
choicelady
Khirad
kesmarn
Freeedooooom!!!!!
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Welcome Kelly, so many new faces the last two days. Glad you are one of them
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Welcome to the Planet kelly, feel free to roam around!
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Hi Kelly! I was hoping you would defect. Good to see you.
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Hey you!
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KELLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Glad ta see ya!
Welcome to The Planet, Kellyk311!
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Hey hi hey hi!
Where do I add my profile pic? Feed naked without the cat!
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kellyk311, Welcome to the Planet Great to see you here.
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…is v. nice. *smiles*
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Hello kelly!
Good to see you here!
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Well, I am here because Carrieantigua told me you left, and you’re one of my favorites. So here I are.
Hey, where do I edit profile and switch pics?
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We use Gravatars, you can register your email and upload your avatar there and voila! Here’s the link: http://en.gravatar.com/site/signup/
Your profile is in your Dashboard, there’s a widget in the right column “Links For Kellyk311″ you can use to go to your Dashboard, Add New posts and go to My Profile.
Here’s the direct link to the Profile page (it takes each user only to theirs): http://planetpov.com/wp-admin/profile.php
Again, welcome to the Planet!
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Hmmmm….. I need to start my own cult!
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LOL I think you are your own cult!
(checking for the lightning bolts…)
You can call it “The Adonais” since Christian is taken…
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That sounds like 50′s doo-wop group.
How about the A-Team? Oh,I hope it’s not taken!
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http://planetpov.com/2011/02/09/tips-for-newcomers-and-regulars-alike/
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Just used that. Thanks doll
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Thanks BDM!!!
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One more item to add to the list? Bringing some dignity back to the office.
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Yes, and that’s probably what the bashers can stand the least, hence the constant bashing
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A nice list for sure…I am one of those folks who believes that the real threats to the USA are the corporations. My fear is that the pro-business ideology of the last 30 years has infected obama…
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I am right with you phread and that’s where I’m focused on my physical activism, against the plutocracy that’s trying to swallow our democracy. I don’t know that Obama’s infected by it but after taking on Wall Street and corps in his first two years, the 2010 election was a shot across the bow that the public just won’t support him against big business as they blame his conflicts with them on the lack of jobs.
I think in a second term though, without needing to run again, he might change course a bit.
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Indeed Adlib…corporate control-inverted totalitarianism.
the plutocrats have been pursuing their agenda since 1972(powell memo) using tactics going back even earlier.
My concern about obama is him being more business friendly, foolishly thinking this is the way to fix the economy. The 2010 elections were IMHO not about obama being anti business, rather the 2010 elections were FACT FREE, a propaganda driven right wing agenda. What is needed is some good old fashioned Keynesianism!
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I like this site, much better than “over there”. But the pro-Obama slant gives me pause. Here is an administration that brought in their most important and influential advisors (Geithner, Summers, Bernanke, Gates, etc) directly from the Cheney machine. He is following the prior admin’s foreign policy directives almost to the letter; endless war/extraordinary renditions/political assassinations/massacre by remote control/global military presence/domestic surveillance/etc. How many more years of slaughter in Afghanistan and Iraq are enough? How many more intrusive NSA/Google alliances? How much more coddling of RW political propagandists, without any compensatory equal time for other opinions?
The Secretary of State is married to the biggest cheerleader of globalization, a policy that is destroying the workforce of America. NAFTA turned Mexico’s economy into a hollow shell, and set the mold for wrecking ours. Obama’s efforts to rein in the bankers and Wall Street criminals have been mere talk, no action. The one percenters are running roughshod over us, we are saddled with unsustainable debts and Obama blames us, the progressives that got him elected, for not rolling over and kissing up to him while taking it like good victims.
Obama is not a good man, he is a willing player in a machine that seeks to turn the West into a giant slave state. Barack Obama’s main contribution to history will be that he put a stake through the heart of the citizens’ belief that “Hope and Change” can come from either party in this PTB duopoly.
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Welcome to The Planet audadvnc!
I agree, the one percent are running roughshod over us.
Now, why do you suppose this is happening? Could it be because the “Party of No” is allowing it to happen? Could it be the one percent+, with the KOCH BROS leading the way, are using their billions to dictate, not influence, but dictate, how the “Party of No” works best for them and their billions and not what works best for the rest of us — the other 98%?
AdLib’s list highlights some, just some of the many things President Obama has accomplished in the past two years — despite the “Party of No” and the KOCH BROS machine.
I agree with AdLib and…
.
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In addition, President Obama is a good man, and IMO, has the best interest of the other 98% of us at the top of his agenda. To think anything less, or address him as simply “Obama” is not only disrespectful, but also disturbing. Referring to the President of the United States in this manner is something MSM, Faux News, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and others have subtly gotten away with for far too long; and, there’s the “Party of No” and billionaire influence rearing its ugly head once again.
I’m not ashamed to be pro Obama. In fact, I’m so proud I often say my party affiliation is Obamacrat.
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I’m curious as to what you think about all the accomplishments listed above, you didn’t address any of them.
Are you pleased that he became president and accomplished some or all or do you think the negatives so outweigh the positives that it would have been better if he had lost his run for the presidency?
Would you like to see him re-elected or would you consider voting for a Republican in 2012 (there won’t be any credible primary challenge to Obama)? Or would you sit it out?
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Well, first of all, someone has to counter “over there’s” anti-Obama slant.
What, in your opinion, makes Obama “not a good man”. We can debate his policies all day, many of which I disagree with
But he seems like a “:good man” to me. Flawed like us all but his words and actions reflect someone trying to do the right thing in a system that doesn’t make it easy.
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I’ve never met him, and don’t know anybody who has. But as the old phrase goes, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.”
How should we view this man that said he was going to change the way Washington works, then embraced that system as soon as the election was concluded? What lie can he tell that is big enough to cause us to drop the rosy glasses we wore (myself included) in 2008?
