Obama is doing ......

He IS better than I thought, and I thought he was great. After 30 years of starving the beast, and having the American public get used to living in a second class state (just go visit Japan or , yes, France), while our government, uncaring, inept, incompetent (hello Katrina) and asleep at the switch, allowed roads to fall apart (see Minneapolis; or any interstate in California), health care to deteriorate to third world status(if you're wealthy enough to afford,it, or have good health insurance, its great, but have you visited an emergency room lately? or for comparison, Japan or France? You do see 3rd world dictators coming here for health care; you don't see people from Japan or France coming here...and if you, like me, run a small business and have to see the choices offered by health insurance companies, and the rising costs (13% last year, only 7% this year) of that worsening service, well, its worse than I ever thought it would be...). What, have you been hiding somewhere - what evidence don't you see that this country needs a new direction desperately - which is why this guy won! I love watching John Kyl try to switch the subject from his own $118,000,000 of earmarks to socialism - but obviously those guys are finished - about time! We kept saying throw the bums out, and geez, we finally did it. We did it! And now we've got someone that can get us going again ,and we hear the same old shibboleths of the right - socialism! (From the party that spent us into oblivion on nothing while fighting a war (unprecedented) and giving back a surplus to the rich (and hey, I'm one of those guys). I'm looking around for those same republicans who kept carping that it wasn't patriotic if an American didn't support his president in a time of war - and what I'm hearing is , they hope their president fails! (He is OUR president after all). So yeah, I voted "better than I thought" in this pole - but actually he's doing what I hoped and expected he would, and what he ran on. I'm readuy to make my country stronger, give my kids and yours a better future, and I'm willing to sacrifice in paying more taxes to do it - what about you? Are you willing to be a patriot and support your president and your country in their time of need? Or do you want to carp about socialism....

quote " Or do you want to carp about socialism.... "

Pick me! Pick me! I know the answer!

I hope you have read the Declaration of Independence. If not, you should. Then read the U.S. Constitution in it's entirety. Then go back and read up on those men, and their sacrifices of Life, Liberty, and their Persuit of Happiness. Yes, they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well they were to be hunted down and killed, ravaged, and their families destroyed. They would not be able to "live the dream" themselves, but did it so we, and many generations could. It was NOT a "Declaration of Socialism". Quite the opposite. And in it states that the Government was to play only a SMALL role in the lives of the People. The past 80 years shown us that our Govt. has been systematically destroying the very foundations this country had been founded on. It has been pitting people against people to divert our attention. Now, it's coming to a head after they have conditioned the people to believing that the Govt. is "our Lord" and the "Govt. knows best".. It was NOT *any* Govt. that built this nation, it was The People.
If the Govt. hasn't been taxing, and taxing, and then WASTING the trillions of dollars on their own selves' "pet projects" to assure their elections, there would be more than enough to go around. The highways would have been maintained. But instead they took money to conduct "surveys, built mayonnaise museums, studied ketchup, built monuments to themselves, and so on. They passed laws so they could not be sued. Claimed that someone that was exercising their rights were just some "cult" and made you believe it to justify it. Does Ruby Ridge ring any bells?
You want to talk about excessive spending and giving back to the rich? Well, why is GE getting money? Why is GM getting money? Why is AIG getting money? Why are only the RICH getting trillions of dollars and we get a measly $8/week? But to have that stripped away by adding brand new taxes? Spending???? The Socialists have already, in less than 2 months, spent MORE than GWB did in 8 freaking years! You want to build a better tomorrow for your children? How can you do that when they'll be paying 90% of their money in TAXES to pay back all this money? They won't have the money to buy a candy bar!
I am NOT a "Right Winger! It's sickening that when someone doesn't like the far-left, they are automatically labeled "Right".
Earmarks? There are so many earmarks in this spending bill it's sickening! They just redefined what an "earmark" is! People have been so blinded that they cannot see the forest for the trees. They cannot see that these new bunch of "kids in a candy store", living in a euphoric state with so much money at their disposal, are just spending it wildly with no regard to any kind of responsibility. They are buying each other candy bars and patting themselves saying "we won, this is our candy". And with complete disregard to the consequences of their actions, and those people whom they have taken candy bars from. Sure, some of the spending is alright, and needed, but most of it is a waste and will cause even more problems. Just look at how many more of their friends are reaching their hands back into the cookie jar! GE, AIG, GM, Banks, etc., all RICH friends of THEIRS. I don't want to "own" the banks! But since we do now, do we get any say in anything? Hell NO! We are just the slaves that hand them our money for THEM to spend.
Don't go into being a Patriot. READ the Declaration of Independence. I am a Patriot to my Country. We all have a civic duty to serve, and protect the DoI, and the Constitution. Even if it means to go "against" *any* sitting President, and/or Congress that has over-stepped it's bounds of authority.
So we're over-taxed now and to, so willingly, pay more taxes is actually UN-Patriotic! BHO ran on a platform of reform, and less spending. He is doing just the opposite! He "claims" to be (leading people on) looking at the budget and current spending and saying "things will be cut", but with the other hand has come up with a NEW "budget" that is chock full of MORE spending, and MORE (redefined) EARMARKS! Yeah, you voted for change and you are getting it. The "change" is unprecedented spending and taxation.. I hope you're happy..

