The tables are turning. Missouri lawmakers flex muscles in call for professor's firing http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...-call-for-professors-firing.html?intcmp=hpbt2
I'm not an Obama fan for the most part, but I don't think he's been a disaster by any stretch. The main issue when he took office was the economy. We haven't been growing rapidly, but it has been steady over the last few years and unemployment is way down. I was recruiting at my alma mater a couple months backs. The difference between the options kids have compared to when I graduated is staggering. You have to look at the mess Bush left him. I mean holy shit. Costly unnecessary war that Bush kept off the books until Obama took office so it looked like it was him accumulating all the debt. He also inherited the worst recession since the great depression. He has tried to negotiate with Republicans. They look like spoiled children every time he suggests something. There isn't any idea that isn't the end of the world. I just don't see how someone can blame him for not finding middle ground when there is literally nothing they won't reject, even if it was their fucking idea first. I'm not entirely sure what the republicans stand for at this point other than scheming to make Obama look bad. What is it exactly they want to do? Just repeal everything? I pointed this one out before with regards to the tea party. He lowered their taxes and they went out and protested that he raised their taxes. You can't negotiate with people like that. They're just too fucking crazy. I can talk all day about the things I disagree with Obama on, but the other side sure as shit didn't help. A lot of republicans have finally admitted going to Iraq was a mistake. I wonder how long it will be before they admit Bush was the worst president since pre-WW2.
Unemployment is way down because a lot of people just gave the fuck up. http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
Can we change the phrase of 'so discouraged they are not longer seeking employment' to 'so lazy and worthless they won't even look for a job'. The jobs are out there if they give enough of a shit to apply. The participation rate should continue to dip with all the baby boomers retiring. In any case, I'm taking a nap so I'm not going to make a detailed argument now, but the economic outlook is leaps and bounds better than it was 8 years ago from my perspective.
What is the goal of the executive order? Why is it needed? Personally, I agree with Crown's comment and at the same time, I am fine with that. I don't go through the day thinking, "Gee, if only there were MORE laws, things would be better. Surely the best way for me to be more prosperous and enjoy more freedom is for more laws to be passed."
I think the focus on mental health and the sharing of mental health info with background checks is not just hot air, and could be very helpful. Even if one good thing comes of this with the rest being "hot air", I think it's a step forward.
I dont want to backtrack completely, but saying that Republican dislike for Obama is mostly based in racism is fucking absurdity. Some ultra-conservative rednecks, sure. But the man is WAY left of the aisle, and I would imagine that has a lot more to do with it than playing the race card.
Bring on smart guns! The economy could use another black-market tech sector for disarming them. It's difficult to honestly blame dislike for Mr. Obama on racism considering the popularity of Colin Powell, Herman Cain, and off-his-rocker Ben Carson. If we just blame all disagreement on racism then we don't have to have an intellectual discussion on his actions and philosophy. The critical point that almost the entire population of the U.S. misses is that the president has little effect on anything. All laws are passed by Congress, whose members are isolated in virtual anonymity. Everyone blames or congratulates the president while Congress continues to do the bidding of the people who keep them in office. Both branches are happy with that arrangement. "Reagan deficits" and "Clinton surplus" are both misnomers. The president does not have the power to pass spending bills; that is entirely Congress. Even here we use the term "Obamacare." Mr. Obama had very little to do with the AHA outside of getting elected on its promise and signing the bill. The rest of it was all Congress, who, again, wants us all to blame Mr. Obama.
Let's not forget that the frontrunner in the current presidential election dominated a few news cycles several years ago by claiming that Obama was in fact born in Kenya. For some odd reason, you didn't hear people saying John McCain was legally ineligible for the presidency because he was born outside of the United States. Or Ted Cruz, for that matter.
Thats because he was born on a US Navy base, so he wasnt born outside of US soil. Ted Cruz's status is much murkier, and you hear plenty of people discussing it (just not to the degree of the Obama shit). I guess his argument is that hes a citizen because his mother was was an American-born contractor on foreign soil, or something. Definitely something that should be questioned. The Obama nonsense was pretty stupid, and people thinking it should be embarrassed.
I mean, the real answer here is that you don't actually need to be born in the U.S. to be president; you just need to be a "natural-born citizen". To suggest that someone born outside of the US to American parents isn't a natural-born citizen would imply that, say, children of tourists born abroad need to immigrate to the U.S. and gain citizenship in the same way that adult immigrants do.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause
Read the laws. The argument was that if Mr. Obama was born outside the U.S. to a foreign father then his mother did not meet the criteria to qualify him as "natural born" at the time of his birth. Both Cruz and McCain met the criteria. The State of Hawaii validated his birth certificate, so the point is moot. While Trump was the most vocal champion of the birther conspiracy, it was the 2008 Clinton campaign that raised the citizenship issue to try to regain lost ground. Why does nobody call Mrs. Clinton racist? You can't have it both ways.
Well, you're putting words in my mouth here. I'm not exactly a Clinton supporter, and plenty of people have called out Bill and Hillary for playing the race card in the 2008 primary. The real problem is that the state of Hawaii had to validate his birth certificate in the first place. But I suppose you'd claim that it's a perfectly logical and reasonable position to doubt that Obama was born in America, and not at all motivated by racism.
Are you serious? First of all, Obama is center right. Second, it seems kinda suspect that teabaggers, the people in charge of the Republican party, are mostly located in the south and midwest. Ain't no history of racism there, no sir. Here's a map of their caucus that I can't link to for some reason.
Center right? Maybe as president, when he was elected, his track record and profile wasn't anywhere near center nor right. Find a president with an opposite party senate/congress who isn't center and I'll find you a unicorn. And I didn't know you were referring to actual party members, not voters identifying or registered as Republican. And zzr said my thoughts pretty well a few posts above.
I've heard every kind of stupid criticism you could level at Obama, but minus some rednecks none of it really seemed racist. You can dislike what someone says all you want, but I think they deserve the benefit of the of the doubt when there isn't something in their words directly tied to race. I think the reason Obama is slightly more disliked than your average democrat president is that his followers not only bought into every promise he made, they even bought into some he didn't make. The hard on people had for the guy during the 2008 elections was unreal.
And I've heard numerous people call him every racist thing in the book, up to and including saying that "someone should shoot that nigger". Obama's policies, with the exception of health care, aren't appreciably different than Bush's. The criticism of him is as vitriolic as it is because A) he's black, B) his name sounds Muslim/middle eastern. I guess it's to your credit that you think otherwise, but I think you are mistaken.
I think the truth lies somewhere in between. Republicans hate Democrats for any and all reasons (and vice versa). Hardcore republicans will run down everything from policy to how he shakes hands. After all that is exhausted you have nothing else, so you move to racism. I know a person that likes to share memes on facebook about how a marine held something for Obama one day (I think and umberella), and how that was the biggest disgrace ever. He then went one to talk about how Obama's kids went skiing in Vail for a week, then flew to Hawaii for a week at Christmas. "I wish I could provide vacations for my kids like that". You mean you are upset that the most powerful person in the world gets better vacations than you, and this is a way to judge him? This person had a 20 year old daughter with a heart issue that couldn't get insurance before Obama care. Obama could cure AIDS and cancer, and he would be criticized by republicans for not curing diabetes. The same thing holds true for Bush and Democrats. I just wish we could all meet in the middle and be happy.
Oh for God's sake: Alabama top justice orders judges not to issue gay marriage licenses http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...udges-not-to-issue-gay-marriage-licenses.html