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Audadvnc–what lie has he told? That he hasn’t been able to change the way DC works? A lie? I saw him reach out REPEATEDLY to the other side. That was a change. And the fact that the other side rejected him–spit on him–that doen’t mean he wasn’t trying. And you know what? IT WORKED. The Party of No meme has become one we all now realize. So how did he lie? Unless he didn’t change Washington in the precise way YOU expected.
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From Wikipedia’s entry on Guantanamo: After the United Nations called unsuccessfully for the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to be closed, one judge observed ‘America’s idea of what is torture … does not appear to coincide with that of most civilised nations’.”
It appears the Guantanamo closure is yet another promise the President has no intention of keeping – executive order or no.
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Then there is no reasoning with you. You are determined to be right in the face of all the facts from numerous sources about the list of promises kept, in the face of an executive order about Guantanamo, whatever. You will glom onto the 10% that has not been accomplished. You feel the way you feel and damn the facts. What can I say?
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Yes. And? Obama declared waterboarding torture and ended it. do I wish the Bushies were prosecuted? YES. But I am realistic to understand that the freaking economy crashed, the country is still on the brink of a civil war over the election of a black president and we didn’t have the luxury of keeping everything on hold while the country focused on prosecutions. NOTHING else at all would have gotten accomplished. (Although I believe if we ever want to truly heal, we need justice.)
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OK. He said he was going to shut down Guantanamo, which he had the power to do without going through Congress. That is just the tip of the iceberg, of course; the President, being a savvy pol, knows how to stretch the truth to appear to say one thing without actually saying it – and there’s his plausible deniability.
When he said he was going to take on the drug companies, we didn’t know his intention was to take on the drug companies to a huge exemption like that firm White House promise to exclude from a proposed health care overhaul the possibility of allowing the government to negotiate lower drug prices under Medicare.
What did that exemption buy the American citizenry? If you or I had heard before the election, his intentions to give the drug companies all they wanted, would we have supported his actions? If we knew before the election that he intended to continue the worst excesses of the prior admin, would we have voted for him?
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Closure Of Guantanamo Detention Facilities
EXECUTIVE ORDER — REVIEW AND DISPOSITION OF INDIVIDUALS DETAINED AT THE GUANTÁNAMO BAY NAVAL BASE AND CLOSURE OF DETENTION FACILITIES
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/ClosureOfGuantanamoDetentionFacilities/
And he can’t make state or any country take the prisoners.
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Just one thing: I’ve voted in every Presidential election since 1972. Every Presidential candidate, win or lose, has campaigned on the promise of changing Washington.
No one has.
Just sayin’.
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MARION! You got an avatar! Who knew you were so gorgeous?
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O.K. There is another quote I like that comes from the same time period as that one.
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
And I never had rosy glasses. I don’t see Obama embracing this system either. We seem to forget that since day one he has fought his own Party in Congress just as much as Republicans.
That he can only propose legislation. Congress then does what they will with it. But maybe it’s because I look at Obama as a politician.Like everyone should. And so far, he hasn’t disappointed me because I never pinned any unreal expectations on him.
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Why am I the hypocrite for taking a man at his word, then expressing contempt when he changes his tune? If I had wanted Bush Lite, I could have voted for McCain and Moosilla.
As Barack Obama has clearly demonstrated, it really doesn’t matter what you vote for, or even bother to vote. They’re going to do what they want anyway.
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Then we need to focus our efforts the real lawmakers (and breakers), the house and senate. Anyone who thought that POTUS could simply come in an change things with his lone presence was mistaken. I think we all hoped for a change to the ways things have trended but there are a lot of other issues and he’s one man. I am trying to practice patience. As much as a I chafe at some of the things he’s done I do think he, for the most part, has the people’s interests at stake. I wish I could say the same for congress and SCOTUS. We have to find a direction and stay with it. Long journey’s take many steps.
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McPalin? Hell we’d be in Iran by now.
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There are plenty of places you can go for your rants and hyperbole.
This was a factual list of accomplishments not personal value judgments, guilt by association politics, regurgitation of half truths and narratives we’ve all heard constantly.
Sad but bumper sticker name calling use to be just a purview of the right.
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“As Barack Obama has clearly demonstrated, it really doesn’t matter what you vote for . . . ” Did you mean who you vote for?
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Because you and me are just as at fault.
Until the American people step back and realize WE are the real culprits here
We are merely hypocrites criticizing the father figure who didn’t tell us “no”.
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Hello, my name is escribacat and I am an Obamabot. I love these lists but they only confirm what I essentially FEEL in the center of my being — that Barack Obama is a good man, a calm assertive leader and gets the best deal he can for us progressives. I tend to defend him whenever and wherever someone is bashing him — even though I think we should get the hell out of Afghanistan yesterday. And hell, I voted for Hillary in the primary! It’s entirely possible that my reasons are simply personal. I am self-employed and have had some serious back problems in the past that required cortizone injections in my spine and hours of physical therapy. For this reason, I have been turned down by numerous insurance companies. It is extremely humiliating to be subject to the obnoxious and intrusive questioning that these assholes dole out when you try to buy insurance as an individual. Well, I now have insurance because of Barack Obama. I feel like a citizen again, instead of an “untouchable.” For that, I will forever be grateful. So, call me selfish. I’ve been screeched at by purists over yonder that I’m selfish for defending Obama and the HCR bill that was passed. Tough shit. I’m still grateful and I will still defend him whenever and wherever I feel he is being unfairly bashed — which is pretty much everywhere I look.
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So much for the “argument” that the President hasn’t done a thing for the people! And thankfully there are millions like you who finally got insurance and are now able to get the care they need.
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He is a good man, eCat. No question about it.
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I’m sorry, but I can’t help myself-- I keep thinking of this old skit, and it just makes me laugh:
I remember this one Cher — funnee!
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LMAO! Thanks Cher. I had never seen this before. I miss Richard, and would love to get his take on America having an Afro-American in the white house.
