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| Posted on 2008-11-06 00:02:49 |
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2 years of campaigning but he's done it. The skinny kid with a funny name is going to the White House!
Anyone else happy about Obama being president of the most powerful nation? I am. Even if there will be an anti-climax, there's so much historical justice and future optimism about his election.
I wish him well for his next 4 years (and will celebrate the end of the last 8 Bush years!). |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2008-11-06 00:13:23 |
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| Kosinus |
| that summer had its charm |
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As for every American president I wish him good luck. "May death come quickly to his enemies!"
USA are my favourite superpower, you know. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2008-11-06 06:23:38 |
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| Groh |
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In my opinion, it's the first thing we've done right in quite a long while. It's sad that Americans at-large (Democrats and most Republicans alike [Christian and non]) have gotten such a bad rap as a result of the strong-hold the fundamentalist Christian faction of the Republican party has held over our country's politics for the last decade or so. Politicians appeal to their audience, so I can't blame them completely. But the current administration has done damage to our global reputation that seems almost irreparable. To be known as a tyrant, an ignorant, abusive body is contrary to everything that the U.S. is supposed to stand for--yet it's where the last 8 years have brought us as far as nearly everyone outside of the U.S. is concerned, and even among a great lot of us within it. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2008-11-06 14:02:17 |
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| xxkellyxx |
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Woo hoo!
That about sums up my feelings :-) |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2008-11-06 19:51:29 |
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| LORDHUMONGOUS |
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We'll see, nothing is gonna happen overnight. It took eight years to get to where we are at right now. I don't think 4 years is gonna change much. But it's sure gonna be interesting. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2008-11-07 10:10:37 |
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| laaran |
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I had a vision this night.
God appears to me, and said "Obama is my second son, I send it to you to tell about the opening of a second paradise".
And "jews, homosexuals, black skin, yellow skin, left-handed and red hair people will be accepted in this second paradise".
Religion, that is like a giant supermarket in fact. And who created the first surpermarkets ? The americans.. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2008-11-08 18:17:15 |
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| cross_ide |
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Religion, that is like a giant supermarket in fact. And who created the first surpermarkets ? The americans.. |
I prefer the fruit butcher vegetable shops, but where I live now (Mojave Desert oasis), not many to be found. Even in "progressive" "liberal" "hippie" Seattle, Mega-Stores with every kind of everything can be bought with a simple scan of Visa. Soon, if government intervention continues, a skull I.D. chip in each patriot to keep track of "all" the debt. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2008-11-08 18:31:29 |
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| laaran |
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Ok.
Then Obama will remain just the first black president of the USA.
A great or a small (alphabetical order, I don't choose) president, a bad or a good (alphabetical order again) one, but just a president. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2008-11-12 15:08:43 |
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off to a good start:
Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- It's hard to believe Barack Obama would even think of calling this change.
Take a good look at some of the 17 people our nation's president-elect chose last week for his Transition Economic Advisory Board. And then try saying with a straight face that these are the leaders who should be advising him on how to navigate through the worst financial crisis in modern history.
First, there's former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. Not only was he chairman of Citigroup Inc.'s executive committee when the bank pushed bogus analyst research, helped Enron Corp. cook its books, and got caught baking its own. He was a director from 2000 to 2006 at Ford Motor Co., which also committed accounting fouls and now is begging Uncle Sam for Citigroup- style bailout cash.
Two other Citigroup directors received spots on the Obama board: Xerox Corp. Chief Executive Officer Anne Mulcahy and Time Warner Inc. Chairman Richard Parsons. Xerox and Time Warner got pinched years ago by the Securities and Exchange Commission for accounting frauds that occurred while Mulcahy and Parsons held lesser executive posts at their respective companies.
Mulcahy and Parsons also once were directors at Fannie Mae when that company was breaking accounting rules. So was another member of Obama's new economic board, former Commerce Secretary William Daley. He's now a member of the executive committee at JPMorgan Chase & Co., which, like Citigroup, is among the nine large banks that just got $125 billion of Treasury's bailout budget.
