Lou Minatti says:

Welcome to Barack Obama’s America. Great job, progressives!

Mextli says:

Does anyone still harbor the belief that it matters who runs for elected office or who is voted in?

I never thought I would see abuse of power like this in this country.

Now back to the important stuff, what’s Lady Gaga doing?

MikeN says:

The government under Pres Obama is proposing black boxes for all automobiles to move towards government monitoring. In addition, it is discovered that liberals in DC were in favor of shutting down websites that disagreed with their viewpoint.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/stephen-gutowski/2011/05/26/video-dc-liberals-sign-petition-ban-conservative-websites

bobbo, the evangelical anti-theist says:

You dipshits (other than Greg) don’t even know what is at issue. And you silly Pukes are taking a Democrats word for it all?

Lets see now, DU -47323 thru47326- re kneejerk responses with no analysis at all.

What a productive grant this is. Who knew retards had this attention span? Basic science marches on.

Mextli says:

Greg,
I do not believe Obama would be exactly like McCain (hooray for small favors) but the end result seems to be the same.

You guys had some crumbs like DOMA tossed your way but I think the examples below along with other things offset them.

We seem to get deeper in the Middle East quagmire every day. And we are fed some crap about humanitarian missions and a no fly zone.

Our immigration policy is a joke.

Out privacy is nonexistent.

But I think the worst practice of all is the erosion of our civil liberties as shown by the Patriot Act and the TSA amongst other things.

jbenson2 says:

Uncle Dave asked: “Didn’t Obama have something to say about Patriot Act abuses when running for office?”

Obama said a whole lot of stuff when he was running for office. What he did not mention was that all of his promises come with an expiration date.

http://goo.gl/ROcOm

Dallas says:

Sorry, this is the new normal.

Thank the Cheney administration for snookering you shitholes now complaining. You should have listened and supported the ACLU who warned you. Instead, you referred to them as Mulsim loving communists.

Go figure out how to explain to your spawn how you gave away their freedoms. Then figure out what to tell them when your new Supreme Court, Inc goes into action.

Great American says:

Autopen? Barry, if you’re going to sign our freedom away at least have the guts to do it with your own hand.

Thanks for nothing you one term wonder! HAR!

What? says:

Politics is always selfserving, first and formost. Through time in memorial.

LibertyLover says:

#18, Lincoln did it.

Dallas says:

#20 Really. We get to hit the government reset button and start over every four years because 1 out 3 branches of government has a beauty contest. Are you sticking with that dumb ass statement?

MikeN says:

#24 well of course it’s different. Only a small part of the original Patriot Act is not permanent and up for renewal. It would be pretty stupid to pass a bill that said things that were already in law. Fact is that if Obama wanted to repeal the parts of the Patriot Act that were up for renewal, he could do so by just not signing the renewal. I doubt he would get overridden.

bobbo, Democracies "reflect" what the people actually care about..... says:

NOT what political activists, shills, and advocates of all sorts would prefer.

Most people posting here have a libertarian streak desiring more personal freedom from the restraints of an overreaching home grown government–both Federal and State. But that is not what we get. People in power tend to keep whatever power they get and abuse it on every occasion. Sadly, but REALISTICALLY===most people/voters DON’T CARE.

This is the root cause for the oft stated notion that “You get the government you deserve.”

This is most instructively playing out before us in the Medicare/Ryan Budget debacles that looks to rout the Republican Party in 2012. The Public is saying: take away my privacy rights under the guise of National Security==go ahead, we don’t care. But take away my MediCare Rights under the guise of “saving it” and I will vote you out of office.

Americans DON’T CARE about privacy rights. Americans DO CARE about MediCare.

Them’s the facts. Lots of other examples abound. Majority of Americans “want” this or that: out of Iraq, out of Afghan, abortion rights, immigration enforcement, bank regulation,and on and on but we don’t get it and by and large the Government has its way. We have the government we deserve==just don’t touch my MediCare.

Animby claims this “proves” that all politicians are no good. He misses a simple fact: they are all no good on MOST issues then the Republicans are bad on Medicare while the Democrats support Medicare.