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…if only Presidant Obama would tell Faux News to, “Shut up!” :b
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…if only President Obama would tell Faux News to, “Shut the Fuck Up!” Of course he can’t/won’t do that, but…
I bet he would surely like to.
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I had the same thought!
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I have never seen that, fantastic!! LOL
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A show WAAAAAYYYYYY ahead of it’s time.
Pryor is a GOD.
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Cher, this is how many of the Tea Party, white neo-conservatives and white Republican establishment members believe that Obama is like what is shown after the 4 min. mark…thanks to Rush!
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I know, BDM– it is their biggest fear. But you know what? As I watch it now, I think, “So what?” And also, I have to say it is also what some on the Left actually want to happen–they WANT an angry black man. I am not one who thinks that if Obama got angry he’d actually be fearsome. He HAS gotten righteously indignant, and I welcome it. But to the racists it is “uppity.”
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Was this a SNL piece or, and I can’t remember, did RP have his own show?
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“A neo-pacifist weapon”
Ha!
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Loved that. So funny!
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Now, here is the list if we had a Republican dirtbag in the white house:
1) Bomb Iran
2) Privatize Social Security
3) Gut Medicare
4) Flush the Dept of Education
5) Castrate the EPA
6) etc., etc.
O is looking pretty good!
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absolutly right…obama is better than the alternative, yet he APPEARS to embrace the pro-business ideology…
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That’s my major gripe. We have to get the financial sector and the corporations under control. The health of our republic depends on it.
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Excellent DawgBone! Very Funny!
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That made me laugh… It’s true.
Puts it in perspective
Yes, we need to maintain perspective. I bitch about Obama a lot, but he is SO much better than the alternative.
Plus, he’s an intelligent, good man.
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My biggest problem with Obama is the war in Afghanistan. Although, there were no campaign promises broken, in regard to Afghanistan, I have a big problem with spending over 2 billion a week, and the senseless loss of human life.
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I seriously believe that our approach to Islamic extremism is the wrong approach. We are still using the neo-con philosophy in the war on terrorism.
I am of the firm belief that Islamic extremism will never be defeated by conventional military means. And Islamic extremism is an ideology, and bombs and bullets have very little effect on ideas.
I am strongly opposed to nation building, especially when we have so many problems of our own, right here at home.
Kilgore
I just read a book by Stephen Flynn regarding the subject you mention, war on terror and how we fight it. You might want to pick up the book, The Edge of Disaster. He talks alot about our disintegrating infrastructure but he goes into some detail on how we could better fight terrorism AND upgrade our infrastructure.
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Thanks Sue. I’ll do that.
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I think we need to redefine what we mean by “defense”. If we are talking about “national security” then we don’t make ourselves any more secure by pouring all our money, and sending our top engineers, into the armaments industry while economic rivals are putting THEIR resources primarily into things that people, including us Americans, want to buy. Detroit was never attacked, but you would hardly know it to look at it. More accurately, it was “ceded” in an economic war that we would be far better equipped to wage were our resources re-allocated toward industries that promote peace and prosperity.
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Can’t argue with that!
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Hi KT you make some interesting and valid points and I certainly agree with you on our approach too handling the Islamic fundamentalist, however; I’m a strong believer in bringing our enemies to the table and some would and have argued that bringing them to the table doesn’t necessarily work and in some cases that is true so what do you do then?
Which brings me to the next point, that I am a strong proponent of nation building at least in theory. I like the idea having our citizens going around the world sharing ideas and knowledge in certain areas that bring about a positive outcome for a community seeking t improve it’s self. But in every known society throughout the world there have alwasy been people too oppose such efforts no matter how much you try. What I don’t like is when neo-cons use ‘cultural imperialism’ as a means to justify a war, I’m thinking of Iraq specifically. I wish we could take the money out of the equation but you know how the story – those so called ‘free-market’ thinkers.
We have big problems in America, but America is so fractured and politically driven, we’ll always continue to have problems with most of them being dilemmas that will never be solved. I can honestly say that I have really, really reexamined who I am as an American and what America stands for these days.
“America is woven of many strands. I would recognize them and let it so remain. Our fate is to become one, and yet many.”
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— Ralph Ellison
I agree bzb, the smartest thing we could do in Afghanistan is help build infrastructure, education, etc. Our decade of bombing innocent relatives and friends of the very people we’re trying to win over makes no sense.
If the history of Afghanistan and the last decade have continually affirmed something, it’s that there is absolutely no military solution to controlling a country which really isn’t one country but many countries.
It seems so intuitive. How were the Taliban first deposed? Was it the bombings? If it was, why aren’t the bombings defeating them now?
The reason they were thrown out of power is that Afghans had grown to resent them. Our bombings drove the Taliban out of Kabul but what kept them out originally was their unpopularity with the people and their weakness to intimidate them at that time.
What have we accomplished? We have made American occupiers as despised as the Taliban used to be and actually, more sympathy for the Taliban.
Help people become clothes, fed, educated and safe, help their society move into the 21st century and Afghanistan would begin to be a problem that can be solved.
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I am fine with a free exchange of ideas and knowledge. I am actually very big on the realization of this. But when talk about nation building, I am referring to just that. Giving foreign governments tons of money to build schools and roads and bridges….etc. If we could actually afford to do so, I wouldn’t be against it. The fact is, that we cannot afford to do it. We have an outdated, crumbling infrastructure, right here at home, that is going to cost billions to fix. We need to build a new power grid compatible with 21st century technology. We have people, with and without families that struggling, just to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. The problems we are facing are monumental and it really galls me that, for the most part, we are ignoring these problems while dumping billions and billions down a hole in the desert.
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Our national security would be better served by treating Islamic terrorism as an international, criminal conspiracy. Not fighting a guerilla war in a land that doesn’t really want us there.