There's More
Obama's economic crew might as well be called the Bailout Bunch. Another slot went to former White House economic adviser Laura Tyson. She's been a director for about a decade at Morgan Stanley, which in 2004 got slapped for accounting violations by the SEC and a month ago got $10 billion from Treasury.
That's not all. There's Penny Pritzker, the Obama campaign's national finance chairwoman. She was on the board of the holding company for subprime lender Superior Bank FSB. The Chicago-area thrift, in which her family held a 50 percent stake, was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in 2001. The thrift's owners agreed to pay the government $460 million over 15 years to help cover the FDIC's losses.
Even some of the brighter lights on Obama's board, like Warren Buffett and former SEC Chairman William Donaldson, come with asterisks. Buffett was on the audit committee of Coca-Cola Co.'s board when the SEC found the soft-drink maker had misled investors about its earnings. Donaldson was on the audit committee from 1998 to 2001 at a provider of free e-mail services called Mail.com Inc. Just before he left the SEC, in 2005, the agency disciplined the company over accounting violations that had occurred on his watch.
Telling Stories
So, by my tally, almost half the people on Obama's economic advisory board have held fiduciary positions at companies that, to one degree or another, either fried their financial statements, helped send the world into an economic tailspin, or both. Do you think any of that came up in the vetting?
Let's say we give Buffett a pass -- smart move he made, skipping the group photo-op last week in Chicago. What about the rest of them? Donaldson, for one, was chairman when the SEC voted in 2004 to let the big Wall Street banks, including Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos., lever up their balance sheets like drunks. Talk about blowing it.
And whom did Obama tap for White House chief of staff? Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois congressman who was a director at Freddie Mac in 2000 and 2001 while it was committing accounting fraud.
Ideally, this job would go to someone who can't be easily fooled. Think about it: Of all the people Obama could have chosen as his chief of staff, couldn't he have found someone who wasn't once on the board of Freddie Mac?
Renewed Confidence
The president-elect needs some new advisers -- fast. We are in a crisis of confidence in American capitalism. These aren't the right people to re-instill its sense of honor.
Many of them should be getting subpoenas as material witnesses right about now, not places in Obama's inner circle. Did Obama learn nothing from the ill-fated choice of James Johnson, the former Fannie Mae boss, to lead his vice- presidential search committee?
Does he think people like Robert Rubin or Richard Parsons will offer any helpful advice on how to stop crooked bankers or sleep-walking directors from sinking our economy? Or that they won't mistake the nation's needs for their own corporate interests? Or that the people who helped get us into our long financial nightmare have any clue how to get us out?
Obama has created hope that our nation can stand for all that is good in the world again. It's not too late to change course.
Start by scrapping this board. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2008-11-12 18:01:12 |
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| Realphilip747 |
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Obama is the same as we have always had. His mom was white and he was raised by his white grandparents in Hawaii.
America has always been hated, by the world, even well Bill Clinton was in office, we were still hated. DOn't spread the myth of how America is loved.
America is like The New York Yankees baseball team, everyone hates them, but when offered tickets to the game people will jump on it.
People butch and moan about how terrible America is, but offer them a green card and citizenship they will be the very first ones to accept and happily I might add. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2008-11-12 18:37:50 |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2008-11-12 18:44:07 |
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Um no, Philip, I just disliked Bush.
And no, most people don't hate the USA - they just wish it lived up to its own ideals, pretty much like any other country, except no other country has so much influence in this world.
Obama has sold us foreigners some hope - for now I'll buy it. It's better than terror, fear and despair. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2008-11-12 23:54:34 |
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| Realphilip747 |
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Hi Karl,
People hated Bush, just pure hatred. But Bush represented a throwback to traditional American ideals. Which doesn't jive with European ideals. I'm glad we have different ideals, it wouldn't be good for everything to line up like ducks in a row.
Bush sold reality actually, the world is aa dangerous place and it is important to tackle it head on and now, there will always be pain, but better now than later when it will be too late.