The two parties, and the politicians making them up, ARE NOT THE SAME. Pretty objective evidence they are different: MediCare, Tax Policy, Abortion Rights, Bank Regulation–again a whole list wherein the Republicans are anti-majority.

Fact are Facts. Trying to spin the conversation into a dissection of posting style, repetitiveness is all a gross example of avoiding reality, of coming to grips with the meaningful differences between things that are mainly the same: thinking. THINKING rather than collapsing into a comfortable DOGMA of one yelp or another.

What more irritating: repetitively posting the truth you don’t want to THINK about–or mindlessly responding your personal like and dislikes about that same truth?

Heh, heh. Ain’t reality a bitch?

Can we reset the nation every four years? Yes, of course we can==but only on issues the great majority of americans care about===which ain’t much. MediCare ranks around 80% support, Soc Sec about 77% and evidently its that level of support that is required to get the voting public to become relevant in an election. Jobs comes in much less than this because at 10-20-30 % unemployment, “most” people are employed. Nervous, but employed. Jobs will never be the issue that brings the masses out voting. Its why poor people have no power–they don’t vote.

Most of you people don’t draw a line between what you want and the recognition that most other people don’t care. Its not that they disagree===its that they don’t care. Yes, I feel the burn.

and thats why following the news is so depressing and not a good and healthy thing to do—care that is. And thats why freedom, FREEEEEEEDOM, means having nothing left to lose. You stop caring, and become free. songs are written about it.

Yea, verily.

bobbo, Democracies "reflect" what the people actually care about..... says:

#26–kerpow==wow. I read the first sentence, saw the length, and I assume you seriously address the simple questions posed. I will parse them as I read them for the first time. No editing of my initial kneejerk responses. In 1-2 months, or 1-2 years depending on your sensitivity to the issue, you are the second person to actually expressly respond to the question, perhaps the first serious response.

Lets see:

#12 Bobo
I’ll take a stab at your questions…

“1. do you think USA is overtaxed, undertaxed, or just about right?”

I think the people are overtaxed and not just on income. That is just the start. /// I assume you will say “why” but probably fail to have any objective context within which to place your opinion? that context being how similar societies, those with the same needs and resources, ie- western developed industrialized nations, tax themselves. Not often done, everything is “personalized” in this self reverential culture. But hope springs eternal……

You have to look at all of the little taxes piled on after the fact such as the many excise taxes. //// completely true–giving the lie to the too often statement so meaninglessly offered up that “50% of people don’t pay any income tax” as if that means Rich People are over taxed. So stupid that, and yet a Party is built upon that dung pile of rhetoric.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode26/usc_sup_01_26.html /// Is this a link to the fact there is excise tax? I don’t do links on my first kneejerk response. If the quality of the overall argument warrants, I’ll pick this up on the flip flop.

Corporations seem to be under taxed but I’d have to do some more research on that one. /// Well, we see that reported fairly regularly. Corp contribution to Federal Revenu used to be around 30% and now its around 9%. Yes, we both need to look it up for accuracy, but not for effect. PUKES like to state that USA has the highest Corporate Rates in the World. And maybe that is true for the nominal marginal rates, but not after you apply all the exemptions and deductions. The truth that is not told, the untold truth that makes the talking point a lie. PUKE LIE—ALL THE TIME ABOUT EVERYTHING. but thats my jag.

Not every corporation gets the GE deal right? /// No. Most do. Small personal corporations of no consequence get rolled into Large International Corps. Another big lie.

////////// So thats it huh? You think people may be overtaxed and corps undertaxed but without analysis/without context. An honest answer about your feelings, but not about how you arrive at these feelings. Facts vs feelings. You sound like someone who pays little to no income tax and have to justify your feelings on the excixe tax? Ha, ha. Yes, its “feelings, whoa, whoa, whoa….feelings, feelings like I have never had before…….whoa, whoa, whoa.” I hate feelings myself. Ha, ha.

“2. do you think spending is too much, too little or just about right?”