Kilgore, I have read most of your comments on this and I’m with you. I have thought this through to the best of my ability, from all sides, with the information available. I also believe terrorism to be a real threat. Nonetheless, I see that the troops must leave. Special-ops, small elite forces stay maybe, because we are not actually there for Afghanistan–it’s all about Pakistan and the nukes. But the cost of troops and nation building is unaffordable mow.
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I agree. Actually, Joe Biden suggested the very thing you just did. Unfortunately, it was immediately dismissed by the pentagon.
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War is a new industry in America.
Millions of jobs, in many different states depend on military contracts. Sad. This is where I part company with our government.
I parted ways with it once a kill order was put on an American citizen in Yemen.
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No one disagrees, we just are not at all sure how to end this. Why? Because some things have worked to the good. For women, this is especially critical in terms of shoving back the Taliban and protecting women from its disastrous impact. I’m not sanguine about terrorists – they won’t just “go away” and I dread a repeat of 9/11. I do think some of what happened in Egypt will help turn us away with the spread of democratic impulses into Afghanistan via its better educated populace. That just happens to be small.
If we understand this was a situation created by decades of US imperalism that won’t be easily eradicated overnight, it helps a bit. NONE of this probably would have happened if Reagan had not blown off bin Laden in 1983 with his assault on Lebanon – that was bin Laden’s turning point, and it’s all Reagan’s imperialistic arrogance. Now – what do we do? I have no good answers because walking away is not a solution for the damage we have done that will be left to fester. It’s a betrayal of the people there, not just of some policy here.
If someone has a solution that isn’t just giving the finger, I’d be happy to know it. Then we could embrace an alternative policy.
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The solution to Islamic extremism is to treat it for what it really is, an international, criminal conspiracy. As far as saving Afghani women, that is a double edged sword. Afghani women who are helping us, get tortured and slaughtered. Also, we can’t be their protectors for ever.
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People of both genders are being horribly mistreated, in places nearly all over the world. We can’t go to all these places and fix that.
As of the present, we are creating more enemies than we are destroying.
OK – with that I totally agree. It never should have become a war; it was an international act of criminality against human rights.
But Bush handed us a war and NOT the perp – when he pulled everyone back who almost caught bin Laden, well…Don’t think I don’t think the fix was in. Even without nutty conspiracy theories (bin Laden is Bush’s lover) I would guess bin Laden was useful to keep the war machine pumping.
BUT – that’s what we got handed in Jan. 2009. Now what? I agree with you. Just have not got a clue how it could work from here.
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A slow and steady withdrawl from Afghanistan. keep pockets of special forces near by, to go after top al Qaida leadership, when possible.
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ight against al Qaida, by beefing up intel overseas, using Interpol and other crime fighting resources available abroad, and fix the miscommunications between our varied intel agencies here at home.
Afternoon Killgore, I too have issues with us being in Afghanistan and am disappointed that we are still there…but also believe that Obama doesn’t want to be there any more than we do.
My Cousin, a retired AF General, used to be a big AF mucky-muck and flew for years with NATO, we talk at least once a month. He always reminds me, that what we hear and see in the news, is not really what goes on, it is filtered. It is a lot more complicated, there are many gray areas and there are a lot of unseen forces that keep us doing certain things, certain ways.
I believe that Obama may have been a little niave when he stepped into the oval office that first day, thinking that he could change the culture of how things are done in DC overnight. The Pentagon being the most entrenched in their culture and where many of the useen forces are at work…ie, Blackwater being a big one.
Someone over yonder once posted something along the lines of, “If Obama were to change things too quickly, I forsee another…Grassy Knoll situation.”
That always stuck with me, not one for conspiracy theories, but it stuck with me…because there may be an inkling of truth to it.
Just my opinion….
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Good afternoon BD. I don’t think Obama wants to have us in Afghanistan. But I believe he is going about it in the wrong way. He is still using the old neo-con formula for defeating terrorism. And that is using conventional warfare against an enemy that can easily wait us out and make regular attacks against us, in a guerilla war. That is almost impossible to stop, when fighting a limited war like we are doing in Afghanistan. There are too many restrictions on how we fight this war.
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I do believe that the top leaders in the MIC are dictating our foreign policy, to a large extent. I believe that in reality, they are more powerful than the president himself. This is something we just cannot ignore or accept the concept that Obama is not doing the right thing, because he fears assassination.
These type of wars will ruin us in the long run.
I don’t think at this time he has a choice, I believe he is waiting them out, ready for the right time to move on this.
As his favorability numbers increase and public opinion demands that we get out, the MIC will have no choice but to aquiece..this is going to end, like Viet Nam did evenually, but hopefully sooner than later.
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My god, we’ve been there for ten years now. For us, the Vietnam war was over after ten years, and North Vietnam had a much more powerful military than the Taliban and al Qaida, who have no real military at all.
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Oh wow – I agree! I think his hard stand on several issues including his honoring of Egyptian sovereignty is already problematic in terms of the RW’s capacity to do major harm to those who thwart them.
In “The Family” Jeff Sharlet notes the influence – even control – that the Dominionist Christian/corporatists have over a shadow foreign policy. Some of the names of the early versions of this group figured in the attempted coup against FDR. Others today figure in John Perkins’ “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” about his career hiding under a front of a notable engineering firm but destablizing nation after nation – and watching reformers blown up by the CIA.
If some people were correct that Kennedy died because he was going to pull out of Vietnam – then WHO had the power to get him killed? That is and always will be the scariest unanswered question.
We again have a president who is thwarting these power hungry extremists. I fear for him every day.
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But he is not thwarting them. He is playing along, and so is Congress. I am afraid war has become a new industry for the US.
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No – he pulled combat troops out of Iraq which was the biggie because it’s oil AND Biblical Babylon. Trust me on the Dominionist front – getting out of Babylon threatens their End Times mantra that Bush pressed for. That’s part of the unsung story – we did not go into Iraq for JUST material gain but to fulfill that prophecy, and nothing – and I mean NOTHING – scared the bejeezus out of more than knowing THAT.
