You people hate Obama

[nathanm]

I don't know.  Ask George W.  Obama wasn't the only President to do that.  Dubya made it stylish...

We could look at the history and find that Nixon & Ford started the trend, Carter reversed it but did not close the gap, Reagan blew up the deficit despite raising taxes by quite a lot, Clinton reversed the trend to the point of (cash) surplus, and GWB reversed course. Thus far in the modern era only Democrats have left office with a smaller budget deficit than they began with. (HW was about even) Weird, that.

Similarly strange is how more jobs have been created since 1945 with a Democrat in the White House than with a Republican despite Republicans holding office more.

[DolfanBob]

So that video is Obama's commercial that runs 2 minutes long starting tonight in Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Colorado. I thought that it was just something that TTC dug up to make a point.
I Guess the gloves are off. Let the mud slinging begin.....or continue.  

P.S. Don't that dude in the video look like Bob Newhart ?

[Conan71]

Yes, that really is the line the right wing bloviators have been pushing the last few months. Obama, the do-nothing President. (in addition to pushing some legislation through his words, I seem to recall more than a few executive orders the righties got mighty pissed about) God forbid even a smidgen of truth creep into their polemics.

Edited to add: Conan, as you're aware, I'd like to put everyone on UE more than a couple of weeks to work at least one day a week mowing parks or whatever else needs to be done that we don't have the money for due to the economic situation. Have you noticed a difference in attitude among those looking for work since it was announced that extended UE is going away in Oklahoma?

I don't disagree that there are people out there with a massive sense of entitlement. Personally, I think people should feel free to use benefits available to them, but I also think they should be doing whatever they need to do to get off assistance if possible. If that means they need to see a shrink, that's fine by me. If it means they need to see a doctor, also OK. If that means they need to pound the pavement and find a job, that's good too.

At the same time, although that's not at all what it's for, I don't blame people for taking something of a vacation for a couple of weeks. Most of us only get a week or two off a year, which is just patently ridiculous. That's simply not enough free time to be a mentally healthy and well balanced human being. Moreover, a lot of companies give you zero days off the first year. IMO, that's abusive.

You and I really aren’t that different on our views of UE benefits.  I think you give someone a week or two to earnestly look for work, then they need to start checking in and performing work for the UE benefits but not just one or two days a week.  I suspect a couple of my friends would take one of those less than ideal jobs they’ve been offered if the alternative became shoveling stalls at the fairgrounds, picking up litter along a highway, or mowing right of ways in 100 degree heat until they found something better.

[Conan71]

We could look at the history and find that Nixon & Ford started the trend, Carter reversed it but did not close the gap, Reagan blew up the deficit despite raising taxes by quite a lot, Clinton reversed the trend to the point of (cash) surplus, and GWB reversed course. Thus far in the modern era only Democrats have left office with a smaller budget deficit than they began with. (HW was about even) Weird, that.

Similarly strange is how more jobs have been created since 1945 with a Democrat in the White House than with a Republican despite Republicans holding office more.

Are we really blaming correctly though?  Reagan had a Democrat-controlled Congress for eight years.  Clinton had a GOP Congress for his last six years in office.  Bush had a Democrat Congress his last two years in office when we saw the deficit start to spike again.  Congress controls the purse strings and can put the kabosh on the President’s budgetary proposals.

[Gaspar]

Are we really blaming correctly though?  Reagan had a Democrat-controlled Congress for eight years.  Clinton had a GOP Congress for his last six years in office.  Bush had a Democrat Congress his last two years in office when we saw the deficit start to spike again.  Congress controls the purse strings and can put the kabosh on the President’s budgetary proposals.

Of course we could re-hash the 17 warnings to the def ears of that Democrat congress by Bush et al. concerning the dire concequinces that continuing the Fanny/Freddy scheme would create, but that would be so boring. 

[nathanm]

performing work for the UE benefits but not just one or two days a week.

If they spend too much time working for the government, they won't have enough time to find a job in the private sector. FWIW, I'd also like to see no-cost-to-the-student job training (and general ed) at community colleges. If we really do have a structural unemployment problem as the right wing economists claim, that should fix it right up. Moreover, requiring general ed classes as part of that retraining will help people to become more well rounded and give them a solid foundation on which to participate in our political system.

If we really want to attract employment, we need employees who can do the work being asked of them. With a strong system in place to get workers the skills they need without saddling them with mountains of debt that keeps them in what may end up being a failing industry, companies can be assured of not having long term difficulty finding employees. Short term, sure; training does take a while. But long term, no, unless they are paying so poorly they can't compete in the job market.

Conan, at least in Reagan's case, the Republicans have long been happy to take all the credit. As far as GWB goes, his deficit situation improved after the Democrats took over Congress. In FY2000, the federal government surplus was about $200 billion. (and arguably helped cause the 2000 recession, government surpluses do that sometimes) By FY2004, we were very nearly to $400 billion a year in deficit. In FY2005, the deficit was over $400 billion. FY06 closed the gap by about $100 billion and successive budgets closed the gap even further, to about $180 billion before the financial crisis hit.

