A Changing World: Barack Obama, 2013-2017

[BigLutz]

%0.7 percent of what was shown was pork. While there is some pork there I do not think it was huge enough to call super pork and kill the plan. However if it had been a Defense plan then no debate would have been needed.

Well lets look at some of the highlights that Rep Issa has compiled that are in the bill that do not deal with "Relief" or "Aid" from Sandy.

• $13 billion for large infrastructure projects that we are assured would “mitigate” damage from future storms.

• $10.8 billion for public transportation, almost entirely for future projects, not disaster relief.

• $207 million for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Manhattan Medical Center.

• $199 million in tax breaks for rum makers.

• $188 million for upgrading, not repairing, Amtrak rail lines.

• $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to provide fisheries in Alaska.

• $100 million for a federal day-care program.

• $57 million for tracking debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami.

• $20 million for a national “water priorities” study.

• $8 million to buy vehicles and equipment for the departments of Justice and Homeland Security.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/...ar-for-course/

Now I havn't seen the entire list, but that alone seems to come out at more than 0.7% of the bill.

[ebilly99]

Well lets look at some of the highlights that Rep Issa has compiled that are in the bill that do not deal with "Relief" or "Aid" from Sandy.

• $13 billion for large infrastructure projects that we are assured would “mitigate” damage from future storms.

• $10.8 billion for public transportation, almost entirely for future projects, not disaster relief.

• $207 million for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Manhattan Medical Center.

• $199 million in tax breaks for rum makers.

• $188 million for upgrading, not repairing, Amtrak rail lines.

• $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to provide fisheries in Alaska.

• $100 million for a federal day-care program.

• $57 million for tracking debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami.

• $20 million for a national “water priorities” study.

• $8 million to buy vehicles and equipment for the departments of Justice and Homeland Security.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/...ar-for-course/

Now I havn't seen the entire list, but that alone seems to come out at more than 0.7% of the bill.

Those were not on the list you sent me earlier. Sorry I didn't know they had a newer one out.

[BigLutz]

Those were not on the list you sent me earlier. Sorry I didn't know they had a newer one out.

That would be my mistake sorry, I was working off my iPhone at the time and trying to keep the boss from seeing xD

[ebilly99]

That would be my mistake sorry, I was working off my iPhone at the time and trying to keep the boss from seeing xD

No Problem. I agree that billions of dollars going anywhere other than rebuilding is wasted money. I believe that the Republicans from NY and NJ should now look into other ways of getting the state rebuilt. Perhaps a Loan would make the senators look more closely for pork to kill. 10 years to pay it back sounds good to me, at 1.5 percent interest of course.

[Thomas Elliot]

I believe I was making the point it was undignified for the office, that the Office of the Presidency is something special that requires those in it to hold themselves to a higher standard. The same cannot be said for the Speaker's Office which has always been something less dignified and more dirty as it is used to get votes.

So because it is less dignified and dirty, he can act like an *******?
That's the worst justification I've ever heard. Make all the excuses you want.
He is still a publicly elected official who has the ears and eyes of millions of people on a daily basis.
There is something called class, which Boehner has none of.

[Thriller]

Funny how the thread title acknowledges the "Changing World." Indeed, thats what it is.

It's seriously no joke what is about to happen to America, and during the election, I became convinced that if you were voting for Obama, not only did you know full well what he was actually going to bring in a 2nd term, but you WANTED it to happen to yourself, because as a modern American, you've become so selfish with your entertainments and technologies, and wanted free "Obamaphones." but I digress.

I'm much more concerned about the Middle East. He can stumble things up domestically all he wants, but Obama clearly is no good to the Middle East. We could very well be in WWIII by 2014.

[BigLutz]

So because it is less dignified and dirty, he can act like an *******?
That's the worst justification I've ever heard. Make all the excuses you want.
He is still a publicly elected official who has the ears and eyes of millions of people on a daily basis.
There is something called class, which Boehner has none of.

Might want to take a harder look at Congress, no one there really has class, starting with Harry Reid

[7 tyranitars]

Might want to take a harder look at Congress, no one there really has class, starting with Harry Reid

Or John Boehner. Politics is a dirty game though, so I don't really care about this.

[BigLutz]

Or John Boehner. Politics is a dirty game though, so I don't really care about this.

Personally for me I put the man, and I use that term loosely that said the Iraq war was lost on national tv when you have troops fighting and dying over there. As pretty much the most classless and dispicable person in congress. Say what you want about Boehner at least he said it in private and did not try to give comfort to the enemy during a war.