We got lucky – W’s converstion is thin. Laziness and indolence outstripped his concern for his soul. He got tired of playing President and went home. Had he been a true believer I think we’d have had a declaration of martial law, and he’d still be president. You “don’t say NO to God” according to these people.
Now Obama is undermining prophecy even more. THAT is what scares me – Iraq is vastly more important to the Dominionist religious right (prophecy) and their neo-con allies (oil, permanent bases that Obama has eliminated) than is Afghanistan. Obama’s work in de-escalating and leaving Iraq is deadly dangerous TO Obama because of these extremists.
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I am glad you mentioned the Dominionists, because they are the chief propagators for getting the poor and the working poor onside with the GOP. I’m talking the WHITE poor and working poor. These people, by their very hierarchical society, are conditioned to believe they are life’s worthless ones. For years, they believed in the Democratic Party. 40 years ago, the Dems threw them to the curb, and opened the possibility for the GOP to minister to them. The Dominionists raise their self-esteem, by reminding them that, as Christians, they are special, and that in end times, they’ll be chosen for heaven.
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There was an article “over there” a few days back about the thousands of Special Forces troops in Iraq today – months after Obama announced that combat troops have been removed. So what are those 50,000 US military (plus who knows how many Blackwater and other mercenaries) doing over there?
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I am talking about Afghanistan, and the Taliban and al Qaida.
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Oh, I know the end time freaks want a final and devastating war in Israel and surrounding areas.
The end timers will support anything that may bring such an event.
Ok, from this point on I won’t feel the need to type agreement, when you see a +1 that’s me.
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How do you know he is playing along? None of us knows that, none of us are privy to what goes on in staff meetings…all we can go on is what each of us sees or feels about the situation.
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It’s pretty obvious BD. We’ve been there for ten years now, with no real end in sight.
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I don’t believe we will start withdrawing troops by June 2011.
Some pentagon officials say we might be there until 2014 at the least.
Thank you!
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A-frigging-men!
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First of all nice list those indeed show a measure of “progress” but once again the dialectic it employs is the domain of the right. It all supposes the argument that ‘Obama is doing nothing.’ needs rebuttal. You are mistaken if you think w didn’t have such a list, presidents do not do any Thing on their own. What they do is set the bar, as high as possible.
My first reaction was to put qualifiers on half your list because the spirit of keeping a promise, like voting rights is not a fractional sum gain. If the measure of success is only a to-do list then the gop played a pivotal role in content. My father once paid my brother and myself $50 to clean my grandma’s garage of 25 years of storage. We promptly got to work bagging and boxing, loaded up the suburban with what we felt was valuable and the rest ended up in the city dump. The garage was clean of dirt and clutter and if she was still allowed to drive she could have easily parked the 77 LTD inside(boat of a car). Several years later when grandma passed we all discovered exactly what we had done that day, and several members of the family where rightfully horrified at our labors. You see our job wasn’t to make room for a giant gas guzzling dinosaur to be parked, it was to separate the trash from the heirlooms, the dirt and cobwebs from the glass.
I don’t suppose Obama meant half of what he promised me, for my disillusion I can only blame my own expectations. If I only had expected him to be gw jr I would be ecstatic right now. I am struck profoundly by those who seem to describe a situation where legislation is indeed “business as usual” in DC with slightly happier employees on the left.
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ghsts, I think I get the gist of your post. It surmises that you are not satisfied with his job because of a “to-do list.” That this president is no different from gw (or any past president) in this regard. That your expectations were greater than to-do lists achievements? And, you blame only yourself for the gap that exists between your promises filled versus promises achieved expectations–essentially, he is not doing the job you sent him there to do? I think you illustrated this position anecdotally (garage cleaning job). If I’m on target, then I must ask: what is the job you expected him to do?
If we can assume, for a moment, that the POTUS is not a dictator and thus, cannot legislate or adjudicate, then we must assume that he cannot correct this country’s ills all by himself. The healthcare package, for instance, is not the result of a failed promise; it is the result of a few spineless democratic, bluedog, and worthless republican LAW-makers. Obama realized early on that he didn’t have the votes for the “ideal package,” so he worked to not let perfect get in the way of good. What would you have done? Some of us blame him for this HCR package, I and others blame the LAW-makers I mentioned. In either case, it is clear here that he could not do it all by himself. A constitutional lawyer and scholar I am not, and despite staying in a Holiday Inn last night, I didn’t become one after Barack Obama was elected POTUS. Therefore, I will trust his vision on what the final HCR package will one day look like. Remember, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was not the end-all-be-all. There were subsequent bills and amendments, providing more teeth to the civil rights laws we have today.
I agree with you about the expectations we all have placed on President Obama–the likes of which I have not seen placed on any before him. I disagree with your to-do list assertion. I believe many of the items to be substantive to monumental in nature. I also disagree with the assertion that people like me are apt to look at his achievements as a glass half full of Obama Kool-Aid. Not me. I will forever ask what more could have been done, were it not for the obstructionists. Where would this country be if the scores (at one time hundreds) of his executive and judicial nominees were not held up–some of them for years. You know, the people required to get our business done. President Obama is not holding them back. That’s because he and those of us who refuse to forget our civics’ lessons know, he cannot plausibly or constitutionally do it all by himself.
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Ferra– fantastic post! Great job.
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Thanks Cher!
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Here Here, well said sir.
We should expect a POTUS to hold the bar. Obama did not have the votes for ideal HC package, he kept the best of what he could while scrambling to get imperfect progress passed. He did so by twisting the wrists of, not the opposition, opposition in his own party. I am grateful for it in a very small sense, in the same way I hope you are right and it can be built upon. The fight is not over, however and may not withstand the future attacks. Had HC been the same bill but approved by both parties, I would not have liked it any better but accepted it as real progress and a miracle.
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Ghsts– I feel I misunderstood you and I apologize!
