Barack Obama!

[gav]

Re: Barack 2008!

hey gav, is this natural amongst bodybuilders? lol
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=8VSd-IykZBw&feature=related

LOL I only watched the first 2 seconds of that video, but I know exactly where it leads. I guess the only way to find out is to get in the gym, pump some weights and find out for yourself! :

That is from the 1979 documentry-drama "Pumping Iron". I have it on DVD, watched it dozens of times. Its a great flick, you should watch it 2020, you might like it However, bodybuilding today is very, very different to Arnie's day...

 

[2020hindsight]

Re: Barack 2008!

1... I'd guess Hillary will get Health Care - but under Barack's scheme.

2. .. PS... Are rotties hypo?... or hyper as Princess Diana identified?

doris,
1. makes sense
2. lol "Diana called Camilla the Rottweiler"

if it has to be hypo-allergenic that eliminates most breeds.
They'll probably end up with a silly, wussy little poodle or something similar.

julia, true, but wiki suggests that poodles are no better than other breeds

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypoallergenic

Some dog breeds have been promoted as hypoallergenic because they do not shed their hair, shed very little, or have the same pH as human hair. However, no canine is known to be completely nonallergenic. Poodles and Poodle hybrids are commonly mistaken as being hypoallergenic, when in reality they are known to cause different forms of allergies, including bronchitis, as does any breed of dog.

Cat breeds ... etc

sheesh my heart goes out to people who have to have a cat eek because they 're allergic to dogs.

 

[Doris]

Re: Barack 2008!

Obviously why he has appointed a Zionist hard-liner as his chief of staff. Must be all that world 'unity' I'm hearing about.

The more things "change", the more they stay the same hey?

Have a look at this clip of Barack 'roasting' him - from 3 years ago at a fund-raiser:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6209060

Barack's appreciation of the man holistically - the whole picture - makes it obvious why he chose him!

Gav - you'll laugh near the end...

"The Republicans have found out how to handle Rahm - they're steroid testing members.
But they'll find out 'it's all natural'."

Barack concludes with: 'Thank God he is one of a kind.'

...ooops... (on this PC) this clip url keeps going to the previous clip on 'the puppy'.
- either watch this first or click on the relevant clip to the right.

 

[2020hindsight]

Re: Obama's Team

I disagree on both counts.
He's more of a neo-con than the neo-cons. What a laugh.

I know nothing of the man - though his reputation is interesting.
It's one thing to be a tough negotiator (which he apparently is in spades) and another to be a bigot or a war-monger. I'm guessing for instance that people who want the best for Israel might also want peace (?).

I was mainly commenting on Lindsey Graham's assessment of him (LG being so pro-McCain etc)

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=fYGfshPN0Tk&feature=related Who Is Rahm Emanuel?

"This says a lot about Barack Obama"
Emanuel is apparently (in the opinion of this "former special counsel to Clinton", Lanny Davis (?)) "totally loyal" at least, "strong, honest, reliable, also critical etc " ...

PS chops, I imagine you are gonna enlarge on your theories / accusations? - that is if you wish us to take em seriously

PS Herewith that youtube of "Obama Roasts Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel" - with the same jokes posted on the Obama thread. :-

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=palA9Oo2Cpo

 

[2020hindsight]

Re: Barack 2008!

LOL I only watched the first 2 seconds of that video, but I know exactly where it leads. I guess the only way to find out is to get in the gym, pump some weights and find out for yourself! :

That is from the 1979 documentry-drama "Pumping Iron". I have it on DVD, watched it dozens of times. Its a great flick, you should watch it 2020, you might like it However, bodybuilding today is very, very different to Arnie's day...

gav
"Bodybuilding today" - and Arnie - have probably moved on , you're probably right lol.

In any case, I'll take your word for it.

PS I wonder if he gets off on political speeches instead these days

 

[2020hindsight]

Re: Obama's Team

:topic
PS For some reason I'm imagining Michael J Fox's character in "The American President" - that old (1995) movie with Michael Douglas and Annette Bening (The missus replays the video once a week at least lol - whilst cooking , ironing, you name it)

Here's an excerpt. Looks more like the Clinton days lol.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=L2GqDrlZuGU&feature=related The American President - Stay Away from Dupont Circle

PS I heard a quote the other day "Every man has his weakness - every Clinton has his Monica".

PS How the White House really operates :-

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=5UAWGN1Wmxc The American President - This is my President

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

Re: Obama's Team

I hear he has RFK Jr. down for the Environment Post.

He doesn't believe in vaccinating children against disease I'm told.

Lets hope its just a rumour.

gg

 

[caribean]

Re: Russia greets Obama with first foreign policy test

Sorry, 200,000.

