I am quickly losing faith in President Obama's ability to handle this economic crisis. The ARRA is nothing close to what Obama had been out there selling it as. To say there is no pork is an outright lie. It's insulting to be told that the garbage in this act is going to save our economy. As far as I'm concerned, President Obama has just wasted a trillion dollars of taxpayers money. You can not just take the president's word for it, I urge you all to investigate this for yourself and you will see what a terrible thing this is. We are spending money we don't have on programs that will not help the economy. If anything, this plan will only prolong the economic hardship. This is not the kind of change I had hoped for, this is an outrage.
Unemployment is on the rise in America as I'm sure everyone knows. The best way to stimulate the economy is to get Americans back to work. The only question is, what can our government do to help create jobs? Some ideas are good, and some are not so good. Giving companies tax credits for creating jobs is fine, but companies do not hire people they don't need just to get a few thousand dollar tax credit. There is no one size fits all solution to this problem. I'm sure the government will create jobs by spending money on improving roads and bridges, but we need new jobs in every type of industry. There is only so much the government can do. I think they need to focus on creating a more business friendly environment. They need to identify and remove a lot of the roadblocks that prevent or discourage a business from expanding. The government needs to inspire and assist in entrepenuership by making more small business loans available. Government action alone will not improve our economy. There are always ups and downs in the economy, and it will definatly come back up even if the government does nothing. Since the government is determind to do something, they should atleast do things that make sense and wont inadvertantly prolong this economic downturn. A lot of economists believe that FDR's "New Deal" actually made the great depression worse. Let's hope that is not the case this time. The goernment can make a big impact in the economy and the jobless rate by assisting small business owners. It will be a while before real jobs come out of public works projects. Small business owners can create jobs overnight if they are able to expand.
COUPLES who have more than two children are being “irresponsible” by creating an unbearable burden on the environment, the government’s green adviser has warned.
Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the government’s Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming. He says political leaders and green campaigners should stop dodging the issue of environmental harm caused by an expanding population.
MY RESPONSE TO THIS:
I think this kind of suggestion is disgusting and really shows the arrogance of these so-called environmental experts. How dare they try to tell you and I how many kids we can have. If they want to decrease the population, they should commit suicide if they think it's that important. I'm sure there are lots of important people throughout history who were the third or fouth child. By not having a third child, someone could inadvertantly deny the opportunity to live to someone who might go on to cure cancer or develope the technology to reverse global warming. This is not China, people should be free to have as many children as they want. If we start allowing so-called environmental gurus to dictate how we live our lives, we'll all end up riding bicycles to and from the breadlines that will exist because every job remotely related to industry will be abolished. Environmentalists don't care about the validity of their message or how it will impact society. They just want people to listen to them so they can feel important.
Below you will find the total number of viewers of the various programs on cable news outlets for the evening of 1/28/2009.
FOXNEWS OREILLY 3,891,000FOXNEWS HANNITY 3,034,000FOXNEWS BECK 2,306,000FOXNEWS SHEP 2,299,000FOXNEWS GRETA 2,155,000MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,581,000CNN COOPER 1,559,000CNN KING 1,420,000CNN BLITZER 1,490,000CNNHN GRACE 1,435,000MSNBC MADDOW 1,398,000
As usual, Fox News continues to blow away the competition with The O'Reilly Factor on top and other Fox News programs rounding out the top 5. What do these numbers tell us? I think it shows that this country leans more to the right then some people might think. News organizations like MSNBC are without a doubt very liberal. Now that the democrats are in charge in Washington, you might think that America is moving towards the left. If that were the case, you would think that MSNBC would be on top. I can explain this phenomenon very easily. Liberal talk shows are incredibly dull and irritating. That is why liberals can not find success on TV or radio. It's the same reason that Limbaugh enjoys huge ratings while Air America is ignored. People like Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow have small audiences because their political ideology is painful to listen to. Listening to liberals bitch and moan is no fun, that is why people watch Fox News
Do yourself a favor and do not be tricked by the notion that there is any stimulus plan in the works. Don't be fooled by thinking that our government is about to relieve you of your financial burdens or improve your economic situation in anyway. This so called stimulus plan is nothing but a huge increase in government spending. If any of this money ever manages to seep it's way into the pockets of average Americans, it will be a very long time before it does. This is nothing but a big collection of pork projects that will not directly benifit you financially. This plan will not create private sector jobs in the short term, it's not going to cut your taxes, and you most certainly will not be recieving a check in the mail. If you think that the government is going to pay your mortgage you are sadly mistaken. This is all about things like road construction and building water treatment plants. It's a gross misrepresentation to suggest that this plan has anything to do with stimulating the economy.
I have a prediction. When Rick Warren comes to the microphone to deliver the invocation, the crowd will try to shout him down and disrupt the event. While some of you may think that would be the proper thing to do, I happen to think that would be very wrong. Barack Obama asked Rick Warren to deliver the invoaction, and everyone should respect that. Regardless of how you feel about Rick Warren, disrupting the invocation would only serve to tarnish what will be a very historical event. Not only would the crowd humiliate themselves, they would also humiliate our new president. The media will end up focusing more on the crowds hostility towards Rick Warren then they would covering the importance of this great event. I would like to think that the crowd will be respectful, but since this is a crowd of liberals we are talking about, I think that is expecting too much.
