The President's Speech.

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[peterbrazen]

I

I have been thinking exactly the same thing and that he really cares about people, ALL the people.

 

[amicus]

Aren't teleprompters just wunnerful? Did you actually listen? Nothing new and no means by which to install this 'new' form of government participation in your personal life...I await the response and the critique....I have my own already prepared.

Ami (you knew I would)

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[sr71plt]

I didn't hear anything special either.

 

[amicus]

It was a brilliant Fireside Chat, ami, old boy.

The future is now.

I'll wave out the back window as we leave you in the dust.

~~~~~

"Fireside Chat", over the radio, I heard a few of those during the second world war, sweets. While this is wartime indeed, it was not the war that prompted the pose, it was trying to generate enthusiasm and cooperation in a national health care plan, socialized medicine; the energy crisis, by taxing carbon based plants, coal, oil, gas, and subsidizing 'green' plants and last, education, by promising every American a college education by 2020 in return for forced national service.

I saw nothing to applaud in either the content or the tenor of that speech and I heard every word.

Amicus...

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[SweetPrettyAss]

I didn't hear anything special either.

It was nice to hear somebody who knows how to talk.

What I heard was a lot of Pie in the Sky. All the things being promised, including the tax cuts, are nice but it either means printing tons more money or taxing the shit out of the better off. I don't like either of those ideas because the first is inflation and the second sounds like class warfare.

 

[john-the-author]

It was nice to hear somebody who knows how to talk.

What I heard was a lot of Pie in the Sky. All the things being promised, including the tax cuts, are nice but it either means printing tons more money or taxing the shit out of the better off. I don't like either of those ideas because the first is inflation and the second sounds like class warfare.

I'll be affected by the tax structure he was proposing and I've got no problems with it. It's long overdue.

 

[Belegon]

I heard a speech that would never have been given by most of the men to recently hold the office. Because it promised things that are measurable.

Things that are measurable are things that people can prove you failed to achieve. Thus, politicians with a possibility of re-election down the road are normally careful to avoid them.

Cutting the deficit in half by the end of his first term is measurable. Pledging to reveal the cost of the war in the budget. Dollar amounts towards renewable energy.

There were all kinds of things that failing to achieve would be disastrous in four years.

And yet he did make an effort to inspire. Since election night, Obama has been almost somber. Tonight, he was more optimistic.

IMHO, the Republican leadership is gambling that Obama will not make enough impact by the next congressional elections that they will be able to exploit his failures to make significant gains. I can see no other reason for their entrenchment in a set of policies and tactics that were overwhelmingly rejected by the American people in Nov.

 

[amicus]

The Republican response, mouthed by LA Governor, Jindal, who reads from the teleprompter somewhat worse than Obama did, started off with:

Race: African
Race: Indian (Jindal is from India)

And followed that with the history of immigration from all over the world because "American's can do anything".

Aside from a slightly impassioned closing, same old Republican line of thought, questioning the 'proper role of government', as if they had a clue.

The 'stimulus' bill already passed, was a greater amount of money than if you spent onemillion dollars every day since the Birth of Christ, and that, sayeth the Messiah, is just the beginning.

wunnerful


Amicus...

 

[3113]

I didn't hear anything special either.

What would you have had to hear that you would have thought special?

 

[TE999]

I'll be affected by the tax structure he was proposing and I've got no problems with it. It's long overdue.

If you want to have your money confiscated for a pork laden government bail-out program be my guest. I'm keeping all of mine that I possibly can.

If I want my pocket picked, I'll join a crowd at a carnival.

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[Belegon]

Yeah, we chuckled over the response.

I agree with Bel.

Republicans are hoping his plans don't work.

Because if they do work, the entire country will know how badly they've mismanaged things and they'll lose even more credibility than they already have.

It's very cool.

Sadly, dear, they have reason to believe they are right. Many of the programs he is seeking to enact will not show gains in 2 years.

However, I believe that they are putting the good of the party before the good of the nation. Recent polls suggest that it is not only Democrats that agree with me.

If the nation comes to believe that the reason the Obama policies did not work quickly is because of the GOP foot-dragging, we will see the Democrats control both houses and the Presidency for the next 12 to 16 years. Because I firmly believe that if Obama is given control of both houses for eight years, he will be able to fulfill his promises.

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[DeeZire]

It was nice to hear somebody who knows how to talk.

What I heard was a lot of Pie in the Sky. All the things being promised, including the tax cuts, are nice but it either means printing tons more money or taxing the shit out of the better off. I don't like either of those ideas because the first is inflation and the second sounds like class warfare.

Class warfare is the status quo - the fact that those without a budget for lobbying have no voice in American politics. Class warfare is union busting. Class warfare is defunding public schools so that only those who can afford a good education will get one.

So please, if you're going to mention class warfare, look at it from both perspectives?

