Obama Presidency Discussion Thread

[Joel]

Me too. Ten years ago, I was flailing around in high school. I figured if I buy gold now, wait until I retire and sell it back for worthless cash, what's the point? I can't exactly go to Wal Mart and plop down a bar of gold as payment.

MOM JEANS OF THE UNITED STATES:



I thought the Messiah was all hip and cool? He should get some fitted, straight leg jeans from some "urban" designer. Some colored denim would work too! Ms. Messiah needs to give him some fashion tips.

I kind of agree with some of the quotes in the video. "They're pants, who cares"
Honestly, why is this newsworthy?

 

[Silverzone]

I kind of agree with some of the quotes in the video. "They're pants, who cares"
Honestly, why is this newsworthy?

👍

Obama could go out there wearing a speedo and it still shouldnt be newsworthy. It's a waste of everyone's time to complain about his clothes.

 

[FoolKiller]

I kind of agree with some of the quotes in the video. "They're pants, who cares"
Honestly, why is this newsworthy?

CNN has to fill 24 hours a day with something. So, they talk about the President's pants.

Of course, they manage to completely ignore that a Medal of Honer recipient died, who had disobeyed orders in Vietnam to save around 30 lives.

 

[Solid Fro]

Also, Hannity sucks. Cunningham is so much better. Hannity ripped that "you're a great American" line from Cunningham.

I like Limbaugh the best. Ever since The One started personally attacking him, I started listening when ever I can.

I kind of agree with some of the quotes in the video. "They're pants, who cares"
Honestly, why is this newsworthy?

It's not.

I'm not sure what is more ridiculous: Obama actually wearing such craptastic denim or CNN pulling in resources to cover the story.

CNN has to fill 24 hours a day with something. So, they talk about the President's pants.

Of course, they manage to completely ignore that a Medal of Honor recipient died, who had disobeyed orders in Vietnam to save around 30 lives.

Or to completely miss the Social Security Administration spending over $700,000 of your money on dance sessions...

http://www.abc15.com/content/news/i...00-000-on-Phoenix/RrHYWi4IRka1mC7wJTm4uQ.cspx

 

[Joel]

Or to completely miss the Social Security Administration spending over $700,000 of your money on dance sessions...

Wow, if I was actually from the US, this would 🤬 me off.

 

[Solid Fro]

Yes, it's angering many Americans. These Social Security workers gleefully dancing illustrates the disconnect between Washington and normal America. And it's eroding away at Obama's numbers:

 

[Solid Fro]

Oh, you guys will love this:

 

[Omnis]

Listen to when Glenn says at 5:26. We're working on a solution to this.

I'm pretty sure the stossel story is a segment of one of his old specials.

 

[FoolKiller]

OK, so I avoided blatantly accusing Obama of direct socialism. He has social policies, but not pure socialism. And granted this still isn't, but is backdoor socialism any better?

Look what has been found buried in the 1,018 page healthcare reform bill:

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=332548165656854

It's Not An Option
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, July 15, 2009 4:20 PM PT

Congress: It didn't take long to run into an "uh-oh" moment when reading the House's "health care for all Americans" bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal.

When we first saw the paragraph Tuesday, just after the 1,018-page document was released, we thought we surely must be misreading it. So we sought help from the House Ways and Means Committee.

It turns out we were right: The provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of "Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage," the "Limitation On New Enrollment" section of the bill clearly states:

"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law.

So, if I switch jobs, meaning I will likely switch insurance providers, I cannot get private insurance if it is after this becomes law?

The only bright spot in all this is that it seems to be a bit too controversial to pass.


And I feel it necessary to give a report on Recovery.gov (these are all approved).
Funding Amount $1,444,100 - REPAIR DOOR BLDG 5112
Funding Amount $2,531,600 - HAM, WATER ADDED, COOKED, FROZEN, SLICED, 2-LB
Funding Amount $1,562,568 - MOZZARELLA CHEESE
Funding Amount $351,807 - RECOVERY ACT-PROJECT 630A4-08-406, REPLACE AND UPGRADE THE DUMBWAITER
Funding Amount $1,191,200 - 2 POUND FROZEN HAM SLICED
Funding Amount $5,708,260 - PROCESS CHEESE
Funding Amount $16,784,272 - CANNED PORK
Funding Amount $541,119 - KNMD 03-1075, INSTALL TRAFFIC SIGNAL


And just to show I do know how to read these:
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=2009/07/0322.xml

Statement from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack

"Through the Recovery Act, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has made $100 million available to the states for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which acquires food that is distributed to local organizations that assist the needy – including food banks, food pantries, and soup kitchens.