Jeffrey:
I know your comments were in response to Paul's post, but we have a snow day here in the Northeast so I thought I'd take a moment to chime in. Your words come across to me as very patronizing. It's one thing to state your interpretation of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution is not consistent with others' views, but to tell someone to go read these documents requires a grandiose assessment of your own knowledge.
While many of us have great respect for the founding fathers and their views, we shouldn't forget they were not perfect and many also supported the owning of slaves and maintaining women as subordinate citizens. Also, your complaints about the president exceeding his authority seems a bit disingenuous. After reading through most of your previous posts (I love this feature of Astromart) I didn't see anything complaining about the Bush-Cheney illegal wiretaps and use of torture which arguably violates not only our constitution, but also the Geneva Convention.

George

That is the point I have been dancing around on. Right wing/Left wing doesn't matter to me. I have been a Libertarian for most of my life, only recently have I been drifting away from them since so many neo-cons are taking it over. I hate dogma of any kind. When someone presents me with something I perceive to be dogma, I tend to argue a bit. That is what this is all about though, Free Speech. My views are not quite the same as a regular American, due in part to my Amerindian background.

Jeffery was coming off to me as one of the crazy UN hating right wingers I have as neighbors, living in the National Forest like I do. These are people that would rather shoot off all the natural elk here than change their ranching practices because the elk are eating their cows' grass (The Sagebrush Rebellion). They spout that same spiel. Those people really make me angry. I did not mean to give you a coronary.

You guys are cool with me whatever your views, as long as we agree we like 'scopes.

Oh please George! We are the only country that completely adheres to the GC. But you must also look at the section in the GC that designates "Uniformed Soldiers" as being covered. Nowhere does it include terrorists as any kind of "Official Army" of any Uniformed Soldiers. They are not designated as soldiers of *any* country and do not come under the protections of the Geneva Conventions. Some people define "torture" as sitting in a boring classroom! If someone wants to try and kill me, they had better know they'll feel the full power of the consequences of their actions. Whatever it takes for me to protect myself, family, friends, countrymen, and property, I will do without hesitation.
And if you also have read, as you claimed, you would have noticed where I said "I wasn't happy with the past 8 years either". But I guess you skimmed over, or ignored, that part, and where I said I was not a "Right Winger". But just as many on the left, or left-leaning do, they automatically label someone as being a "crazy right winger" if they don't agree with them.
Don't claim that "slaves" are any part of the "interpretation" of the modern world. At the time it was written, the entire world was of the same mindset. Slaves were considered property in ALL "civilized" nations. I personally am glad it was abolished in the U.S.. But now that the original "All Men Are Created Equal" has been redefined to mean ALL, then the original spirit to which it has been written still qualifies. I'm not saying to "do away" with the progress this country has made. I'm saying the original documents are the foundation that define this country as a FREE nation. And as it was written, changes could be made to "Create a more PERFECT union". Which has been done, though not complete, but is slowly being torn down. The building blocks should never be changed, or done away with. And as my wife knows, she's every bit an "equal" or better than equal to me, or anyone else. So now that those "issues" have been laid to rest, we must continue. Racism and sexism are only issues with those who are racist and sexist. They are always the ones who bring it up and lay claim to being "insulted". Me, I don't care about the color of a person's skin. But I do care about the color of their character. And if a woman wants to punch me in the mouth, she had better well know I will punch her right back. Equality is a two-way street. If she wants every right as a man, then I get every right as a woman.
Don't patronize me about reading the DoI and Constitution. Nobody needs to make any "assessments" of my knowledge to go read it. But I encourage others to do so since it is no longer taught in most schools anymore. There are parts that are written in stone for a reason. The "Fathers" knew very well what would happen if those safeguards were not put in place. Now the Socialists want to do away with that "outdated document". EXACTLY why those restrictions were put in place.
If you want to dwell on Bush-Cheney, go ahead. I'm moving on..

