Change I Can Believe In!
Oh yes, the kool aid is wearing off. America is seeing the real Obama, the real Congress, and the will of the people is lifting the fog of the last one and a half years! Hooray!!
Yes change I can believe in!
Obama’s poll numbers dropping almost as fast the belief in Global Warming
Global warming leading proponent admits that its pretty much a farce.
Three large companies leading the coalition of companies pushing for a climate change bill pull out because they recognize that any bill passed will be bad for our country.
Evan Bayh says bye bye even though he is leading in his race by a wide margin. He then warns of an electoral shock in November.
White House needs a new media director because well uh, uhhh, well, uh, uhhh Gibbs isn’t cutting it. ( He is funny though)
CNN Poll (yes CNN) says that majority of Americans say Obama does not deserve a second term.
Yes this is truly Change I believe in and I now have Hope that things will change greatly in November! The fog is lifting!
If you want edit me? just go to your profile than add description text as many you like. ^_*
Change to what? I do not see anyone in either party with the leadership qualities it is going to take to get us out of the mess we are in. Hillary would have been a better choice from the beginning but of course that is looking backwards.
1The American public is going to have to suffer longer now to reverse the damage done, not just by Obama but by the previous resident of the White House also. Let me think now, who voted them in? WE the majority did, (except in the case of Bushe’s first term) so who do we blame? we can’t blame ourselves can we?
Henjoy as a contributor to this blog I value your opinion. However in this case you are wrong. Was George Bush perfect? No, h e was far from it! However I would take the worst part of Bush over Obama. While we may be in some kind of breather for the moment, we are in a certain death spiral if things don’t change. Obama and friends somehow are truly convinced that the more they spend, the better off we will be. It makes absolutely no sense and we have to get new people in office in 2010 and certainly in 2012. Even the people that voted for him say he shouldn’t be reelected! Wake up and the smell the coffee Henjoy! The people are desperate for new and strong leadership. For God’s sake that’s evident in the strong following of Sara Palin! Do I want her as my president? No way! Would I take her over Obama? Absolutely!
2Twisted / Henjoy,
You are both correct in your comments, however, WE must admit ” we all some skin in the game ” in the current mess we find ourselves, we turned a blind eye in the 90′s and first decade of the 21st. Let’s look forward, is very disappointing that no one has truly stepped forward to LEAD….and is interesting reading both your comments, WE always cry out for change and leadership, but I submit the sacrifices that are necessary to put us back on track, our generation ( Boomers ) and the one right behind ( Gen X ), will find this almost impossible….Ronald Reagan’s only come around once in a 100 years…that is what we need…passion, a voice, and actions to back that up…Obama’s sheer arrogance is very disturbing, Dubya’s ignorance was very disturbing…lets keep the faith, and please no ramblings of this Tea Party nonsense
3Squid,
Thanks for the comments. They were very insightful. My only disagreement is in the calling the Tea Party “nonsense”. While they may not be the answer itself, they are certainly creating a catalyst for true change. I dont think you can disagree with that.
4There is no change. This country is controlled by special and corporate interests no matter who is in the Oval Office. Wake up. If you need anymore evidence ask why is it that Medicare isn’t allowed to negotiated drug prices, why did Wallstreet get a bailout just like the S&L’s did in the 80′s.
51) Let’s hope Reagans only come around every 1000 years. What a joke. We had exactly 0 financial crisis until he deregulated S&L’s and that cost us $250B, then we had Long Term Capital bailout and then the Bank Bailout. Then, as Cheney said, “Reagan taught us that deficits don’t matter.” Thanks Ronnie. If you think that the financial markets don’t need to be regulated, then I got some credit default swaps to sell you.
62) As far as the Tea Party, what a joke. Half of them are retired people with Medicare, Medicare RX, and Social Security protesting government run healthcare and socialism! They want the government shrunk, but “don’t touch my Medicare, don’t touch my social security, don’t touch my farm subsidies.”
