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Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States, as the country chose him as its first African American chief executive.
Share your thoughts on this historic election.
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Posts:
2,938
Registered:
6/8/09
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(21567 of 25107)
Re: President Barack Obama
Sep 25, 2009 9:15 PM
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s2grand:
> I believe mechadave would like the book "Feeding the
> Beast". Dust jacket blurb begins "No administration
> of the 20th century can challenge Ronald Reagan's
> record for corruption." Of course this book was
> released in 1990. Many familiar names are the cast of
> perps.
> The Federal prosecutor against Wedtech et al was "ta
> da"
> Rudy Giuliani.
Since the late Troll FreeStinker had accused me of being this "mechadave" I always figured that he and I would agree most of the time.
Speaking of books on RayGun, have you ever heard of the book, Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War? I read it years ago, and it was alternately hilarious and infuriating. How could people have been so stupid to have been taken in by that imbicile/fraud?
http://www.amazon.com/Way-Out-There-Blue-Reagan/dp/0684844168
Amazon.com Review
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frances FitzGerald (Fire in the Lake) offers a history of the politics surrounding American antiballistic missile technology. She focuses most of her account, appropriately, on President Reagan's efforts to establish a Strategic Defense Initiative (popularly known as "Star Wars") to provide the United States with umbrella-like protection from nuclear attack. FitzGerald, like many of her fellow Reagan detractors, is relentlessly critical of this initiative. Her book, in fact, is partly a psychobiography of the 40th president. She makes the familiar claim that Reagan's acting career had a profound effect on how he governed. Yet she takes it a step further by arguing that specific movies had a deep influence on his political decisions. "SDI was surely Reagan's greatest triumph as an actor-storyteller," she writes, and goes on to suggest that Reagan was favorably disposed to spending billions on ABM technology because, in the 1940 film Murder in the Air, he played a secret agent assigned to protect a new weapon "capable of paralyzing electrical currents and destroying all enemy planes in the air."
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Posts:
125
Registered:
10/20/07
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(21566 of 25107)
Re: President Barack Obama
Sep 25, 2009 9:15 PM
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> Looks to me like, with the arrest of Zazi, and
> uncovering his bomb making activities and possible
> ties to Al Qaeda, can we now say that President Obama
> is doing everything possible to keep us safe.
>
> Makes me think of all of the Righty Tightys claiming
> that W kept us safe. Cheney kept us safe. Rummy
> kept us safe. Well, yeah, for a few months and then
> 9/11 blew their record, no?? They didn't keep us
> safe on 9/11.
>
Not to mention Global Warming inaction, Enron, Katrina, the Robber Bank economic meltdown.
Pretty lousy track record on safety if you ask me.
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Posts:
5,000
Registered:
3/19/05
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(21565 of 25107)
Re: President Barack Obama
Sep 25, 2009 8:48 PM
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I believe mechadave would like the book "Feeding the Beast". Dust jacket blurb begins "No administration of the 20th century can challenge Ronald Reagan's record for corruption." Of course this book was released in 1990. Many familiar names are the cast of perps.
The Federal prosecutor against Wedtech et al was "ta da"
Rudy Giuliani.
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Posts:
3,050
Registered:
10/22/06
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(21564 of 25107)
Re: President Barack Obama
Sep 25, 2009 8:16 PM
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> Don,
>
> Good point.
>
> But who's gonna foot the bill?
>
> C
First, they have to figure out what kind of economy they can support, given their natural resources, population, education level, etc.
They don't have oil. They do have an agricultural industry, which is good, but I don't think it's enough to support everyone. And what it produces is perishable.
What they would need is an industry that everyone would be able to work in, and which can generate enough revenue, and which the people can feel good about. It also must be fully compatible with the tenets of Islam.
The only one I can think of that meets all of it, is the film industry, as in let parts of Palestine become a sort of "Bollywood" of the Middle East. They do have some people with experience in this. Omar Sharif comes to mind, and he's still active. Wealthy independent financiers (as opposed to governments) could be persuaded to lend their financial support, I think. People like Mohammed al-Fayed, whose late son Dody was a player in the international film industry before his tragic death in 1997. In fact, Mohammed, would probably want to lend his support, in memory of Dody. Dody was respected in the industry and had a lot of friends in the business.
Sounds nuts, I know, but it's an industry which has lots of what they need.
First, it would let them tell their story, as violently as they want, but without actually killing anyone, and this is an outlet they need rather desperately.
Second, everyone can work in it, even small children, the elderly and infirm, wounded and amputees, widows... they can all be extras in various scenes; there's also a need for caterers, construction, makeup, seamstresses... besides technicians... and they can learn the field.
Third, it's an industry that recycles a great deal, because materials from one scene are torn apart and used for another, either without retouching them, or with a little paint, and one where partially collapsed and demolished buildings are actually useful as is. Especially in telling their story.
Fourth, the rest of the Muslim and Arab worlds - that's well over a billion people - can support them simply by watching the movies, buying/downloading the videos onto phones and ipods, and buying other merchandise, (which wouldn't be image stuff like Disney since that might go against Islam, but could be more like fashions, clothing, colors, etc.). It can generate billions for them, and it would be all theirs, the West would have no control over it, wouldn't make a dime off of it.
Fifth, there's really no essential part of it, the nature of which must inherently defy Islam. Not even the artwork, because photography is just the manipulation of light and chemicals.
