Originally posted by

Ry

"The only thing lonelier than being a Republican at college"... what? You must not go to the same college I do.

Apparently you didn't read the article very closely, because he DOESN'T go to the same college you do. At the bottom of the article:
"Josh Prywes is a student from Emory University."

But thanks for using that as an opportunity to bash Christian conservatives completely out of context.

Originally posted by

Lynn

I wouldn't even touch Obama with a 10 foot pole. LOL
He thinks he's God. His message is clear, he want to paint a miserable picture of America, so he can divide us and then conquer us when we are week.

WEEK or WEAK? If you're gonna hate on the President, at least write intelligently. It's hard to take you seriously! Divide and conquer who? The heap of garbage mess the Bush Administration made for ALL of us? C'mon... no one's asking you to touch Obama. Hahaha...

Katie:

This is coming from a Conservative who is a woman who has already proudly cast her vote for McCain: please verse yourself in Hillary Clinton. I make sure to stay informed of all the candidates.

Hillary had a GREAT amount of influence over her husband's presidency...more than many cabinet members themselves. This is well-known, and spoken of by people formerly involved in Bill Clinton's campaign, his administration, and in Hillary's campaign. Hillary is a very determined power monger. She is very intelligent, but I greatly disagree with her. Other than the love she has for her daughter, she has no greater love than being as high up on the political chain as she can be. She married Bill and moved to Arkansas because she had a plan. She wasn't just a First Lady; she was behind policy. People wanted her to shut up about HER healthcare plan because it was a disaster, but don't think that was all she was involved in.

And, that all said, I believe that she believes that she does want to lead this country for the better, but her "better" is not what's best for the majority of is country.

And for that matter, I don't believe Obama is either. To me it's not about him lacking experience so much as it is that he lacks common sense on some very important issues outside of the Democratic domestic platform...national security, terrorism, global relations. In the beginning I thought he might be a better choice than Hillary, but now, after watching the Democratic debates, well, he's just a less experienced version of Clinton. But given a choice, I think many Democrats are tired of Hillary and her experience and baggage, and choose a message of hope over a repeat of Bill, despite Obama's lack of experience. Of course, there are no requirements for experience to be President.

Please tell me that you'll educate yourself more on the candidates and the issues before this country before you cast your vote...if you're old enough yet.

Nevertheless, this has been the most invigorating Presidential Campaign that I've ever participated in!

Lea, Class of '93

Originally posted by

katie

I love how everyone likes to say Obama has no experience and that Hillary does. Since when does being a Governors' wife and a First Lady amount to political experience? The whole "Baking cookies for the White House visitors" doesn't amount to much when you are talking about actually running a country. And when she did try to get involved when Bill was president most people wanted her to stop and shut up. Why does she expect it to be any different now?

And by the way, in this instance, "experience" is synonymous with "substance."

Originally posted by

katie

I love how everyone likes to say Obama has no experience and that Hillary does. Since when does being a Governors' wife and a First Lady amount to political experience? The whole "Baking cookies for the White House visitors" doesn't amount to much when you are talking about actually running a country. And when she did try to get involved when Bill was president most people wanted her to stop and shut up. Why does she expect it to be any different now?

Originally posted by

AGEE04

I want to give a big THANK YOU to all those fans of our new celebrity president. Way to put someone who has already proven in his first few months to know nothing about economics at a time when our economy is tanking.

The economy that is tanking because of bad loans to people who couldn't afford them thanks to a bill passed during Clinton's reign because they assumed house prices would go up forever. <-- What the stupid???

Now Mr. O' lebrity president thinks every idea someone gives him about the economy and deficit should be in a plan to save us. He has said a lot about change but WTF, did he really think that some of this would actually fly??

1st lets tax all the companies who had no profit to bankruptcy as soon as we can. That should increase jobs right? <-- What the stupid???

2nd lets stop giving tax deductions to people when they give money to charities. That should keep charities afloat during theses tough times' right? <-- What the stupid??

3rd lets keep creating hundreds of billions of dollars worth of stimulus package debt by giving money to States in a two year plan that has to be spent in that time. That way in 3 years every states budget will have billions of dollars missing. That shouldn't create higher taxes right? That shouldn't burden me, my children, and my children's children right? <-- What the stupid???

4th even though the stock market is at its lowest level since Clinton was in office, lets go ahead and publicly speak negative about where our economy is heading unless the stimulus bills work. You know the ones that haven't worked. That shouldn't scare EVERYONE IN THE COUNTRY out of investing right? <-- What the stupid???