3) The majority of the Red states get way more money from the Federal government than they pay in taxes. The worst thing to happen to us blue state people was winning the Civil War. When y’all want to stop feeding at the trough, then you might hae some credibility…thank you very much Senator “Pork Barrel” Shelby……….
With comments that cynical I can’t figure out if you are being serious or not. I hope you are not, but you are welcome to your opinion. No editing for content on this blog. Your opinion of the Tea Party is a liberal talking point that they use to delude themselves into thinking they have a chance to retain power. But again, that opinion thing. I do enjoy your comments. Keep them coming.
7My comments are not cynical they are factual. And they are serious. Dispute any of them if you can. They are also not liberal talking points. It is quite easy to say “we want smaller government.” However unless a political party/movement specifically says what programs they are willing to cut to achieve the smaller government, then it is just a slogan on a poster. Reagan said he was going to “cut taxes, raise defense spending and balance the budget.” Never happened.
So I say to the Tea Party, or anyone else for that matter: put up or shut up. What programs do you want to cut to achieve your smaller government? If asking that question make me a liberal, then I guess I don’t know the meaning of the word…….
I did vote for Obama, but given the fact that a Republican controlled Oval Office and Republican controlled congress took a budget surplus and doubled the national debt, who can blame me?
Put up or shut up, and call when the Republicans prove they can balance a budget. Reagan didn’t, and neither did the Bushes……kind of makes you yearn for Clinton…
8Dave I hate to tell you this but throwing out a bunch of Harry Reid / Pelosi / Robert Gibb talking points is not being factual. I cannot even fathom why you would have voted for Obama but this is a free country, although it’s becoming less free! I do agree with one thing you said. I do in fact, yearn for Clinton (Bill, not Hillary) to be President instead of Obama. But I would vote against him as well in 2012.
9i got 3 words for all of you…..We-Need-Term-Limits! OK, that was 4 words, but you get the drift.
10Be specific: Give me one thing that I have said that is a “liberal” talking point? Here are my talking points, tell me if they are liberal:
If seniors get Medicare, we all get Medicare. Either that, or eliminate the program entirely. I’m fine with either option. Right now I pay $22k per year for healthcare for my family + medicare taxes, so don’t take Medicare and bitch about government control over healthcare.
You want welfare? Fine, you have to get mandatory birth control shots, cause I ain’t paying for your kid. And you get it for two years max.
You want to invade Iraq, then pay for it with increased taxes. You don’t want your taxes to go up, fine, then don’t start a war.
You want farm susidies? Well kiss my a–, I don’t get a subsidy so you shouldn’t get one either.
It is easy to call me “liberal” without defining what it means to be whatever you are. You want smaller government, fine. Tell me what you want to cut out of the budget. And Sarah? “Praying for devine intervention” isn’t an economic policy.
As for why I voted for Obama: one word: Palin.
Bobby is correct: term limits. Wasn’t that something the GOP was for in the Contract with America? Whatever happened to that?
11Dave,
Ronald Reagan may not have balanced the budget, but he did one VERY important thing…He made you PROUD to be an American again and beleive in the principles our founding fathers set forth. Obama is a complete disgrace, smug, and arrogant, he does not care one bit about your freedom or your right to happiness. Think about all the men and women who have given their lives to protect your own liberty and give YOU the ability the live in the greatest country in the world. Obama does not and will never care about that, that moron actually bowed to Japaneese premier AND the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia !! The first thing and by far the most important thing I want my president to do is to PROTECT US at home and ABROAD, do you honestly feel safe with Obama in office ? He has to first and hopefully the last person to win the Nobel Peace prize one day and then committ more troops to worn where he dictated the schedule to our enemy….but I guess you want to balance the budget…come on.
12Jesus Dave
One other comment….so after we are attacked on 9/11/2001, I guess your anti-American thought would have said, lets raise taxes before we decide to level Al-Queida…..give me a break
13Iraq and Al-Queida have nothing to do with each other. Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11. So get your facts straight. My father was career military and is buried at Arlington National Cemetary so don’t call my thoughts anti-American. And Sarah, he was born and raised in New York City but I still consider him a “real American.”
My point was if we want it, war, Medicare, Social Security, farm subisidies, etc. then we have to pay for it. Nothing in my comment said we should or should not have done it. Just that we should pay for it if we do it, as we did with every other war in our history.
So I guess because I think we should balance budgets, I’m un-American. I guess because I think that paying for the Iraq war so that not just the military families bare the burden of the war makes me un-American.
OK, I’m a liberal, un-American because I think we have to balance budgets and we can’t all just say cut the size of government without saying what programs we are going to cut. So be it.
14One more thing: since my uncle was executed by the Japanese (B-29 tail gunner) my father would have puked had he seen Obama bow to the Japanese Emperer. And since my father liberated German death camps, he about puked when Reagan laid a wreath at the SS cemetery….And he probably would have when Bush held hands with the Saudi prince who probably funded Al Quida….
15Dave,
I ask you this, you voted for Obama…did it not bother you he was a member for over 22 years of the esteemed Rev Wright’s church ?.His children were baptized by the Reverend…and then Obama had the nerve to claim he had never heard of some the Reverend’s rants and raves….lets see Louis Farahkhan was also associated with Mr Wright..Or how about that peach of a guy William Ayers ?…hmmm I would take Sarah Palin any day..that was enough for me to say Hell No to Obama…..or maybe in other words Democracy and freedom first, Socialism second, I would have thought most Americans would have said the same
16WOW, you all are above me when it comes to discussing politics. I’ll just stick to my column. Just bring Bill back at least he left office with a surplus, of what, I am not sure.
17Henjoy, you started this whole mess, so dont start acting all innocent now! Speaking of your column, when do we get something new? I was sort of hoping for a story on the “Pants on the Ground” phenomenon.
18I am not going to refight the 2008 election. The majority of Americans agreed with me.
But, like Lee at Appomatix I am going to throw in the towel. As part of my terms of surrender I will go onto Wikkepedia and update the following definitions:
Liberal: One who asks advocates of “smaller” government what specific programs they would like cut to achieve said aim.
Un-American thought: Advocacy of the proposition that “Freedom isn’t Free” and that wars should be paid for by the current generation through increased taxes so that it isn’t just the military personell and their families who bare the burden of said war.
19The majority of Americans agreed with you Dave because they were not thinking straight! They no longer feel that way. Unfortunately we have more than two years left to deal with that mistake but it will be dealt with two years from November! I for one will be voting for anyone else! Period! Unless Jimmy Carter runs, we cannot get a worse candidate.
20OK, Freedom first and Socialism second, I get that. So, if Obama presumably is anti-freedom and pro-socialism, where does that leave Bush?
Fact: He passed the largest entitlement program (Medicare RX) since Medicare itself.
Fact: He bailed out the Wallstreet.
Fact: He began the bailout of the auto industry. (Gave them the first $25b)
Fact: He wiretapped U.S. citizens without court order.
I totally get the Freedom first deal which is why I don’t care if gays marry, think drugs should be legal, think women have the right to choose, and would like the religious right to stay away from my internet porn.
And I hate socialism, so can we end Medicare and end all welfare be it to poor people, farmers, bridges to nowhere, and corporate pork?
21Do you really think wiretapping ended under Obama? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_controversy
22Dave….The ONLY and I repeat the ONLY reason Obamo got elected was an Anti Bush vote, case closed, oh, and I forgot the fact he was the meida’s candidate and could do no wrong, if the good Reverend Wright’s comments would have come out three months earlier, Hillary would have been the Democratic nominee,….I find it absolutely amazing that a Republican won Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in Mass, hmmm, I think the majority of Americans will continue to speak…Obama had a chance to seize the moment, but his elitist arrogance and belief that governemnt is there to help and assist and knows what is right for you prohibited that…Government is there to protect and then get out of the way….maybe you and Obamo can talk this up over a beer or two….and, does it not bother you that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid also speak for this majority of Amercians that voted for Obama ?
