Obama: Socialist or anti-colonialist

[Old Hippie]

The party bosses are all about maintaining their own power. Presently its the Republicans showing that with the advent of the Tea Party.

People should be voting their conscience and the person they want not who will win. I would have voted for Paul even if I knew he had no chance whatsoever.

The two main parties are beholden to the people who fund their campaigns and those people are not you and I. They are big oil, unions, financial firms, medical industry, AARP, etc.

I'm not particularly keen on the candidates that the Tea Party are supporting but the good from it is that by and large the candidates are free of the special interest ties that the establishment candidates are slaves to.

 

I used to be the most upset at the government and while I still am the old adage of 'you get the government you deserve' really is true. No matter whom the special interest support they don't do the voting.

You and I do. The real problem is sometimes either me, you, our friends, our families or neighbors for believing the BS.

"The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves if we are underlings.â€Â

 

 

 

I have to agree with a lot of this/ I suppose if enough people voted their conscience, then word would get out, and special interest might start courting the "alternate" candidate? Then what? he sells out? or he gets elected and does as promised.

 

I think I am really a cynic on this, I just don't see politicians ever NOT selling out, and the people getting dicked...Money will always rule.

[Flashermac]

I've never quite understood why African American voters allow themselves to be virtual slaves to the Democratic party. The black vote is large enough to throw an election one way or the other, especially in state elections. The sensible thing would be for black voters to sit back and say to BOTH parties: Which of you is going to serve our interests best? That's the one we will back in this election.

 

By automatically giving the Dems their votes, black voters are throwing away some very significant political power!

 

 

[Steve]

I've never quite understood why African American voters allow themselves to be virtual slaves to the Democratic party. The black vote is large enough to throw an election one way or the other, especially in state elections. The sensible thing would be for black voters to sit back and say to BOTH parties: Which of you is going to serve our interests best? That's the one we will back in this election.

 

By automatically giving the Dems their votes, black voters are throwing away some very significant political power!

 

 

First, I would say a lot of groups are pretty much monolithic in their voting. Fundamentalists vote Repbulican no matter what. Unions usually go Democrat although on occasion they can be swayed like when they went for Reagan in the '80s. Jews vote Democratic party. Latinos go overwhelmingly Democrat (Puerto Rican, Mexican) or Repbulican (Cubans because of their hatred for Firdel) as well. Gays probably vote in as high if not higher numbers for Democrats than blacks do.

 

Blacks voted overwhelmingly Republican until FDR came on the scene. Dems can thank not so much FDR but his wife Eleanor for converting blacks to the party. She was a stalwart fighter for civil rights and fought tirelessly for black soliders in world war II. That was not lost on blacks. JFK sealed it. My mom voted Democratic exclusively because of him. Many black family's in the '70s had 3 pictures on the wall. Portraits of MLK, JFK and RFK were very common in many black homes.

 

Furthermore the Republican party has done little in the eyes of blacks to warrant a change. Despite Colin Powell and Condi Rice, the Repbublican party does not seem trustworthy. The Republican party has won elections putting cuts to welfare, against the extension or increasing of civil rights legislations, opposing the MLK national holiday, etc. as cornerstones of some state and local elections.

There were far more Republican politicians that, again, rightly or wrongly, seemed racially divisive such as Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond, Newt Gingrich, etc. than there are Democrats.

Whether one agrees with those positions from a purely ideological view not based at all on race, it does come across as 'anti-Black' to most blacks.

 

It just seemed that the Republican party simply gave up on the black vote. One could ask what mutual points of interest can Republicans find with black america? My personal opinion is that the Republican party could split the black vote by going after the large and ever growing black middle class. Middle class is middle class. Doesn't matter your race or religion. Your main concerns are the quality of your kid's education and how you're going to pay for his college career. You're concerned about the safety of your middle class neighborhood. You're concerned about your taxes. You're concerned about the corporations you work for and the legislation that affects them. In my opinion much of the black middle class has more in common culturaly and certainly socio-economically with their white neighbors than they do with their black brethren left in the inner city. Their children certainly do.

 

Anyway, it really shouldn't be a surprise at all.

[Flashermac]

Black voters don't really even need to vote Republican to send a message. If the Democratic Party doesn't offer them what they want, just stay home on election day. That would be loud and clear - We won't vote against you, but you've given us no reason to vote for you either. Do that a couple of times and see what happens.