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No need to, I’m still shaking off the mud from over there.
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With all respect, you say I am mistaken if I believe that Bush did not have a similar list but provide no substantiation to validate this assertion. In fact, I could not find a long and impressive list of campaign promises kept for either Bush or Republicans during his first 4 years.
Could you please provide links?
In the meantime, here is a little info on Bush’s kept promises in 4 years (not just only two as described for Obama) from WAPO:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54556-2004Sep1.html
Let’s consider how the majority of Americans were helped by what Bush accomplished:
1. The Bush taxcuts did benefit the majority in the short term but benefited the wealthy even more, have buried us in debt and is the primary cause for the out of control deficit we now have. Now, many important and vital social services, including Medicare and SS are on the chopping block because of that so it is hard to see a net gain for the majority in the long run.
2. The unfunded No Child Left Behind which drained state treasuries and hasn’t reversed a downward fall in US education quality.
3. A corporate windfall of a Medicare drug plan which did benefit Seniors but left a pricey Donut Hole and cost over $1 trillion in deficit spending. It did not to reduce the growing costs of health care.
4. The pandering and hoax over stopping the “partial birth abortion”…which isn’t even an actual medical procedure.
5. Rigged homeownership that has in fact resulted in less people owning homes (after losing them) and has destroyed the equity in the homes of many people who are still in them.
6. The proven to be incapable missile defense which here too, was funded with billions of deficit spending.
I would challenge you or anyone to provide a list of at least five substantial accomplishments Bush had that ultimately benefited the majority of Americans.
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Not really going to turn into a neocon, I suppose I was asserting an unsubstantiated opinion and fear the amount of time to correctly document evidence would be like smoking crack to prove I could get high. I wanted to highlight that a 1200 page bill can’t be reduced to a one line, mission accomplished. Yes he like gw achieved many campaign promises the debate is as you point out who was helped.
A list is useless with out context, see below for absurd mission accomplished list.
1. bush tax cuts renewed by O
2. Unfunded legislation that drained state budgets, like HC intent was noble application but address few causal links (deficits are great IF they help people.)
3. Corporate winfall for big pharma, insurance, hmo, hc service industry
4. Pandering to religious beliefs to ban abortion(not my belief but one held by Christian right)
5. Boom to housing market, construction, and development that was discovered unsustainable after 8 years of war.
6. Milcomplex funding that advanced tech for robotic combat, reduced US casualties, funded advanced mfg for combat efficiency, outsourcing privatized security, advanced combat theater survival rate while spiking casualties, employment(ball park 150,000 fulltime high paying jobs.)
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OK – the tax comprlmise was 16% for the rich, 84% for the working poor and middle class. See Center on Budget & Policy Priorities for that info. I’ve been in debates for months with the insurance and HMO industry – they HATE the HCR because it distinctly cuts into their profits. True of Pharma, too – they won’t show up to debate because they are so freaking venal. He has cut funding for the privatized Medicare “middlemen” – HUGE uproar from them. They are going, going, GONE from those contracts.
Congress determined the abortion federal funding issue years ago; Obama did not “pander” to them in any way. I’m wildly pro-choice and have no problem with what’s going on given the Hyde Amendment’s durability. It’s not going away anytime soon – but that’s up to Congress, not Obama.
I am less informed on military, but it seems to me he’s the first to STOP military expenditures on weapons that are not only too expensive but don’t work. I can’t recall the last time an American president and his Secretary of Defense STOPPED such expenditures. Obama also has stopped the pernicious Cold War practice of rushing troops into every foreign issue and has ended the practice of supporting take overs by dictators a la Honduras. When the saber rattlers claimed Nicaragua was “massing along the Honduran border” Obama paid no heed – it was a lie, and he did not use it as an excuse to intervene in Central America.
His ability to stop decades old practices and to give back power to Congress that past presidents had usurped is a major step forward – and another freaking reason we needed to vote last November. He honors the separation of powers, checks and balances, does not overstep his authority, and respects the will of voters. “Pandering” to the GOP is not what’s happening – respecting the outcome of the election IS. Like it or not, the GOP majority is the AMERICAN people’s choice – he is prepared to work with them, like them or no. That’s democracy at its best. I can’t abide the House members – but they were elected. What part of democracy shall we abandon because we had so many allies who never bothered to vote?
Democracy does not mean Democrat. Like it or not, what we have is the will of the voters. Obama respects that. Doesn’t mean he LIKES it.
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Bravo choice, for your well-constituted rebuttal!!
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OK then I’ll raise you a penny and I’ll give you a list of the 10 best presidents.
So what you’re really saying is that you think it was a mistake in electing Obama becasue you had some premonition that he wasn’t going to accomplish anything. I for one worked on Obama’s campaign and as a liberal progressive. For some reason, I never saw Obama ever being as progressive as I am and I alwasy looked at him as being ‘center-left’ from the very beginning. Sure he has is issues just like you and I have our issues. But I liked his ideas and was and still willing to work with him and support him on some of his efforts to at least improve our country. The problem with Americans is we expect so much from our Presidents that we forget that they only have so much limited authority to begin with.
Name the last president that openly said that he was ‘pro-choice’?
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No No No, I still think he or Hillary as a close second was the right choice, they both have thrown me under the bus, I try not take offense. I stopped voting Nader after the first bomb dropped on an innocent Iraqis head back in ’90. I’m saying I spent eight years listening to folks left and right saying “give bush a break, he’s only been there 2,3 years,” and “don’t criticize him he has a tough job,” or “but this country is conservative,” and if your friends don’t tell you your fly is open who will. The center of the bell curve(left-right is irrelevant) never has a problem getting included in the solution. Is Harvard a center left school? For those grabbing ammo I am not using the e word. Did his classmates dine with food stamps?
Bill Clinton or Al Gore depending on your perspective?