Let's see how Obama handles the Russians now, if he shows weakness the world will be worse off for it. Especially in Europe, if Obama goes to the impotent UN for everything Russia will be able to keep pushing and pushing. One good thing about the financial crises oil has gone down and it hits Putin, Mahmoud, Chavez and the rest of the dictatorial shieks in the wallet. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2008-11-14 00:03:48 |
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| LORDHUMONGOUS |
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Is it just me or did this election not live up to the Bush/Kerry election? By that I mean it wasn't as "spectacular"? Or it wasn't a "spectacle"? Seemed to me Bush/Kerry was more of an ado than McCain/Obama. My
favorite was that tax dodging, unlicensed plumber of an ass clown Joe The Plumber. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2008-11-18 21:26:38 |
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Is it just me or did this election not live up to the Bush/Kerry election? By that I mean it wasn't as "spectacular"? Or it wasn't a "spectacle"? Seemed to me Bush/Kerry was more of an ado than McCain/Obama. My
favorite was that tax dodging, unlicensed plumber of an ass clown Joe The Plumber. |
people had stopped caring about the issues by the time this election rolled thru town. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2008-11-21 21:58:52 |
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i would have honestly prefered Hilary to be president over Obama. i just hope the powers that be find solutions. if they don't, i won't be surprised - i expect failure, excuses, lies, promises, fancy talk, and more finger pointing as this is what usually happens in times of crisis. either way, we gotta keep our new powers that be in prayer and hope they don't make things worse for us.
what recently made me shake my head:
Obama voted against the Immigration Reform last year but somehow fooled minorities that he was for them (and that would do things for them). of course now he's changing plans and telling people that he MIGHT do something about it in the next term if voted for again. the excuse THIS TIME - the economy - but even if this weren't a major issue, he would find something to get it pushed back and never solved. as most democrats voted against it (President Bush ENCOURAGED the passing of this), their excuse was they were pressed for time, that it was bad, etc - most of these people were running for re-election. it's like the dems to say they're for minorities when they need their votes, but to do absolutelky NOTHING for them (that's good) after/when they're in office. Biden, Kerry, Edwards, Clinton, and Obama; running for the big ticket - all of these ppl at one time ran with the whole minority thing and yet voted against the measure. and no, i'm not surprised. i just feel bad for all those ppl who were fooled and got their hopes up for nothing.
the bigger problem for Obama is the man owes a lot of favors, and i don't expect all the ppl who helped monetarily or otherwise to forget about it. maybe that's why some of those ppl are in his cabinet - it happens to all of them. they have to pay back in one way or another all those big power ppl who helped them. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2008-11-22 00:20:08 |
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| LORDHUMONGOUS |
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^
That's just politics. I liked Obama because he was a fresh face. He wasn't one of these career politicians who had everyone in his pocket. And then I find out he raised something like over 150 million in one month. So pretty much all his ideals went out the window. No one gives that kind of money for nothing. But it's not just Obama. Bush also broke the record for campaign contributions. And that money served his constituents well. Some people seem to think Obama will save the US. But some people thought that of Bush too. I guess we'll have to see. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2008-11-25 00:04:59 |
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you hit the nail on the head - all or most politicians unfortunately will have to give into their campaign endorsers "wishes" to pay back for their help. i don't know how that works in other countries but here, special interests groups in politics get their way for the most part and usually end up screwing things up for the rest of us. i just hope that Obama doesn't do too bad. ppl are already looking grim even after the economic recovery ppl he chose today - the reality of how bad things are is sitting in i guess. and things are going to be bad for a good while, folks need to realise that. it's a huge clean-up process that will take some time. how well he and his ppl do will effect his presidency no doubt, and if he doesn't you can expect the opposing party to use it as fuel for the 2012 elections. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2008-12-20 17:12:34 |
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I voted McCain..  |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2009-01-13 16:19:30 |
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[quote=Realphilip747]Hi Karl,
People hated Bush, just pure hatred. But Bush represented a throwback to traditional American ideals. Which doesn't jive with European ideals. I'm glad we have different ideals, it wouldn't be good for everything to line up like ducks in a row.
quote]
i think this is the best point, i sometimes am the polar of bush's opinions. afganistan i could go with. good reason. but irak.. is it better now than it was before? how many people have died less than did in sadams time.. that's the most principal thing to think of!
there are a lot of other things too, and then he gets elected AGAIN!
that was the point the world lost faith in the people living there.
thankfully by not being rascist they actually took the black democrat kandidate. that's the only thing that could've made the world believe again i think. you get my point? |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2009-01-13 20:14:10 |
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| laaran |
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Hum.