23I am delighted to see so many people getting excited about trying to change a congress, a white house (and now a supreme court)and also the same situation in many state governments.
24Voters need to stay stirred up not just until November elections but far beyond. We need a way to expose and highlight those controlled by deep pockets.
Keep it simple, elect individuals who simply want to do a good job for their bosses (voters, citizens)first and foremost. The pay and basic benefits are great, too good. The influence peddlers need to be kicked out for good!
KEEP IT GOING!!!
I agree Charles. You have to buy the position now, so only the rich or those with access to the rich can do so.
25I wonder if we can all agree on this?
Constitutional Amendment 28: Term limits for House of Representatives and Senate shall be xx years. (Let’s let Bobby pick the number since it was his idea.)
Constitutional Amendment 29: Financial support of political campaigns, candidates for political office, and/or of political parties shall be restricted soley to United States citizens and shall be limited in amount as determined by a quadrennial referendum of eligible voters.
26I agree. They have to be a pair though.
27I get to set the term limits? Cool! I say, 12 years each for Senators -2 terms, and Reps -6 terms (except Corinne Brown of FL, she is limited to 12 days…youtube her gogator speech b4 Congress if you need to see why). Twelve years is a fair compromise….should be enough time to learn the system, accomplish some key goals, then get the hell out before they are too entitled. Entitlements are a huge burden in this country, and the entitlement feeling of our congress may be the worst of all.
There, so let it be written, so let it be done!
28I think thats perfect. 12 years should be plenty to accomplish what you set out to do, then let someone else have it. Also, there shouldnt be such a huge reward for doing it!
29Confused,
While I share a huge disappointemnt in Bush, he did step up after 9/11/01, but could not sustain…how soon we forget
30I was disappointed in Bush as well, but I wish we still had him over what we have.
31BTW Dave,
32You actually have some valid points in your arguments….but c’mon, how can we expect anyone from that bastion of ethical politics, Illinois, to educate us’ns! Now if GA ends up electing our blithering idiot insurance commissioner (Oxendine) in the 2010 governor race, we will in that one election bypass any idiotic election result in Illinois history!
Bobby, I agree 100 percent on that one!
33I came late to this party! Wow, good stuff. By the way, who pissed in Dave’s Cheerios anyway? The simple fact is that Obama is killing this country step by step. His agenda needs to be stopped. Term limits are great, but how about we start by electing people with common sense. You can’t spend your way out of the red!
34Things will be changing during the next election.
Hey Dave, the other Dave is someone with passionate beliefs and I encourage all types of posters. However, doesnt mean I have to agree with them! You are certainly right about electing people with common sense. I wish we could find them! Thanks for the post.
35ok twisted, i guess you have been waiting for me too respond! lets go way back to early dave. dave,you said it was a fact about republican controlled congress took surplus and doubled debt- wrong!! you know the fact is, before 2007, 0% inflation, 5% unemployment, 14,000 stock market.then comes your democrat controlled congress led by the great nancy pelosi and harry reid!! this is the real fact and you know it, they and their democrat friends are the ones who have brought us where we are now.you know the fact is,congress and only congress controls spending, not the president! bush amazingly did these things after the most trying times in our history. yes, say how bad pearl harbor was, it was terrible. but, i guess you need a history lesson, that was only a naval base. fast forward to 9/11/01 this event happend on true blue american soil!!a true american knows that one of the main points of our constitution states the president must defend our country!!i guess i have said enough for now.
36good points JD
37I was going to surrender quitely but to blame the doubling of the national debt during the Bush years on the Dems is just insane. And to blame the current mess on the dems who took control of congress in 2007 with a slim majority is also delusional.
Our current mess is a function of a) everybody wanting entitlements, home equity lines, national security, etc but not wanting to pay for it and b) the reckless deregulation of Wallstreet.
