American Politics during the Obama Presidency

I read an interesting article about the comments that Chief Justice of the CA supreme court had to say related to the California state government:

[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/us/11calif.html[/url]

As bad as the more indirect democracy that we have at the federal and every other state level, California's much more direct democracy has driven the state to its knees.

Direct proof that given too much power, the people, in sufficient numbers, will vote in anything that "sounds good" but just can't work.

Our foundng fathers were very wise.

I studied Roman history in high school (back then in my school it was mandatory as was Latin) Reading the recent comments here it sent me back to the debates the Romans had about their Empire.

The Roman imperialists said "Oderint dum metuant." That means "let them hate so long as they fear."

The Roman Historian Tacitus, countered that with the sentiment with a quote from a British general who said of the Romans: "Auferre, trucidare, rapere falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant." That translates "to ravage, to kill, to steal under false pretenses they call empire and when they make a desert and they call it peace."

Things haven't changed very much for a lot of people even after two millennia. There are clearly a few fans of American imperialism here.

[QUOTE=Hunt99]I am sure that the Taliban will have no problem defending it against Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.[/QUOTE]Taliban just want to defend their poppy fields. They have a bumper crop this year. Hell, leave them alone and they will kill each other off.

I picked a hell of a time in life to quit sniffing glue.

Be good

The US should legalize personal consumption of drugs, tax the production and sales.

The drug war is over in a year.

There is big money in law enforcement and corrections.

[QUOTE=Sidney]This Sunday Fox news, is going to air a very important documentary about Barack Obama,

Sunday night at 8:00 PM central / 9 PM Eastern. The report will go back to Obama's earlier days, showing even then his close ties to radical Marxist professors, friends, spiritual advisers, etc.

It will also detail his ties to Rev. Wright for 20+ yrs. How he was participating with this man, and not for the reasons he states!

The report has uncovered more of Obama's radical past, and we will see things that no one in the media is willing to put out there. It will be a segment to remember.

Mark your calendar and pass this on to everyone you know: Sunday night, 8 PM. CT; 9 PM ET.

Democrat or Republican, this report will open your eyes to how YOUR country is being sold down the road to Totalitarian Socialism.

If you care about the direction of our country, pass this.

Notice on to everyone you know.[/QUOTE]A reliable source told me that Obama's father was a KGB operative who was ordered to sired a sleeper agent who could ascend to the presidency. However, the Nobel Peace Prize was never included in the planning.

[QUOTE=Damman]I picked a hell of a time in life to quit sniffing glue.

[/QUOTE]I am deeply sorry that an American company produced the toxic waste that you innocently inhaled. I apologize for the selfishness and greed that caused you to needlessly suffer. A new sense of responsibility and openmindedness in my country will ensure that such dark days of the past will never recur. Join me on a quest to remedy the abuses that come from unchecked commerce and destruction of the environment.

[QUOTE=Hunt99]I am deeply sorry that an American company produced the toxic waste that you innocently inhaled. I apologize for the selfishness and greed that caused you to needlessly suffer. A new sense of responsibility and openmindedness in my country will ensure that such dark days of the past will never recur. Join me on a quest to remedy the abuses that come from unchecked commerce and destruction of the environment.[/QUOTE]Ya sir mast ha. It is the second coming. By the way, need a little help with this credit-card thing. It was the glue.

[QUOTE=El Alamo]This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998.

But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures.

In the 1970's the prediction was that we were entering a new ice age. Wrong.

Lately the prediction has been than CO2 was causing global warming. Wrong.

I don't think there is anything sinister behind the global warming alarmists, nor do I think Al Gore is especially stupid for believing in global warming. The advocates of global warming simply made a weather prediction and their forecast was wrong.[/QUOTE]If you are seriously interested in this subject, a good source of information is [url]http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=6229[/url].

To summarise the causes: Scientists have determined that a number of human activities are contributing to global warming by adding excessive amounts of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide accummulate in the atmosphere and trap heat that normally would exit into outer space.