In fact, he is not completely black.
He is black, but there is more black. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2009-01-13 20:39:31 |
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[quote=garfreek]|
Hi Karl,
People hated Bush, just pure hatred. But Bush represented a throwback to traditional American ideals. Which doesn't jive with European ideals. I'm glad we have different ideals, it wouldn't be good for everything to line up like ducks in a row.
quote]
i think this is the best point, i sometimes am the polar of bush's opinions. afganistan i could go with. good reason. but irak.. is it better now than it was before? how many people have died less than did in sadams time.. that's the most principal thing to think of!
there are a lot of other things too, and then he gets elected AGAIN!
that was the point the world lost faith in the people living there.
thankfully by not being rascist they actually took the black democrat kandidate. that's the only thing that could've made the world believe again i think. you get my point? |
it's a silly point. to think if they would've voted for someone not black that it makes them progressive or more trustworthy when the rest of the world is still run by crusty white guys and the rest of the world is just as racist if not moreso.
It's still the same shade of "beige" and the sooner euro/liberals get his dick out of their mouths and start seeing him for what he really is the better.
He had three things going for him, no history, well spoken and not bush (republican). |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2009-01-13 22:16:35 |
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| laaran |
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the rest of the world is still run by crusty white guys and the rest of the world is just as racist if not moreso.
It is exagerated.
Many areas of this world are ruled by leaders natives of these area.
Many asiatic countries, many african countries, and many muslim countries, and India.
What you say is true only for central and south america.
These leaders have the pressure from white-ruled companies, but they are leading their own countries. And some of them are dictators, and apply very rude laws in their own country, and this is their own will, not the will of white-ruled companies (which prefer more soft leaders, who usually lasts longer, and allows a more stable situation).
And racism exist between all races. Racism is used by several dictators throughout the world to support their own dictatorship (and who say "we can't apply democracy, it is the system of the awful white people").
Obama wants to change this situation. He wants to improve a system created by the white people. And that is an important step. He is not the first one, but that is an important and positive step. Democracy (modern democracy with media and modern communicating methods) will probably be a less racist system in 200 years, if black and yellow and other races try to use it and get the best of it. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2009-01-20 11:59:18 |
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| laaran |
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I feel a bit sad.
I think a bit : "all that history for that ??"
I mean, black people are controlling few levers of power. Yes, human, I place a limit.
Today I am a bit sad when I read the arguments of some american or french journalists.
They are happy because the USA have a black president. Ok, that proves that democracy is working, it is fine.
They are happy because they place much much hope in this president for changing everything (although Obama tries to be more honest and more careful than journalists). So they trust (much) a black american president.
It is sad to notice now, when black people control so few levers of power, that black people can help.
Of course, we didn't create the past centuries, because we were not alive.
We, white people, are not responsible or guilty for these past centuries.
Yet we can be sad for the past centuries, and it is the moment to remember these centuries.
It is both an happy and a sad day. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2009-01-20 15:15:12 |
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| cross_ide |
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[/quote]
And racism exist between all races.
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Democracy (modern democracy with media and modern communicating methods) will probably be a less racist system in 200 years, if black and yellow and other races try to use it and get the best of it.[/quote]
The population predictions of movement in the world of yellow and black to western nations will play a role in how this less racist democracy will develop. Power of the few and Numbers of the many will continue in a way. A maturing cooperation will result in less racism, but it does seem like this 'balance' has obviously been evolving through history.
This is fumbling for a response. I tend to go with a yin/yang model, or Hegelian dialectic if you like.
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