Case in point for a) Bush led the charge on Medicare rx and his budget director lied about the cost to get it done, but we didn’t raise taxes to pay for it. Iraq war was supposed to cost “a couple of billion at the most” and is now hitting $1T and wasn’t even put into the Budget. The bank bailout was Bush’s. But let’s not put this all on Bush, it is our fault for thinking we can have all these things and not pay for them. Cicero said 2,000 years ago that “Democracy will fail when the citizens realize they can vote themselves funds from the treasury.” He may be proved right.
Case b)I got my MBA at the University of Chicago home of free market anti-regulation, Milton Friedman, etc. My Nobel-winning econ prof was explaining how great Reagan’s deregulation of the trucking industry was because the market would self-regulate. I asked, “What about the trucker who pulls a 24 hour shift and causes an accident?” To which he replied, “His insurance rates will go up making him less price competitive and he will be driven out of the market place.” To which I replied, “Small cosolation for the family of 5 that got killed when he fell asleep at the wheel. I got a “c” in the class. Well folks, our economy was the family of 5, and Wallstreet was the trucker …….
Contrary to the myths being promoted by Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Morgan Stanley, etc. financial crisis are not cylical historically. We had 0 of them from the mid-30′s to the mid-80′s.
Bobby: the only thing I can say about Illinois is that we are equal opportunity. Our last GOP govenor is in jail, and our last Dem govenor is going to join him…..sigh.
The larger point being that both parties are currupt. I’m harder on Bush because I expected a Republican to be fiscally responsible, I didn’t expect a Republican to increase domestic spending at a greater rate than any president in history save LBJ. That is a fact which you can look up.
38good points Dave!
39Dave,
Something I never thought I would say, I agree with you….as I said earlier, WE ALL ( Democrats,Republicans,Indep, EVERYONE) have “some skin in the game” on our current situation….we went up the graph, now we are coming down the other side…we as Americans, do not “level off” to well…we have lived above our means, shoe had to drop and it has….I saw an article that said American’s personal debt level had dropped for like 15 straight months and credit card companies are complaining that their biz is off 20-25%,saying Americans need to spend more….I call that serious progress, don’t you ?….the correct solution to our finanical mess was to keep gov’t out of the way ( and yes both Bush and Bozo Obomo did their share ) and let markets and supply/demand correct…but this would take 10-15 years, the approx same amount of time we were enjoying the ride upward and onward….We,Americans are not programmed and unwilling to ride down the other side, NEVER….what is scary is how vulnerable we are to foreign attack, both on the military and economic side, which we need a TRUE LEADER, and have none, the fact that people would accept Obama as the Pied Piper is scary.
40It may still take that long. I’m not convinced we are done with this yet. The stock market seemed to be recovering in ’29 before the depression took hold, but it ended up bottoming out after government intervention.If you put today’s charts against the charts of that time they look very similar. Scary thought!
41oh Dave,
One other comment…you rock for having a very persuavive arguement like you did with none other that Milton Friedman, that was cool…..almost was going to give you a pass for voting for Obamo
42Now that everyone loves me, almost, and I’m feeling like the big swing d–k, I’ll tell you about my other “c”, in finance. Merton Miller, another Nobel prize winner, was singing the praises of the Capital Asset Pricing model for valuing stocks, options, etc. The CAP uses the statistical variance of historical stock market returns to measure risk. I basically told him I thought it was all bullsh-t, because I don’t worry about history, it is a known element, what I care about is the future, “and your model can’t predict two hippies inventing the personal computer in their garage, or some other big event.”
Another big factor in our current mess was all these Wallstreet geniuses and their computer models which proved to be wrong. There is a guy who’s hedgefund made $5B in the housing crash because he asked one these geniuses what would happen if housing prices went down, and he said, “our models don’t allow for a decline in housing prices, it isn’t something supported by the historical data.” The guy then “started shorting every company remotely involved with the housing”.