I’m assuming you mean government spending and yes its way too much or at least too much on the wrong things. War and the machines of it, bailouts, almost free loans to foreign banks, /// Now you are talking. Specifics. I agree totally. NOT that this issue is about whether or not we agree, but the why’a and therefore’s.

shrimp on treadmills, etc. /// anti science huh? or just putty in the hands of towering intellects like Tom Coburn? Maybe the shrimp study is not the best, no one knows, but relying on Congress Creeps as your marker on this makes you a sheep. Wake up and find your own grass.

“3. For 1&2==where should the changes come from and in what direction?”

We, the citizens of this country, must stop with the polarized arguments coming from the far left and far right. /// Why is that? Arguments are “constructed” and the same points made can be framed as far this or that or more balanced, but underneath it all, the issues remain the same. Can’t you see thru the rhetoric? Is outlawing a woman’s right to chose to abort their otherwise healthy fetus within the first trimester a far left or right issue? “Far” is the distance one has to go to actually THINK about an issue rather than fall into to comfortable embrace of pre formed DOGMA.

Its like two armies /// ARMIES? That sounds like a far out/extreme characterization of any position. Are you doing that to demonstrate your issue? Very clever.

standing on either side of a huge chasm /// huge? more extremist imaging

yelling /// more extreme

at each other about the best way to build a bridge and therefor nothing gets done. /// What “it” is “like” this? You lost me.

Its a distraction that cannot continue. /// It this time being the yelling back and forth? Or is it the “sides” being formed as armies? No, you lost me. Bridge building is a well known tactical requirement of armies though. Throughout history, armies have been fording streams and crossing chasms. The Romans would move mountains and fill in the chasm–no need for a bridge. In line with my previous post, I’d say if the armies don’t get the bridge built, there actually was no will to do so and THAT is the distraction that matters.

Its time for what I call /// yes, the ever extant reference to self

the Rational Middle /// I’ll bet that your opinion/position as well? I have lots of irrational positions I prefer, but I don’t push them because I recognize I live in a society based on majority preferences. Fun to recognize such issues and to stifle myself.

to step up and try and get things /// Things? more vague undefined references I’ll bet

under control but this will require us to turn off the TV and get off our collective asses and do something. /// And the public does when what is happening is more interesting/important than what is on tv.

Perhaps a good place to start would be on forums such as this where conversations always seem to devolve into partisan-based or other name calling, i.e. “dipshits”. How are you going to win someone over by insulting them? /// Ha, ha. Dipshit is a filter. I’m not trying to win over anyone dumb enough to stumble on the name calling. But let me be more self referential. Why indeed do I post? I like to think I’m not trying to win anyone over==but that strikes me as a lie. Why do I lie to myself. What “value” is really in play? Why do I “care.” Hmmmmm. I like games. The point of any game is to “win” but also to have fun while doing so. No fun to win a game you don’t like playing. I like chess. You try a move/set of move/a gambit and you win or lose. Modify the gambit. Arguments/THINKING is like chess in that regard. You have your opening, middle, and end gambits with pieces of set value that varies in different developments. The point is to win. Win not by moving all the pieces in accordance with your emotions but rather in accordance with the facts of what wins and loses. Progress is made. You start to win more often. Surely these moves are more effective, more correct than the moves that brought you to a loss? And some try to cheat because that brigns variety to the game, makes it fun. Being called a dipshit is a small price to pay for learning the game? And its fun. Try it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx So thats my kneejerk response, more for me than thee. Do I want to change your mind?===No. Do I want to win the match, as judged by myself?===Yes. Each of us gets to judge that by our own lights. Arguments are not like chess games in that regard. Sad. Most objective truths can be denied. Life and values are not a game even though they can be understood more fully by noting what works and what doesn’t work.

When two people disagree, how to resolve the issue? Its like two armies, each yelling how they “feel” about a subject over a vast chasm of DOGMA. Its distracting when in fact the only solution, if a solution is actually even sought, is to look at objective facts. How much is an individual taxed compared to other similar societies. What is the money spent on compared to other similar societies. Compare and contrast. But dipshits won’t do that.

all is hubris.