President Obama News Thread

[Humbert]

"Power comes from the barrel of a gun".

The guys with the guns are the US military and they are unwanted "guests" in a lot of other people's countries. I know of no Marxists in the U.S. with guns. Maybe a hell of of a lot of survivalist, redneck neocons though.

[sabang]

I think Obama had and has several good ideas. He knew health care costs were bleeding the country dry (amongst other things)- but frankly the reform bill has had to be so watered down that the Senate bill he could technically pass now, well no great loss. It was his own party that have caused this- not the GOP, who have the bluster but not the numbers. We'll see what happens next.

I think his diplomacy is step in the right direction too, but whether it will produce any tangible results is yet to be seen. Certainly several members of his own party are implacably against his efforts to get the Palestinian situation sorted. It seems likely thats why bitter Joe Lieberman torpedoed the public option- to weaken the Obama admin.

And I doubt he will have the balls to stand up and tell the American people the truth- military expenditure has to come down. If he did so, he would probably be assassinated anyway.

He's certainly no Messiah, and yes the 'hope and change' thing was an unrealistic expectation from many. Neither is he a disaster, but his party probably is. They've just got no solidarity on anything.

[Jet Gorgon]

MrG, why do you keep running away from what is right in front of your face? Obama is nose-diving along with the whole Dem Party. He said on ABC he would rather be a great one-term prez than a mediocre two-term prez. He won't even make the 1st term wonder and will be worse that Carter at the rate he is going. Plouffe is recalled and is demanding the healthcare bill be rammed thru. Bladdy hell. Listen to the people!

[Boon Mee]

How about this, eh? So lame he can't even give a speech to kids w/out his teleprompter?



Obama's Cabinet Picks - Yahoo! News Photos

[Boon Mee]

To quote Comrade Obama:

Judge me by the people with whom I surround myself...

[dotcom]

A lot of the evil flows from the Tides Foundation, a Soros front group. Under the umbrella of the Tides Foundation is the Apollo Alliance.

If you wish to fund Marxism anonomously you merely send a check to the Tides Foundation & they will do the dirty work for you. Podesta & the Center for American Progress are up to their eyeballs in this corruption.

The Apollo Alliance drafted the 787 billion kickback scheme.

[panama hat]

Soros

Another Marxist?

Umm, do you ever stand up for what you dribbled on the forum? Silly question, just write crap and ignore everything else.

How can you hate America so much when your men and women are putting their lives on the line to fill the world with American values?

[slackula]

Judge me by the people with whom I surround myself...

That is quite possibly the dumbest graphic I have ever seen posted on the intartubes. Congratulations, you have just hit rock bottom, and kept on digging.

Any claims that a corporate, centrist POTUS is a marxist/leninist/communist should be met only with loud derision and hoots of laughter.

A lot of the evil flows from the Tides Foundation, a Soros front group. Under the umbrella of the Tides Foundation is the Apollo Alliance. If you wish to fund Marxism anonomously you merely send a check to the Tides Foundation & they will do the dirty work for you. Podesta & the Center for American Progress are up to their eyeballs in this corruption. The Apollo Alliance drafted the 787 billion kickback scheme.

Boon Mee is Aristotle compared to the utter nonsense that you continually C&P from FreeRepublic.com or wherever.

Congrats, you just made TD's most terrified neocon slurper look a little less ridiculous, but not by much..

[sabang]

Saul Alinsky, the 'father' of community organising, was not a Marxist at all :-

When asked during an interview whether he ever considered becoming a Communist party member, he replied:

"Not at any time. I've never joined any organization -- not even the ones I've organized myself. I prize my own independence too much. And philosophically, I could never accept any rigid dogma or ideology, whether it's Christianity or Marxism. One of the most important things in life is what Judge Learned Hand described as 'that ever-gnawing inner doubt as to whether you're right.' If you don't have that, if you think you've got an inside track to absolute truth, you become doctrinaire, humorless and intellectually constipated. The greatest crimes in history have been perpetrated by such religious and political and racial fanatics, from the persecutions of the Inquisition on down to Communist purges and Nazi genocide."
Saul Alinsky - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But I suppose there is no point trying to inform people who believe George Soros is Marxist and Obama a Muslim.

[dotcom]

Ditto folks who think that Uncle Saul's book "Rules For Radicals" is not a handbook for overthrowing a government.

[barbaro]

Serious question about CZARS in Obama's administration.

Is it true, that Obama has more CZARS than any other President?

I saw this discussed a few months ago, and cannot find it.

Can someone find a list of Obama's "Czars" and lists of other President's Czars?

Thanks in advance.

Edit in:

I found the info and link and thread. Thanks.

If anyone wants to add any info on Obama's Czars, especially in comparison to other President's Czars, please add.....