So, beware of greedy Wallstreet —holes and their nerdy geeky computer jerks. Bobby, why didn’t you beat up more of them in highschool?
Now my truly final word is to rent the movie “ZombieLand” and remember the lessons it teaches you…..and stock up on your ammo. You need to be prepared for the coming Zombie apocolypse……..
43Regarding your grades….I need a few more stories so I can explain my C’s.
Regarding History, of course history cant always predict the future, but indicators are there if you look for them and if you are not foolish you pay heed to them.
Regarding Wallstreet….it was a horrible movie
Regarding Bobby…he doesn’t beat up people, he uses a slingblade..alright then!
Lastly I am in total 100 percent agreement that we better get ready for the coming Zombie Apocolpyse…its going to happen!
44Dave….as you said ” almost ”
…..that is your second good “C” story…one more and you are given a pass for your Obomo vote….the penalty would have been a sentence at Guantanamo, hmmmm, but wait Obamo wants to close that base abd put those assholes on trial and try them like anyone else in criminal court…hmmmm…I say strap em in 747′s ready for your the junkyard, put the plane on auto-pilot, and say Tehran here we come baby !!!
45As Tony Soprano would say “ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”
46Hey Dave,
47Some great points! I will say, though, that much of the housing bubble was pushed by the Democrats. Threatening banks with audits if they didn’t give loans to people who had no business getting a mortgage. The likes of Barney Fwank and Christopher Dodd said there was no problem with Fannie and Freddie. Were they dumb or lying? We have a lot of educated fools running this country…. On both sides!, looking out for number one and saying screw the people. I can’t point to a single thing Obama has done toward improvement. The best thing government can do is to stick to the Constitution.. Keep out of our lives. Protect our borders. Let the market determine what prospers the country.
Amen to those last 2 sentences Brother! Too bad no politician, from either side, can handle that!
48Let’s see if I can get myself that free pass:
The housing bubble was definitely driven in part by the do-gooder democrats, no question. But not 100%. There are over 100 homes in foreclosure in Hinsdale, IL which had nothing to do with poor people getting mortgages they couldn’t afford. It was solidly middle-class Republicans getting second mortgages to buy summer homes or add an addition, or buying spec houses. I know because one of my wife’s friends is now bankrupt. And all those people that bought spec condo’s in Florida were just stupid.
Glass-Steagal was repealed with a 98-0 vote of the Senate, and Clinton signed it, so there is blame enough to share.
We need a third party which says, “Balance the budget, protect us, term limits, no corporate/union campaing money, and leave us alone.”
But leave us alone applies to both parties. The “do-gooder lefties” as well as the “Christian Taliban.” (Isn’t it true that women can’t buy a sex toy in Alabama? I mean that is just wrong. I was only down there 16 months, and I just didn’t have time to satisfy all the women that needed satisfying…..that girl from I/T took up almost all my free time).
49Dave at first I thought you were misguided, but after reading that last sentence I realize you are actually delusional!
50Dave,
You are soooo close….just need to put PROTECT US first before balance the budget and then you pass GO and collect 200 big-uns
51I am not going to make it. I can go as far as Protect Us and Balance the Budget both #1, but I can’t agree that they aren’t at least equal. Freedom Ain’t free. And if my taxes have to go up to pay to Protect Us then so be it. We can’t just let the military families do all the sacrificing.
When I go to the gun show to by ammo for my M1, I have to pay for it. I can’t say, send the bill to my kids.
And a big part of Protect Us over the long term has to do with balancing the budget. Pretty soon we are going to wind up being China’s bitch (if we aren’t there already) since we owe them all that money.
TM: OK, you got me, I just spent my free time dreaming about that girl from I/T.
52If you read today’s New York Times Op Ed piece by Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman, you will see that:
a)I deserve a Nobel Prize as he basically plaigerized all my points;
b)And “you didn’t read it here first” on the New York Times, you read it here fist on the http://www.twistedmuser.com”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/opinion/22krugman.html?hp
53