I'm not getting into an argument about this, just making available to anyone interested an excellent source which articulates the problem far better than I ever could.

Yes Steve.

Good site. But where is the global warming? It doesn't exist.

Where are the rising oceans? There are none.

How long will it be before these idiots give up this lost cause.

P.S. I can almost predict fatso Gore's response when the hoax of man made global warming is obvious to all.. I think he will say something like 'well, it sounded like a good idea at the time'

[QUOTE=SteveC]I'm not getting into an argument about this.[/QUOTE]And this is the last time I'm taking the bait!

There's so much information out there, you can do the research yourself. But in answer to your last question, have a look at this.

[url]http://www.actionbioscience.org/environment/chanton.html[/url]

And just because someone disagrees with you it doesn't necessarily make them an idiot!

Steve.

Sorry if I was abrasive. That was not my intent. And if you want to call global warming skeptics idiots, I will not be offended. Who knows, you might be right.

Personally, I couldn't care less about manmade global warming other than it is probably not a good thing if it is occurring.

I am just continually amused how this idea of man made global warming won't die.

But one thing is for sure. Time will tell.

Had we believed fatso Gore, hurricanes should have destroyed most of the Eastern United States,, tornados should have wiped out most midwestern cities in the United States and Florida should now be under water.

It is just so fucking funny that people believe this bullshit.

[QUOTE=SteveC]And this is the last time I'm taking the bait![/QUOTE]This is the last time. I'll be losing all credibility at this rate. OK, I didn't have any to start with.

I think the point about this is that Florida is not going to disappear in the next decade, we'll just have to wait a bit longer for that. But, if we don't take this seriously, we won't be able to stop it. And don't worry about being abraisive, I've got a thick skin. Just don't call me fatso.

Steve

Just to have some comment related to the possible (probable? Myth of global warming, as another possibility.

I've been hearing about global warming since the 70's. They have yet to hit any prediction that was presented as far as I know. That flies in the face of science, actually. They need to revise theories based on scientific data; not on trying to fit scientific data to their theories (those who are theorizing the end of civilization if we don't "do something")

[url]http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3061015&page=1&page=1[/url]

[url]http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2007/11/14/nasa-debunks-part-global-warming-myth-will-media-report-it[/url]

[url]http://z4.invisionfree.com/Popular_Technology/index.php?showtopic=2050[/url]

The second article's title ("NASA Debunks Part of Global Warming Myth, Will Media Report It?") makes me wonder: could it possibly be that man-made global warming is becoming a multi-billion dollar a year industry between big grants that concerned governments and "greenies" have a vested interest in perpetuating?

Governments and large organizations that deal with a large number of different issues (like the news media, for example, as well) as a whole, in my opinion, are generally too "stupid" by definition to understand the science behind what is being presented by those who look to slant the data in their favor.

As the article about the NASA report (and many others on the web) state, a lot of these changes are very cyclical, over decades. The Earth has been MUCH warmer in the past than it is now; includng during human times, but when the population of the Earth was measured in the tens or hundreds of millions, rather than billions. Humans didn't have the technology to affect the climate then (very questionable as to whether what we are contributing now even really shows up at all in the overall grand scheme of things) and yet there are ruins that can be found in places, like off the coast of Florida, South America and in places in the Mediteranean Sea, where whole cities are underwater because the shore line used to be a whole lot lower than it is today, all around the world.

People who build on low coasts are asking for problems even if there weren't rising sea levels (man-made or natural)

Just another panic for people to lose their attention to, which should be focused on more serious issues.

"There is a clear attempt to establish truth not by scientific methods but by perpetual repetition."
- Richard S. Lindzen, Ph.D. Professor of Atmospheric Science, MIT

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
- Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister

El Queso.

You and I are in the same boat. The climate always goes through warming cycles and cooling cycles. After billions of years of these warming and cooling cycles we have finally figured out that greedy, capitalist bastards are to blame for these cycles.

I don't know how this could become any more insane.

P.S. much to the dismay of the man made global warming fanatics, it appears we are now entering a cooling cycle.