I think we all know how the deficit situation is now. Bad but improving, albeit very slowly.

Gaspar: One more time, Fannie and Freddie did not cause the subprime bubble. They were marginalized by MBS packaged by the big banks. Fannie and Freddie actually had rules to keep from lending money to people who couldn't pay it back. The big banks wanted as much toxic smile as they could get because they knew it could be unloaded to suckers like the landesbanks. Unfortunately for them, when the music stopped they had big deals in the works that left them with plenty of crap on their own books. (or in the case of Bear and Morgan Stanley, they intentionally bought some of the crap from other banks)

In the last couple of years of the party, the banks weren't even selling MBS much any more. They were doing fully synthetic deals because they couldn't find enough borrowers. Fannie and Freddie can't even legally do that.

[guido911]

I don't know a  single conservative that cares about gay marriage.

The closest of everyone I know at most just doesn't want to call it "marriage" as they relate that to religious dogma.

I really don't. Here are some more people who "hate" Obama:

When Obama announced that his position on same-sex marriage had evolved, it outraged some African-American pastors like Pastor and Del. Emmett Burns.

“He has said to his base, African-Americans, ‘I am going against your beliefs and your thoughts,’” Burns said.

He’s so opposed to same-sex marriage, he told church members he will no longer support the president and now predicts Obama will lose the election because of it.

He and many other leaders are pouring their energies into gathering the signatures needed to put Maryland’s same-sex marriage law on the November ballot.

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2012/05/13/same-sex-marriage-supporters-opponents-gear-up-for-november-ballot/

[Townsend]

I really don't. Here are some more people who "hate" Obama:http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2012/05/13/same-sex-marriage-supporters-opponents-gear-up-for-november-ballot/

Their religion causes them pain.  If they were more accepting they wouldn't have these issues.

[erfalf]

Are we really blaming correctly though?  Reagan had a Democrat-controlled Congress for eight years.  Clinton had a GOP Congress for his last six years in office.  Bush had a Democrat Congress his last two years in office when we saw the deficit start to spike again.  Congress controls the purse strings and can put the kabosh on the President’s budgetary proposals.

We shouldn't be blaming people (Dem/Rep) per se. We need to be focusing on what policies worked and what didn't regardless of who did them.

[guido911]

Their religion causes them pain.  If they were more accepting they wouldn't have these issues.

I wouldn't throw the baby out over this. I am pro-life (anti-abortion) and anti-death penalty because of religion/faith. I also donate heavily to very needy people largely because of a sense of moral obligation I got while in church. I am also "don't give a sh!t" over SSM despite my religion.

[Townsend]

I wouldn't throw the baby out over this. I am pro-life (anti-abortion) and anti-death penalty because of religion/faith. I also donate heavily to very needy people largely because of a sense of moral obligation I got while in church. I am also "don't give a sh!t" over SSM despite my religion.

Not yours.  Theirs.  That gentleman decided his beliefs make it so unacceptable that he's pushing politics in a tax free business.

[Townsend]

Good news everyone.

The TW is tweeting that: 

State Senate reaffirms support of traditional marriage

Yup, they spent time for that. 

Good thing because we all had our doubts. 

Hell, I thought there were going to be gay marriages and show tunes all over this state by this weekend.

Color me surprised.

O K L A H O M A ...I just realized why they shut down Discoveryland

[guido911]

Not yours.  Theirs.  That gentleman decided his beliefs make it so unacceptable that he's pushing politics in a tax free business.

We can argue about whether church's are "tax free" all day long (and also the contradiction about treating corporations like citizens via taxation but give them no "personhood")--and not quite sure what church taxation policy has to do with your original point about religion driving beliefs or "causing them pain". Straw man?

This is a thread about hating Obama. Go back to the first post in this thread and read about us disrespecting Okies. Better yet, here's the last bit of RM's rant:

The news people around here bash Obama. The elected officials are downright rude to him. Even my friends are talking about the trip as a chance to be mean.

You people really hate Obama. What am I doing living here and trying to make a better world for my kids? The hatred toward Obama will wear me out. I don't know how much longer I can put up with you people.

Not quite seeing RM's rage at others being hateful or being meanies. Perhaps I am getting fed up at the never ending ripping this state gets from within.

[guido911]

Hell, I thought there were going to be gay marriages and show tunes all over this state by this weekend.

Here ya go!!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gAlxfNBWvY[/youtube]

[Townsend]

We can argue about whether church's are "tax free" all day long (and also the contradiction about treating corporations like citizens via taxation but give them no "personhood")--and not quite sure what church taxation policy has to do with your original point about religion driving beliefs or "causing them pain". Straw man?

This is a thread about hating Obama. Go back to the first post in this thread and read about us disrespecting Okies. Better yet, here's the last bit of RM's rant:
Not quite seeing RM's rage at others being hateful or being meanies. Perhaps I am getting fed up at the never ending ripping this state gets from within.

Religion, as in all things, should be in moderation.

We'll never agree about the tax thing.

Using a religion to hate is just sad.  It happens often though.