The Recovery Act funds referenced in press reports allowed states to purchase ham, cheese and dairy products for these food banks, soup kitchens and food pantries that provide assistance to people who otherwise do not have access to food. This program will help reduce hunger of those hardest hit by the current economic recession.

The references to "2 pound frozen ham sliced" are to the sizes of the packaging. Press reports suggesting that the Recovery Act spent $1.191 million to buy "2 pounds of ham" are wrong. In fact, the contract in question purchased 760,000 pounds of ham for $1.191 million, at a cost of approximately $1.50 per pound. In terms of the dairy purchase referenced, USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) purchased 837,936 pounds of mozzarella cheese and 4,039,200 pounds of processed cheese. The canned pork purchase was 8,424,000 pounds at a cost of $16,784,000, or approximately $1.99 per pound.

While the principal purpose of these expenditures is to provide food to those hardest hit by these tough times, the purchases also provide a modest economic benefit of benefiting Americans working at food retailers, manufacturers and transportation companies as well as the farmers and ranchers who produce our food supply."

So, it is not waste, it is welfare.

Although, I am still curious about the door and the dumbwaiter. EDIT: Oh, and the traffic signal.

 

[Omnis]

I wonder what a million dollars of mozzarella cheese looks like.

 

[Keef]

I have private health insurance right now, because the government's COBRA was outrageous. If I ever get laid off from a job after that bill would become law, find that I can't afford COBRA, and need to get my own basic insurance to cover the necessities...I won't be able to. Because that would be illegal.

As an aside, I consider myself a pretty good reader, but I have to admit that I've read that highlighted passage ten times now and I still can't quite understand what it says. It's written so poorly that I can't make any sense of it. But apparently all I need to know is that it means private health coverage would be outlawed.

I wonder what a million dollars of mozzarella cheese looks like.

I'm more worried about what the HELL kind of door is costing them 1.5 million to repair.

 

[FoolKiller]

I have private health insurance right now, because the government's COBRA was outrageous. If I ever get laid off from a job after that bill would become law, find that I can't afford COBRA, and need to get my own basic insurance to cover the necessities...I won't be able to. Because that would be illegal.

But now you have the "affordable" option of the government plan. Actually, if you don't have a job they may just give you the government plan.

As an aside, I consider myself a pretty good reader, but I have to admit that I've read that highlighted passage ten times now and I still can't quite understand what it says. It's written so poorly that I can't make any sense of it. But apparently all I need to know is that it means private health coverage would be outlawed.

Let me translate:

the individual health insurance issuer: The private insurance company
offering such coverage: Offering a competing healthcare plan
does not enroll any individual in such coverage: Can not enroll any new members in that plan
if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law: If the coverage will begin after January 1st of the year the healthcare plan has become law.

I wonder what a million dollars of mozzarella cheese looks like.

They want to set a record for World's Biggest Pizza. Knowing how government works they will likely forget to have a Guinness representative on hand.

A better question: Is over $20 million of various pork products considered pork barrel spending?

 

[Joel]

A better question: Is over $20 million of various pork products considered pork barrel spending?

They're trying to buy all the pork and then incinerate it, to protect us from swine flu.

 

[Solid Fro]

Mmmmm, ham and cheese samiches!

 

[Tornado]

What's the deal with this F22 situation? I've heard conflicting stories over what is going to happen to the future of the program.

 

[Solid Fro]

The Senate votes to strip the spending for the Raptor, however, the House still has funding for it in it's bill.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/21/AR2009072102919.html

Here's my fav quote:

"At a time when we're fighting two wars and facing a serious deficit, this would have been an inexcusable waste of money," Obama said after the vote.

You are a ****ing idiot, Mr. President.

 

[Joel]

I don't understand. They are trying to take away the best fighter jet EVER from you guys, because it's "too much money". However, the people making the jets get paid and in turn buy things with their brand new money. Yes, i think they could reduce production, seeing as terrorist organizations generally don't have air forces (and if they do, an F-15,16,or 18 would be more than enough to handle it).

