Our President

Non-Phish General
#21

^ That was good for some lols.

“Newt Gingrich is brilliant”??!??!?!?
“Sarah Palin is sincere and intelligent”
“Obama doesn’t really see himself as President of the United States , but
more as a ruler over the world.” (okay fine…but as opposed to Regan or either Bush…come on) Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.
And yet
“We’re pining for another Reagan, but there will never be another like him.”
“Paying for FREE college education is his goal”
“Most scary is his healthcare program, because if you make it FREE and add 46,000,000 people to a Medicare-type single-payer system, the costs will go through the roof.”
ZOMG…free education and health care…what a horrible country that would be to live in!

Sorry…that whole post cracked me up. Are republicans really that oblivious? Do they really feel that Obama is going to do any more harm to America by assisting American’s who need help, than Bush did by ignoring them and waging wars on other countries instead of focusing on America’s problems?

All I know, is I didn’t vote, but thus far I approve, if only because he hasn’t started an invasion of another country since he’s been in office.

EDIT:

Sorry this one was funny too:

“The only way to control costs is with massive RATIONING of services, like in Canada. God forbid.”

I guess we “ration our services”, in that sense that I, personally, only go to the doctor when I’m sick and only call the fire department when there’s a fire, etc. There’s no real rules saying that I can’t go to the doctor even if I’m not sick…I really don’t get what other services are “rationed” for Canadians…I can’t think of any. I take it most American’s are the same way…or do you guys just go to the Doctor every day regardless of whether you’re sick or not?

I can still go buy whatever I want whenever I want provided I have the money, and because we have a decent health care system, I can afford to have the money to buy stuff. Everyone here gets their health tened to whether you have money or not, America only RATIONS their health care amongst the wealthy. There’s nothing wrong with letting everyone make use of the roads, or fire departments or police service, so why is it all the sudden a socialist thing to let everyone have health care.

Imagine if all of the sudden you had to pay to drive on the highway, or you had to give the police your insurance or credit card number before they would come out to stop someone from breaking into your house.

Sorry…I just find it absolutely disgusting when people act like we have it bad in Canada because we have free health care. It’s just stubborness I guess…there’s not logic to that kind of reasoning.

#22

Meh. Politicians are wolves in different sheep’s clothing.

Democrats and Republicans just use differing methods to distribute $$$ to the mega-corporations and mega-banks that truly run America.

Tax cuts to the right, government programs to the left. Here I am, stuck in the middle with you…

:smiley:

#23

So basically, a Republican writer and commentator had a talk at a conservative think-tank and he regurgitated the same old GOP routine talking points? Gosh, what a surprise.

I’ll give Krauthammer credit for being intelligent, coherent, and practical (unlike many of his fellow conservative pundits, a la Limbaugh and Bill-O), and for not toeing the party line on issues like reproductive rights and “intelligent design.” But unfortunately most of your list is just fabricated suppositions about Barack Obama’s character and personality.

I’m open-minded about fact-based criticism of government and politicians, but most of these remarks are just opinionated bullshit. Yes, yes, Obama thinks he’s better than all of us, he sees himself as the ruler of the world, he has a radical socialist agenda, he seeks to “overthrow” capitalism, he committed the atrocity of apologizing for our past mistakes so he must hate America… right, of course this is all backed up by… oh wait, nothing. Just more hot air without any factual basis. The followers will eat it up, of course.

#24

^^^ And yeah, I love the complete lies that proponents of a broken healthcare system create to bolster their flagging cause. “GOD FORBID we have it as bad as Canada, where grandmothers die by the hundreds and babies are routinely thrown in dumpsters because of RATIONED CARE.”

So either someone as intelligent, articulate, and well-read as Krauthammer either doesn’t know much about the national healthcare systems in England and Canada, or he is deliberately playing off the fears of “rationed care” in another attempt to scare the followers. Take your pick, it’s one of the two.

#25

^^^^ Sorry, as soon as I saw the words FOX NEWS, I couldn’t take that post seriously. I’ll address one point though.