Sixth, they wouldn't really be competing against any other major part of the area's economy.
I think they can do it.
--
Edited by Don17000 at 09/25/2009 5:21 PM PDT
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Posts:
879
Registered:
8/4/09
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(21563 of 25107)
Re: President Barack Obama
Sep 25, 2009 7:15 PM
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Looks to me like, with the arrest of Zazi, and uncovering his bomb making activities and possible ties to Al Qaeda, can we now say that President Obama is doing everything possible to keep us safe.
Makes me think of all of the Righty Tightys claiming that W kept us safe. Cheney kept us safe. Rummy kept us safe. Well, yeah, for a few months and then 9/11 blew their record, no?? They didn't keep us safe on 9/11.
But our current President is quietly going around the world, making a case to trust the US once again, and keeping his thumb on the pulse of the nation and the globe. He can walk and chew gum at the same time and that's a good thing.
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Posts:
3,225
Registered:
5/22/07
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(21562 of 25107)
Re: President Barack Obama
Sep 25, 2009 5:03 PM
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Just FYI:
Please try to keep informed of the progress of the Health Care Reform meetings on C-SPAN. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) tried to get one past us yesterday. He was voted down but not by nearly as much as he should have been.
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Posts:
5,000
Registered:
3/19/05
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(21561 of 25107)
Re: President Barack Obama
Sep 25, 2009 7:42 AM
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> I don't really trust American banks anymore. During
> this financial crisis/recession was there any country
> whose banks turned out to be legitimate and non
> criminal? Maybe we could transfer our mortgages to
> their banks and get our credit cards from them.
Rainy,
Time to move to a credit union. There you are member owner kinda like a mutual insurance co. They usually have low interest rates.
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Posts:
35,577
Registered:
12/1/04
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(21560 of 25107)
Re: President Barack Obama
Sep 25, 2009 12:59 AM
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Rabobank, Netherlands, looks good
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabobank
They have the highest credit rating, (AAA), awarded by the rating agency Standard & Poor's.
I don't think any US banks have that rating except maybe Wells Fargo.
--
Edited by RainyKincaid at 09/24/2009 10:10 PM PDT
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Posts:
35,577
Registered:
12/1/04
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(21559 of 25107)
Re: President Barack Obama
Sep 25, 2009 12:41 AM
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It would be satisfying somehow to oursource my banker's job.
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Posts:
35,577
Registered:
12/1/04
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(21558 of 25107)
Re: President Barack Obama
Sep 25, 2009 12:40 AM
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I don't really trust American banks anymore. During this financial crisis/recession was there any country whose banks turned out to be legitimate and non criminal? Maybe we could transfer our mortgages to their banks and get our credit cards from them.
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Posts:
35,577
Registered:
12/1/04
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(21557 of 25107)
Re: President Barack Obama
Sep 25, 2009 12:29 AM
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Adjustable rate mortgages have turned out to be horrible for consumers. I wish they'd just outlaw them. All credit cards will be adjustable rate from now on. That's bad enough.
30 year fixed rate mortgages seem like the least banks could offer to help us recover from the crisis they caused. Same with low interest, fixed rate credit cards.
We ask just for common human decency and get turned down flat. It's such a betrayal.
If anyone comes upon an explanation of why Barney Frank pulled these items from the consumer protection bill in process, please post.
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Posts:
35,577
Registered:
12/1/04
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(21556 of 25107)
Re: President Barack Obama
Sep 25, 2009 12:17 AM
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> Rainykinkaid-in your post of an article by Stephen
> Labaton, am I correct in believing Barney Frank
> rejected a proposal by Pres. Obama calling for 30
> year fixed mortgages and low interest credit cards?
> If that is true, I think old Barney is getting a
> little carried away with his little financial
> committee!
freespeechguy
That's what the article said. It just didn't say why.
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Posts:
35,577
Registered:
12/1/04
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(21555 of 25107)
Re: President Barack Obama
Sep 25, 2009 12:16 AM
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Banks fight to kill proposed consumer protection agency
Thursday, September 24, 2009
By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON ? If you doubt that U.S. banks long to return to the days of impotent regulation, you need only look at one of the financial sector's top legislative priorities: killing a proposed new agency that would be dedicated solely to protecting consumers' financial interests.
The Obama administration is asking Congress to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to regulate consumer financial products ranging from credit cards to mortgages, and to simplify disclosure about them all.
Though virtually every cause of the nation's recent financial crisis was rooted in weak consumer protection, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is leading the fight against the proposed agency on grounds that it would make credit less available and more costly. The American Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America, and the Financial Services Roundtable also oppose the measure.
article continues at:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/75997.html
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Posts:
137
Registered:
10/8/08
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(21554 of 25107)
Re: President Barack Obama
Sep 24, 2009 11:53 PM
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Rainykinkaid-in your post of an article by Stephen Labaton, am I correct in believing Barney Frank rejected a proposal by Pres. Obama calling for 30 year fixed mortgages and low interest credit cards? If that is true, I think old Barney is getting a little carried away with his little financial committee!
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Posts:
879
Registered:
8/4/09
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(21553 of 25107)
Re: President Barack Obama
Sep 24, 2009 11:11 PM
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Don,
Good point.
But who's gonna foot the bill?
C
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