gregor_xenos wrote:I recieved this and found it rather enlightning....
Almost everything in there is straight up lied. Seriously, you’ve been played for a fool, and should be very angry at Rich Carroll. Don’t believe me? Let’s go through it.
"Mr. Hope and Change" wants to create a nation humbled; humiliated, casting-aside capitalism and individual freedoms for one where we the people are government controlled. This would be a system that genuflects mediocrity, steals personal aspiration and opportunity, and punishes those who strive to succeed.
Your first clue should have been right there. Not the silliness about Obama wanted everyone to be controlled by government, that’s stupid, but it’s the kind of stupid you see from people who can otherwise be somewhat sensible. Nah, the first clue should have been from Carroll’s claim that Obama
wanted America to be humbled and humiliated. It’d be one thing to claim Obama’s policies would leave the country humbled and humiliated, but to claim he actually wants that result?
It’s claiming Obama sits there at night trying to figure out how to make America a worse place to live. It’s completely stupid.
A gallon of regular gasoline the day Obama was inaugurated was $1.79 on average in the U.S. Today that price is $3.59, a 100.6% increase. The number of food stamp recipients has risen since Obama took office from 31,983,716 to 43,200,878, a 35.1% jump. Long term unemployment soared 146.2% during the same 32 month period from 2,600,000 to 6,400,000. Staggering hope and change isn't it?
As already stated, this is just plain false. A complete lie.
American citizens living in poverty have risen 9.5% from 39,800,000 to 43,600,000, and the number of unemployed has jumped almost 25% from 11,616,000 to 14,485,000 as of August 31, 2011. The number of unemployed blacks has risen from 12.6% at the end of George Bush's term to 15.8% today, a 25.4% increase, and finally, our national debt is up 34.4% from 10.627 trillion to 14,278 trillion *
The housing sector began to decline in 2006, was teetering as early as October 2007, and finally flowed through to a collapse of the greater lending sector in October 2008, which immediately flowed through to the stock market, and in turn to other economic sectors. This led to worldwide economic recession, which the world is yet to recover from. Obama didn’t take office until three months after the GFC began, so unless you want to claim he is a time traveller I’m really not sure how it is his fault.
First President to refuse to show a valid birth certificate.
Except he first published his birth certificate in 2008, so that’s a lie. We should also note he’s the first president to have his citizenship questioned, marking a rather sad ‘first’ for people who so hate the other side being in power that they’ll invent old nonsense to complain about.
First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.
This is a complete lie, based on a hoax news article that first turned up in 2008.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthers/occidental.asp
First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in.
This is some highly speculative reasoning. Obama has a social security number beginning with 042, indicating it was issued in Connecticut, but there is nothing requiring any individual to live in the state their card was issued – the only reason the sequence number is there is to prevent the double up in issue numbers that happened when each state issued numbers independently.
First President to preside over a cut to the credit rating of the United States .
This is false. In the 1970s an error made by treasury resulted in a couple of hundred million in debt repayments being missed for a week, and for a short time thereafter the subsequent didn’t have a AAA rating. It also needs to be recognised that the rating agency involved in this stated at the time that the cut in rating was due to the political brinkmanship over raising the debt ceiling. In other words, Obama is president at a time when one political party has become so ridiculous, and so much more interested in politics than governance, that they would actually consider not paying debts when owed, just to score political points.
First President to violate the War Powers Act.
Actually, Clinton did the same thing in Kosovo as Obama did in Libya. I’d worry about this guy’s fact checking, but debate over the legality of Clinton’s operation in Kosovo is hardly old news, nor is it obscure, so really we just have to chalk this up to Carroll lying once more.
First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico .
This might be true, somewhat. The Department of the Interior was found in contempt of court for issuing a moratorium on drilling in the gulf that was pretty much identical to one that already had an injunction placed upon it. But it wasn’t Obama held in contempt, as it was the Department of the Interior, so that was a gross exaggeration, and if we extend the issue to any government agency being held in contempt, I find it very doubtful that that has never happened before.
First President to defy a Federal Judges court order to cease implementing the Health Care Reform Law.
This is a straight up lie. Some courts have found part of the bill to be unconstitutional, and others have not. These issues are slowly working their way up through the courts, exactly as they should. There is no defying going on.
First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party.
This is a lie, until 1798 there was a requirement for all militia men to properly equip themselves for service.