Your government is starting to sound like mine when it comes to the military! (Canada is something like 15th or 16th in the world in Military spending as a dollar amount. But as a percentage of GDP, we're 132nd. It's all because the average joe in Canada thinks we're in Afghanistan on a peace kepping mission. "Peacekeeping" paints a picture of boy scouts handing out water bottles and settling arguments) but i'll stop ranting about my country right now, this thread is supposed to be to attack the US ! (sarcasm for the last line)

 

[Solid Fro]

Terrorists do not have air forces. China, Russia, India, and most of Europe do. While the F-22 can take on anything on this planet, I'm not gonna wait around until Russia and China get their fifth generation fighters.

History Channel had a fantastic show called Dogfights and outlined a future air war and why the F-22 is so important:

 

[Speedy Samurai]

The F-22 is an older machine that is not needed. Building machines that you don't need just to keep jobs is not a wise decision.

Seeing as everyone loves links in this thread...

http://sanityinjection.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/memo-to-president-obama-no-more-f-22-raptors/

 

[Joey D]

Ever since the F-35 contract was awarded I see zero reason to keep building F-22. The F-35 is better is just about every way and will more or less outdate the F-22 once it enters service. The F-22 was just an overpriced experiment.

 

[Omnis]

Socialist death machine.

 

[Solid Fro]

Is that the name for your garage band?

 

[Keef]

The F-22 is basically the greatest fighter jet we've ever created, at everything. Being able to deploy them for recon, bombing, fighting, intercepting, and being able to deploy it around the world is very important. I say build them. Defense is never something to skimp on.

The only purpose I see for the F-35 at all is to use on aircraft carriers because it's a bit smaller and lighter. Obviously that's just as important.

Having both these planes will get rid of our old fleets of F-117s, F-16s, F-18s, F-15s, F-14s (which are already gone), and any other planes like them that I may have forgotten. These two planes can do the job of all those. We need them both, and lots of them.

 

[Omnis]

The F-22 is basically the greatest fighter jet we've ever created, at everything. Being able to deploy them for recon, bombing, fighting, intercepting, and being able to deploy it around the world is very important. I say build them. Defense is never something to skimp on.

The only purpose I see for the F-35 at all is to use on aircraft carriers because it's a bit smaller and lighter. Obviously that's just as important.

Having both these planes will get rid of our old fleets of F-117s, F-16s, F-18s, F-15s, F-14s (which are already gone), and any other planes like them that I may have forgotten. These two planes can do the job of all those. We need them both, and lots of them.

We have 180 F-22s. That's enough.

 

[Speedy Samurai]

The F-22 is basically the greatest fighter jet we've ever created, at everything. Being able to deploy them for recon, bombing, fighting, intercepting, and being able to deploy it around the world is very important. I say build them. Defense is never something to skimp on.

So why hasn't the mighty F-22 been used in Iraq or Afghanistan?

 

[Grand Prix]

Not to mention the F-22 would suck lard if you had to use it against Vancouver or Manchester. Or anywhere where it rains. 1 hour of rain = 30 hours of maintenance. Would be funny to see other nations put water cannons on their planes.

 

[Omnis]

Not to mention the F-22 would suck lard if you had to use it against Vancouver or Manchester. Or anywhere where it rains. 1 hour of rain = 30 hours of maintenance. Would be funny to see other nations put water cannons on their planes.

These planes operate above the rain.

 

[Joey D]

The F-35 is still a more advanced plane and Omnis is right, 180 is enough F-22's.

 

[Grand Prix]

These planes operate above the rain.

Until they have to take off and land. In which case a giant umbrella carried by two B-2s might provide a solution.

Still, it's staggering that it would have such a design flaw. You'd expect something like that to exist on an Alfa or a TVR, but not on a multi-million dollar American fighter plane. At least it'll be replaced soon.

 

[YSSMAN]

The F-35 is still a more advanced plane and Omnis is right, 180 is enough F-22's.

Agreed. Given that the F22 was designed in the closing years of the Cold War, and is essentially designed to fight a completely different war than we are fighting today... Its not worth it. Beyond that, we've had too many problems to justify adding more to the fleet, even when the Pentagon doesn't want them. What I'm more concerned about is how we'll be running our military on two fighter planes. More variation in design and role would make sense. Then again, we're still funding our military like its the height of the Cold War...