“Most scary is his healthcare program, because if you make it FREE and add 46,000,000 people to a Medicare-type single-payer system, the costs will go through the roof.”

NOBODY except right-wing fear mongers has used the words SINGLE PAYER. The ONLY people who have a good reason not to want health care reform are insurance company executives and the politicians who get their pockets lined by said executives. The whole point is to have a public OPTION. If you have insurance and you like it, THERE WILL BE NO CHANGE.

Not to rant here, but approximately 30% of every dollar spent on health care in this nation goes to ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS. That is just plain disgusting.

This is from a report comparing administrative costs of US private insurers to Canadian private insurers and the Canadian national health insurance plan:

Source: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/349/8/768 (New England Journal of Medicine)
"In 1999, health administration costs totaled at least $294.3 billion in the United States, or $1,059 per capita, as compared with $307 per capita in Canada. After exclusions, administration accounted for 31.0 percent of health care expenditures in the United States and 16.7 percent of health care expenditures in Canada. Canada’s national health insurance program had overhead of 1.3 percent. Providers’ administrative costs were far lower in Canada.

Between 1969 and 1999, the share of the U.S. health care labor force accounted for by administrative workers grew from 18.2 percent to 27.3 percent. In Canada, it grew from 16.0 percent in 1971 to 19.1 percent in 1996. (Both nations’ figures exclude insurance-industry personnel.)

Conclusions: The gap between U.S. and Canadian spending on health care administration has grown to $752 per capita. A large sum might be saved in the United States if administrative costs could be trimmed by implementing a Canadian-style health care system."

Think about that for a minute. Almost ONE THIRD of every dollar that every privately insured person in the US spends on health care goes towards ADMINISTRATIVE costs. Isn’t insurance expensive and ineffective enough as it is?

[/rant]

#26

#27

sparked some responses.
im not a big fan of what was said about canada, and i know alot of it is oppinionated, and what clevername said…Fox News hahahaha, just wanted to throw it out there to keep some conversation going.
the people i work for are die hard republicans so i get emails like this ALL the time.

#28

My thoughts exactly!!

You forgot the Washington Post also. One of the most right wing papers in the nation.

#29

I voted for him.
I’ll probably vote for him again. Who knows?

He ran one of the best campaigns ever. Truly.

He’s doing fine.
Better then anyone else would be. Way better then McPalin would be.

*EDIT:
I would like him to be a bit different internationally. Most notably the wars.
But I think it’s much different then I truly know over there.
I’d just like to bring the boys home and take stock of who we want to be in the world.

Domestically he’s doing fine.
He already overturned all of the Environmental polices that our previous administration put in place and is doing alot to protect forest land and CO2 emissions. Thank god.
I think his attorney general is pretty good too.
He has eased the laws on immigration and non-violent crimes which I like.
I think his first term is gonna come down to health care.
Who knows what will happen now that Ted Kennedy has died.
That could help him or it can hurt him passing it.
A bill will get passed, it just depends if there will be a public option.
I hope so.

I think we need to realize it hasn’t even been a year for the guy as well.

#30

How about it!?

A+ fluffy

#31

I’m a small goverment guy… voted for the Libertarian candidate. Some of the things I disapprove of that Obama’s done…
The health care bill
The stimulus package
The corporate bailouts
His involvement in the Gates-Crowley incident

#32

Agreed 100%

Also, Goldenroad, thanks for giving us (Americans) some honest feedback about your HC system. It’s soooo hard to find unbiased information these days about HC in other countries. I really like what you wrote, and am emailing to my conservative brother.

Streetbum- Thanks for the entertaining post. (that was just for amusement, right?) :wink:

#33

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8953172273825999151

I think this documentary does a good job of putting the history of mass manipulations into some sort of digestible perspective. It’s long but I recommend it. People are so bombarded with bullshit from everywhere that their brains shut down and they just resond to hateful and divisive beliefs. People are programmed with this shit since birth. You think there is a true beleif sytem out there, but in reality everyone is being maipulated subconsciously.

