American Politics during the Obama Presidency

I have noticed out fearless leader has taken some bold steps of late, deciding unilaterally the federal law regarding gay marriage is now unconstitutional.

We no longer need the Supreme Court, His Highness can decide what is 'Constitutional' or 'Unconstitutional' and direct the Justice Department to act accordingly regarding laws passed by Congress and signed by past presidents.

Just think, after getting rid of that pesky Supreme Court why not get rid of Congress as well and end all the bickering, rule by decree just like his buddy Chavez!

Obama has also taken bold steps to contain the crisis in Libya, he closed our embassy there. Wow I bet that has them quaking in their boots!

[QUOTE=Esten;415814]Very laughable Stan. Quite civil until attacked? How many seconds do you think it would take me to locate a post where he insulted someone who was simply stating a point of view without attacking anyone?[/quote]You? Forever! Given that you're a mental midget.

[quote=]Every reader here has seen enough of that from Walleye to know that what you wrote is a complete lie.[/QUOTE]Everyone also knows that you are a humorless, left-wing drone incapable of gathering facts and forming cogent thoughts or ideas of your own. Other than that, I am certain that you are lovely company.

I told you all up front that I am an asshole. Why don't you be honest and tell us what you are?

[QUOTE=Doppelganger; 415825]I have noticed out fearless leader has taken some bold steps of late, deciding unilaterally the federal law regarding gay marriage is now unconstitutional.

We no longer need the Supreme Court, His Highness can decide what is 'Constitutional' or 'Unconstitutional' and direct the Justice Department to act accordingly regarding laws passed by Congress and signed by past presidents.

Just think, after getting rid of that pesky Supreme Court why not get rid of Congress as well and end all the bickering, rule by decree just like his buddy Chavez!

Obama has also taken bold steps to contain the crisis in Libya, he closed our embassy there. Wow I bet that has them quaking in their boots! [/QUOTE]If he keeps going at the same pace, by election time they will be polling about the same regarding popularity at home.

I believe it was our esteemed, humorless colleague Esten who jumped all over me at the very beginning of our Supreme Ruler's term for pointing out that he is a Marxist with a very clear disdain for the Constitution and the American people. What do I know? (other than how to sling an insult or two)

Let's bomb them gal dang Libyans! Who's with me?! From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli!

I was reading an article about Raghuram Rajan, a famous economist, recently. He's concerned about inequality in the USA. His solution is education. If every American were provided with a first class education, the gap between the rich and poor would decrease. In a global economy this is essential. We need to educate the scientists, engineers, machinists, technicians, etc. to compete with China et al in the 21st century.

Rajan promotes ideas like paying teachers more for outstanding performance and promoting charter schools and vouchers. But this is never going to happen. Why? Because along the with trial lawyers, the teachers' unions control local, state and national Democrat parties. They have the same effect on schools that the UAW has on GM.

Adjusted for purchasing power, the USA already spends more per capita on education than any country in the world except possibly Luxembourg. But our system produces results far inferior to countries that spend much less. The Democrats are never going to let this money be spent efficiently. The primary reason is the teachers' unions. Some speculate that another reason is that a poorly educated, poorly-compensated underclass is helpful in electing Democrats. I'm not sure whether or not that's true.

[QUOTE=Doggboy;415861]Let's bomb them gal dang Libyans! Who's with me?! From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli![/QUOTE]If we could just colonize the oil fields. Maybe we could use that border fence they never built on the Mexican border.

It probably isn't worth pointing out how week and feckless the USA appears to the world (10 days to comment on Libya, no cogent position on Egypt, etc) and in particular to the Muslim World (who only understand strength).

[QUOTE=Wild Walleye;415832]I told you all up front that I am an asshole. Why don't you be honest and tell us what you are?[/QUOTE]IALOTFLMAO! I thought I was the biggest asshole on the board. Just ask the silly putas and the wild-ass liberals. Hope that my elite status isn't being infringed upon by you WW. I might get offended like all the humorless left wing retards that show up from time to time on this board. Better back down or no fishing trip for you. LOL. Happy Mongering All. Offended Toymann

[QUOTE=Toymann;415869]IALOTFLMAO! I thought I was the biggest asshole on the board. Just ask the silly putas and the wild-ass liberals. Hope that my elite status isn't being infringed upon by you WW. I might get offended like all the humorless left wing retards that show up from time to time on this board. Better back down or no fishing trip for you. LOL. Happy Mongering All. Offended Toymann[/QUOTE]As asshole second class

[QUOTE=Tiny12; 415863]I was reading an article about Raghuram Rajan, a famous economist, recently. He's concerned about inequality in the USA. His solution is education. If every American were provided with a first class education, the gap between the rich and poor would decrease. In a global economy this is essential. We need to educate the scientists, engineers, machinists, technicians, etc. To compete with China et al in the 21st century.

Rajan promotes ideas like paying teachers more for outstanding performance and promoting charter schools and vouchers. But this is never going to happen. Why? Because along the with trial lawyers, the teachers' unions control local, state and national Democrat parties. They have the same effect on schools that the UAW has on GM.

