SRL Archive - Discussions & Debates

For those of you that havn't seen the movie, watch it this christmas.

Your thoughts on the guy? Just curious. I'm not huge into politics but I think he's a joke.

I've always thought from the get-go he was more of a celebrity than a president. People voted for him to see a black president, not a good president.

That said, being a sexually-straight non-taxpayer means the majority of the current political issues have absolutely no effect on me. My parents fit into the tax bracket whose rates are being raised, so they aren't happy; I guess that means I don't like him by extension, but it won't make a huge difference to me until the next election comes around (by then I'll have a job, meaning paying taxes).

I've never really categorized myself as Republican or Democrat; I guess you could say I'm conservative-ish, but I never got into politics.

and the film is…?

~shut

I think he's a great marionette. But I think the puppet players are becoming more evil.

I think you guys were expecting too much from Obama. He's a young guy and an idealist, without the experience and baggage of most of the past presidents.

He did a fucking fine job on his first two years - Bush left the US's finances in the gutter, and unemployment was raising at an unprecedented rate when he left office.

Obama managed to lower the rate at which unemployment increased substantially, he started an overhaul of the health system (which he did not fully implement because he basically got shot in the back by "blue dog" democrats), and started to take a good hard look at Wall Street.

That's when you Americans stepped on the brakes. I'm talking about the midterms, which basically made sure nothing got done for the two years following.

I'm sure a lot of Americans rationalized by saying that "both sides are the same", but when the mainstream Republican discourse is pro-corporatist, pro-war and disgustingly partisan (not to mention the attempts by republican state governors against separation of church and state) I'd take a wetback, possibly mildly corrupted democrat any day.

[/2¢]

Obama has done one good thing, and that was to kill Osama Bin Laden. Other than that, he's been a complete joke. More pro-war than Bush, more debt than Bush, he extended the Bush tax cuts, he kept the Bush policy forbidding Medicare to negotiate with drug companies for lower rates, he kept Guantanamo open, etc. He's all the worst parts of Bush and all the worst parts of the Democrat party, rolled into one.

We're spending so much money that 40% of every dollar we spend has to be borrowed. We're making so much debt that the enter world can't even buy it all, so the Federal Reserve has to step in and buy hundreds of billions at a time. (QE1, QE2, etc).

He didn't help the economy, he made it worse. The San Fransisco Federal Reserve released a report last fall that the trillion dollar "stimulus" he passed didn't create one single long term job. Every job it saved was a temporary one that is now long since gone. Even Obama's own administration has now released a report showing that the stimulus spending is now causing negative job growth. Short term gain, long term pain.

He tells us that he's the only adult in the room when it comes to deficit negotiations, but the reality is that he called his own bi-partisan deficit commission (the Simpson-Bowles commission), then after it made recommendations, he took NO action on it and completely ignored it.

We have a pretty international group here, and what is every other country in the world doing that's struggling with debt (Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy, etc)? They'll all passing austerity packages and cutting taxes. But what does Obama say? He insists that we raise taxes and actually wants more spending included along with other spending cuts. We go around the world with the IMF telling everyone else how to behave responsibly, then these US Democrats ignore our own advice to send the country into massive deficits and debt to buy votes.

From: drags111
Your thoughts on the guy? Just curious. I'm not huge into politics but I think he's a joke.

He sucks :(

From: Tlachtli
I've always thought from the get-go he was more of a celebrity than a president. People voted for him to see a black president, not a good president.

I know a few that did just that. My vote was for the first woman president :)

From: Shuttleu
and the film is…?

~shut

"Christmas Story" check it out It's pretty funny.

From: Cigue
I think you guys were expecting too much from Obama. He's a young guy and an idealist, without the experience and baggage of most of the past presidents.

He did a fucking fine job on his first two years - Bush left the US's finances in the gutter, and unemployment was raising at an unprecedented rate when he left office.

Obama managed to lower the rate at which unemployment increased substantially, he started an overhaul of the health system (which he did not fully implement because he basically got shot in the back by "blue dog" democrats), and started to take a good hard look at Wall Street.

That's when you Americans stepped on the brakes. I'm talking about the midterms, which basically made sure nothing got done for the two years following.

I'm sure a lot of Americans rationalized by saying that "both sides are the same", but when the mainstream Republican discourse is pro-corporatist, pro-war and disgustingly partisan (not to mention the attempts by republican state governors against separation of church and state) I'd take a wetback, possibly mildly corrupted democrat any day.