But to think about the real issue here, healthcare reform, we need to look at the primary problem right now – the ability of an insurance company to deny coverage. We all know how it works, you find out you need expensive surgery, and your insurance company goes through your records to see if it can deny you service, thereby saving their shareholders a considerable expense. Individuals are always able to take their insurer to court to make them pay the bills, but at the end of the day they have a team of professionals fighting this stuff for a living, while you’re just some guy who got sick. This is a major reason why, outside of the GFC, medical costs are the number one cause of bankruptcy in the US.
The best and really only way of fully solving this issue is to prevent insurance companies from dropping people for ‘pre-existing conditions’. Unfortunately that means people would be able to simply not take up insurance until they got sick, so they put in place a requirement to get insurance.
It isn’t a great fix, but the Republican alternative is to sound off about your right to not buy insurance and pretend there’s no problem with denial of coverage.
First President to spend a trillion dollars on shovel-ready jobs and later admit there was no such thing as shovel-ready jobs.
This is another lie, Obama never made any comment that there was no such thing as shovel ready jobs.
This is another issue where a little perspective is badly needed. It’s widely accepted among economists that in response to an economic downturn, such as the GFC government needs to spend significant amounts to maintain aggregate demand, and the sooner you can get that money out in the economy in response to falling investment and consumer spending the better. Macroeconomic studies have found the best effects per dollar spent come from infrastructure spending.
The problem is that you can’t just sign a spending bill on Monday, and start building a bridge on Tuesday. You need to determine what bridges are needed, you need to design the bridge, and begin to plan the projected construction, a process that can take a long time. So, basically, for economic stimulus over several years infrastructure is ideal, but you can’t just pretend it should happen over night.
First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters.
I don’t even know what nonsense this is referring to. There was talk about one bankrupt company being left with it’s employee’s retirement accounts being the major remaining shareholder, but they were bailed out? Is that what Carroll is talking about?
First President to by-pass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat.
This is a straight up lie. No such executive order exists. The bill remains in the senate, and no-one is acting on its proposals.
First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S. , including those with criminal convictions.
Another lie. There is nothing secret about Obama’s amnesty, which allowed for the temporary release of people in low priority deportation cases. It was announced to the national media, with an ABC story and everything. Either Carroll is completely unaware of the existence of major news networks, or he’s a complete liar, and I’m honestly not sure which makes him a worse source for political information.
First President to demand a company hand-over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.
I don’t even know what he’s referring to here. Anyone got any clues?
First President to terminate Americas ability to put a man in space.
Are right wingers just straight up pretending Nixon never existed, now? Seriously, Nixon cancelled Apollo, and left the US with no ability to put astronauts into space.
First President to encourage racial discrimination and intimidation at polling places.
There was an instance of two guys linked to the black panthers acting in an intimidating manner at a polling booth in 2008. I’m not sure how this relates to Obama, unless we believe Obama controls all black people.
First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.
This is actually true. Mind you, it’s basically a novel use of technology and a historic curiosity, unless someone was willing to make the claim by autosigning the bill Obama was neglecting his duties to be aware of the content of bill, considering the bill in question was the extension of the Patriot Act, and had already been in force for about eight years?
First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.
This is a lie. The law in question is the Defence of Marriage Act, which the Department of Justice found after internal investigation to be unlikely to hold up to constitutional review. However, this didn’t cause them to stop enforcing it, but to decline to defend it if it came under constitutional challenge. This can’t stop, and didn’t stop, congress from choosing to defend it if they so decided.
First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly speak-out on the reasons for their rate increases.
I can’t find anything on this story. Given Carroll’s record he’s probably mangled some story so badly I can’t figure out the original source, though there’s also a chance he’s just made it up entirely.
First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state they are allowed to locate a factory.
The matter in dispute is between Boeing and the NLRB, an independent government body. Claiming Obama is trying to tell Boeing where it can place it’s factory is just another lie.
First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN)
Is Carroll honest to God claiming no lawsuit has ever been filed by Federal Government against one or more states? Schoolkids are taught about Civil Rights, for feth’s sake. Is Carroll’s political knowledge simply that bad, or does he just think we’re so stupid that he can tell such obvious lies?
First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago.
The EPA decision to withdraw the permit was in line with the Clean Air act put in place by Bush.
First President to fire an inspector general of Ameri-corps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.
