Barack Obama!

[Doris]

Re: Barack 2008!

Its called democracy Doris.

You will have to live with it.

The people have spoken.

LOL... American style! Voting is not compulsory.

Had the African Americans turned out as they did on Nov 4, then Georgia would have a Democrat senator.

But Obama did not urge them. He's not concerned about potential filibusters.
He's focused on getting his team organized and confident enough in his ability to draw bipartisan support.

What is interesting to me is David Plouffe is organizing "Change is Coming house meetings".

On December 13th and 14th, supporters are coming together in every part of the country to reflect on what we've accomplished and plan the future of this movement. Your ideas and feedback will be collected and used to guide this movement in the months and years ahead.

You can connect with fellow supporters, make progress on the issues you care about, and help shape the future of your community and our country.

So the 'ground up' soliciting approach continues... 'listening' and gathering information.
- letting people feel they are a part of the process.

 

[Doris]

Re: Barack 2008!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH!

Barack Obama breaks first campaign promise by dropping oil tax
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...rst-campaign-promise-by-dropping-oil-tax.html

What a great headline to sell newspapers!

I wonder if anyone will read the pertinent points in the article:

An aide explained the change by saying: "President-Elect Obama announced the policy during the campaign because oil prices were above $80 per barrel. They are below that now and expected to stay below that."

The oil industry, however, welcomed the move. It had argued that a previous windfall tax under Jimmy Carter cost the country billions as suppliers spurned domestically-produced oil and looked overseas.

How much profits windfall tax would oil companies have lost when oil is USD45?
To me it shows that Obama is flexible to changing situations and it looks good for oil company PR!

In the summer he said the tax would "help families pay their heating and cooling bills and reduce energy costs".

Well... the 'cratering' economy did this for them!

 

[2020hindsight]

Re: Barack 2008!

Thanks Doris
Alan Kohler in the background saying oil has fallen 70% since 4 July etc. unbelieveable (sorta)

 

[Calliope]

Re: Barack 2008!

I hope that an African American leader can do a better job than African African leaders. The mendacious Hillary can't wait for him to stumble. She has been wearing that smug look ever since Obama picked her. His first major error.

He has taken on an almost impossible task, and if he can't live up to the expectations he has created he will be a one term president

 

[Doris]

Re: Barack 2008!

I hope that an African American leader can do a better job than African African leaders. The mendacious Hillary can't wait for him to stumble. She has been wearing that smug look ever since Obama picked her. His first major error.

The world is watching Obama's decisions and the US-style democracy role model.
There's a journalist in Uganda who agrees with part of your hopes Calliope!

Obama’s cabinet choice: A lesson for African leaders

The mere fact that in nominating candidates for Congress’s consideration, he has included known Republicans and some appointees of GW Bush, is an indication that Obama has gone for talent, competence and merit rather than loyalty or cronyism.

Looked at another way; both Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton were Obama’s rivals for the Democratic nomination. After he beat them for the Democratic ticket, he first picked Biden for running mate and after beating John McCain for the White House, he has now included Hillary Clinton in his top team.

Unlike back in Africa, checks and balances in choosing an American cabinet make it impossible for the incoming president to reward his cronies, unless one is as arrogant and unsure of himself as GW Bush was.

This is the reason once Obama assembled a team that had agreed to his nomination, he first presented them to the public through a press conference so that the media could kick off the debate on their characters before they appear before the Senate Confirmation Committee. In other words, the mere fact that Obama has nominated these Americans for various positions is not an end in itself.

The hard part is yet to begin when each of them will appear before the Senate Committee for thorough grilling before they are appointed. It is at this stage that those with questionable characters and doubtful past records will meet their waterloo. Although presidential appointees rarely fail the test at this stage; it will very much depend on how much the president-elect carried out his background checks on each one of them so that there are no surprises at this stage.


Back in Africa, political appointments are largely rewards for families, clansmen, tribesmen and campaign funders who literally pay their way into the cabinet, irrespective of their competence. Sometimes positions are distributed according to tribes and regions rather than competence. We appoint a cabinet with the next general elections in mind; never mind the ability to deliver on our promises.