[ebilly99]

So because it is less dignified and dirty, he can act like an *******?
That's the worst justification I've ever heard. Make all the excuses you want.
He is still a publicly elected official who has the ears and eyes of millions of people on a daily basis.
There is something called class, which Boehner has none of.

I hate to say this, but I agree with Big Lutz here. The President is the face of the Nation. He can not be rude, greedy or appear incompetent. I understand that is unfair, but it is the curse of the job.

[WizardTrubbish]

I'm much more concerned about the Middle East. He can stumble things up domestically all he wants, but Obama clearly is no good to the Middle East. We could very well be in WWIII by 2014.

Can you explain your reasoning here?

[ccangelopearl1362]

Dallas Morning News: Cruz begins Senate career pledging to hold conservative lines on spending, guns

As Vice-President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell figure out their next courses of action regarding the United States’ information transformation, new Texas Senator Ted Cruz is opening his term with a call to at least partially shut Washington, D.C., down in order to reduce the deficit. Senator John Cornyn, the other senator from my home state, greeted Cruz after the oath, and the latter’s family – including his father, one Pastor Rafael Cruz, “who fled Cuba in his teens” – was there to witness the event. According to Senator Cruz, the fiscal cliff deal called for a $620 billion tax increase, and I imagine that there’ll be more proposals like it depending on the number of programs the Democratic Party’s main factions demand.:

Daily Caller: Caroline May: Oregon to consider additional tax on gas efficient vehicles
World Affairs Journal: P.J. O’Rourke: Dear Mr. President: Zero-Sum Makes Zero Sense

Color me flummoxed, even given everything that’s been occurring about green energy’s slowdown. This legislation, which is intended to take effect in 2015, imposes a tax on vehicles with at least 55 miles per gallon, vehicles which have resulted in declining revenue from the gas taxes already in place up in Oregon. Any manufacturers producing these types of vehicles could either attempt to call for a decrease in these taxes to give Oregon’s market some additional value or relocate elsewhere, either Kansas or here, depending on the conditions. Then again, if any individuals or groups especially envious and fearful of these companies – or what they symbolize – start calling for increased attention against them, then it might only be a matter of time before someone starts thinking of “retribution through redistribution” as a concept to convince the rest of the peoples of the world that globalized capitalism will utterly wreck everything they believed. As more countries get the idea that they can succeed only at others’ expense, whether through ballots or bullets, missiles or money, instability can and will surface. Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and others seek to “redistribute violence to places that didn’t have enough”, while Russia and China have each been working to redistribute the global balance of power… or, failing that, inflict as much damage on as many people with as much speed as possible. If anything, I’d place my bet on “negative-sum” as an even more applicable concept for this period of time, whether seriously or comically.:

Deutsche Welle: Suliman: ‘Al-Jazeera plays the piper, but Qatar calls the tune’
Week: Peter Weber: Why Al Gore sold Current TV to Al-Jazeera

Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani mobilized his resources to insert himself into the upheavals throughout the Islamic Community, and among Al-Jazeera’s first targets was Muammar Gaddafi. He and Bashar Assad evidently fell out of favor with the House of Thani, and even though some journalists at that network wanted to extend their coverage to Syria right away, nothing much progressed until Al-Jazeera’s higher-ranking executives decided to start instigating the latter’s downfall. We could call it “television for terrorists”, judging from everything it’s cheerled as the first decade of this century progressed, which, incredibly, could be why I actually pity it – and, by extension, the House of Thani – for accepting that offer from former Vice-President Al Gore earlier this week. Gore attempted to hasten the deal to stay ahead of that fiasco over the “fiscal cliff”, rejecting an offer to purchase from Glenn Beck, earning a supposed total payout of $100 million, if at most. Depending on the progress of the global energy revolution, Gore, Thani, and Al-Qaeda might not need much longer to see their fortunes decline, which would most likely be why Al-Qaeda’s massacring its way through certain parts of the world even as this year unfolds.:

Fox News Channel: Al-Qaeda Reportedly Carving Out Its Own ‘Country’ in Mali

If Abu Musab Abdel-Wadoud or Abdelhakim Belhadj wants to declare himself a sort of Caliph-in-training, then it looks like one or the other has an area in which he and his associates can unleash terror, submission, and purity by himself. After at least 11 years of attacking American and other targets, Al-Qaeda is entrenching itself in northern Mali, territory “almost exactly the size of Afghanistan”, and it’s initiating public amputations and destroying Timbuktu’s mausoleums. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb now operates in the Sahel, which runs from southern Mauritania through northern Mali all the way to Eritrea, and in a way, it’s perfect for their view of a Sharia paradise. The jihadists stole construction equipment to start digging tunnels and building roads, as well as weapons from Malian and Libyan military storage sites, started using solar panels for electricity, which could give green energy companies the idea to file lawsuits, and even set up connections to local clans, all without running out of gas or food. I might guess that as other Muslims across North Africa grow more dissatisfied with, say, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, they’ll turn to Abdel-Wadoud to fight against any outside adversaries, perceived or real, pushing the Islamic Community deeper into itself. Judging from the spirals in Egypt’s currency, they may be about to get a chance to make their opinions known.:

Ahram: Morsi’s Brotherhood may pay price for Egypt currency fall

The Egyptian pound is losing value against the (American) dollar, and since two-fifths of all Egyptians need state subsidies on such things as bread to get by a typical day, they’ll be first to immediately feel any price punches resulting from increases in costs of other imported goods. This currency slid to 6.39 to the dollar this week, and the Egyptian Central Bank wanted to use foreign reserves to defend it, even since Hosni Mubarak stepped down. Now, Muhammad Morsi wants to secure a loan from the International Monetary Fund, but some Muslim Brotherhood operatives are backing off, citing tax increases and mounting popular discontent. Nowadays, it’s the Muslim Brotherhood that’s stuck with redistribution, and President Barack Obama pushed it, thereby countering this global modernization. I might have concluded that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and current Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan would harmonize this trend and America’s prosperity more smoothly, but now, it appears we’re just inching along. Entrepreneurs throughout Africa and East Asia could bubble up to persuade this country to start strategizing with them in mind in the next few years.:

Forbes: Jerry Bowyer: The Next Big Thing from the Official Who Predicted Communism’s Demise

Herbert Meyer has the bigger preference for predictions here, but then, perhaps the Soviet Union was intended to herald not the ascendancy of a Marxian utopia, but the collective suicide of Russia. The Central Intelligence Agency believed that the Cold War was a permanent fixture of international politics, but it didn’t have any sight of Soviet weaknesses. According to Meyer, the rest of the planet is leaving poverty behind more quickly than anyone could suspect, whether it’s the Obama administration, the Tea Partiers… or even the House of Thani. The “emerging global middle class” will number about five billion, presumably without any bloodbath(s) along the way, and if we start reaching a point at which North Africans and Middle Easterners prefer a Costco or even a church – among other things promoting freedom, friendship, harmony, and life – over a “lunatic mosque”, then America and its allies can stand back and manage the information transformation worldwide, exposing Islam’s fourteen-century struggle – and I use that word intentionally – against modernization and also leaving Chinese and Russian nationalists in the dust.

[Thomas Elliot]

Personally for me I put the man, and I use that term loosely that said the Iraq war was lost on national tv when you have troops fighting and dying over there. As pretty much the most classless and dispicable person in congress. Say what you want about Boehner at least he said it in private and did not try to give comfort to the enemy during a war.

By your logic, BigLutz I think you are an idiot therefore you are a horrible person.
So you would rather condemn a man who can be honest and say hey look I didn't get us into this situation, but I am doing all I can to fix it. It's a huge sinkhole and the best thing to do right now is to get out of there.
Just because we leave a country does not mean we lost the war.
Furthermore, you stand behind a man who blatantly lied to the American people saying oh yeah MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. We are DONE over there. He instilled false hope in everyone and he did it knowing that we would not be leaving any time soon.

[BigLutz]

By your logic, BigLutz I think you are an idiot therefore you are a horrible person.
So you would rather condemn a man who can be honest and say hey look I didn't get us into this situation, but I am doing all I can to fix it. It's a huge sinkhole and the best thing to do right now is to get out of there.
Just because we leave a country does not mean we lost the war.

You realize Harry Reid said this in 2006, not 2010 when we left. He was not doing anything to fix it, we had troops fighting for survival against insurgents over there, and he decided to come out, while they were still fighting, and say the war was lost. How many more troops died from that? How many Americans did Harry Reid help kill because he energized the enemy into thinking they were winning?

Furthermore, you stand behind a man who blatantly lied to the American people saying oh yeah MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. We are DONE over there. He instilled false hope in everyone and he did it knowing that we would not be leaving any time soon.

You do realize the Mission Accomplished statement was about the destruction of Saddam's Government correct? Not the complete end of all operations in Iraq.

Edit: Hell this was even in his speech!


"We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We are bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous."
"Our mission continues...The War on Terror continues, yet it is not endless. We do not know the day of final victory, but we have seen the turning of the tide."

[Thomas Elliot]

How many more troops died from that? How many Americans did Harry Reid help kill because he energized the enemy into thinking they were winning?

