I hope all the people who didn't vote for Obama watched it. He did address them, mostly with the same message Xavius posted.

Speaking of distracting, and I feel like I'm prolly gonna go to hell or somethin for saying this cause I'm sure he's got some kind of condition, but there was this speaker on one of the news networks (NBC maybe? I was flipping around and forget now) and he was very eloquent and all, but I couldn't pay attention to his words without turning away from the tv.

Cause his eyes wiggled all over the place, sometimes independently of each other, and it totally freaked me out.

Somewhat late, and somewhat pointless now, but reading the thread and hearing all the crap from the past several months caused me enough annoyance to want to post it anyway...

People voted for Obama because they would benefit from his policies. That doesn't make them dumb, it doesn't make them socialists, they're looking out for their own interests.

People voted for McCain because they would benefit from his policies. That doesn't make them rednecks, it doesn't make them racists, they're looking out for their own interests.

The country will not become third world because of one man, stop being so god-damned melodramatic.

I'm done. Its out of my system now.

In defense of crazy republican shills (note that I'm not referring to all republicans, just the crazy shill-like ones), Dubya,--one man--has brought our country to damn-near third world status, compared to where we were before he took the reigns. So, basically, they have experience with one-man wrecking crews, and since they voted for him twice, I think it's in their head that everyone must be incapable of good decisions.

Boy coming into work today was interesting (3/5 of my coworkers are McCain supporters). My "Goodmorning!" was met with hostility!

I really wasn't going to post anything, but why not. Bush has not brought this country to where it is now by himself. Any president really cannot do much without the support of congress. They pass the budget and they approve the bills.

Which he proposed and harumphed, if memory serves.

The president cannot do much of anything without congress passing it. Regardless of the moans and groans, for the last two years, it went through the democratic congress. The budget for the war, approved by congress, the bailout of the banks, approved by congress. The biggest defict in the history of the US, approved by congress. Blame what you want on the president, cause he has made some bad bad mistakes ... but to say it is all him is incorrect.

I'll concede that. It's not ENTIRELY his fault. I will say, though, that he deserves a fairly large chunk of the blame for the utter FAIL that his term has been.

You do realize that the whole idea of the recent Congress being Democratic is smoke and mirrors, yes? Dems barely had the majority, and they very blatantly did not have the power to override a Presidential Veto, which Bush utilized more than a few times.

Yes, Congress has to approve spending, however, Pubs definitely had enough seats that they only had to get a few Dems on their side to pass a lot of crap, especially when the Pubs would tack a lot of nasty stuff on to bills that absolutely had to pass for other reasons--even McCain agreed that past generation of Republicans were corrupt and a major reason for the decline of the country.

Also, I wasn't simply referring to Economics, Bush did a lot of damage to every single aspect of the country. Reputation, Diplomacy, Economy, Freedom. You name it, Bush probably kicked it a couple times.

The victory speech was quite good indeed. Was in today's top ten on tv torrents too.

Did you just compare the US to a third world nation...?

Our whole political systems is smoke and mirrors. It doesn't really matter who is in or who is not, democrats and republicans are politicians first. We don't elect common everyday people, we elect people who can raise and spend 500 million to win a job that pays 200k.

And yes, the democrats had a small majority, but it was the majority none the less. And yes, President Bush did use his veto power ( a power that Clinton got during his presidency ) and yes, the house and the senate never got enough votes to override the veto. To just say the the pubs would tack on a lot of nasty stuff to bills is true and is misleading. The democrats did the same things too. They are all politicians first.

And yes, Bush did do a lot of damage to this country, but to say that he is alone in that is wrong.

545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese


Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.


You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices. 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes.

Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi.


She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ.

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.


Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.



Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.


They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses. Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

This whole mess that we are in right now was a result of the ideology that everybody should get a loan because they all need a house because it's part of the dream. Yes, it is good to own a home, and I wish everybody could do so, BUT DONT BUY ONE UNTIL YOU CAN AFFORD THE LOAN. But no, Carter and his congress had to pass the CRA, and then Clinton gave it teeth in 95(He even attributes a lot of this mess to democrats in congress), and so now we had risky subprime loans being made left and right. The major fault in this situation is in that of congress, both republican and democrat over the past 20 years. I do disagree wholeheartedly with Bush's bailout plan, but other than that, he's done alright. Unemployment has been relatively low during his presidency, until this crisis. HE TRIED TO WARN US ABOUT FM/FM nearly 20 times. TWENTY TIMES! There are videos of democratic congressmen saying that FM/FM were just fine. McCain in 2005 said that unless something was done, there would be a meltdown and we would be bailing them out. Look what happened. The democrats and some republicans blocked any efforts to change it. Then you have people like Franklin Raines at FM who took advantage of policies, and cooked the books to make himself a lot of money. Let us not forget that Obama is one of the top recipients of donations from Fannie Mae. Finally, we the people need to learn some PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY, and not take out loans that we can not afford! Everybody took out excessive loans for crap they didn't need! But now we need to help them out? Bull I do not want to see ONE tax dollar go to ANYBODY who did not read the print, take a good analysis of their financial situation, and make the decision according to what they have the means to afford. The government is not supposed to be all-encompassing. They are not there to hold your hand, we need to be self-reliant or the government will gain more power than any of us would like. Insult Bush all you want for the war, but that policy originated under the Clinton administration. Iraq violated almost every condition of the Gulf War ceasefire. We were telling them what would happen if they didn't straighten up, and they flipped us the bird and said bring it on. Anybody who has actually READ the inspectors reports will tell you that there are definite signs of weapons having been there, and there were signs of a rush to move them elsewhere in a hurry. Over 500 chemical weapons(ignored because they aren't always designated WMD's) were found, as well as a HUGE stash of yellow-cake(uranium for weapons processing). And for those who call the war illegal, there is a UN mandate, which expires at the end of this year, and we are already negotiating for a post-mandate Iraq(ie, withdrawal). On the subject of Illegal wars? What about Clinton's wars? Bosnia? Kosovo? We have been sold a bunch of horseshit by the media, and this idiotic country has bought it.

/end rant


Now that we have lost this election, there is strong talk of the republican party rebuilding and getting back to it's reaganesque days, which makes me happy.

Was nobody disturbed by Obama declaring that America is not a country of individuals?

A private jet to Hawaii from New York, costs $50,000 round trip.

but I'm guessing that they have the 757 on constant use, and the 400K pricetag is inaccurate. (atleast I'm hoping), but honestly, there isn't anything else for them to use that campaign money on. So ofcourse they won't be frugel with it.

I might have missed something on an earlier page, but do the elections in Canada last this long? I was talking to a guy from Alberta yesterday and he was utterly amazed at how long they campaign down here.

I don't think anyone drags out campaigns like we do.

Oh god no, and like no one pays attention to ours anyways if the American one is going on. It ended like a month ago and really didn't run that long. This years was pretty hilarious because of all the Bush bashing.


edit: Though, we do expect to be back at the polls in two years instead of four years. Harpers government is on pretty shakey terms.

America has never had campaigning for elections last this long before either.

I need to go find that comic from 2 years ago.