Take the case of Kenya. When Daniel Arap Moi ruled that country for two-and-a-half decades; cabinet ministers, permanent secretaries and holders of constitutional offices, including his vice-president would be appointed by the roadsides as the president stopped to buy vegetables from grocery hawkers. Other times, he would appoint them at public rallies or even in village funerals or goat auctions. Most of the times, there would be surprise announcements on radio at lunch time or at the 7:00pm news bulletin on the national broadcaster.

The reason we do not have a government in Zimbabwe is because two politicians are still haggling over which cabinet posts to share. Had the system allowed Parliament to vet individuals for various positions, such shameful scenarios would not occur.

Africa must look to the day when the government in power would appoint the president’s rivals to the cabinet; not a forced settlement like in Kenya and Zimbabwe. We must look to the day when loyalty to the president would not supersede that of the nation so that when the ruling party sacks its president, other cabinet ministers would not necessarily resign in solidarity with their boss.

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/20/662866

 

[wayneL]

Re: Barack 2008!

What a great headline to sell newspapers!

I wonder if anyone will read the pertinent points in the article:



How much profits windfall tax would oil companies have lost when oil is USD45?
To me it shows that Obama is flexible to changing situations and it looks good for oil company PR!



Well... the 'cratering' economy did this for them!

Has Obama explained where he will replace the revenue from?

He is going to have to be VEEEEEEERY flexible, because the reason oil is now $45 is the same reason that gumint revenue is going to be torpedoed in a hundred different ways.

I repeat what I said before. The US needed an Obama, but now is the worst possible time. It is going to be a schmozzle; that's unfortunate.

 

[Julia]

Re: Barack 2008!

L


So the 'ground up' soliciting approach continues... 'listening' and gathering information.
- letting people feel they are a part of the process.

If Obama fails as President, he'd clearly have a rosy future in marketing.
Probably be better paid too.

 

[inenigma]

Re: Barack 2008!

If Obama fails as President, he'd clearly have a rosy future in marketing.
Probably be better paid too.

Providing, of course, the KKK behave themselves.

 

[Doris]

Re: Barack 2008!

Obama to Name Shinseki Secretary of Veterans Affairs

What a brilliant choice!
He's the first Asian American on Obama's team - a Japanese American born in Hawaii.
Shinseki proved himself a strong character by never doing a public 'I told you so' to Rumsfeld.

Mr. Shinseki is well known for having predicted that a much larger U.S. force would be needed in Iraq even as his civilian bosses argued that he was wrong. In 2003, he testified to Congress that it might require several hundred thousand U.S. troops to control Iraq after the initial military invasion.

Rumsfeld said at the time that his assessment was grossly exaggerated, and within months, Mr. Shinseki was forced out of his job. In June 2003, he retired after 38 years in the Army. But his prediction turned out to be prophetic, as President George W. Bush sent in a surge of forces in early 2007.

The way the vets are (not) treated, especially for post-traumatic stress, will surely finally be addressed.

"He and I share a reverence for those who serve," Mr. Obama said. "So many veterans around the country are struggling even more than those who have not served -- higher unemployment rates, higher homeless rates, higher substance abuse rates, medical care that is inadequate -- it breaks my heart, and I think that General Shinseki is exactly the right person who is going to be able to make sure that we honor our troops when they come home."

 

[noirua]

Re: Barack 2008!

Obama to Name Shinseki Secretary of Veterans Affairs
What a brilliant choice!
He's the first Asian American on Obama's team - a Japanese American born in Hawaii.
Shinseki proved himself a strong character by never doing a public 'I told you so' to Rumsfeld.
The way the vets are (not) treated, especially for post-traumatic stress, will surely finally be addressed.

All sounds very good, but, but, but, Obama will have to get legislation through with unemployment costing a great deal more and further bail outs of the unionized car companies costing a fortune.
Tax receipts set to bomb and costs rocketing, including Afghanistan.
Not much left in the bankrupt American Federal Government for all the other promises!

 

[basilio]

Re: Barack 2008!