Do you have hard numbers? Do you have factual/empirical evidence that directly can correlate Reid's statements to an increase in troop deaths?
You can't. You don't. Don't sell me your opinion as fact.

In that SAME speech Bush said "In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."
He may not have thought the war was over, but he was certainly saying it.

President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific and said "mission accomplished for these sailors who are on this ship on their mission." And we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner.
From Dana Perino herself.
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archiv...0080430-5.html

[BigLutz]

Do you have hard numbers? Do you have factual/empirical evidence that directly can correlate Reid's statements to an increase in troop deaths?
You can't. You don't. Don't sell me your opinion as fact.

I am merely wondering, Reid's statements were obviously fodder for al Qaeda and Iran to recruit and push forward. This is found in the Islamic State of Iraq using Harry Reid's own words in a communique to push for victory against America.

"This comes on the heels of an important statement by House Majority Leader Harry Reid who previously said, “The Iraqi war is hopeless and the situation in Iraq is same as it was in Vietnam.”"

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/arti..._to_Harry_Reid

In that SAME speech Bush said "In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."
He may not have thought the war was over, but he was certainly saying it.

Yeah, Battle of Iraq, which would be the United States and the other allies, versus Saddam's Army. Now are you saying the U.S. did not prevail against Saddam's army? That they were still fighting the Republican Guard after?

President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific and said "mission accomplished for these sailors who are on this ship on their mission." And we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner.
From Dana Perino herself.
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archiv...0080430-5.html

Oh no doubt the optics were bad, but that does not mean that he was lying to the American people.

[marioguy]

You realize Harry Reid said this in 2006, not 2010 when we left. He was not doing anything to fix it, we had troops fighting for survival against insurgents over there, and he decided to come out, while they were still fighting, and say the war was lost. How many more troops died from that? How many Americans did Harry Reid help kill because he energized the enemy into thinking they were winning?

When Bush had that "Mission Accomplished" banner, how many troops died because they had false reassurance that the war was over?

[BigLutz]

When Bush had that "Mission Accomplished" banner, how many troops died because they had false reassurance that the war was over?

Why would troops die merely from "false reassurance" that the war was over? You would think they would be taking even greater care for themselves. Furthermore they would only be repositioned into Afghanistan or another position until their tour of duty was over. By the way as noted Bush made frequent reference in his speech that there was still work to do. Are you saying American troops are unable to comprehend what the President was saying?

By the way Harry Reid has said another stupid thing....

"WASHINGTON – Comparing disasters is probably never a good idea because regardless of the size it’s a travesty for those directly affected. Therefore, it was surprising, as well as factually incorrect, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Friday took to the Senate floor and declared that Hurricane Katrina was “nothing in comparison to what happened to the people in New York and New Jersey” from Hurricane Sandy.

Sandy devastated some of the nation’s most populated areas, but it didn’t come close to Katrina. Hurricane Katrina, and the flooding that followed when federally built levees failed, killing 1,833 and causing more than $145 billion in damage. Sandy has been blamed for 120 deaths and over $80 billion in damage."

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.s...l#incart_river

Yeah... Sandy was worse than Katrina as long as you ignore the deaths and damage

[Thomas Elliot]

Yet Boehner and his Republican cronies are allowing their actions to speak louder than their words by not providing aid to disaster victims yet requesting aid for their own constituents.

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/arti...Inaction_Watch

Your point about Reid's comments on the war have no basis in fact, it's merely your opinion. Yet you want to portray it as otherwise.
I absolutely love your hypocrisy, that Harry Reid needs to keep his mouth shut and not let anything deemed stupid to come out.
Yet Boehner can curse someone out and that is completely okay with you.

The same cannot be said for the Speaker's Office which has always been something less dignified and more dirty as it is used to get votes.

[BigLutz]

Yet Boehner and his Republican cronies are allowing their actions to speak louder than their words by not providing aid to disaster victims yet requesting aid for their own constituents.

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/arti...Inaction_Watch

I believe we have already gone over the aid bill and the problems within it.

Your point about Reid's comments on the war have no basis in fact, it's merely your opinion. Yet you want to portray it as otherwise.
I absolutely love your hypocrisy, that Harry Reid needs to keep his mouth shut and not let anything deemed stupid to come out.
Yet Boehner can curse someone out and that is completely okay with you.

First I would suggest that you go and learn what Hypocrisy means because the two situations are not comparable. Harry Reid went on National TV to demean the war and give strength to the enemy, something I have proven that they then used against America. On the other hand Boehner said something privately to Reid, the two situations are in no way comparable.