How in the hell did you get that about me??? Now you change your story once again as to who/what you are? Now you've also included me in the "nature haters" category??? I've never even said what I think of the UN either. You couldn't be more wrong! I guess that's how hate-mongers do it. They make things up and try to pass them off as the truth. And just what do you mean by " My views are not quite the same as a regular American, due in part to my Amerindian background."? Part of my ancestry is of the Susquehannocks. Or are only the western nations "Amerindians"? What nation are you part of? So go ahead and paint yourself as something "special" or "better than thou". A Libertarian you say? The Libertarian party is a Constitutionalist party. Our (U.S.) Founding Fathers are Libertarians.. The "Party of Liberty".

Paul McCarty said:

That is the point I have been dancing around on. Right wing/Left wing doesn't matter to me. I have been a Libertarian for most of my life, only recently have I been drifting away from them since so many neo-cons are taking it over. I hate dogma of any kind. When someone presents me with something I perceive to be dogma, I tend to argue a bit. That is what this is all about though, Free Speech. My views are not quite the same as a regular American, due in part to my Amerindian background.

Jeffery was coming off to me as one of the crazy UN hating right wingers I have as neighbors, living in the National Forest like I do. These are people that would rather shoot off all the natural elk here than change their ranching practices because the elk are eating their cows' grass (The Sagebrush Rebellion). They spout that same spiel. Those people really make me angry. I did not mean to give you a coronary.

You guys are cool with me whatever your views, as long as we agree we like 'scopes.

Jeffrey:
The differentiation between uniformed and other combatants is a cop out designed to circumvent the intent of the GC, which was to provide some basic human rights. Yeah, yeah, I know, they did horrific things to us, just like the Nazis, the Japanese, the Vietnamese etc. It's the one thing that up until now has separated us from our enemies.
Yes, I did read you weren't happy with the last 8 yrs, but you never posted anything with regards to the aforementioned torture. That was my point, not that you were some type of Bush sycophant.
Slaves may have been common in many societies, but there were significant numbers of people who objected to slavery since its inception. I'm not talking just about the slaves themselves, who must have thought it was a very bad idea, but many intellectuals. My intent here was to point out "they" didn't get everything perfectly. That's why we get 9 very bright, learned Supreme Court Justices arguing intensely over interpretation.
If you question others' knowledge or background, you open yourself up to the same criticism. I'm actually accustomed to anger and tirades for my positions, I've been a member of the ACLU for many years and admittedly have views which are clearly not of the mainstream. It's been good for developing a resilience to criticism and adopting the "I'm rubber you're glue..." philosophy. You have to remember however, and this is good for both of us to know, the actual revolutionaries in our early history represented a minority of the people living here. I'm content also to move beyond Bush-Cheney, except for this horrendous mess they left us with.

George

Haven't changed my story one bit. Just haven't told all of it. As far as being better than thou; that a whole story in itself. And yes, I am something special. I have lived a life far beyond a regular person. I make no apologies. Haven't heard hate-monger before, but that is cool. I will add it to the list.

Next time I see you on the 'rez, I will say hi! I will let you go there though because that place depresses me.

I hope someone got some entertainment from this. It is starting to bore me. I will remember not to poke the bears when I come through here again.