With the economic and environmental world at a crossroads, what do people think of Obama's chances of making some really big decisions on the direction America is going. That is not just more of the same but fundamental rethinking? And if we couldn't/didn't do it now, when is there a realistic second opportunity?

I've posted the beginning of a long piece which outlines the big picture and suggests how Obama might tackle the problem.

Any thoughts?

Memo to the President-elect on Energy Realism and the Green New Deal
by Richard Heinberg

December 2008
Executive Summary

Our continued national dependence on fossil fuels is creating a crippling vulnerability to both long-term fuel scarcity and catastrophic climate change.

The current economic crisis requires substantial national policy shifts and enormous new government injections of capital into the economy. This provides an opportunity for a project whose scope would otherwise be inconceivable: a large-scale, coordinated energy transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy.

This project must happen immediately; indeed, it may already be too late. We have already left behind the era of cheap and plentiful fossil fuels, with a permanent decline of global oil production likely underway within three years. Moreover, the latest research tells us we have less than eight years to bring carbon emissions under control if we hope to avoid catastrophic climate change. Lacking this larger frame of understanding and action, a mere shift away from foreign oil dependence will fail to meet the challenge at hand.

The energy transition must not be limited to building wind turbines and solar panels. It must include the thorough redesign of our economic and societal infrastructure, which today is utterly dependent on cheap fossil fuels. It must address not only our transportation system and our electricity grid, but also our food system and our building stock.

Our 21st century nation’s dependence on 20th century fossil fuels is the greatest threat we face, far more so than the current financial crisis. A coordinated, comprehensive transition to an economy that is no longer dependent on hydrocarbon fuels and no longer emits climate-changing levels of carbon””a Post Carbon Energy Transition””will be the Obama Administration’s greatest opportunity to lead the nation on a path toward sustainable prosperity.

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/47404

 

[ZzzzDad]

Re: Barack 2008!

Obama could be the first President to have a scandal brewing even BEFORE he takes the oath of office. Obama, the ultimate Chicago politician, didn't get where he did in Chicago politics with clean hands. Let's see if Fitgerald will bag Obama. Blago is not going to keep quiet. He will show Fitz where the bodies are buried. The question is, Will Obama make it through his first year in office? I bet NO.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24781978-26397,00.html

Haunting of the president-elect has begun

THE immediate problem for Barack Obama in the Blagojevich scandal is finding a quick and non-controversial way to fill the Illinois Senate seat that his rise to power has made vacant.

As it stands, Illinois law gives Governor Rod Blagojevich sole power to appoint Obama's replacement, a power unchanged by the extraordinary corruption charges laid yesterday by federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

Obviously, any Blagojevich appointment in the circumstances would be a joke, so the best result will be if the Governor stands down and leaves the task to his lieutenant governor.

If Blagojevich refuses to go, then it will be up to Illinois legal authorities and the state legislature to fashion a solution.

The longer this takes, the more the world will learn about the rotten political culture from which Obama has emerged and the more tainted his January 20 inauguration will be.

But whatever short-term discomfort Obama might feel from a shakedown merchant stupid enough to get caught on a wiretap, it's a walk in the park compared with the dangers ahead.

This was clear when Fitzgerald, a humourless, married-to-the-law zealot who has been likened to Prohibition-era lawman Eliot Ness, made pleas yesterday for anyone with information about corruption in Illinois to come forward.

Not satisfied with getting the Governor, Fitzgerald intends to use the Blagojevich scandal to peel back whatever other layers of political corruption in Illinois he can find.

The pickings are likely to be good. As FBI special agent Robert Grant said yesterday: "If Illinois isn't the most corrupt state in the United States, it's certainly one hell of a competitor."

The more people who come forward, the more leads that Fitzgerald will have to follow and the more likely it is they'll catch crooks ready to rat on other crooks in exchange for leniency.

In this exercise, the prize catch is, of course, Obama, now the most successful politician to emerge from Chicago's notorious "pay-to-play" culture.

Right now, the president-elect is clear. At his press conference, Fitzgerald said there was no evidence of misbehaviour from Obama and the wiretap excerpts he released have Blagojevich using profanities to describe Obama's unwillingness to provide anything other than "appreciation" for services rendered.

Obama was also wise enough to keep well clear of Blagojevich in the presidential campaign. Blagojevich did not speak at the Democrat national convention and was not on stage when Obama celebrated his election victory in Chicago's Grant Park.

Obama also has significant ethics reform credentials from his time in the state legislature.

But Obama did buy his Chicago house with the assistance of corrupt slumlord Tony Rezko, a Blagojevich ally, and he has used his political connections to secure jobs for close friends in Blagojevich's administration.

Further, Obama's chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel is close to John Wyma, Blagojevich's former congressional chief-of-staff and good friend who is reportedly co-operating with Fitzgerald.

It will all come down to where the concentric circles around Blagojevich and Obama overlap, but if his past record is any guide, this is where Fitzgerald, who already has the scalps of terrorists, Mafia kingpins and the likes of Conrad Black to his name, will be at his most aggressive.

Yesterday, the first signs of nervousness appeared when an Obama spokesman said senior adviser David Axelrod had "misspoke" on Fox News a few weeks ago when he said Blagojevich and Obama had discussed the Senate vacancy, something the president-elect now denies.

The haunting of Barack Obama is under way.

 

[Knobby22]

Re: Barack 2008!

You can bet Fox will do everything they can to insinuate.

If Obama is found to be corrupt then you have a lame duck President during the worst crisis the US has had since the Depression then that should finish the US as a world power.

Don't wish it so!!!

 

[ZzzzDad]

Re: Barack 2008!

This is Chicago politics - the same cesspool that Obama emerged from. Hope and change - yeah right.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/ConductUnbecoming/Story?id=6431739&page=1

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. Is 'Senate Candidate No. 5', Says He Did Nothing Wrong

Chicago Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., is the anonymous "Senate Candidate No. 5" whose emissaries Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich reportedly offered up to $1 million to name him to the U.S. Senate, his attorney confirmed today after it was reported earlier on ABCNews.com "The Blotter".

According to the FBI affidavit in the case, Blagojevich "stated he might be able to cut a deal with Senate Candidate 5 that provided Rod Blagojevich" with something "tangible up front."


Jackson told ABC News this morning he was contacted Tuesday by federal prosecutors in Chicago whom he said "asked me to come in and share with them my insights and thoughts about the selection process."

Jackson Jr.'s attorney James Montgomery confirmed that the Chicago congressman is "Senate Candidate #5" but said "Jackson has never authorized anyone to seek the Governor's support in return of money, fundraising or other things of value."

 

[noirua]

Re: Barack 2008!

You can bet Fox will do everything they can to insinuate.

If Obama is found to be corrupt then you have a lame duck President during the worst crisis the US has had since the Depression then that should finish the US as a world power.

Don't wish it so!!!

I'm in no way a supporter of Barack Obama as I see his spending plans fraught with danger. However, I do not doubt his honesty and integrity even for one second.

 

[ZzzzDad]

Re: Barack 2008!

You can bet Fox will do everything they can to insinuate.

If Obama is found to be corrupt then you have a lame duck President during the worst crisis the US has had since the Depression then that should finish the US as a world power.

Don't wish it so!!!

Not saying I "wish" it, but if something emerges from this, then who is to blame? The media totally was in the tank for Obama, and followed no leads. The stuff was out there during the election, but was not amplified by the media. Tony Reszko, Blogo, Ayers, Wright, etc., the media did all they could do to clamp down on any hint of scandal. Now, this comes out, conveniently after the election.

 

[ZzzzDad]

Re: Barack 2008!

http://www.theamericanprowler.com/blog/2008/12/09/did-obama-have-contact-with-bl

Did Obama Have Contact with Blago or Didn't He?

By Philip Klein
"I had no contact with the governor or his office and so I was not aware of what was happening," Barack Obama told reporters today in the wake of the Blagojevich arrest, the Chicago Tribune reports.

But Jake Tapper notes that on November 23, Obama adviser David Axelrod was singing a different tune. "I know he's talked to the governor," Axelrod said on Fox News Chicago in response to a question about Obama's involvement in filling his Senate seat (see the 1:20 mark of the video below).

Furthermore, in the excerpt of the indictment that has been promoted as clearing Obama (in which Blagojevich uses a colorful Oedipus slur to describe the President-elect), the governor laments that Obama wants his preferred candidate appointed, but that he won't give him anything in return. Of course, everything Blagojevich said needs to be taken with a certain grain of salt, but this nonetheless does raise questions as to how Blagojevich would have known about Obama's preferences, or his unwillingness to deal. Also, it raises a question as to whether Obama knew that there was dirty dealing going on over his Senate seat, and said nothing.

Politicians often get themselves in trouble not by the act itself, but by subsequent denials. We'll know more in the coming days and weeks, but I wonder if Obama will come to regret his blanket statement today that, "I had no contact with the governor or his office and so I was not aware of what was happening."

 

[Doris]

Re: Barack 2008!

I'm in no way a supporter of Barack Obama as I see his spending plans fraught with danger. However, I do not doubt his honesty and integrity even for one second.

You have good gut instinct noirua and hopefully your respect for Obama will grow with time.

Barack wanted to buy a house but it was on a large piece of land.
Tony Rezko's wife bought the land, enabling Barack to afford the house.
The media made this clear in their investigations. Smoke does not always reveal a fire.

 

[Doris]

Re: Barack 2008!

Obama avoids stain of Chicago's political scandals

In Chicago politics, the traditional route to political success has gone through the office of a ward committeeman, whose clout makes or breaks careers. But when Obama first ran, he was a lone wolf ”” a Harvard-educated, former community organizer beholden to no one. He drew support with the same undramatic, commonsense stump style he showed on the presidential trail.

Throughout his political career in Illinois, Obama has racked up wins without big-name endorsements. He won the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate in 2004 without the support of many party power brokers. And he didn't get help from Mayor Richard Daley when he won his first election ”” his state Senate seat in 1996.

Obama had the advantage of representing the Hyde Park area, home to the University of Chicago and a long tradition of independent politicians. One of them is Obama's mentor, Abner Mikva, a former congressman and federal judge.

"The guy is a progressive and is more or less reform-minded," Rose said. "He doesn't need to be a machine guy. The fact that he chose Hyde Park to live in, the fact he chose to work in ... a law firm that had taken on City Hall shows he made his choices outside of the machine and in some cases, with opponents of the machine."

As a state lawmaker, Obama managed a careful balancing act between cigar-chomping, horse-trading machine pols on one side and high-minded idealists who were his base on the other.

"He was able to do what few legislators are able to ”” and that's to really cut a middle ground," said Cindi Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. "He was able to be cordial across the (Senate) chamber. He was able to gain respect across the chamber. For the most part, he was known as someone who was loyal to his party and would make endorsements. But he would not cross the line over into hackdom."

"He would not violate his personal integrity to muddy himself in the political waters," she added.

Some of the choices Obama made as a state lawmaker also made him less susceptible to taking a wrong turn, said Kent Redfield, a University of Illinois-Springfield political science professor and former legislative staff member. He worked with Obama on ethics and campaign-finance reform.

"He didn't want to be Senate president," he said. "He didn't want to be mayor. You can make fewer compromises and accommodations when you have those kind of goals. ... The things you're involved in are not at the center of things where there tends to be corruption or the temptation of corruption."

Redfield said he also thinks the president-elect benefited by not starting out as an alderman in the Chicago City Council, for instance, where he would be dealing with businessmen trying to woo him with contributions.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ir_7l-VA-6OonV1wVsjpXOxPQ-AwD9505MBG0

 

[It's Snake Pliskin]

Re: Barack 2008!

You have good gut instinct noirua and hopefully your respect for Obama will grow with time.

Barack wanted to buy a house but it was on a large piece of land.
Tony Rezko's wife bought the land, enabling Barack to afford the house.
The media made this clear in their investigations. Smoke does not always reveal a fire.

Doris,

What are your views on the Chicago way?

And to what extent do you feel the democrats had nothing to do with the creation of the subprime rollercoaster?