 

 

[Steve]

Disagree for one main reason. I think EVERYONE should be encouraged to vote. We have too many apathetic people as it is. Too many people don't vote. I know most people are clueless but still I think everyone should vote and be encouraged to vote.

 

Also, its the better of two evils with blacks I think. By staying home they're giving the Republicans the office. They'd be worse off politically. At least they'd have a voice in the Democratic party on things.

 

The same could be said for fiscal, socially moderate/liberal Republicans. The party has no voice for them any more. They should stay home as well. For that matter why should Colin Powell stay a Republican. He seems a much better fit for the Dems.

[Steve]

Rather than start another thread, I'll add to this one. This and similar such cases is the biggest disappointment I not only have in Obama but also in the Republican party which preaches privacy and enacts big brother, Orwellian laws and signs executive orders similarly to this.

 

One would have thought, given his history, Obama would be the most opposed to this sort of thing. Perhaps being in the office and seeing some of the near misses as well as domestic terrorist matters that none of us can fully comprehend has changed his mind. It may also explain what I would call draconian domestic surveilance actions by the prior administration.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101016/ap_on_re_us/us_gps_tracking_warrants

 

Oil change reignites debate over GPS trackers

 

.SAN FRANCISCO – Yasir Afifi, a 20-year-old computer salesman and community college student, took his car in for an oil change earlier this month and his mechanic spotted an odd wire hanging from the undercarriage.

 

The wire was attached to a strange magnetic device that puzzled Afifi and the mechanic. They freed it from the car and posted images of it online, asking for help in identifying it.

 

Two days later, FBI agents arrived at Afifi's Santa Clara apartment and demanded the return of their property  a global positioning system tracking device now at the center of a raging legal debate over privacy rights.

 

One federal judge wrote that the widespread use of the device was straight out of George Orwell's novel, "1984".

 

"By holding that this kind of surveillance doesn't impair an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy, the panel hands the government the power to track the movements of every one of us, every day of our lives," wrote Alex Kozinski, the chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a blistering dissent in which a three-judge panel from his court ruled that search warrants weren't necessary for GPS tracking.

 

But other federal and state courts have come to the opposite conclusion...

 

Realy surprised and disappointed to read this in the article:

 

The Obama administration last month asked the D.C. federal appeals court to change its ruling, calling the decision "vague and unworkable" and arguing that investigators will lose access to a tool they now use "with great frequency."

[Flashermac]

Is Obama turning into GWB???

 

@Steve << For that matter why should Colin Powell stay a Republican. He seems a much better fit for the Dems. >>

 

The same thing was often said about Eisenhower. Of course, nowadays Ike might be considered almost a pinko. Way to left!

 

 

[LizardKing]

Deficit tops $1 trillion second year in a row

 

http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/15/news/economy/treasury_fy2010_deficit/index.htm?section=money_topstories

 

The United States racked up a [color:red]$1.29 trillion deficit in fiscal year 2010[/color], the federal government said Friday.

 

While that is historically high, it's [color:red]not as high as the $1.42 trillion registered for 2009[/color], which was the largest on record as a percentage of the economy since 1945. In real dollar terms, the 2009 gap was the largest ever...

But no comments like "good job for lowering the deficit in a recession" or "gee, we took in more money than 2008 even with lower tax rates for 95% of the population, so the stimulus must have worked" or "wow, what a change after the Republicans spent us into this mess, at least it is getting paid down."

 

Hmmmm. Nope. Not a word. Hardly surprising, considering the sad state of our bought-n-paid--for right wing media.

[Hugh_Hoy]

[but no comments like "good job for lowering the deficit in a recession" or "gee, we took in more money than 2008 even with lower tax rates for 95% of the population, so the stimulus must have worked" or "wow, what a change after the Republicans spent us into this mess, at least it is getting paid down."

 

Hmmmm. Nope. Not a word. Hardly surprising, considering the sad state of our bought-n-paid--for right wing media.

 

Where did you get this nonsense?

 

HH

[Flashermac]

 

<< which argued for the transfer of hundreds of billions of dollars from the U.S. to the rest of the world through the United Nations. >>

 

Fine idea ... as long as it just doesn't end up in the pockets of some dictator.