[/2¢]

Just going to say his health care sucked from the Get go. Period. Also he was going to require all Veterans of Wars to pay stupid premiums on their Health insurance. Currently they don't pay for insurance. I like the policy of not paying for it as the wounds that they get can be quite life altering and also stupid expensive to pay for when you can't work some jobs…..

~BraK

E: @Tara he didn't kill him…. We of the armed services have been working for years killed him…. >.> He said okay you can shoot now. I actually don't doubt that we've known where he was for a long time.

E2: This is quite possibly one of my largest post in a long time :)

All the presidents are the same.

(But hes doing much better than Bush in making people believe that the economy is getting better)

From: kingarabian
All the presidents are the same.

(But hes doing much better than Bush in making people believe that the economy is getting better)

People thought the economy sucked under Bush when we had 4.5% unemployment. In the 2004 election the Democrat John Kerry made up his own "Misery Index" to show how horrible the economy was. The problem was that there already was a "Misery Index" that had been formulated in the 1970's and it showed that things were great. So he changed around the formula until things were bad again.

Obama might be a good salesman to make people HOPE for CHANGE and that we're turning the corner, etc, but it's not true. He's making things worse than if he had done nothing at all.

Thanks OBAMA … My children and grandchildren (if I ever get married) will have to pay trillions of dollars in debt!!!

Then again, we all criticize presidents and no president is the best and perfectly suits every American ;)

He hasn't done anything useful, but he hasn't done anything too horrible.

From: Smartzkid
He hasn't done anything useful, but he hasn't done anything too horrible.

lol "too horrible" … yet… :p

Someone please tell me though, WHY DID HE GET THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE?

From: drags111
Someone please tell me though, WHY DID HE GET THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE?

^^^ this?

From: drags111
Someone please tell me though, WHY DID HE GET THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE?

I was actually just coming in here to say that he received a Nobel prize for absolutely nothing. Further proof he's a celebrity, not a politician.

Agreed. I want a nobel peace prize! I'm hip! I'm happenin!

Pyroryan must have talked to you about this a bit on msn, eh drags? :p

Politics here in america is frustrating in general. I think I'll move to Iceland and learn Icelandic :p

I liked that movie…

@ TomTuff: He was trying to convince me that liberals were human to. Didn't happen :P

From: drags111
@ TomTuff: He was trying to convince me that liberals were human to. Didn't happen :P

If you would meet my hallmate Michael from last year, I could prove to you that liberals are in fact androids (and not the cool phones).

Yeah I remember I was surfing the internet and all of a sudden I see "BREAKING NEWS OBAMA WINS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE".

Initial reaction: WHAT THE FUCK.

From: kingarabian
Yeah I remember I was surfing the internet and all of a sudden I see "BREAKING NEWS OBAMA WINS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE".

Initial reaction: WHAT THE FUCK.

*Continued reaction: WHAT THE FUCK.

It's funny for me reading how you complain.
Here in Hungary there was maybe 4-5ish(+/- few) year that there was a good government in the past few hundred years(maybe more). And that was a LONG time ago in-between the 2 world war. Since then(and before it) our politics is a joke in a whole(and I mean it, it was not okayish, it was bad). Lol, we only live in democracy for 20 year.

Meh, I just wanted to say something too, because I am pretty far away from American politics :).

From: Sabzi
It's funny for me reading how you complain.
Here in Hungary there was maybe 4-5ish(+/- few) year that there was a good government in the past few hundred years(maybe more). And that was a LONG time ago in-between the 2 world war. Since then(and before it) our politics is a joke in a whole(and I mean it, it was not okayish, it was bad). Lol, we only live in democracy for 20 year.

Meh, I just wanted to say something too, because I am pretty far away from American politics :).

That's true, I'm sure you put up with worse than anyone here. I can relate being in my current country that's based on a hugely corrupt government, it makes the US look like saints.

All I can say is no matter what government/prime minister/president you have, they are all the same. Some may have different ethics behind them but they are all ruled by the senators/backbenchers. The people you see are just the puppets doing what they are told to do.

I was watching C-SPAN all day yesterday, and I have to say both democrats and republicans in the government positions are ignorant self-righteous assholes.