Adjusted for purchasing power, the USA already spends more per capita on education than any country in the world except possibly Luxembourg. But our system produces results far inferior to countries that spend much less. The Democrats are never going to let this money be spent efficiently. The primary reason is the teachers' unions. Some speculate that another reason is that a poorly educated, poorly-compensated underclass is helpful in electing Democrats. I'm not sure whether or not that's true. [/QUOTE]Hi Tiny. Thanks for posting that Economist article a while back. It was a good, in-depth discussion of the problems presented by unions. From the deafening silence emanating from our resident left-wingers, I suspect that even they cannot mount any cogent defense for public unions. But, they are much better at obfuscation than cogency when attempting to defend a point.

I read two additional pieces recently from unlikely sources, both pointing out how Democrats are now the party that desperately is trying to [i]undermine[/i] Democracy as best they can. I generally don't like Joe Klein or Time Magazine, but this is a decent piece.

[url]http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2011/02/18/wisconsin-the-hemlock-revolution/[/url]

And, Nolan Finley does a pretty good job of getting right to the point:

[url]http://www.detnews.com/article/20110227/OPINION03/102270310/1008/AWOL-Dems-defy-ballot-box[/url]

In essence, Democrats were "shellacked" this past election, to use their leader's words. They spent the better part of the run up to the election berating Republicans as the party of "no" for using the Filibuster. But, they still had their head handed to them by the electorate. So, what do Democrats do? They filibustered for a while in Wisconsin. But, when it appeared that this wouldn't succeed, they turned tail and ran. Essentially, despite a free and fair election, they refuse to participate in the democratic process unless they get their way.

They did the same thing in Indiana: Citizens be damned; we're not coming back unless we get our way.

So, now the Emperor has no clothes. Several things are abundantly apparent at this point.

First, the liberal message cannot succeed without a rigged game. That game is as follows. Force public workers to join unions in the majority of states. Automatically deduct union dues from public worker pensions. Spend the forcibly extracted union dues to re-elect Democrats, who then perpetuate this money-laundering scheme.

Liberals can cry all they want, but that [b]is[/b] What has been going on here. The population is generally pretty evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, with slight variations each election. But. 98. 7% of AFSCME contributions go to Democrats, with like percentages from other unions. It's no accident. A large proportion of their membership votes for the other team, but they need to continue this fraudulent scheme to have any chance. Unions are by far and away the biggest political contributors in this country, both at the national and especially the local levels. Starve them, and you starve the left.

So, now that someone has had the spine to challenge this corrupt enterprise, the Democrats refuse to play. The reason is as plain as day. They can't win without cheating, and they know it.

So, rounding back to the question you pose at the end of your post. Do the Democrats need a poorly paid and poorly educated demographic to succeed? You better believe it. That's their dirty little secret. Without that voting demographic and union money, they can't succeed.

If you look at American society as a whole, you have to say that the citizenry has "no clothes". Every president in their inaugural speech has made note of education but yet we have seen a steady decline in scores over the last 50 years. If not for the children of some minority immigrant groups, the decline in science and mathematics in the school systems would have been even more drastic. American buisness leaders have been beating their knuckles over this issue forever, yet Congress have not responded. And on the home front, the emphasis of dance and cheerleading teams clearly show where the Great American Society is, caught between 3rd base and home plate. Well, maybe, it is what it is, it's harder to stay at the top than to get to the top.

A public union employee, a tea party activist, and a CEO are sitting at a table with a plate of a dozen cookies in the middle of it.

The CEO takes 11 cookies, turns to the tea partier and says, 'Watch out for that union guy. He wants a piece of your cookie.'

A public union employee, a politician and a taxpayer are sitting at a table.

The taxpayer opens his lunchbag and pulls out a dozen cookies he baked for himself earlier that day.

The public union employee leans over to the politician and says [i]"The more of those cookies you take from the taxpayer and give to me, the harder I'll work to get you relected."[/i]

[QUOTE=Esten; 415892]A public union employee, a tea party activist, and a CEO are sitting at a table with a plate of a dozen cookies in the middle of it.

The CEO takes 11 cookies, turns to the tea partier and says, 'Watch out for that union guy. He wants a piece of your cookie. '[/QUOTE]I think you've got a point. Both the CEO and the public union employees play way too big a part in choosing the people who will decide their pay, being directors and politicians respectively. Shareholders and voters / taxpayers must take control, or suffer the consequences. In your imaginary group, it's the tea party activist who's the hero.

Or any intelligible inference that one may draw from your fictitious and fatuous farce?

[QUOTE=Esten; 415892]A public union employee, a tea party activist, and a CEO are sitting at a table with a plate of a dozen cookies in the middle of it.

The CEO takes 11 cookies, turns to the tea partier and says, 'Watch out for that union guy. He wants a piece of your cookie. '[/QUOTE]One question, where the fuck did the cookies come from? Did they just magically appear on the table? Guess they must metaphorically represent entitlements in that they appear out of nowhere and don't cost anyone anything.