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If Obama is sober as he was last night, he is too testy.
If he quickly and correctly responds to a question based on ridiculous republican talking points about being too slow to respond, he is angry.
The media corps are the ones behind the curve, they are listening and parroting republican talking points and false claims; and they are finding Obama is up to the challenge, which displeases them.
Where were these guys when Bush was destroying the nation? Obama is trying to fix it and they are doing their utmost to stymie him.
Bush, on the other hand, could just be himself, that winkin' nicknamin' brush-clearin' struttin' cowboy. THAT the punditry effin' loved.
I agree. I get so sick of everyone trying to dictate this man's every move. They need to back up...give him some latitude and longitude to manuver and stfu.
He can't possibly be all things to all people. The man is NOT God.
Bush inherited a solid economy and a budget surplus, and turned it into the biggest debt the world has ever seen.
The historical record is crystal clear, going back over 100 years: The Democrats are the party of sound fiscal policy, and the Republicans are the ones that intentionally screw it up.
Bush and the Republican party are solely to blame for the current global crisis, Democrats -once again- are being called on to fix their mess.
I don't think the concern should be on blame right now, but a solution. Does it matter where it came from as much as getting shit under control?
Why would you prefer to fight when everyone needs to be working towards solutions? By the way what are your solutions to the problem?
Who would have thought that would happen? Poor Bush, he had such good intentions!
And that was just a drop in the bucket of the graft and theft that went on in the Bush years.
Bush created the biggest transfer of wealth (from average people to the super rich) in US history.
what would you do in all of your infinite wisdom?
scratch your balls again?
There was more anger and pointed questions and rudeness form the press corps in that room last night than they ever displayed in 8 combined years of fawning over Bush.
When Bush would do something, like announce the revocation of the 4th Amendment by allowing police to search your home without cause or warrant, the press only licked his boots more slavishly.
When Obama announces he's trying to save the global economy from 8 years of intentional mis-management by the Republican Party, the press corps hate him.
WTF?!
Idol pre-empted?!
Dawg made that presser his own:
Talked back to douche judge.
He's overexposed!
Failing "journalists" complain;
He's making them work . . .
Poor AIG-Financial Products employee Jake De Santis...He can make ends meet but he's steamed that poor people might have their suffering eased somewhat, in part, from his highly over-compensated and not so laborious former duties:
On March 16 I received a payment from A.I.G. amounting to $742,006.40, after taxes. In light of the uncertainty over the ultimate taxation and legal status of this payment, the actual amount I donate may be less
(sob!!!) They may even have to sell their 2nd vacation home!!! Oh the humanity!!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/opinion/25des...
What kind of over-privileged people do these yahoos think they are? Yeah, oh, the humanity, all right. [snark]
de Santis will be lucky he doesn't wind up in jail. Donate? Don't make me laugh.
Bachmann unclear on Constitution?
So many nominees, so little time...
And then there was Maxine Waters whose new expensive ad campaign for re-election needed some yes-no answers and new sound bites. Geithner was the victim.
Her gushy defense of the brilliant Franklin Raines, rip-off artist at Fannie or Freddie, is still on youtube....
If Joe six pack gets behind a few thousand on his $15,000 yearly income the IRS is there to add thousands more as collection penalities.
Funny thing that Corporations want to be treated as "people" under the law - however, it's kinda hard for "people" to move their bank accounts to a safe tax-free off-shore location.
The last 8 years I have avoided anything "presidential" (appearances, pressers, state of the unions, speaking engagements etc)
Now, I watch nearly everything Obama does with great interest. I don't always agree with him and always take anyone to task who claims he's left of anything...but I appreciate his intelligent, confident ...dare I say....Competent...manner.
I feel re-assured when he speaks...I feel like it will be okay and things will get better. I feel like we have someone actually driving the "ship" instead of allowing it to bob in rough seas with nobody in the wheel house.
His answer regarding the charities was bang on... I felt the same way when I read the reports about Charities complaining...
Most people (the 95% who pay the most for everything) don't give based on how much our deduction will be.....in fact I never knew what sort of deduction it was all these years.
We give because we have a desire to help.
If rich people are shallow enough not to give based on their deduction % then that tells me all I need to know about them!
I was the same way. During the past 8 years, anytime Bush would come on, I'd change the tv to the cartoon channel. His very voice irritated the hell outta me.
Now, it's nice to have someone who can articulate a well thought out sentence.
Last night the president was also "dead on" when he said that rich people "will still be well to do." His tax changes are not going to force them into middle incomed America. They will still have the advantage and prestige of being counted in the upper eschelon.
All I can do is shake my head and say, "These selfish people."
Now all we hear IS opposition w/NO solutions. As far as I'm concerned, they're all grandstanding.
As far as The POTUS....it's refreshing to have someone say, "I don't know." And someone who is willing to try something different. But one thing I do know....he's not going to allow some to succeed while others are left behind. "We're ALL in this together--We rise and fall together." That's something I can believe in.
It's the republicans who are the TRUE elitest.
via Kos:
The health-insurance industry said Tuesday that it would be willing to stop charging sick people more for their coverage if all Americans were required to buy insurance.
The proposal, included in a letter sent to Senate leaders by the industry's two main trade groups, is the latest move by health insurers to portray themselves as constructive participants, rather than obstacles, in the debate over how to overhaul the U.S. health-care system.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/3/25/712...
Can it be possible!!!
Is there really a possibility for single payer??
When the uninsured cannot pay for the care they receive, health care providers shift costs to Americans with insurance in the form of higher premiums
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/24/cost-shift-...
"I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak up."