I'm sure I have read and heard 700k elsewhere. Ah well, they are only people. Not like it's a big deal or anything.

Lol...fair enough

 

[Calliope]

Re: Barack 2008!

"The question of colour is no longer asked, for it has found its ultimate answer" - Wowo - now we're getting somewhere !!

Indeed you are, if divisiveness is what you are after.

There has been a lot of hype written and spoken about Obama's victory, including; ushering in a new dawn - inspirational - agent of change - unity - togetherness - bipartisanship, and so it goes on.

The simple truth is that Obama won on racial lines. The vast majority of blacks (95%) voted for him. This massive block vote combined with a large majority of Latino voters completely overwhelmed the 56% of whites who voted Republican. These people are going to enjoy their gloating rights. Oprah Winfrey's gloating triumphalism on victory night says it all.

As blacks and Latinos are the most rapidly increasing demographics in the USA, there will probably never be another white President. This should give you and Doris something to cheer about.

The Republican party is finished. They might just have a slim chance with a black female candidate.

 

[Doris]

Re: Barack 2008!

This episode of South Park is brilliant! Yes!

Click 'play' and the advert will 'go'...

GG - with your slow telstra service -
Absolutely worth clicking on the pause button and letting it stream - then press play for uninterrupted viewing.

http://www.megavideo.com/?v=P8JIILWK
.
Barack will probably be inaugurated by the time it shows on TV in Oz...

 

[rederob]

Re: Barack 2008!

Indeed you are, if divisiveness is what you are after.

Your maths is as poor as your logic.
Top marks for racism.

Even George Bush was good at something; a disaproval rating unlikely to be rivalled.

 

[skint]

Re: Barack 2008!

Indeed you are, if divisiveness is what you are after.

There has been a lot of hype written and spoken about Obama's victory, including; ushering in a new dawn - inspirational - agent of change - unity - togetherness - bipartisanship, and so it goes on.

The simple truth is that Obama won on racial lines. The vast majority of blacks (95%) voted for him. This massive block vote combined with a large majority of Latino voters completely overwhelmed the 56% of whites who voted Republican. These people are going to enjoy their gloating rights. Oprah Winfrey's gloating triumphalism on victory night says it all.

As blacks and Latinos are the most rapidly increasing demographics in the USA, there will probably never be another white President. This should give you and Doris something to cheer about.

The Republican party is finished. They might just have a slim chance with a black female candidate.

It's true that whilst 46% of the white vote was for the Democrats, and 53% of the white vote went to the Republicans, it is also true that the white vote also accounted for voting Bush in TWICE. As a pro-Republican could you shed some light on how you think Bush has been good for 1) the economy and 2) the standing of the US in the international community? By that I mean, not why Obama spells the end of the world as we know it, but how Bush has improved things on those two fronts? Curly one, I know.

 

[2020hindsight]

Re: Barack 2008!

The simple truth is that Obama won on racial lines. The vast majority of blacks (95%) voted for him. This massive block vote combined with a large majority of Latino voters completely overwhelmed the 56% of whites who voted Republican.

.... As blacks and Latinos are the most rapidly increasing demographics in the USA, there will probably never be another white President. This should give you and Doris something to cheer about.

The Republican party is finished. They might just have a slim chance with a black female candidate.

I'd say it was the more important and increasing demographic - youth (18% of the electorate). The old farts are dying and/or will die out
66% of all youth votes (under 30) were for Obama, and 54% of white "youth" - and there are tens of millions of them

Mind you, Obama won only 24 percent of white evangelicals (which is a good thing lol)

http://www.mlive.com/us-politics/index.ssf/2008/11/obama_has_historic_youth_manda.html

Obama has historic youth mandate
by Politico.com Saturday November 08, 2008, 7:04 AM

Sixty-six percent of voters under age 30 preferred Obama while just 32 percent favored McCain—nearly four times the size of John F. Kennedy's lead with the group in 1960, which led him to famously declare in his inaugural address that “the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.”

In other words, never in post-war American politics have youth voted so differently than older generations as they did in 2008.

Obama lead with the group this year is easily the largest of any newly elected president in the of modern polling.

... Until this election, no Democratic presidential nominee had won more than 45 percent of young whites in at least three decades. Obama won 54 percent of young white voters.

The youth vote made up 18 percent of the electorate this year, one point more than in the last three presidential elections. Young whites this year constituted 11 percent of the electorate, and young blacks and Hispanics 3 percent each.

Obama won precisely half of all young working class white men, ten points better than any Democrat since the Reagan era.

Obama won among young white women without a degree by 54 to 45 percent, the first time a Democrat had more than 50 percent support from this group in the post Reagan era. His highest level of support from young whites came from college-educated women, who backed him by 61 to 38 percent.