5 lets have a teleprompter at every single event that you speak at (something that no other president has done) so that every countries reporters think that we have a president that doesn't know how to form sentences from bullet points on a note card. Look left and right, but not into the camera to make us trust you Mr. O'lebrity. That should impress other countries right? <-- What the stupid???

Finally let's put a bad A plan together to reform healthcare that will cost 10 trillion dollars over the next few years and then tell everyone that we are going to reduce our national debt to China. Hmmm... stimulus bills + 10 trillion dollars = reducing debt right? <-- What the M$#%$ F#$%$% stupid???


Maybe he should logically work his way through things before he goes out and backs it 100%. Some people are stupid and you have to be able to work through the stupid to come up with something worth talking about. We are in for a fun and long depression if he keeps heading down the same old path. It's only been two friking months????

I would like to take this point by point, so I am sorry for the awful style that will follow:

First, all american presidents are celebrities at least after they have office as you would expect from the leader of the one of the worlds dominant powers. We put the man who won the election in charge of fixing our problems. If you do not like that, I suppose you can run for office in four years if you are eligible, or help elect someone who is. Until then, since you can not change it anyway, why not wait and see if what he does works? The economy if failing for several reasons, and I do not think anyone could fix it in the time that has passed since Obama took office. Also a consequence of the election, President Obama probably does expect quite a lot of his changes to policy to "fly" largely because he has a majority of the lawmakers of the country trying to help him promote the agenda he and they campaigned on.

No one I think is proposing an increase on businesses that have no profit, since I believe the tax structure for businesses is largely based on how much money they make. I do not think anyone has suggested that the tax increases on corporations will lead to job increases in any direct way because of course it will not. What it is intended to do is raise funds for the government to spend on projects that will increase the number of jobs, and likely at least in the short term this will work (see historical precedent).

I did not see where tax deductions for giving to charity was done away with, but even if it were it is not the governments job to run charities or even help charities run. If you can point to somewhere in the constitution or the bill of rights that it says otherwise I will gladly apologize for taunting you for such an interestingly poor argument.

Actually, as previously stated, spending money on government projects WILL create jobs and lessen the effect of our economic repression. The question you should be asking is if it is the best way to do so, and I think you will find economists are rather split over that. On the other hand we can not really do a worse job than we have been doing, so any change at all is likely to be for the good. If, in two years or so, you find the economy is not responding to the stimulus plan the way the people who planned it thought, vote for someone else to take their place.

No matter what the stock market is doing, you should always be allowed to talk about it. If it were at its highest point in history would we not be allowed to say negative things for fear of spooking investors? It is stupid to lie to the public in the hopes that all will be well if you just don't talk about bad things.

After the embarrassment that was every Bush speech for the last 8 years are you seriously going to complain that we have a president who decides beforehand what he is going to say and has thought it out, and then sticks to it? I think you will find, if you read some news reports, that most other countries are really very impressed with our current president, despite any issues he might have staring at a camera so that you feel more comfortable with him.

I think you might be confused. It is entirely possible with a country as productive as ours is capable of being to both spend large amounts of money and have a budget surplus at the end of the year. We have done it before, and oddly we are trying to do it again since most people involved agree that it is a good thing to do. I really do not see how you can in the same sentence complain about spending and then complain that we intend to also reduce our debt.

Finally, I think you are sadly mistaken if you believe that some of the brighter economic minds in the country are not looking through the proposed policies and having their input listened to when they find things they think should change. Will it work? Who knows, but it will probably take longer than two months to tell with any degree of accuracy.

Originally posted by

AGEE04

I want to give a big THANK YOU to all those fans of our new celebrity president. Way to put someone who has already proven in his first few months to know nothing about economics at a time when our economy is tanking.

The economy that is tanking because of bad loans to people who couldn't afford them thanks to a bill passed during Clinton's reign because they assumed house prices would go up forever. <-- What the stupid???

Now Mr. O' lebrity president thinks every idea someone gives him about the economy and deficit should be in a plan to save us. He has said a lot about change but WTF, did he really think that some of this would actually fly??

1st lets tax all the companies who had no profit to bankruptcy as soon as we can. That should increase jobs right? <-- What the stupid???

2nd lets stop giving tax deductions to people when they give money to charities. That should keep charities afloat during theses tough times' right? <-- What the stupid??

3rd lets keep creating hundreds of billions of dollars worth of stimulus package debt by giving money to States in a two year plan that has to be spent in that time. That way in 3 years every states budget will have billions of dollars missing. That shouldn't create higher taxes right? That shouldn't burden me, my children, and my children's children right? <-- What the stupid???

