I'm a little irked that he's staying out of the Iran election debacle

6/18/2009 2:13:26 PM

is he the president of Iran?

6/18/2009 2:18:33 PM

Quote :

"The unraveling was caused mostly by gov't intervention in the economy...forcing banks to loan to people who couldn't pay back."

My understanding of the government's involvement, regarding the CRA, is that the banks that were forced by the government to loan to sub prime borrowers were heavily regulated and had relatively low default rates amongst their borrowers. In 1999, the CRA was amended and deregulated to allow private banks to provide sub prime loans with little oversight, which resulted in much higher default rates.

Quote :

"Personally, I think its really weird how some Democrats went from distrusting everything the government said and did when George Bush was President to wanting it to run health care and create litany of new regulations now that a Dem is in charge."

Honestly, I'm not sure that as many people distrusted George W. Bush after five months of his presidency as they do currently with Obama. It's possible; I recall Bush receiving more support from the public after the 9/11 attacks.

I personally would have voted for Bush in 2000; however, I would not have voted for him in 2004, and I wanted him impeached at some point, either before or after that.

At this point in Obama's presidency, I can't say whether I would likely vote for him in 2012 or if I would ever want him impeached. I would most likely make that decision based on his actions and his decisions that occur over the course of his presidency.

[Edited on June 18, 2009 at 2:46 PM. Reason : ]

6/18/2009 2:21:42 PM

Obama is the man!

I'd like to see McCain try and kill a fly on his hand without breaking 47 bones

6/18/2009 3:40:55 PM

Quote :

"It was so obviously wrong that folks like prominent members of the Obama admin supported it anyways (Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden if you don't recall)."

These people just didn't have the balls to say "hey wait a minute" when we were so close to 9/11 and Cheney was swearing the terrorist were knocking on our doors from Iraq. I don't believe that their support was based on them thinking Saddam was an imminent threat, it was based on political expediency.

OTOH, there are significant indicators that our healthcare system is screwed up, and could easily be better. The concern isn't if something should be done, it is what exactly should be done.

Considering though how deep the insurance companies' fingers go into our government, it is questionable how effective any reform can really be.

6/18/2009 4:30:09 PM

This is a post for hooksaw. But it also related to my previous post about the subjectivity of "success".




hooksaw looks at this chart and wonders whether the stimulus package is working and whether we should have pursued it in the first place.

Brad Delong looks at the **same chart** and wonders whether the stimulus package is working and whether we should pursue in a larger package in the near future.
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2009/06/comment-for-the-economist-on-christina-romer-2009-the-lessons-of--1937.html

I just thought that was a funny example of how success if relative. And also I thought hooksaw would get a kick out of it.

But to comment on the content of their opinions, I personally agree with both hooksaw and Delong. I personally believe that a fiscal stimulus was required. However, I think the stimulus was got was very poorly designed. The majority of the stimulus package doesn't kick in until much farther down the road it neglected to provide aid to state governments and local governments to help them meet their balanced budget requirements without raising taxes or cutting spending (both of which counteract any stimulus we have seen so far).

These are actually two of the primary criticisms Paul Krugman had of Bush's 2001 stimulus package.
http://www.pkarchive.org/economy/TaxCutCon.html

Imagine that. Politicians fucking things up once again and refusing to learn from previous mistakes.

[Edited on June 18, 2009 at 4:55 PM. Reason : ``]

6/18/2009 4:39:53 PM

Quote :

"These people just didn't have the balls to say "hey wait a minute" when we were so close to 9/11 and Cheney was swearing the terrorist were knocking on our doors from Iraq. I don't believe that their support was based on them thinking Saddam was an imminent threat, it was based on political expediency."

-moron

lol wow, you just converted me. Now I am no longer worried about politicians expanding the reach of the federal government in my everyday life. After all, they only screw up when they're either stupid/evil/or its in their interests to do so.

USA! USA! USA!

6/18/2009 4:54:15 PM

^^ Yes, and no matter who looks at the chart or how, the related numbers given by the Obama administration were wrong. And Biden--the stimulus overseer (oh, dear God)--admitted that they "guessed wrong."

6/18/2009 5:33:25 PM

^^weren't you a john edwards supporter at one point?

6/18/2009 5:36:57 PM

Quote :

"except that fannie and freddie didn't have nearly the amount of risky assets and over-leveraging that private banks had."

bull shit. who the fuck do you think bought up and BACKED these risky assets? you got it. And at whose behest did they do it? That's right, THE GOVERNMENT. ie, the gov't shares a HUGE portion of blame for this mess.

Quote :

"These people just didn't have the balls to say "hey wait a minute" when we were so close to 9/11 and Cheney was swearing the terrorist were knocking on our doors from Iraq. I don't believe that their support was based on them thinking Saddam was an imminent threat, it was based on political expediency."

So, what you are saying is that these slimey bastards don't have the testicular fortitude to stand up for what they believe is right? That almost makes them worse than dubya in the first place!

6/18/2009 7:07:15 PM

Israelis: "Obama doesn't like us! :-( "
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1245184872947&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Quote :

"Only 6 percent of Jewish Israelis consider the views of American President Barack Obama's administration pro-Israel, according to a new Jerusalem Post-sponsored Smith Research poll. ... Israelis' views of Obama's predecessor in the White House, George W. Bush, are nearly the opposite. According to last month's poll, 88% of Israelis considered his administration pro-Israel, 7% said Bush was neutral and just 2% labeled him pro-Palestinian. "

6/18/2009 10:25:11 PM

Quote :

"I'm a little irked that he's staying out of the Iran election debacle"

For the record, US politicians were asked to stay out of the matter by at least one Iranian social reform group... They worry that if the US starts putting support behind Mousavi (or against Ahmadinejad), it will make their side look like a pawn of the US/Western interlopers, which is pretty bad press in that side of the world.

6/18/2009 10:37:47 PM

yeah, not to mention, if we throw our support behind Mousavi, then it will make it a lot harder to keep a hard-line with him when Iran still pursues nuclear weapons.

6/18/2009 10:41:54 PM

people who want the US to officially support someone are idiots

6/18/2009 11:30:41 PM

Quote :

"As a senator, Barack Obama denounced the Bush administration for holding "secret energy meetings" with oil executives at the White House. But last week public-interest groups were dismayed when his own administration rejected a Freedom of Information Act request for Secret Service logs showing the identities of coal executives who had visited the White House to discuss Obama's "clean coal" policies. One reason: the disclosure of such records might impinge on privileged "presidential communications." The refusal, approved by White House counsel Greg Craig's office, is the latest in a series of cases in which Obama officials have opted against public disclosure. Since Obama pledged on his first day in office to usher in a "new era" of openness, "nothing has changed," says David -Sobel, a lawyer who litigates FOIA cases. "For a president who said he was going to bring unprecedented transparency to government, you would certainly expect more than the recycling of old Bush secrecy policies.""

Forget Transparency... He Can Kill a Fly!!!


http://www.newsweek.com/id/202875

6/20/2009 11:14:19 PM

^ the policy is "under review" http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31373407/ns/politics-white_house/page/2/

I bet the logs get released within a week.

6/21/2009 1:20:00 PM

yeah, but only after public outcry. can't really give the guy a thumbs up when he just does the same thing as his predecessor. CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN, though, right?

6/21/2009 8:25:07 PM

To me, this looks more like the underlings doing their own thing, until the higher ups find out.

And doing the "right thing" even after public outcry is still miles better than the Bush admin. That's pretty much how democracy is suppose to work anyway.

[Edited on June 22, 2009 at 2:23 AM. Reason : ]

6/22/2009 2:22:32 AM

http://abcnews.go.com/images/PollingUnit/1091a1ObamaandPolitics.pdf

6/23/2009 1:16:46 PM

ABC NEWS BIAS

6/23/2009 1:19:36 PM

Washington Post?

laff

6/23/2009 1:27:40 PM

^^^

So? Call me crazy, but polls don't give anyone credibility. Didn't Bush have still have over 60% approval/support ratings in the polls during the invasion of Iraq? Wasn't he much more popular than the Democrats during that time?

Even funnier, almost all recent polls, including that one, show that Obama is losing ground on pretty much every single issue, and his approval is slowly coming down. With almost no criticism by the big papers or networks, almost all positive coverage and support of his ideas, that is pretty significant. Imagine if the press actually did their job, instead of pushing his image.

6/23/2009 1:51:01 PM

Weird, so now the uninformed voter and ignorant brain dead America is suddenly wising up to the game? Or is it only because his support is going in a direction that makes you happy?

6/23/2009 1:56:54 PM

Quote :

" Weird, so now the uninformed voter and ignorant brain dead America is suddenly wising up to the game? Or is it only because his support is going in a direction that makes you happy? "

What? Sense, try to make it.

6/23/2009 2:01:35 PM

Not that I'm doubting, but I would like to see these polls that indicate Obama is "losing ground on pretty much every single issue".

6/23/2009 2:12:17 PM

Can someone quantify for me how much ground the President needs to sign a Congressionally approved bill into law or issue an executive order?

[Edited on June 23, 2009 at 2:16 PM. Reason : Like, is it so many tons or cubic meters or what?]

6/23/2009 2:16:26 PM

Oh I'm sorry, I guess I should have quoted the rest of your own thought so you wouldn't be confused

Quote :

"With almost no criticism by the big papers or networks, almost all positive coverage and support of his ideas, that is pretty significant."

So, what you are saying, is somehow the public who we've previously determined are idiots have suddenly gotten a brain in the absence of any criticism.

That...isn't likely. No, the more probable response is there has in fact been criticism and it is swaying public opinion. But it's just way more fun to pretend that the media gives Obama a complete free pass and Americans suddenly got smart especially if the scenario supports your position.

6/23/2009 2:20:50 PM

Quote :

" Not that I'm doubting, but I would like to see these polls that indicate Obama is "losing ground on pretty much every single issue"."

The ABC/WPost pdf that was linked to is a good place to start. Most other polls say the same thing and show a decline in support for pretty much every part of his agenda. I just found in funny that he showed a graph that was positive for Obama. You look at the graph of support between the GOP and Obama and how it has changed, that same poll showed GOP support rise almost 10% while Obama's lowered.

Quote :

" So, what you are saying, is somehow the public who we've previously determined are idiots have suddenly gotten a brain in the absence of any criticism. That...isn't likely. No, the more probable response is there has in fact been criticism and it is swaying public opinion. But it's just way more fun to pretend that the media gives Obama a complete free pass and Americans suddenly got smart especially if the scenario supports your position."

So, who established the public are idiots? What I did say was, polls don't give credibility to actions. The correct response is occasionally, gasp, unpopular in the short term. Bush having high approval ratings before/during the invasion of Iraq didn't the Americans were idiots, now did it? I certainly didn't say so, though perhaps that is what you think.

Obama, compared to previous presidents (even Clinton), has had far more "fluff" coverage and far less critical coverage, in my opinion. This is extremely hard to prove of course so whatever. I am saying though, that without so much positive coverage from the press his numbers would have declined more by now.

No matter the amount of good coverage, eventually that shit wears off and people want results, something so far Obama hasn't delivered on, which is the point. Good Press/Propaganda helps your cause, are you against arguing that?

6/23/2009 3:16:10 PM

Quote :

" Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced yesterday that she will kill a controversial Bush administration program to expand the use of spy satellites by domestic law enforcement and other agencies. ... "

- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/23/AR2009062302060.html?hpid=topnews

6/23/2009 8:33:31 PM

what is your point?

6/23/2009 8:38:20 PM

Umm... the thread is titled "President Obama's credibility watch" the point is to watch his credibility.

6/24/2009 9:57:35 AM

but "credibility" means you can only post bad stuff in here!

6/24/2009 10:05:46 AM

What's DHS cutting off cops' access to fucking spy satellites got to do with Obama's credibility?

6/24/2009 10:10:12 AM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/30/AR2009063002295.html

Troops begin to pullout, Iraqis celebrate

6/30/2009 5:20:09 PM

^ Well, I didn't see any mention in that story of Iraqis celebrating, but I did see this.

Quote :

"Obama, who has made ending the six-year-old Iraq war a top foreign policy priority, was speaking hours after a car bomb in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk killed at least 30 people and wounded 65 others. The bombing underscored the fragility of Iraq's security."

Or maybe that was what you were referring to?

In either case, I opposed the initial invasion so part of me is relieved to see this happening. I just hope pulling out now is the best thing for the Iraqi people in the long-run and that they don't descend into civil war and violence. We'll see...

[Edited on June 30, 2009 at 5:32 PM. Reason : ``]

6/30/2009 5:27:35 PM

^ I read another story about celebrating, I just posted the link to the first story on the pullout I saw about it on Google News.

[Edited on June 30, 2009 at 5:30 PM. Reason : ]

6/30/2009 5:30:27 PM

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/06/datagov-launches-spending-dashboard/

Quote :

"America’s first chief information officer Vivek Kundra launched the new spending dashboard on his website Data.gov Tuesday, which should bring transparency to government-funded information technology projects. Kundra, who previously demo’d the platform at Wired’s first-ever business conference on June 15th, announced it again Tuesday at the Personal Democracy Forum conference in Manhattan. "

He should have already had the app written and deployed the day the president was inaugurated. Damn him for not being able to write applications instantly!

6/30/2009 6:28:34 PM

^ that's pretty cool, and even for a 1.0 site (which they say still needs lots of work), this is still a really good turnaround time.

This part could be huge - http://www.data.gov/catalog/raw
The key there is that it looks like 3rd party devs will be able to pull all the data and put it into their own sites/apps/mashups.

6/30/2009 6:51:18 PM

Barack Obama does not care about white people

7/6/2009 2:49:37 PM

Quote :

""No one in the administration is talking about a second stimulus at this point," said Robert Nabors, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, who is tracking the effects of the economic recovery plan already in effect."

- http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE56750920090708

I'm glad they're taking a step back to reevaluate the situation, rather than blindly charging ahead like another administration we're all familiar with.

7/8/2009 1:29:26 PM

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/rids/20090709/i/r3356552547.jpg?x=400&y=340&q=85&sig=_dbUibuGcHSmlg8QoaQV7A--

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S BOOTY WATCH

7/9/2009 4:33:32 PM

^^ LOL!

Top Obama Aides: Second Stimulus 'Might Eventually Be Needed'
Thursday, July 9, 2009

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/bulletin/bulletin_090709.htm

Warren Buffett says second stimulus might be needed
Thu Jul 9, 2009 1:53pm EDT

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressReleasesMolt/idUSTRE5683MZ20090709

7/9/2009 5:29:07 PM

Today he apologized for America again, this time for Americas role in global warming. Im so sick of his narcissistic ass apologizing for America on the world stage every chance he gets.

7/9/2009 6:22:39 PM

7/9/2009 6:25:01 PM

he should apologize for how Al Gore has lied to the entire world

7/9/2009 6:28:26 PM

no shit

7/9/2009 6:37:18 PM

HUSSEIN

7/9/2009 8:22:55 PM

[Edited on July 9, 2009 at 10:26 PM. Reason : .]

7/9/2009 10:25:25 PM

^so is there a version of that graph with the other lines not mysteriously missing, such as slightly approve, slightly disapprove, etc?

7/9/2009 10:27:47 PM

hey look at me i can plot a poll too.

7/9/2009 10:44:58 PM