do you think obama, will um accomplish anything noteworthy?

i think the biggest thing is the federal reserve, its not really a government agency, as said by kucinch.

as federal as federal express

but if he can provide a solid foundation, with an agency that isnt a government one, but keeps it in check anyways with regulations...?

economy is the big deal, if we cant fix it we lose.

i dont thinkt he minimum wage hike willhelp any, if anything thy will be forced to lay people off.

i do think job cration is more important, fix inflation and the minimum wage can stay the same. thats the real problem.

im not a conspiracy theorist, i think plain old human greed comes into effect.

Obama has already outlawed torture and started the process of closing Guantanamo.

I expect much more... but if putting a stop to torture and bringing back due process are the only two things he does, that will be enough to justify my votes and my contributions.

a very good thing indeed.

he did it quick, i just hope he enacts similar stuff, and other things that matter, in the same amount of time.

very quick, i was shocked ot be honest to hear it on cnn, a few days after his inaguration.


i bet the middle easterners are less likely to retaliate against us as a matter of fact. realizing that bush is a corrupt imbecile they might not hold "us" accountable and blowback might be minimalized.

maybe even nullified.


but..

we did force germany for a while to give payments for hitlers misdeeds.

so i doubt hey will forgive completely.

I believe his Presidency will wake up the Republican Party to change its image and try to find someone that has charisma for future elections.

He already accomplished a new paradigm for getting campaign funds.

Didn't he also reverse Bush's ban on stem cell research on Friday? Or Thursday?

Gentle correction: President Bush never banned stem cell research in any way and I don't think he had the authority to do that if he had wanted to. He did veto federal funding of embrionic stem cell research as something inappropriate for the federal government to be doing.

I believe the Congress will have to reinstate the funding before it can be legally authorized.

Thanks for the correction.

Green Jobs: We have a capitalist economy. Industries will use whatever form of technology is most efficient. If the government were to impose regulation laws on things such as carbon emissions etc, that would just encourage buisiness to move over seas even more.

Discrimination: A racist person will continue to be racist no matter what laws are imposed and no matter who is president. There is no sure fire laws that will "end discrimination." Things like affirmative action, while they can help, will only make employers fear being deemed racist, and they will be forced to select an employee because of their race. Which is discrimination in its self. Besides, racist people are the minority these days, since most racist people aren't in positions to hire people because bigotry is usually coupled with other negative qualities as well. Particualary closed minded-ness.

Minimum wage: Why would a higher minium wage be a good thing? It's just one more factor to encourage the shipping of jobs overseas? Minimum Wage should be as low as possible. Instead, there should be a minimum benifits requirement. But that's a different argument all together.


Green Vehicles: Again, the same point with green jobs, the government can't force an industry to change its technologies. Although green vehicles would be nice, realistically, they won't be possible until the American people decide that it would be a good idea to have them.


In conclusion, he won't make a difference. He is going to be just like Bush, and most other presidents of the twentieth century. He will increase executive authority and promote our interventionist foreign policies. Maybe he will withdraw troops, but he will probably interfere somewhere else.

He already has, as far as I am concerned.

He has stopped the kangaroo courts in Guantanamo.

He has forbidden torture again.

He is closing the secret CIA prisons.

He replacled George Dumbya Bush...and in so doing, he already has accomplished something noteworthy. VERY NOTEWORTHY!

And I suspect he will do much, much more during the next four years.

Unfortunately, considering the mess he has been left by Dumbya...I seriously doubt that "much, much more" will be enough!

My opinion: We will be paying for the next eight years for generations.

I agree.
The next 8 years (or 4) will be some of the most expensive years in our history, with generations to come having to pay for Obama's plans and for his spending.

Cute...but silly.

Increases in national debt have always been greatest under Republican presidents.

The two largest increases in national debt in our history were under Ronald Reagan and George Dumbya Bush!

The sad attempts to shift Bush's expensive blunders and missteps onto the new administration were foreseen and anticipated so to see/read someone actually try and do this anyway is so lame and it speaks volumes. Talk about a head up one's own ass? Sad little monkey.

It wasnt meant to be silly, it was a direct reply to your statement.
And I quoted you just to make sure you knew which part of your statement I was referring to.

Of course these next years will be expensive.

How many people YOU know have a billion or so dollars just laying around to give to companies like Ford?

Uh. No one.
Those bailouts are coming from OUR pockets...

Thank you G.W.Bush & co.

And since they are in place, Obama or who ever would have ended up in office has to now adjust things accordingly so that we have to PAY for what Bush began

Ford makes a shitty product. Now that people have to pay attention to where their money is going, they dont buy ****..
But ford STILL gets our money via bailout.

So yeah. Boo obama.

But.. let me also say this.

Im not an Obama supporter. Nor was I a McCant supporter.

The government as we know it right now is doing nothing but robbing us of our freedoms and trapping us into our own death camps.

I dont care whos face is on it, NoBama.. McCant orDumbass Bush.
We are in for the ride of our lives and are about to have a lot of 'freedoms' removed if we dont start paying attention and fighting back.

You are absolutely and positively correct, Mysteryman.

I screwed up...and I offer an unconditional apology for my come-back to your response.

Obviously I meant "the last eight years"...but sometimes my fingers play tricks on my brain...and this was one of the times.

Good pick-up on that, Mysteryman.

And the apology is sincere.

Agreed.

I supported Obama in the election, but my optimism is very cautious. Especially with all the trillion dollar "Stimulus" talk going around, Obama being the chief proponent. I think Obama needs to buck the political orthodoxies of BOTH parties in order to be successful with his "Change." That includes changing the way of approaching problems where politicians indicate their level of support for an "issue" by cutting a check for an appropriate amount. Here's what I think on the issues:

Gitmo/Torture: I think closing Gitmo and renouncing torture were important & necessary symbolic acts of repentance to the rest of the world. But remember, John McCain ran promising to do the same thing. While important acts, Obama has put off the difficult decisions to a later date (ie, Where to release and how to try detainees? Where the line between permissible "enhanced interrogation" and torture is; etc.)

Green Jobs/Vehicles/Energy: Any incentives for new technologies/jobs should be offered on a neutral basis to those that meet certain criteria that will achieve the specific government objective. The gov't should create a level playing field for competition to determine the winners. Subsidizing corn ethanol is a perfect example an entire industry sprouting up that would be completely uneconomic were in not for government handouts. I've read a few place that it's actually a net energy loss/pollution increase too!

Economy/Jobs/Stimulus: I don't see how we can borrow & spend our way out of an economic crisis caused by excessive debt/easy credit. Obama is well advised to dedicate a large portion of the stimulus to tax cuts, we know they work in recessions if done right. I think citizens are owed their share of all the bailout money and I think infrastructure spending is generally accepted (but projects that can't be started in a year should be left to a future infrastructure bill). I think we'd be better off trying to incentivize companies to re-hire laid off workers than having politicians decide how to create jobs out of thin air. We also need a TARP bailout plan that will work to restore confidence so that we can get the Fed's interests rates back to a reasonable rate within a reasonable time (Greenspan's excessive low rates being largely to blame for the current crisis, in my view).