I'm sure that Barack Obama will be a good president and I hope he does great things during his presidency, as do all of his supporters. The thing that Obama supporters need to realize and keep in mind is that Barack Obama is not a miracle worker. Based on what I've read in a lot of blogs on this site, I feel like some people's expectations are way too high. I think some people might be setting themselves up for disappointment because they are waiting for Obama to walk on water, so to speak. Change is not going to happen overnight, and in some cases it might not happen at all. The war in Iraq will not end the day after the inaguration. Global warming will not be reversed this time next year. I'm not saying everyone has unrealistic expectations, but there are certainly some out there who do. President Obama will have his hands full with economic issues from the start, and how well he handles that will effect what he is able to do during the rest of his presidency. If the economy continues to suffer, the chances of having any meaningful change in healthcare will be slim. I just hope that people realize and understand that President Obama has a tough job ahead of him, and he is limited in his power. Along with the problems that already exist, there will more that creep up unexpectedly. Just remember to cut the guy some slack if he's not able to bring all the change that you might have hoped for.
Do the big three automakers in Detroit really need $50,000,000,000.00 (that's 50 billion)? I seriously doubt that they do. I think that they see the government ready to bailout banks and other financial institutions, and I think they just want to get in on the action. Democrats like Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid seem to be pushing pretty hard for the auto industry to get a chunk of the bailout money. I thought democrats were supposed to be against "corporate welfare", and if this isn't an example of just that, I'm not sure what is. I think the entire bailout plan is a big mistake for many reasons. As for the US auto industry, I really think they could manage to stay in business without a taxpayer bailout if they tried, but naturally they are going to try to get a big check from the government before they bother to restructure their corporations to adjust to this economy. I think this sets an ugly trend that will encourage other industries to go after bailout money. I really believe that these companies and banks need to solve their problems on their own, and not scam the American taxpayers out of their hard earned money. If Wall Street and Detroit have managed their money so poorly that they need to be bailed out, I would expect they will just piss away any money the government sends their way, and will probably come back wanting more. A lot of companies, especially small business and even individuals in this country are going through a tough time too. We can't bailout everyone, and really shouldn't be bailing anyone out, especially Wall Street. In the business world, there are always going to be winners and losers. I say if GM can't make it on their own, then they should shut their doors. If they want to stay in business, they need to make the adjustments that will allow them to stay competative. Next it will be the airlines wanting bailout money, and the list will only continue to grow. Our government needs to say no bailouts for anyone, and if they do, I think we'll all find that these comapnies will get along just fine without it.
The election is just a little over a month away. Right now it seems like it is going to be a very close election. It would be nice if Obama won by a landslide, just to avoid any recounts and things like that. I feel like it could go either way at this point. I would hate to see McCain win, mostly because I just don't like the guy at all. I am a republican, but I'm willing to vote for a democrat to keep McCain out of the whitehouse. It's not just that. I do like Obama. I don't agree with a number of things he supports, but I think he would represent America well. I think it's a shame that he picked Joe Biden as his running mate. Biden is a complete idiot and he has done nothing to help Obama so far, and I doubt he will help at all. There are rumors going around that Obama is going to dump Biden, but I doubt it. Biden has said a lot of really stupid things, and I think it is hurting Obama. I'm sure you've all heard the "Stand up Chuck" line, that was pretty bad. Then there was the one about Roosevelt going on TV in 1929 after the stock market crash. Let's just hope that if Obama gets elected...nothing bad happens to him. Picking Biden does kind of worry me about Obama's judgment. If he picks a guy like Biden for VP....who will he pick for other important positions? I hope he doesn't bring back a bunch of goons from the Clinton administration. You wouldn't have much "change" if he does that. I hope he stays far away from the Clintons and their gang of washington hacks. It will be very interesting to see what Obama's first 100 days are like. Will Obama actually change Washington or will Washington change him? I agree that there is a lot that needs to change, but my idea of change would be more in line with a conservative ideology. I think we need to reduce the size of government. We need to reduce government spending. We need to limit all of these entitlment programs that will eventually go bankrupt. The republicans failed us by letting the size of government grow by 40% over the past 7 years. I would love to see a lot of things change, but Obama's idea of change is not the same as mine. I'll still vote for him because he is better then McCain. If Obama screws up, maybe we'll have a good republican candidate in 2012. The truth is, and everyone knows it even if they don't want to admit it, Obama is a big gamble. He is definatly a talented guy, but he has no experience running anything. The presidency is an executive position. Obama has never had any kind of executive experience, so there is no way to know if he'll do a good job or not. McCain has no executive experience either, but he has been around long enough to know how things work. I do hope that Obama wins and does a great job, but I am a bit skeptical. We can't afford to have a president who is going to make a lot of mistakes. There are a lot of critical issues at home and abroad that our next president will have to deal with. As much as people would like to ignore Iran, they will become a big problem very soon. I hope that Obama is tough enough to keep certain countries in check. Everyone knows that Iran is working on nuclear weapons, and Obama will have to deal with that. Russia will certainly start to become more aggressive, and that is going to be a problem. I know you all hate Bush, but I honestly believe that a lot of these hostile countries have been waiting for Bush to leave office so they can start causing trouble. People like Ahmedinijad, Putin, and Kim Jong Il might think they can get away with a lot more if Obama is elected. Let's just all hope that Obama is a good president and does his job well.