While Obama won only 24 percent of white evangelicals, a slight improvement from Kerry's 21 percent, 32 percent of young white evangelicals supported him, double the 16 percent who backed Kerrry

 

[Calliope]

Re: Barack 2008!

It's true that whilst 46% of the white vote was for the Democrats, and 53% of the white vote went to the Republicans, it is also true that the white vote also accounted for voting Bush in TWICE. As a pro-Republican could you shed some light on how you think Bush has been good for 1) the economy and 2) the standing of the US in the international community? By that I mean, not why Obama spells the end of the world as we know it, but how Bush has improved things on those two fronts? Curly one, I know.

You based your stupid question on a false premise. I am not pro-Republican.

 

[derty]

Re: Barack 2008!

You based your stupid question on a false premise. I am not pro-Republican.

I didn't think there was such a thing as a stupid question. Just stupid answers.

At 12% and 15% of the population for African American and Hispanic respectively. They would be able to tip the vote one way or another, though to have a landslide you still need a large white participation in the Obama vote. And as 2020 stated the youth vote mobilised for Obama at a scale not seen before. I don't think the GOP is irrelevant, though they will have to re-invent themselves. The GOP is a party for the old white male and the younger generation have placed a vote of no confidence in the NeoCons and their politics of division, fear, greed and negativity.

here are the demographics from wikipedia (didn't format correctly but you can work it out)
2008 2050
Non-Hispanic whites 68% 46%
Hispanic 15 % 30%
African Americans 12% 15%
Asian American 5% 9%

 

[Doris]

Re: Barack 2008!

ICYDK (in case you didn't know) this is why the South Park episode suggested naming 'the puppy' Sparkles.



Hmmm... what SP episode?
- what puppy?

 

[chops_a_must]

Re: Russia greets Obama with first foreign policy test

Lol...fair enough

700k displaced is what I must have become confused with.

 

[chops_a_must]

Re: Barack 2008!

Have a look at this clip of Barack 'roasting' him - from 3 years ago at a fund-raiser:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6209060

Barack's appreciation of the man holistically - the whole picture - makes it obvious why he chose him!

Right...

It certainly wouldn't have anything to do with the fact he needed his support, and had to reward him, because Obama would not have been able to get where he was without him. And he would have known that.

It's just like the Brian Burke disasters in WA. The difference being, WA ministers at least didn't appoint Burke as their chief advisors.

Do some research and not be seduced by 'fear/cynical' headlines.

Perhaps you should also, or drop the teenage esque fan girling, and be able to look at things more objectively.

What gets me most is the non-stop rhetoric about Obama opposing Clinton, Bush and Mccain on the basis of the Iraq war. Yet, not only did Rahm Emanuel support the Iraq war, he actively opposed those against the Iraq war standing for election:

He favored the war in Iraq, and when he was chairing the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006 he made great efforts to knock out antiwar Democratic candidates. On this site in October and November, 2006, John Walsh documented both the efforts and Emanuel’s role in losing the Democrats seats they would otherwise have won. http://www.counterpunch.org/

It's something I find particularly distasteful, and unforgivable.

As anyone on this site knows, I'm not exactly right wing, far from it, lol.

But I'm also no gullible idiot. I know when things are blatant back slaps and backhanders.

I also find it funny that the right had tried to dig up anything they could to do with Obama and "leftist terrorism". Yet it is the "fascist terrorism" that actually now is in the white house that is the danger.

And that is so far from the campaigning rhetoric from Obama, it isn't funny. But you have obviously invested too much emotionally in this to ever see something like this for what it is. And really, that is just as bad as the mindset Obama was campaigning against.

 

[ZzzzDad]

Re: Barack 2008!

It is also worth noting that Rahm "earned" 18 million from Freddie Mac from 1999 to 2001.

Jamie Gorelick, Obama's rumored pick for Attorney General "earned" millions from Fannie Mae.

But, of course the media didn't cover that BEFORE the election.

This is part of the team that is supposed to fix the economic mess.

Yeah, right.

 

[ZzzzDad]

Re: Barack 2008!

Obama's impression of Bush (from Obama's book)

Bush and Obama: Their First Meeting
by Jake Tapper, ABC news.
November 09, 2008 8:38 PM

In anticipation of the White House meeting tomorrow afternoon between President Bush and President-elect Obama, here's an excerpt from "The Audacity of Hope," where then-Sen.. Obama wrote of his first meeting with the president about four years ago:


(Barack Obama)
The inside of the White House doesn’t have the luminous quality that you might expect from television or film; it seems well kept but worn, a big old house that one imagines might be a bit drafty on cold winter nights.