4th even though the stock market is at its lowest level since Clinton was in office, lets go ahead and publicly speak negative about where our economy is heading unless the stimulus bills work. You know the ones that haven't worked. That shouldn't scare EVERYONE IN THE COUNTRY out of investing right? <-- What the stupid???

5 lets have a teleprompter at every single event that you speak at (something that no other president has done) so that every countries reporters think that we have a president that doesn't know how to form sentences from bullet points on a note card. Look left and right, but not into the camera to make us trust you Mr. O'lebrity. That should impress other countries right? <-- What the stupid???

Finally let's put a bad A plan together to reform healthcare that will cost 10 trillion dollars over the next few years and then tell everyone that we are going to reduce our national debt to China. Hmmm... stimulus bills + 10 trillion dollars = reducing debt right? <-- What the M$#%$ F#$%$% stupid???


Maybe he should logically work his way through things before he goes out and backs it 100%. Some people are stupid and you have to be able to work through the stupid to come up with something worth talking about. We are in for a fun and long depression if he keeps heading down the same old path. It's only been two friking months????

Real celebrity status comes to those who during an election talk about looking to put a playoff system in College football. What kind of voters are you trying to get when you say things like that, not the kind I want to control the outcome of a presidential election. I understand that he is the first African American president, and for that he deserves a ton of credit and respect, but there has never been so many people asking for an autograph after each of his speeches. He isn't supposed to be a rock star, he is supposed to lead our country.

Small businesses are going to have their taxes increased. The economy is doing poorly and with less-negative profits and higher taxes the truth is that many of those institutions will fail. More unemployment.

It's in his budget plan for the upcoming year. He has many democrats asking him WTF on this part of his budget. Everyone knows that Democrats want to give rich money to the poor so they give it back to the rich and Republicans want to give (or let them keep) rich people money to create jobs (which = money) for the poor. I think a little of both is good, but I know that most charities are good and only someone not thinking through it all the way would put that into a proposed budget.

That is what I said!!! It creates jobs now and then in two years when there is no government money left, those jobs are gone. His plan only delays a little part of the economic down-turn for two years. He needs to make the money go to construction of new roads etc., he shouldn't let it go to paying for new police officers that will lose their jobs in two years.

Bill Clinton was the best at speaking positively and he even suggested O'lebrity try it while on some show on NBC. When you lead a country you can't leave doubt. You have to speak only positively when you are in a leadership role. <-- Put this in your long term memory.

Truly I see your point here. After Bush why even try to talk using your own words... literally his own made up words.

Bringing down our deficit should be one of the primary goals of America. If he is trying to do this, he needs to stop trying to push his socialistic healthcare policy because it is a money drain and will make it impossible to reduce debt (for 10 years).

I believe there are economic people looking his plan over. Bright people though... I'll go with a no. We better hope someone bright gets to the budget before it is signed into action. But with Obama, Pelosi and a democratic majority it's hard for me to believe.

Originally posted by

AGEE04

Real celebrity status comes to those who during an election talk about looking to put a playoff system in College football. What kind of voters are you trying to get when you say things like that, not the kind I want to control the outcome of a presidential election. I understand that he is the first African American president, and for that he deserves a ton of credit and respect, but there has never been so many people asking for an autograph after each of his speeches. He isn't supposed to be a rock star, he is supposed to lead our country.

Small businesses are going to have their taxes increased. The economy is doing poorly and with less-negative profits and higher taxes the truth is that many of those institutions will fail. More unemployment.

It's in his budget plan for the upcoming year. He has many democrats asking him WTF on this part of his budget. Everyone knows that Democrats want to give rich money to the poor so they give it back to the rich and Republicans want to give (or let them keep) rich people money to create jobs (which = money) for the poor. I think a little of both is good, but I know that most charities are good and only someone not thinking through it all the way would put that into a proposed budget.

That is what I said!!! It creates jobs now and then in two years when there is no government money left, those jobs are gone. His plan only delays a little part of the economic down-turn for two years. He needs to make the money go to construction of new roads etc., he shouldn't let it go to paying for new police officers that will lose their jobs in two years.

Bill Clinton was the best at speaking positively and he even suggested O'lebrity try it while on some show on NBC. When you lead a country you can't leave doubt. You have to speak only positively when you are in a leadership role. <-- Put this in your long term memory.

Truly I see your point here. After Bush why even try to talk using your own words... literally his own made up words.

Bringing down our deficit should be one of the primary goals of America. If he is trying to do this, he needs to stop trying to push his socialistic healthcare policy because it is a money drain and will make it impossible to reduce debt (for 10 years).