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Hillary is deeply tied up with “The Family” – Doug Coe is her personal pastor. You REALLY want her to do ANYTHING???? She was gracious beyond belief to the widow and family of murdered abortion provider Bart Slepian – then sold out the pro-choice crowd politically.
Enough already. Dig beneath the surface.
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I guess I’d ask what, in a democracy, you would have had happen instead. The right has been in ascendance for 40 years. So, given that, what and how would you see done that could actually be accomplished? I’ve never asked anyone this before. I’d seriously like to know.
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Hope, is not an accomplishment it is a attitude. I guess that is why I have such a over reaction to the list stuff.
I didn’t vote for reform in insurance though it is a component, I voted for health care options for EVERY American. Not the particulars, but that every one of us has at least minimal access. We didn’t get that. If you have money you get health care, even with pre-existing conditions, wonderful. If you don’t have money you still get nothing. If you are Recently unemployed(weren’t in school through the war) you have extended support great. If you live in say Detroit and there are NO jobs you get nothing. If you pay a lot in taxes you get a refund, great, if you don’t earn enough to pay taxes you get nothing.
The left are far left came out in force in 2008 and a country that still is sloped to the right and could barely accept any progressive concepts was swayed. I suppose the accomplishment I personally wanted was someone to stand up, hold the line to inspire the young to continue a fight may not be won with this congress or president. The past has been a litany of legislation that applies to some, majority, most but not all Americans, to me that is business as usual.
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OK – your analysis of the health plan is not very good, but I’d still like – HONESTLY – to know exactly WHAT and HOW this administration could have passed a different health bill and anything else you’re citing.
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Irrelevant, I object to your premise, it didn’t NEED to get passed. The United States, the people, needed to demand HC. I thought that was done in 2008 but I was mistaken.
If you are asking HOW to reform HC, I think a better start would have been open enrollment in Medicaid up to $80k per family.
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Forgive me, ghsts, (I am slightly medicated by codeine today) but your post seems unnecessarily snarky, and I don’t get why you feel the need to be. Nobody here is looking for an ovation, and there have been plenty of debates. Heated ones sometimes. If you are saying that Obama is Bush, you would do well to be specific and then a real debate might ensue. The only headache I’m getting isn’t from your position, but from your attitude.
Again, if I am off base and misconstrue your comments, my apologies.
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Sorry, like most folks that try to be humorous to temper their vitriol nature, it comes off harsh. No President Obama is not bush, what I was trying to say is that is not a comparison that holds value.
My attitude is frustrated and is left over rebuttal, my apologies. I come from an ethnic family where there is a whole context of loud, free expression and often less restraint.
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Hey – WASPs can shout, too, you know. And most of us are not shrinking violets with white gloves on. But we DO ask you for details – what do you think should have occurred and HOW. That needs to be said, and I’ve never seen anyone tell me HOW.
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This is a fun ride. How, to start two term strategy. First build your support to overcome the resistance from the gop, now also baggers. Didn’t have the votes for HC and bought them by chipping away at the integrity of the original intent of reform. How did the Egyptians do it? Rally the young and smart, plant yourself on the tracks if necessary as Gandhi did, and hold until the evil makes concessions. That is death by 1000 cuts.
Second, you still have us nutters on the left making lemonade til we are using apples and potatoes and the opposition looks twice as bad. For the first few years things don’t feel better but those who have left souls but vote out of fear see that banks don’t hire people, corps that have cash and profits don’t hire people.
I’m a Cubs fan, they suck always have, often choke, but Wrigley still made boatloads of cash off us.
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I’m a Cubs fan, too, and you still haven’t answered my question. I’m not being nasty – I honestly think no one EVER answers it because we can’t.
Democracy deals with assembling votes on legislation. Everyone elected to that legislature votes. The bottom line is that if we cannot elect a solid progressive majority, we will NOT pass progressive legislation.
Now ask yourself – if we were Egypt and everyone took to the streets – who has the guns. Who has the activists. Who is in ascendance in numbers. Whose voice would get heard?
The Town Hall meetings ought to give you and me and all of us some real pause. I see almost NOT progressives on the streets save those of us in Palm Springs two weeks ago. I DO see the RW folks out in droves.
That said – this might not be a reaaaally good time to rebel.
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It does seem so many expect miracles from this President. I am proud of all he’s been able to do in the face of the vicious opposition he’s confronted. When in the history of this country did the entire body of one body refuse to work with the other party or the President as they did in the House? When was there such poor participation from some in the Senate in working with the opposition party or the President. It’s as if they listened to Rush’s desire that the President fails even at the expense of the rest of the country? This actually goes deeper than party politics, if Obama succeeds, many myths about black people will have been obliterated. I think it’s far more detrimental to their ideology to allow him success, their Southern strategy will be just that, only the idiots in the South will stay with the Republicans.
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Thumbs up!
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If I may speak plainly, it’s irksome that a Harvard law graduate cum constitutional law professor just isn’t “good enough”. The old thought is that you have to be twice as good to get half the credit…but, given McCain and Palin combined, being expoentially more accomplished still isn’t good enough. And the way such lesser men (O’Reilly, et al) talk about him and to him: the racism in this country is simply appalling.
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PREACH!
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Hey smit, welcome to the Planet…You just won an evening for two, dining and dancing to the music Vinny and the DA’s at the wonderful Crystal Rose Ballroom in downtown Porchester!!
Like boomer says, you hit the nail on the head with your statement,”if Obama succeeds, many myths about black people will have been obliterated.”
That’s all it has been and all that it will be about, hold on, because it’s going to get worse these next two years…and I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like if he gets re-elected!
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BDM – “and I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like if he gets re-elected!”
I have often wondered if people who voted for Obama in 2008 will be afraid to vote for President Obama again, regardless of his policies, successes or failures?
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The thing is, unlike 2010, 2012 won’t be mainly a referendum on Obama and the Dems.