If you are interested in freedom, than the first thing that you should worry about is freeing your consciousness and maybe you’ll start to see through some of the bullshit. The reality is whether you are into Marx, Obama, Reagan, Clinton, Ayn Rand, Rush Limbaugh, Ron Paul, Crimethinc., Cheerios, Cigarettes, Punk Rock, Jesus or the Constitution… whatever… most of your awreness of that thing come from someone trying to sell you something so they can extract your value, and it’s created a totally distorted picture of reality. This distortion has permeated American consciousness and we are at a tipping point. When the baby boomers pass I think we’ll see a dramatic shift in thought in this country and most of these arguments you see and hear today will be pretty irrelevant. That is if they don’t take it down with them.

I basically saw both Obama and McCain as a couple of guys who were trying to save a dying system… each with slightly different allegiances, but I think both were/are still hopeful that the the US can transition into the future without imploding. I think we are at a point where most people would rather see violence and social collapse than admit that they might be wrong about some things and try new ideas.

Americans have giant egos and have been spoon fed a bullshit mythology that God himself made them superior to other everyone else in the world and presented with the option of drowning in shit or letting go of their manifest destiny consciousness, they will choose to drown in shit, even if expanding their picture of reality would make their lives better.

#34

^^ holy fucking HELL that was a badass post Emmett. Very well said. Especially agree with that last paragraph. Sometimes I wonder if we really will just tip into the abyss with our eyes screwed shut against reality.

#35

Emmett, I’ve gained a lot of respect for you from this past round of political/heavy discussions in non-phish.

Bravo boy-o!

#36

Emmet, your post really hit the nail on the head man.

#37

Can’t say I disagree with you there. I always have been and always will be against the Iraq war. It was a horrible idea.

Yeah that shit was retarded also. For the record, I have never called them freedom fries, nor have any of my friends. In fact, I’ve never even been to a restaurant that calls them that.

#38

Wow. Man that is unbelievably closed-minded. Fox News, like every other news source in America, is biased. However, unlike the rest of them, it has a conservative bias. To me, it seems like the statement quoted above means you are yet another person who only listens to one side of the argument, thereby never absorbing information from the opposite side of the issue. If you are constantly bombarded by liberal propaganda, you will have a hard time developing any semblance of a balanced point of view. I don’t mean to preach or anything, I just feel like it is important to listen to both sides if you plan on having an opinion that differs from the rest of the herd of sheep.

O’Reilly, Beck, and Hannity suck just as bad as Olbermann and Maddow, but if you watch the actual news shows that come on during the day on Fox, you will find them fairly informative, much like the daytime news shows on CNN (not MSNBC, as they are simply a disgrace to the media).

OK wow. I guess now I understand how you folks get such incredibly biased opinions. I suppose you just LOVE the Huffington Post, huh?

That is a ridiculous generalization. Plain and simple. How can you possibly make such an absurd blanket statement about an entire population. You always seem very confident that you are right about everything, but I take offense to a comment like that. Speaking for myself, I am not stupid, lazy, or mindless (fat I am, yes). I also take pride in my ability to assimilate information from different sources and form my own opinions. I don’t see how you are so self-confident that you feel you have that much of a grasp on the attitude of the entire American population.

#39

For starters, I wouldn’t spend too much time waiting for the revolution. We live in a country that has a high standard of living and political power diffuse enough to satisfy the masses. While there is injustice and there is inequity in power and wealth, there will be no mass movement to topple the system any time soon.

And second, most countries place their own welfare above others. It’s human nature to think local. Xenephobia is an ugly phenomenon, but it’s a natural phenomenon. And, it’s not unique to America.

#40

I think he is definitely better than all of the other options that were available. It’s a difficult time to make changes and even at the best of times they can’t be done overnight. It is a difficult economic/world climate for any president to look good, because a lot of things are falling apart, many of which are none of the current presidents doing.

People are impatient and it is impossible to please everyone. I also think it is quite ignorant and short sighted not to care what other countries think of you. I understand where that feeling comes from but it doesn’t really work all the time in what is now such a small intertwined world. I didn’t vote, but I approve.