I believe there are economic people looking his plan over. Bright people though... I'll go with a no. We better hope someone bright gets to the budget before it is signed into action. But with Obama, Pelosi and a democratic majority it's hard for me to believe.

I think my point was, why do you care why our president is famous and internationally loved? Why do you care that people want his autograph? Why make it about race? People like him, and it is working in our favor. For the first time in years foreign powers are listening to things our government says and not laughing. Don't give him credit for being black and our president, give him credit for being our president and stop whining about why people like him and deal with the fact that they do.

Small businesses are not necessarily going to have their taxes increased, it depends on how much money they make. When you make false claims you should expect to be called on it. Yes some businesses will pay more in taxes, not it is not targeted at "small business" so stop claiming that it is. Most small businesses fail, blaming tax structure seems to be the current favorite mask to put on it, but I think you will find that businesses are not failing or thriving in numbers that are unprecedented given the current economic indicators.

The republican version of economics has been shown to be marginally effective, the democrat version of economics has been shown to recover a country from a depression. Stop reading the propaganda and read some actual history, and not revisionist history (that republican senators are currently touting). It will work long enough to cause consumers to consume again, which is what we need to have happen to recover. No one is saying its not horribly wasteful, but I doubt anyone can make an efficient path out of our current situation without the benefit of hindsight to aid them. I will still argue that charities might be nice, but they are not the governments problem. Since you are vaguely kind of conservative in your other arguments I will presume you are intending to have a conservative view point in which case you should not be for government subsidized charity groups since it will inevitably lead to "bigger" government.

Being positive is nice, but being accurate is more important. I would much rather have a leader who doesn't lie to me than one who only tells me the good things that are going on. I think you will find many people agree with me. Probably the worst part of the last administration (since we do not know all that occurred I can only say probably) is that the information the administration chose to share with the public was cherry picked to a degree that had never been seen before. Put into your long term memory "DO NOT LIE TO THE PUBLIC" when you are in an official position.

The deficit can still be reduced even while spending money. We have had eight years of runaway spending and phenomenal growth of government, I honestly do not think anyone could do worse unintentionally. But entirely aside from that, again there is historical president for the methodology being used. In two years you will have your chance to attempt to change the balance of political power but until then the democrats will run the show the way that they have said they will run it, and likely very like the way they ran it when they were last in power. I am not saying they are going to be perfect, or even good, but it is the direction that the majority of voters chose to move in.

I seriously doubt you are qualified to judge the worth of economists, or the intelligence of people. The people who are, seem to agree that bright people, and good economists, are looking over everything that the administration puts forward. Intellect is not limited to a political persuasion. The Obama Administration has said specifically that they will listen to good ideas no matter who comes up with them, and I think you should offer at least the same courtesy. Stop presuming that because someone's political views are liberal that they are not intelligent or that they do not have the countries best interests at heart. So, your party is out of power at the moment and for the next couple years at least, you are going to have to find some way of dealing with the powers that be if you want your input considered (this will be amusing to watch since the republican party of the last few years was very bad about listening to the minority opinions on issues).

In closing, enjoy the next few years.

We the people should remember that during the first 4 years of Bush's reign he had very qualified people that he put into power around him and they ran the country perfectly. He took the failing economy at the time, one caused by Clinton being busy with personal matters his last 4 yrs., ENRON crashing, and the 9/11 attacks and turned them into a booming economy. One in which we saw the highest stock prices the United States has seen. Education was very affordable and any American could increase his/her standard of living with even a minimal effort. Everything was going well in the first 4 yrs, and truly I find that accomplishment to be very impressive (1 yr.turn around). Now it is O'lebritys turn to do the same. Of course he will not have to fight the liberal media (all media outlets except for fox news).

The second 4 yrs. we went into IRAQ because of "WMD's". All those qualified people in office got scared (rightfully so) because the liberal media jumped all over the fact that they found nothing. Not only that, we were spending an insane amount of money to rid the world of its terrorists with little to no help from anyone else. This was a poor decision by the Bush admistration. The constant pounding the media gave our government from that moment on started the economic crisis. People we needed to run our government left their positions. Then we got a Democratic majority in the House and Senate 2 years ago. The economy started to decline further.

When the housing market crashed and all the bad loans came due, that is the start of a depression. I again want to make the point that the bill that allowed stupid stupid stupid loans to be forced onto banks was signed into effect during Clintons last year. Do you think maybe he knew what he was doing?

Again, now it is time to see a Democratic government try and get us out of a mess their media outlets and former president got us in to. His current economic plan is laughable. Hopefully it will be scrutinized, changed, and something far more appropriate will be presented to the American people.