So, as everyone knows, I'm hardly ecstatic about the Obama administration thus far, but today marked two big victories for them.
The first is the
thorough cockslapping given to AT&T's bid to take over T-Mobile. They had already said that it wasn't going to happen, but now they've said "not only is it not going to happen, but also: Suck it, AT&T!" A blow struck for the little guy!
Second,
Boeing announced that they were going to be constructing new planes in Washington, after another thorough cockslapping by the Obama administration. For those of you who don't know, Boeing had announced that in order to punish the unions in Washington, they were going to move their operations to South Carolina in order to punish the unions in Washington. The NLRB, under the Obama administration's leadership, told them that that was illegal retaliation, and to fuck right the hell off.
So, this thread is for the discussion of the trials, tribulations, and successes of the administration.
Posts
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/11/29/numbers-141000?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl
Not saying that to dis Obama, it's just an important point that they're acting to enforce labor law rather than doing Obama's bidding.
How does it fund anything?
Something needs to make money to fund things
I guess they're trying to claim drug dealers and terrorists sell bootleg movies and albums to fund their operations?
Or something stupid?
http://nation.foxnews.com/brian-terry/2011/11/30/obama-admin-seals-records-murdered-border-patrol-agent-implicated-fast-and-furious
as for why you should care my thread which I am waiting on Holders Dec 8th testimony before congress to update.
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/143121/operation-gunwalker-eric-holder-lied-before-congress
This isn't a thing that happens in the US
Here's to hoping.
Yeah... I think it's actually more a "scare people into hating digital piracy" propaganda thing.
of course I'm quite sure this campaign will immediately also encompass online piracy because look that's just how this shit always works
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Well yes. The links between Mexican street piracy and the drug cartels are documented well enough.
But Mexico and China are not the US, and in the US street piracy is basically contained to a handful of population centers whereas digital piracy is far more common.
Exactly, simple PR, if you talk about Physical piracy but just say Piracy then you program people to think primarily in terms of physical piracy when the word comes up and then when Digital Piracy comes up they can just say "Piracy!" and technically be correct but have now drawn an entirely different and misleading picture in someone's mind about what you're talking about. (To your advantage)
You've only got 4 days to get it 10k more signatures!!!
I may have to sign that one. And encourage all my friends to do so. Shit, you guys are my friends. Go sign the damn thing. Its funnier then hell and something I want to see submitted. If only because it is John Stewart funny. Funny because its true.
He retained all of the Wall Street thieves in his administration, he did not close the U.S. concentration camp in Cuba, he awarded Bush Sr. the 'Freedom Medal' in February, he assassinated Bin Laden and called that 'justice' (because apparently shooting people in the head is how justice is now done), he didn't utter a whisper of support for the OWS protests (in fact, he more or less stayed in keeping with the media blackout), he did not support nationalized healthcare and has not implemented national programs to employ people (or even to just get them some fucking money for rent and food).
He's a hypocrite and a lying scumbag.
I guess at least he's not also a young earth creationist?
So let's see: actual mistake, something he couldn't do unilaterally, meaningless symbolism, something we can argue about but I'm not exactly blaming the soldiers for not taking extra risks to capture him, a good thing (making them explicitly partisan would have been the fastest way to kill them), something that would have been pointless, and another thing he couldn't do unilaterally.
And that's something I want to point out. Its something that pisses me off.
THE PRESIDENT DOES NOT HAVE GODDAMN SWEEPING DOMESTIC POWERS. Seriously, the President of the United States is not a goddamn Prime Minister. limited domestic powers. A lot of the blame for that stuff does fall on congress. When it comes to domestic policy they were purposely given the lions share of the power.
True. But also keeping us out of a Vietnam-quagmire in Iraq. Building better foreign relations, basically being the opposite of his son.
The man was not perfect, but he was a much, much better President than his kid.