People will go into the voting booth after two years of Repubs blocking progress, engaging in witchhunts on Obama and being thwarted by a Dem Senate from taking this nation apart piece by piece and handing it to Corporate America.
When they get into the voting booth they will have to vote for either a President Obama or a President Romney/Palin/Huckabee/etc.
It will be a choice and I believe that in the end, people will choose moving forward than falling backwards.
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Agree AdLib–but that would be four years of repubs blocking progress…
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Sabreen, I think you may be right with that one, I believe there are some out there that will bow to peer pressure and not vote for him…what would be better is that they vote for him again and just not tell their friends and family!
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smit9187,
I think you’ve hit the proverbial nail on the head.
Has little to do with the policies coming from The White House and more to do with the ethnicity of the family living in The White House.
Welcome to The Planet!
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Hiya, Smit!
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Good afternoon everyone, I hope all has been well it’s a dreary day here in NYC but I just wanna say thank you AdLib for taking the time to create a list and in reading that list over a quote came to mind:
“I was never more hated than when I tried to be honest. Or when, even as just now I’ve tried to articulate exactly what I felt to be the truth. No one was satisfied”
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— Ralph Ellison
Cheers bzb! Just edited the much more comprehensive list Politifact compiled but even for me, it surprises one to consider all that he’s accomplished.
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Good quote, quite apropos.
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Thanks smit9187 I’m amazed that I haven’t heard anyone in MSM mention what he has achieved thus far. The only person I’ve heard ever mention anything about any of Obama’s accomplishments was Rachel Maddow and here. My mom assigned me and my sisters books too read every summer in which she made us write a 3 page critique of the book we read and she made us present our critique’s in front of the whole family with Q&A and all.
My apologies if I got too sentimental.
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You had a wonderful mom! I think I may borrow that idea when my little one gets a little bigger.
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AdLib,
I bet you won’t see this on Huffpo!
Last night, I posted the link to this list on funksands- Obama: Culture Warrior?
I am glad you put this up.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/
Just looking at the Promise Kept # vs the Promise Broken #
Its 134 to 38
That sounds like a mighty big winning season to me.
If you include the Compromise # of 41 to the Promises Broken # of 38
That combined # is 79, still beaten by the Promises Kept # 134
134 to 79
What Basketball team would not want that winning record?
Now what if you take the Compromise # of 41 and ADD that to the Promise Kept # of 134
You get 175 Kept or Compromise vs the Broken of 38
175 to 38
Who can beat that?
Economic meltdown, two wars, terrorism, did Bush have any of these concerns?
We have not even talked about the handicap of the 24 hour a day
News/Hate Network launching attacks day in and day out.
The Hateio group of Rush and friends out shouting voices of reason.
And of course the firebaggers.
Frankly I can’t believe President Obama has accomplished this much.
There are two version of this site
The spicy
http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/
and the PG
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http://whattheheckhasobamadonesofar.com/?q=8
Patsy, you beat me to it! And that’s not the first time we’ve had the same idea! Or…did you put a chip in my brain? Please let me know ASAP, I’m out of aluminum foil and would have to go to the store.
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Holy smokes Patsy – it’s MATH, or at least arithmetic. On a Sunday. On the Planet. You ask a lot, girlfriend. I think this is brilliant, but my befuddled mind won’t wrap around it at the moment.
Is there a pop quiz? If so, I’m in a world of hurt.
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ChoiceLady,
No pop quiz from me, just a question.
We should take note this is after two (more math) years in office
What numbers could we be looking at after another 2 years,
how about 6 more years?
We just have to do something about that
nasty Bhoner led house, hang onto the Senate and and and and
Ok thats enough math for me today.
I think I need to consult Bito about turning it into a chart with lots of pretty colors.
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Hey Patsy, I caught that, you making fun of me, chart girl?
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Never Bito/Chartmaster, not me !
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I only have 2 real problems with Obama. One is legit and the other is totally personal preference.
I don’t care for his decisions so far on Afghanistan and I wish he were a little tougher on the American people.
Like a lot of progressives, I won’t be happy til we are completely out of Afghanistan. I wish he would give us something other than the same revolving dates that Bush gave us.
And I wish he would get tough on people. I wish he would tell them that he is reforming credit card practices not just to “protect the people” but to address their addiction to credit.
I know it sounds crazy, but he needs a little Nixon in him right now.
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I’m on board with both of those thought the latter charts more treacherous political water.
As we learned with the bailouts, the banks own the Congress and thanks to Citizens United, can spend unlimited money attacking whoever challenges their interests.
Not saying that they shouldn’t be challenged but if Obama campaigned for people to stop using credit cards, I think the banks would renew their disinformation campaign to slime Obama as socialist, anti-capitalist, anti-business, etc.
A week ago I posted a copy of Jimmy Carter’s speech to the nation about how America was losing itself due to a loss of confidence and a reliance on materialism. It was a stunning speech that couldn’t even be imagined being delivered today by a sitting president.
And in return for telling America what it needed to hear, his speech was deemed a downer, renamed “The Malaise Speech” and the country happily opted for Reagan who told them they can eat all the ice cream they want for free and never gain weight.
The American Public has a hard time accepting criticism, they are addicted to being told how great they are and how they are the envy of the world.
The concepts of American Exceptionalism and Destructive American Excess are incompatible.
And let’s face it, for many, it feels better to believe a happy lie then deal with a difficult truth.
Absolutism is a trap. Just because I posted this, doesn’t mean I don’t have issues with Obama on Afghanistan, Guantanamo, criminal prosecutions of Wall Street, etc.
Why these Dem Purists are bent on absolutism escapes me. It is delusional and dishonest. Either he has accomplished all that he has that benefits 99% of Americans or he hasn’t, not addressing other issues doesn’t erase his other accomplishments.
Damn, imagine if they were only paid a salary for work if they met 100% of expectations and if they only met 99% of them, they received no pay.
You bet they’d howl then about absolutism being applied to them.
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Nice list.
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Politifact rocks.
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