[Humbert]

Another Marxist?

Without fear what have they really got? The Marxist boogeyman. Run and hide.

[Muadib]

Finally, a move in the right direction... Instead of tilting at windmills, CUT THE FREAKING BUDGET!!! Perhaps BO does have some balls...

Naturally, the democratic led congress are pitching a fit over this latest initiative... And of course the republicans are having none of it either, since it wasn't their proposal...

Obama to Propose Freeze on Some Spending to Trim Deficit - NYTimes.com

Obama to Seek Freeze on Some Spending to Trim Deficits

By JACKIE CALMES
Published: January 25, 2010

WASHINGTON — President Obama will call for a three-year freeze in spending on many domestic programs, and for increases no greater than inflation after that, an initiative intended to signal his seriousness about cutting the budget deficit, administration officials said Monday.

The officials said the proposal would be a major component both of Mr. Obama’s State of the Union address on Wednesday and of the budget he will send to Congress on Monday for the fiscal year that begins in October.
The freeze would cover the agencies and programs for which Congress allocates specific budgets each year, including air traffic control, farm subsidies, education, nutrition and national parks.

But it would exempt security-related budgets for the Pentagon, foreign aid, the Veterans Administration and homeland security, as well as the entitlement programs that make up the biggest and fastest-growing part of the federal budget: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

The payoff in budget savings would be small relative to the deficit: The estimated $250 billion in savings over 10 years would be less than 3 percent of the roughly $9 trillion in additional deficits the government is expected to accumulate over that time.

The initiative holds political risks as well as potential benefits. Because Mr. Obama plans to exempt military spending while leaving many popular domestic programs vulnerable, his move is certain to further anger liberals in his party and senior Democrats in Congress, who are already upset by the possible collapse of health care legislation and the troop buildup in Afghanistan, among other things.

Fiscally conservative Democrats in the House and Senate have urged Mr. Obama to support a freeze, and it would suggest to voters, Wall Street and other nations that the president is willing to make tough decisions at a time when the deficit and the national debt, in the view of many economists, have reached levels that undermine the nation’s long-term prosperity. Perceptions that government spending is out of control have contributed to Mr. Obama’s loss of support among independent voters, and concern about the government’s fiscal health could put upward pressure on the interest rates the United States has to pay to borrow money from investors and nations, especially China, that have been financing Washington’s budget deficit.

Republicans were quick to mock the freeze proposal. “Given Washington Democrats’ unprecedented spending binge, this is like announcing you’re going on a diet after winning a pie-eating contest,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for the House Republican leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio.

The spending reductions that would be required would have to be agreed to by Congress, and it is not clear how much support Mr. Obama will get in an election year when the political appeal of greater fiscal responsibility will be vying with the pressure to provide voters with more and better services. The administration officials said the part of the budget they have singled out — $447 billion in domestic programs — amounts to a relatively small share, about one-eighth, of the overall federal budget.

But given the raft of agencies and programs within that slice, the reductions will mean painful reductions that will be fought by numerous lobbies and constituent groups. And not all programs will be frozen, the administration officials said; many will be cut well below a freeze or eliminated to provide increases for programs that are higher priorities for the administration in areas like education, energy, the environment and health.

The balancing act of picking winners and losers was evident on Monday at the White House. Mr. Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. outlined a number of new proposals that will be in the budget to help the middle class. They cover issues including child care, student loans and retirement savings.

Administration officials also are working with Congress on roughly $150 billion in additional stimulus spending and tax cuts to spur job creation. But much of that spending would be authorized in the current fiscal year, the officials said, so it would not be affected by the proposed freeze that would take effect in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

It is the growth in the so-called entitlement programs — Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — that is the major factor behind projections of unsustainably high deficits, because of rapidly rising health costs and an aging population.
But one administration official said that limiting the much smaller discretionary domestic budget would have symbolic value. That spending includes lawmakers’ earmarks for parochial projects, and only when the public believes such perceived waste is being wrung out will they be willing to consider reductions in popular entitlement programs, the official said.

“By helping to create a new atmosphere of fiscal discipline, it can actually also feed into debates over other components of the budget,” the official said, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity.

The administration officials did not identify which programs Mr. Obama would cut or eliminate, but said that information would be in the budget he submits next week. For the coming fiscal year, the reductions would be $10 billion to $15 billion, they said. Last year Mr. Obama proposed to cut a similar amount — $11.5 billion — and Congress approved about three-fifths of that, the officials said.

The federal government’s discretionary domestic spending has grown about 5 percent on average since 1993, according to the administration. It spiked to about 27 percent from 2008 to 2009, however, because of the recession. The sudden increase reflected both the first outlays from the $787 billion stimulus package as well as automatic spending for unemployment compensation and food stamps that is triggered during an economic downturn.