He was an asshole, but not an awful President (certain pardons not withstanding). But since every President since at least Nixon has either done something blatantly illegal or assisted the previous administration's blatant illegality to go ignored (except Carter!), he remains the best President from 1969 to 2009. Go America!
Sure. So why call it 'justice', then? Even if you agree with the assassination (having thought this over for quite a while, in the end I think it was a prudent call. Bin Laden had essentially consented to being dealt with lethally), why can't we have leaders who own-up to it honestly?
Bush Sr. really began two incredible damaging things: the political war against environmentalism, and the smear campaign strategy via conservative media.
Hasn't the smear campaign been around since Julius Caesar's famous debate with Bibulus?
Bush Sr is the reason my dad was shot in Laos and then denied the proper honors for it because you couldn't have been shot in Laos we have no troops in Laos, until the class action lawsuit
Edit: it might have been Cambodia, I'd have to check, but he was one of the rangers sent to blow up bridges
"NoBama said he was gonna get ridda all them things from Bush's presidency, and look! He's doing the same shit! Man, he's fucking worst! We gotta get the Republicans back in the Oval Office."
At this point supporting Obama has to take some massive cognitive dissonance. I mean sure you can jump on the Republican hate wagon, and vote against them. That at least makes a bit of sense, but to actually support Obama at this point is baffling to me.
Hell whomever wins the republican nomination could pull an audience member onto stage, ritually disembowel them, and hang them by their entrails from the lighting fixtures and still end up being the lesser of two evils.
Roger Ailes was given his big break at the behest of Bush, which is what I was referring to.
Bush ran his entire campaign about how, "We are going to be up to our ears in owls and out of work for everyone," and, to this day, denies man-made climate change. Reagan might have deity-like status among Republicans, but Bush had much broader influence because of his appeal to independent voters.
Ok I'm up on things enough to know that most of this is ridiculously slanted but can someone tell me how Obama "funneled guns into Mexico"?
-.-
Uh, nope.
None of the Republican candidates at all approach 'lesser evil' status, much less do it when compared to Obama. Obama's another wealthy Washington scumbag interested in representing his millionaire friends; the Republicans are just flat-out insane.
It's the difference between Churchill and the fascists (but with less brandy).
If you're into the whole bichromatic politics bit, Obama is the only reasonable choice. I'm just not of the bichromatic sort.
It was not Obama, it was the ATF through the Gunwalker program. A few people in Obama's administration probably knew about the strategy and did not speak up (Obama is probably one of those people, but this was not directly his initiative).
Um, come again?
Check my previous post on this page for a link to the thread. Basically
Step 1. The ATF, DOJ, FBI, IRS, and ICE decides Mexican Cartels need a fuckton of guns.
Step 2. The alphabet agencies proceed to give them guns, tons of guns, violate their own policies to give them guns, and then make sure that it is really hard to trace said guns if you are in Mexico. As in as far as their system for tracking guns was concerned these guns do not exist. If you entered them in the system it gave you an error.
Step 3. Border Patrol agent gets killed with one of these guns, and the field agents who normally get blamed for everything decide to turn whistleblower because even when they went directly to the DOJ they were told everything is fine. Fun quote "If you do not think this is fun, you are in the wrong line of work."
Step 4. Senator Grassley finally takes a notice after months of people trying to find someone, anyone in DC to take this seriously. He gets told basically to fuck off. He calls Issa. Issa gets told basically to fuck off.
Step 5. Shitstorm.
That Border Patrol agent was Brian Terry, and this week Obama sealed the murder investigation under the guise of national security.
I meant someone who wasn't making ridiculous claims, bro.
I'm pretty critical of Obama but I disagree, I think he honestly believes he's blowing with the wind of the populace here, 2010 really shook him up and he took on a much more conservative demeanor.
He's certainly a big fan of corporations and millionaires sure, but I believe he also genuinely wants to improve social services, education, and all that jazz - but it seems like he thinks over half the nation is teapers (which watching the news with no outside sources is certainly what I'd conclude)