On a chilly January afternoon in 2005, the day before my swearing-in as a senator, I was invited there with other new members of Congress. At 1600 hours on the dot, President Bush was announced and walked to the podium, looking vigorous and fit, with that jaunty, determined walk that suggests he’s on a schedule and wants to keep detours to a minimum. For 10 or so minutes he spoke to the room, making a few jokes, calling for the country to come together, before inviting us for refreshments and a picture with him and the First Lady.

I happened to be starving, so while most of the other legislators started lining up for their photographs, I headed for the buffet. As I munched on hors d’oeuvres, I recalled an earlier encounter with the president, a small White House breakfast with me and the other incoming senators.

I had found him to be a likable man, shrewd and disciplined but with the same straightforward manner that had helped him win two elections; you could easily imagine him owning the local car dealership, coaching Little League baseball and grilling in his backyard – the kind of guy who would make for good company so long as the conversation revolved around sport and the kids.

There had been a moment during the breakfast meeting, though, after the backslapping and the small talk and when all of us were seated, with Vice-President Cheney eating his eggs benedict impassively and Karl Rove at the far end of the table discreetly checking his BlackBerry, that I had witnessed a different side of the man.

The president had begun to discuss his second-term agenda, mostly a reiteration of his campaign talking points – the importance of staying the course in Iraq and renewing the Patriot Act, the need to reform social security and overhaul the tax system, his determination to get an up-or-down vote on his judicial appointees – when suddenly it felt as if somebody in a back room had flipped a switch.

The president’s eyes became fixed; his voice took on the agitated, rapid tone of someone neither accustomed to nor welcoming interruption; his easy affability was replaced by an almost messianic certainty. As I watched my mostly Republican Senate colleagues hang on his every word, I was reminded of the dangerous isolation that power can bring, and I appreciated the wisdom of America’s founding fathers in designing a system to keep power in check.

“Senator?” I looked up, shaken out of this memory, and saw one of the older black men who made up most of the White House waiting staff standing next to me.

“Want me to take that plate for you?” I nodded, trying to swallow a mouthful of chicken something-or-other, and noticed that the line to greet the president had evaporated. A young marine at the door politely indicated that the photograph session was over and that the president needed to get to his next appointment. But before I could turn around to go, the president himself appeared.

“Obama!” he said, shaking my hand. “Come here and meet Laura. Laura, you remember Obama. We saw him on TV during election night. Beautiful family. And that wife of yours – that’s one impressive lady.”

“We both got better than we deserve, Mr. President,” I said, shaking the First Lady’s hand and hoping that I’d wiped any crumbs off my face.

The president turned to an aide nearby, who squirted a big dollop of hand sanitizer in the president’s hand.

“Want some?” the president asked. “Good stuff. Keeps you from getting colds.” Not wanting to seem unhygienic, I took a squirt.

“Come over here for a second,” he said, leading me off to one side of the room.

“You know,” he said quietly, “I hope you don’t mind me giving you a piece of advice.”

“Not at all, Mr. President.” He nodded. “You’ve got a bright future,” he said. “Very bright. But I’ve been in this town a while and, let me tell you, it can be tough. When you get a lot of attention like you’ve been getting, people start gunnin’ for ya. And it won’t necessarily just be coming from my side, you understand. From yours, too. Everybody’ll be waiting for you to slip. Know what I mean? So watch yourself.”

“Thanks for the advice, Mr. President.”

“All right. I gotta get going. You know, me and you got something in common.”

“What’s that?” “We both had to debate Alan Keyes. That guy’s a piece of work, isn’t he?”

I laughed, and as we walked to the door I told him a few stories from the campaign.

It wasn’t until he had left the room that I realized I had briefly put my arm over his shoulder as we talked – an unconscious habit of mine, but one that I suspected might have made many of my friends, not to mention the Secret Service agents in the room, more than a little uneasy.

As I’ve been a steady and occasionally fierce critic of Bush administration policies, Democratic audiences are often surprised when I tell them that I don’t consider George Bush a bad man and that I assume he and members of his administration are trying to do what they think is best for the country.

After the trappings of office are stripped away, I find the president and those who surround him to be pretty much like everybody else, possessed of the same mix of virtues and vices, insecurities and long-buried injuries, as the rest of us.

No matter how wrongheaded I might consider their policies to be – and no matter how much I might insist that they be held accountable for the results of such policies – I still find it possible, in talking to these men and women, to understand their motives, and to recognize in them values I share.

This is not an easy posture to maintain in Washington. The stakes involved in policy debates are often so high that I can see how, after a certain amount of time in the capital, it becomes tempting to assume that those who disagree with you have fundamentally different values – indeed, that they are motivated by bad faith, and perhaps are bad people.