:lol:
Not only does Mr. Obama like to think before opening his mouth (in contravention of the morning teevee S.O.P.) but he wants to speak these carefully chosen words carefully...This is what prompters are for.
Unlike The Failure, whose media staff even Mourning Blow admitted should have thought of the ubiquitous device, Mr. Obama knows words uttered by a person in his position at these live events are important.
Next time the president should skip CNN and GE as he did the WP and NYT.
Barack Obama facing criticism for his "dial-a-pastor" advice line
Barack Obama is under fire after replacing his estranged pastor Jeremiah Wright with a new circle of religious confidantes whose views are dramatically at odds with some of his political goals.
By Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 11:04PM GMT 21 Mar 2009
The president is now taking spiritual guidance from no less than five different pastors, whom he phones for advice at moments of stress or when making big decisions.
But a year after the incendiary rantings of Rev Wright threatened to derail Mr Obama's presidential campaign, revelation of the "dial-a-prayer" sessions has prompted critics to declare that he has a new "pastor problem".
Four of the president's inner circle of religious counsellors have drawn the ire of gay rights groups since they are opposed to equal rights for homosexuals and in some cases believe that they can be cured of their "sin" through prayer.
Others are concerned that the five preachers, ostensibly selected because they share Mr Obama's view that the church should help tackle poverty at the grassroots level, include two Texas megachurch pastors who preach that personal wealth is a sign of Godliness.
The prayer circle is overwhelmingly opposed to abortion, a position at odds with Mr Obama's "anything goes" pro-choice stance, arguably the most liberal of any president in US history.
Mr Obama has handed huge influence to Bishop T.D. Jakes, Kirbyjon Caldwell, Joel Hunter, Jim Wallis and civil rights veteran Otis Moss Jr, in part, because he and wife Michelle have failed to settle on a new church in Washington to replace the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago which they abandoned last year.
White House sources say that the family have not yet found a congregation that meets their theological requirements and is big enough to cope with the disruption of frequent presidential visits and the likely swell in congregation that would accompany the Obamas' patronage. It will also have to be secured by the Secret Service.
Mr Obama prayed with Otis Moss and Joel Hunter on the eve of his election and would have added Revs Jakes and Caldwell to the conference call if they had been available.
The most controversial figure the president has been telephoning is Bishop T. D. Jakes, head of the 30,000 strong Potter's House parish in Dallas, who refers to homosexuality as "brokenness" and recently claimed that he wouldn't hire a sexually active gay person.
When Rev Jakes' son Jermaine was arrested last month for soliciting gay sex in a Dallas park after exposing himself to two undercover male vice squad detectives, the bishop said he revealed he had issued "correction" to his son.
Bishop Jakes has also been criticised for his advocacy of "prosperity theology", which teaches that God rewards the faithful with material gifts. In one sermon, "Provision for the Vision," he bragged about his own stable of luxury cars.
Similar claims are levelled at Kirbyjon Caldwell, who runs the world's largest United Methodist congregation at Windsor Village Church in Houston, who has been criticised for going "too far in linking spiritual wholeness to financial wholeness".
His church prohibits ordination for practicing homosexuals, same-sex unions and a woman on staff at Rev Caldwell's church runs a group called Metanoia, a gay conversion programme which claims to use Christian teaching to "cure" those "seeking freedom from homosexuality, lesbianism, prostitution, sex addiction and other habitual sins".
That has enraged Obama supporter Wayne Besen, founder of Truth Wins Out, a New York organisation which campaigns against the "ex-gay" movement in the church, which insists that homosexuality is nothing more than a sinful lifestyle choice.
He told The Sunday Telegraph: "I think Obama's got another pastor problem. There's a tendency to surround himself with these anti-gay preachers which is very offensive. These are people who believe that we are sinful and sick and that you can pray away the gay.
"The notion that Obama can't find a pastor in America who doesn't have these outrageous extreme beliefs is baffling to many of us."
Read the rest @:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/north...
Not every pastor is going to share his beliefs. Yet, he can still glean important spiritual sustenance for his own life. I have never seen a president scrutinized so much for his religious beliefs and practices. We're not all going to agree.
So what if Bishop Jakes is against homosexuality??? We're all works in progress....and God is not finished with ANY of us yet. I think some go too far expecting everyone to agree w/their "enlighten" sense of liberty in all things. Let's agree where we can....and where we can't....agree to disagree.
President Obama associates w/gays as well as straights. The media makes issues out of non-issues. There are a lot of things each and every one of us like and dislike. It doesn't HAVE to be a problem unless he governs from those dislikes. So far.....he has not. Let the man have a personal life!
Obama is doing something very savvy, he won't be held accountable no matter what bat sh*t crazy thing any of these 5 ministers might say, he just mentions he was at a different congregation, or that he couldn't possibly be accountable for a church he barely knows.The faith-based folks will still give him credit as a religious man.
Obama manages to defuse a lot of this by knowing his subject matter better than the people asking the questions. He also gives detailed answers to questions that don't deserve it, which the pundits of course mistake for wonkish, serious, boring and tired. The fact that the president had bring up Iran himself reflects badly on the press corp, considering how unprecedented it was.
In some ways, Obama handles the press similar to JFK, except the latter defused hostile/gotcha questiona with humor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC_B3OBmb0Y
http://www.abajournal.com/news/barney_frank_cal...
If you have such an organization in your state I urge you get involved. Showing up at the statehouses does make a difference!
NC ROCKS!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/washington/25...
Years of no-money-down car loans followed by sinking home values and rising unemployment has made many people desperate over car payments they can no longer afford. For some, the answer is to ditch the car, report it stolen and collect the insurance money to pay it off without hurting their credit.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123793742263531...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middl...