The freeze that Mr. Obama will propose for the fiscal years 2011 through 2013 actually means a cut in real terms, since the affected spending would not keep pace with inflation.

According to the administration, by 2015 that share of the federal budget will be at its lowest level in a half-century relative to the size of the economy.
“A lot of our caucus won’t like it but I don’t think we have any choice,” said an adviser to Congressional Democratic leaders, who would only speak on condition of anonymity about internal party deliberations. “After Massachusetts and all the polls about independents’ abandoning us for being fiscally irresponsible, we can’t afford to be spending more than Obama.”

While the Democrats’ unexpected loss of a Massachusetts Senate seat in a special election last week gave new impetus to administration efforts to tackle the deficit, those efforts actually have been under way since last fall, when officials began early work on the 2011 budget.

Mr. Obama’s budget director, Peter R. Orszag, initially directed Cabinet secretaries and agency heads to propose alternative budgets — one with a freeze and another that cut spending by 5 percent. Months of internal arguments and appeals followed.

[sabang]

But it would exempt security-related budgets for the Pentagon

Why on earth? That would be an obvious one to freeze for a few years.

[Muadib]

^ Agreed as it's one of the largest numbers in the budget... The hawks and the Military Industrial Complex must persevere...

[Jet Gorgon]

Boon Mee is Aristotle compared to the utter nonsense that you continually C&P from FreeRepublic.com or wherever.

You do make me laugh, Slack.

Is it true, that Obama has more CZARS than any other President?

Bush had quite a few.

Finally, a move in the right direction... Instead of tilting at windmills, CUT THE FREAKING BUDGET!!! Perhaps BO does have some balls...

Erm, really doesn't amount to much:

Obama announces $17 billion in cuts, less than .5% of total budget


Obama announces $17 billion in cuts, less than .5% of total budget - Los Angeles Times

[Mr Earl]

Barry's loosing some popularity overseas.

JAKARTA — Indonesian authorities said Monday they are considering a petition to tear down a statue of US President Barack Obama as a boy, only a month after the bronze was unveiled in Jakarta.

link

[Boon Mee]

Judge me by the people with whom I surround myself...

That is quite possibly the dumbest graphic I have ever seen posted on the intartubes. Congratulations, you have just hit rock bottom, and kept on digging.

Any claims that a corporate, centrist POTUS is a marxist/leninist/communist should be met only with loud derision and hoots of laughter.

You have definitely been drinking the Kool Aid too long there Slack! To call Obama a centrist and a corporation-supporting POTUS is utterly beyond belief. If that graphic is so "dumb", please point out the inaccuracies? Heh...if you can...

[Mr Earl]

More bad news for Bambam.

President In Deep Trouble With Middle Class; Many Think His Attempt To 'Reconnect' Shows Serious Desperation

link

[MrG]

I found the info and link and thread. Thanks. If anyone wants to add any info on Obama's Czars, especially in comparison to other President's Czars, please add.....

Please post that link.

I'm doing this from memory and is all subject to revision. The first Presidental Czar, as you probably know by now, was appointed by Reagan, (Drug Czar...? I don't remember) and was intended as a specially appointed Point Man to kill a designated problem. It wasn't a new concept, just a new name. The Czar word came to be used by other Presidents rather arbitrarily, if not capriciously. Kind of like the things we declare war on.

[AntRobertson]

... Kind of like the things we declare war on.

I think that what needs to be done is to declare a 'War On Abstract Nouns' and just be done with it.

[sabang]

I don't see why there is all this fuss about Obamas 'Czars' from the predictable quarters. More accurately, they are advisers to the Whitehouse- they have no Executive power as such. It is just another example of trumped up opposition for the sake of it.

[panama hat]

Finally, a move in the right direction... Instead of tilting at windmills, CUT THE FREAKING BUDGET!!! Perhaps BO does have some balls...

Very clear Marxist tendencies there . . . weaken the economy so the black helicopters can come swooping in after midnight to take Joe Sixpack's house away from him . . . and his guns.

It amazes me that even when the Obama administration does propose actions which normally would have found support from the right wing . . . It seems to be a firm "NO" from that side to everything on principle

[sabang]

a firm "NO" from that side to everything on principle

Their only 'principle' is getting political power back by fair means or foul- the best interests of the country hardly enter the equation.

[Jet Gorgon]

The first Presidental Czar, as you probably know by now, was appointed by Reagan, (Drug Czar...?

I thought that was Nancy Reagan.

As for the freezing on spending, I watched Charles Krauthammer on Fox and he uncovered the whole sham: he says that Obama raised the budgets for depts like the EPA by about 25% last year, so by freezing those budgets at that rate, they are going to stay that high. Remember, BO said "freeze" not slash. Sneaky to the max.