State of the Union

This thread in response to a "Michele Obama is a black activist" chain email (and by implication, dangerous to have in the White House).

-------------- message from "v j" -----------------

this is worth reading : http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/thesis.asp

and please dear beloved, remove me from your list of political emails.

I find myself longing for the days when all we had to mentally masturbate over (collectively, ad nauseum) was whether an intern had sex with the pres. In hindsight it seems so run-of-the-mill boring. No one died, and except for millions (of my money) spent on riDICKulous investigations, the federal budget wasn't trashed.

Now we are in a war with hundreds of thousands dead, injured, or devastated by the loss of a loved one AND we are spending millions EVERY day for the two wars in the middle east. Worse of all, we now have to finish what we started (we have no business leaving a power vacuum now) and have almost nothing to show for the billions (trillions?) we've already spent.

I would have voted for McCain had he made it on the ticket in 2000. But Bush annihilated him with lies (this would not be the last time he cavalierly ignored facts when convenient - would he had just stuck to his drug habit! Think how peaceful a stoned pres would have been!). Unfortunately McCain has been a bit too kiss-up to Bush these last 6 - 9 months for my tastes.

I would vote for a yellow dog before I'd vote for a Republican. I would vote for a evil fictional character before I'd vote for anyone who condones Bush's irresponsible wrecking of our economy and our international standing. Our grandchildren and great grandchildren will be paying for our mistakes for hundreds, if not thousands of y ears. Remember, Rome collapsed from within.
v


-------------On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 9:12 AM, Matt wrote: -------------------

I would just observe that while that President was paying attention to his intern and the problems that arose from it, he was not payiong attention to some very serious issues evoling around him. Not the least of which was the 9-11 plot which started to be planned in 1996. You complain about 2 wars in the Middle East. One can question the necessity and execution of Iraq. On the other hand what exactly were we supposed to do with Afganistan? The Afgan Government offered safe harbor to Al Queda and Osmam Bin Laden. They refused to surrender him to face Justice.

As far as the economy is concerned, it is worrisome. I would note that current unemployment is at 5.5 perecent, below the historical average. There will probably be some rough times ahead on the other hand the economy had done very welluntil fall, 2007 and been expending rapidly 4 four years prior to that.

-------------- message from "v j" -----------------

Good points. Thanks for bringing them up.

However I would say that in 1995 there was clear evidence of a plot to utilize planes as bombs and our intelligence agencies were unable to formulate, much less implement a response. Have we actually solved the structural problems in assimilating information in the US intelligence community? Do we have ports and water systems completely protected? Why aren't airline passengers given random interviews, like Israeli airline protocols - el Al has never had a terrorist incident.

The ruse to investigate and impeach Clinton certainly took up more of his time and attention than the actual intern. Had the Supreme Court not gotten political and allowed the Jennifer Flowers case to move forward (never before had a civil suit been permitted against a sitting president), he could have dealt with all of it once out of office.

I agree we had to respond to the 9-11 bombings, but had we really wanted to be clear, we would have rocked on Saudia Arabia, where the serious funding and more sophisticated incubation of terrorists and terrorism existed. It's laughable that some insisted we "bomb them back into the stone age" when the Afgahnis had never really left it. They were just a red herring.

I'm not sure of the efficiencies of launching a full scale "war" in Afghanistan to capture Bin Laden, who is still at large. Most disturbing, perhaps, is this adminstration's willingness to ignore their own top military advisors' warnings about both wars.

As for the economy I'm more concerned about the fast disappearing middle class, the suffering poor (who have no health insurance, struggle to just pay for gas and often can't feed their kids) and the exodus of deficit funding from our overseas investors. I'm not an economist, but since we have "enjoyed" deficit spending since Bush took office, and no longer have a balanced budget, foreign capital that has sustained us is now moving to other markets in the face of our weak economy. That was always the concern. Not "is it ok to spend more than we have", but what happens if no one (investors) wants to stay at our party?

Worse, what happens if China becomes the world's economic leader? We've already seen their appalling political, human rights and environmental record.

Here is a quick article on the unemployment rate jump last Friday.

respectfully submitted,
Vicki