As far as that goes, the president himself controls almost nothing in the government, he's just the face of his administration, and goes off of his cabinet for his decisions. His cabinet controls/ does everything behind the scenes(according to my old math teacher in our discussion about politics)

Also, legislation controls the constitution(aside from judicial claiming that it's not violating any of our rights), and passing bills and all that crap. The president doesn't even have to agree for it to pass. So if you want to be all "omg why are we still at war and my taxes are so high fml" blame the legislation, they are the ones doing it :p

From: Awkwardsaw
So if you want to be all "omg why are we still at war and my taxes are so high fml" blame the legislation, they are the ones doing it :p

This… everyone's blaming presidents (myself included)… but he doesn't do much…

The President does a lot. Obama escalated the war in Afghanistan (which was being run by NATO under Bush), after campaigning on it being "the right war". He has launched air strikes on Libya, Yemen, and even Somalia WITHOUT Congressional approval. Along with Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq, that's 6 countries we're bombing under Obama. He could end ALL of these wars tomorrow if he wanted to. You can't say that about any other person or any other branch of government, the President has total control of that.

He also has the ability to veto legislation. The Republicans won more seats away from Democrats in Congress in the 2010 election than any party in history, but they can't pass anything at all. The Repub House just passed a bill to reduce deficits and work on getting a Balanced Budget Amendment rolling, but Obama has already said that's DOA and he will veto it.

If you look at the legislation that passed over the last 2-3 years, Obama played a big part in shaping it. Once it is written, all he can do is sign it or veto it, but before it's written he can participate in negotiations and give input about it. The President also submits a budget to Congress each year as a framework for what he wants them to do. He gets to lay down the baseline that Congress works from.

So although it's true that the President has limited power, he is the most responsible of anyone in government for the current state of the country.

From: tarajunky
The President does a lot. Obama escalated the war in Afghanistan (which was being run by NATO under Bush), after campaigning on it being "the right war". He has launched air strikes on Libya, Yemen, and even Somalia WITHOUT Congressional approval. Along with Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq, that's 6 countries we're bombing under Obama. He could end ALL of these wars tomorrow if he wanted to. You can't say that about any other person or any other branch of government, the President has total control of that.

He also has the ability to veto legislation. The Republicans won more seats away from Democrats in Congress in the 2010 election than any party in history, but they can't pass anything at all. The Repub House just passed a bill to reduce deficits and work on getting a Balanced Budget Amendment rolling, but Obama has already said that's DOA and he will veto it.

If you look at the legislation that passed over the last 2-3 years, Obama played a big part in shaping it. Once it is written, all he can do is sign it or veto it, but before it's written he can participate in negotiations and give input about it. The President also submits a budget to Congress each year as a framework for what he wants them to do. He gets to lay down the baseline that Congress works from.

So although it's true that the President has limited power, he is the most responsible of anyone in government for the current state of the country.

You forget that congress can overrule the president's veto with a 2/3 vote(as long as all republicans and a few democrats agree). They can also change the budget for whatever they want, such as the war in afganistan.

The two party system is honestly stupid. Few people are totally republican or totally democrat, and it sucks having to side with one if you're not in agreement with them totally. Plus because they are so contrasting, one side will always vote for one type of thing, the other side will always not vote for it, and its just who holds more numbers in congress decides what happens.

From: MylesMadness
The two party system is honestly stupid. Few people are totally republican or totally democrat, and it sucks having to side with one if you're not in agreement with them totally. Plus because they are so contrasting, one side will always vote for one type of thing, the other side will always not vote for it, and its just who holds more numbers in congress decides what happens.

Yea. but when it comes to multiple parties, they're often extreme. You might have a party that wins with a total vote of 30%, but then you've got the rest of the people, 70% of your nation is unhappy and hates you.

There are some pros and some cons to each system. You just never know.

I'm not as bothered by the two party system (although I think a 3-4 party would be better) as I am by the electoral college (sp?) system. It is possible for a candidate to receive ~40% of the popular vote and still win the election with the electoral college system, which is just plain stupid.

From: Tlachtli
I'm not as bothered by the two party system (although I think a 3-4 party would be better) as I am by the electoral college (sp?) system. It is possible for a candidate to receive ~40% of the popular vote and still win the election with the electoral college system, which is just plain stupid.

Agreed with everything above in this post. The EC system is plain out stupid… There's no point to the popular vote. Its funny because many people are unaware of the electoral college too…