Although I don't put much stock in JBJ's pronouncements, I do see the possibility of real class warfare in this country, starting with the CEOs who ran our country into a ditch and then calmly walked away with multimillion dollar bonuses. It's going to take more than a gated community to keep them safe.

 

[Belegon]

The status is not quo.

The world is a mess and I just need to rule it.

 

[amicus]

3113 posed the question, although not to me, about what one might like to have heard. I can answer that.

Crisis #1, Banking & Financial; abolish Fannie & Freddie, hold those accountable for the failure up to the light, let the remaining banks and investment firms live or die on their own merits, stabilize monetary system.

Crisis #2 Health Care Abolish Medicare & all government financed health insurance plans and allow private enterprise to create a viable health insurance on the open market. Deregulate the medical field so that doctors and nurses can be graduated in sufficient quantity to meet the demand.

Crisis #3 Energy; Remove all regulations and prohibitions on the exploration, discovery, recovery and transmission of oil products, crude & natural gas. Cease all subsidies (tax money) currently given 'alternative fuels', remove Federal and State 'Cafe Standards' concerning gasoline and diesel. Immediately license 150 Nuclear Plants and authorized hydroelectric damns on any river. creek or stream that will generate electricity.

Crisis #4 Abolish completely the Public School system in America, sell the assets to the property taxees that paid for them and permit the private market to offer education on the open market.

Crisis #5 Let the Union dominated US automakers fold and start all over again.

You want more?

Abolish Social Security and turn it over to the market place.

But then, you really don't want to solve problems you just want to feel good, I know, never mind.

Amicus...

 

[SweetPrettyAss]

If you want to have your money confiscated for a pork laden government bail-out program be my guest. I'm keeping all of mine that I possibly can.

If I want my pocket picked, I'll join a crowd at a carnival.

One thing he did say that made a lot of sense was that he wants to cut the pork from the budget. He will have to fight with every member of Congress including Democrats to do that. Pork is the staff of life to members of Congress who want to keep their jobs. The more pork they can get for their districts, the more likely they are to be reelected.

The question now arises. What is pork and what is legitimate spending?

 

[Belegon]

Ami, we've BEEN trying rapid deregulation. It hasn't worked.

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.

The one thing we agree on is accountability. We both want it. And it has not been present for a very long time... Bush continued that legacy, he did not begin it.

Education is the enemy of tyranny.

A government that truly opens its books and educates its people on how it is spending their money is a bold idea. Do I believe that Obama will accomplish this? Not completely. Will he do it to a much greater degree than has ever been done before? He already has.

 

[midwestyankee]

If you want to have your money confiscated for a pork laden government bail-out program be my guest. I'm keeping all of mine that I possibly can.

If I want my pocket picked, I'll join a crowd at a carnival.

You must be pretty well off, then. Did you not hear him state, unequivocally, that unless your family income exceeds a quarter million per year that you will not see a tax increase?

 

[sr71plt]

What would you have had to hear that you would have thought special?

I think it's time to be more concrete in the what. I wasn't listening closely to the speech, as I was working on something else at the same time, so I may be more pleased when reading the transcript tomorrow.

I would have come in with a very explicit boom, boom, boom--concrete plan point followed by concret plan point. Shock. I wouldn't have stroked; I would have shocked.

I'm not all that upset at how the business of the new government is unfolding, but I'm disappointed that the administration didn't pin Congress down more from the get go on this recovery plan. I think I would have vetoed the spending bill and really shocked them--I'd have sent it back, saying get the monorails from Las Vegas to Disneyland out of it and that it was time for them to get serious. I'd name names of who had the egregious pork in the bill and say that change meant we simply had to do business differently now.

I think the only thing that is going to work now is the shock of "this isn't just my responsibility--it's everyones'."

The wording I heard in the State of the Union was the same hazy stuff that the Obama folks--who haven't a clue really of what the pressures/complexities really are--have been giving since early in the campaign. But again, I wasn't listening to the detail. When I read it tomorrow I might be more impressed.

But that's just me.

 

[sr71plt]

The Republican response, mouthed by LA Governor, Jindal, who reads from the teleprompter somewhat worse than Obama did, started off with:

Race: African
Race: Indian (Jindal is from India)

And followed that with the history of immigration from all over the world because "American's can do anything".

Aside from a slightly impassioned closing, same old Republican line of thought, questioning the 'proper role of government', as if they had a clue.

The 'stimulus' bill already passed, was a greater amount of money than if you spent onemillion dollars every day since the Birth of Christ, and that, sayeth the Messiah, is just the beginning.

wunnerful


Amicus...

Agree. I think Jindal was lame and bungling. Not anywhere close to being able to respond that fast.

 

[WRJames]

I think he's right on focusing on energy, health care and education but I don't think he has the right solutions.

Energy we need a commitment to nuclear

Health care we need to reform the payment system and the drug companies that are sucking up so much of the health care costs

Education -- the whole way we do education is obsolete. We need to reinvent education to take advantage of the way we deal with knowledge today. And making everyone suffer through an academic program to the end of high school is just wrong. We need to set up apprenticeships for people who want to be plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc.