I don't "expect" anything. I am a skeptic towards the goodness or the possibility of reform for the Ameircan Empire. The President is the selected professional manager for a vast, creaking, war machine. The war machine does what war machines do. He has thrown "liberals" a few crumbs, but the billions are still being plowed into (undefendable) bases and weapons systems, the drone missiles are still flying, the economic boycotts are still starving children (remember, it was that bloodthirsty harridan from the Clinton era, yes Mr. Empathy, who opined that 500,000 Iraqi childrens' deaths was well worth it) and the secret assassination squads are still out there targeting people. And wow...somehow the world is becoming more unstable, more violent. And the connected people just slurp up the profits. Yum!

Well, Brian, what did you expect? I'm not being glib, I'm asking seriously. It's not realistic to expect any politician to do everything you want, and never do anything you disagree with. It's unrealistic to expect any President to address every issue you care about at the same time. It's unrealistic to expect the President to uproot long entrenched interests and resolve matters that have been perennial issues for decades with a snap of their fingers. It's unrealistic to expect any President to succeed at everything they want to do.

There's an old saying in politics, "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

In my estimation, Obama has been a good President on balance. That doesn't mean I agree with everything he's done, or that I haven't been very disappointed in some of the things he's done. But he has done a lot of good and accomplished some pretty remarkable things. It's no small thing that after a century of trying to reform health care, it was Obama who finally got it done.

And while there are lots of things I strongly disagreed with Reagan about, he did say a lot of very sensible things. For example, "The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally — not a 20 percent traitor," in my opinion is downright wise.

We expanded and formalized the President's right to assassinate anyone he wants to assassinate, absolutely refused to hold to accountability the financial industry nabobs and Bush administration officials who abused the previous eight years, made possible a war in Libya that has created a living hell in that country, are now impoverishing another country (Iran) in the arrogant supposition that we, the only country that has ever dropped nuclear weapons on civillian targets, have the right to dictate membership in The Club (while our client state has dozens of nuclear weapons)...meanwhile, your hero quotes Ronald Reagan more frequently than any Republican.

Well, you know, politics is the art of the possible. We avoided a second great depression (and remember that the Great Depression saw unemployment hit 25%), made it illegal for health insurance companies to deny coverage to people because, you know, they're sick, repealed Don't Ask Don't Tell, and cut an arms deal with the Russians to reduce nuclear stockpiles by a third. Is it all right with you if we work on moving one mountain at a time? ;-)

@Ursa - I'm too young to have seen The Andy Griffith Show but not too young to see Hee-Haw, but I've seen plenty of The Andy Griffith Show in my lifetime, and only saw Hee-Haw when I was a kid. Wiki says it was canceled in 1993. There is almost no one here who is too young to have seen Hee-Haw, they just had to have hick parents and only 1 TV in the house.*

I haven't looked at Hee-Haw in over 30 years, but I just watched a block of Andy Griffith on youtube within the last 6 months.

I don't even know what I'm saying. No conclusion.

*We technically had 2 TVs in the house, but the new one (color) sat on top of the old one until the early '80s.

So intended. Of course, these days, with television shows from the past available everywhere...one cannot make any such assumptions. :)

If you were too young for Hee-Haw, you were definitely too young for The Andy Griffith show.

I shall take the assumption that i was too young to watch hee haw as a compliment.

From your photo I'm guessing you're too young to remember that classic of bad 70s television, Hee Haw. It was one of their theme songs. It should actually be "GLOOM, despair, and agony on me" My bad...

Sorry for being obscure, but I was inspired because the actor who played "Goober" on many shows of that ilk just passed away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ5ob9B9yD4

I thought one of the comments on the video was interesting:

"Actually, the people who wrote this know a LOT about grief and loss. You are talking about a show hosted by farming folk, country folk, who could write a BOOK on loss and dealing with it: dirt poor farmers wearing 3rd generation hand me downs, farms lost to banks, children lost to sickness or farm accidents....We had two choices, let it wear us down, or laugh in its face. We chose the latter. Please quit making GOOD things about us into a BAD thing about you."

Brian K: Was that supposed to mean something?

TQ: Doom, despair, and agony on me.
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all
Doom, despair, and agony on me.

GOOBER passed on today :(

Show me any administration that doesn't have pretty much the same record these days.
Seriously, it's not just an Obama thing. it's a total government thing.
If anyone thinks that the next guy is going to be much better, less connected to big bidness, less corrupt and in with people who can and want to simply further their own finances and power they aren't looking at reality.

FO...LOL!

My favorite analysis of what was REALLY ahead with Hope N' Change was the Matt Taibi Rolling Stone piece on how totally stacked the Obama transition team was with Wall Street grifters and confidence men. After all, if you create vast, airy, creaking castles of spun-sugar bullshit, only the spiders have any hope of (pretending to) understand the thing.

Still..if it was not for the Financial Services "industry" what economic sector would provide jobs in the US/ We still make good weapons systems. 60 billion dollars worth to that paragon of virtue and freedom, Saudi Arabia.

Since this is obviously the "Western World is Utterly Fucked" thread, I'll add a piece on how our elites don't pay for the consequences of their stupidity, and in fact are "elites" only in money and friends.

---
But my favorite piece simply has to be the Morgan Stanley research report from June 30 2008 “Overweight Rating” on Lehman Brothers — “Bruised, Not Broken, Poised for Profitability“. 60 days later, Lehman Brothers filed what was thent he largest bankruptcy in the United States. This is (literally) what the category “Really Really Bad Call” was invented for.

Who was the author of this steaming piece of shit, and where is he today? Why, he is Patrick Pinschmidt, and he is a Senior Policy Advisor at U.S. Treasury Department! (You could not make up stuff this un-fucking-believable even if you tried).
---
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/04/the-lehman-bankruptcy-docs/

Fuck up big, push your career!

I'd say the blame lay at the feet of the electorate. A vast number of voters are willfully ignorant of most of the issues they complain about. Then, wallowing in that ignorance, they trounce on down to the polls to vote for their tribe. In that vacuum of accountability, our politicians bow to the tribe makers.

We can make our government better. It just takes talking and educating everyone around you, and writing your representatives as often as you can.

Justice:

Can't pick on Obama, alone, really. He is just building on and amplifying and continuing long term trends. Arguably, since Wilson, if not from the beginning of the settler colonial project known as the United States. Certainly since McKinley, or the various Indian wars.

He is merely George W's third term when it comes to foreign policy and civil libertarian issues.

In fact, I would argue that it is mistake to focus on the person (Would we not love to have a beer with W. Or...If my kids were disciplined by a vice principal, I think Obama would make a great hectoring school official) It is the OFFICE and the consensus political system in the United States that is arguably a problem. (THE problem is that the State does what the State does to grow in power and control).

Given the history of the office and the various scoundrels, wastrels, and downright criminally negligent men who have held the office, and given the nature and purpose of the office..."skepticism" toward the office of THE PRESIDENT (PBHN and GBTUS*))is an appropriate response. "Reverence" is not necessarily a good thing.

*Praise Be His Name and God Bless The United States

And I like both sites.

I should provide context that this was a response site to a PRO-Obama site with the same format.

It's going to get worse before it gets even worse than that.

Such a despicable example of someone holding a position that was once admired and held in the highest esteem. A position that was respected and honored and looked upon with great reverence.

Too bad those days are now over.

witha record like this, I gotta support the God-King of Hope and Change!

http://whatinthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/

LOL