Except he wasn’t caught in an investigation. When the inspector general of Ameri-Corps, Gerald Walpin, took his case to the Sacramento attorney, a Bush appointee, he declined the case and stated Walpin committed gross misconduct in pursuing the matter. "The Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of California, a career prosecutor who was appointed to his post during the Bush Administration, has referred Mr. Walpin’s conduct for review by the Integrity Committee of the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE),"
In other words, Carroll lied to you.
First President to appoint 45 Czars to replace elected officials in his office.
Except Czar is a completely made up title, simply a way of deferring the powers of a president to an acting officer. Unless you think the president should head every single state department personally, exactly how do you think this is supposed to work?
First President to golf 73 separate times in his first two and a half years in office.
So, in 912 days you resent a person having 73 mornings off work? Is golf the only form of relaxation that’s forbidden? Should we be tracking the amount of time the President spends watching TV before going to bed as well?
First President to hide his medical, educational and travel records.
This is a lie. There is no requirement, nor tradition, to disclose any of the information.
First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.
The award was pretty dubious. I’m not really sure why people hate Obama for it, though, given the decision was made by people in another country, and was not something Obama had pursued. What was he supposed to do, decline the award?
First President to coddle American enemies while alienating Americas allies.
I’m really puzzled as to which allied have been alienated? Compared to the open attack by Bush officials and the Republican party at large on NATO allies France and Germany when they, quite rightly, pointed out there was no evidence of WMDs in Iraq, I have no idea what Obama is supposed to have done.
First President to publicly bow to Americas enemies while refusing to salute the U.S. Flag.
This is stupid, trivial argument. Obama bowed to the Saudi King, and to the Emperor of Japan. It did not impact his dealings with either country at all. He is also not the first president to bow to a foreign leader. He has never refused to salute the US flag.
Even if it were true, the governance of a nation needs it’s people to focus . I mean seriously, that claim is just stupid nonsense.
First President to go on multiple global apology tours.
Former Bush appointee Karl Rove dubbed Obama’s first international trip an apology tour. He relied on people being lazy enough to just believe that’s what Obama was doing, and not listen to the content of the speaches. While Obama did not America had made errors in the past, he always made sure to tie this to significant American achievements, and how relations with the US had benefitted the country he was talking in. This is an effective way to move past previous disputes, and forge closer ties with countries. It’s how you effectively govern.
That Republicans are so outraged at the use of such a simple diplomatic tool just shows how incapable they are at present of producing an effective President.
First President to go on 17 lavish vacations, including date nights and Wednesday evening White House parties for his friends, paid for by the taxpayer.
Technically true, in that Presidents Reagan, Bush Sr and Bush Jr all spent more days on holiday than Obama, so they couldn’t have been said to go on 17 holidays, but each on 18 or more. Note that compared to Obama’s 26 days on holiday in his first year, Bush Jr took 78.
First President to refuse to wear the U.S. Flag lapel pin.
Also the first President to be asked to wear one by the opposition. Which is a sign of how fixated on trivial, nonsensical rubbish the current Republican party is.
Also note Obama has worn the pin multiple times while President.
First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.
They’re called staffers, and in the modern era the First Lady is, for good or bad, a part of the administration, administering all kinds of charities and the like. And it’s a straight up lie that no First Lady has had such a staff before, both Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton had larger staffs.
First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000.00 a year at taxpayer expense.
There is no source for the salary of the dog trainer available anywhere in the public domain, and so given Carroll’s track record the most likely conclusion is that he made it up.
First President to repeat the Holy Qur'an tells us, and openly admit the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth.
That’s a lie. Obama said it was ‘one of the prettiest sounds on earth at sunset’. Have we become so narrow minded that it is unacceptable to find something pretty in another religion.
In my own travels, I’ve found the call to prayer to be at times incredibly annoying (a prerecorded call played out of a scratchy speaker system at 5.00 in the morning), and other times incredibly beautiful (on a desert sunset in Rajasthan by a truly gifted singer). So what does that make me?
Remember that 32 months of Obama White House we the people have accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as during the rest of our nation's entire history, as the Obama's plan their next extravagant vacation to the Indonesian Island nation of Bali .
That’s simply a lie. Look at debt spending during WWII.
Hope and change anyone ?????????
I would like change toward an honest political dialogue based on substance. I have little hope of achieving it. Perhaps if you were to turn around to whoever sent you this piece of nonsense and point out to them the many lies presented, that’d give me just a little hope that things might get better.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Frazzled wrote:*conquered the trusts
Socialism!
- 3000
- 145 
Lots
Catachan LIX "Lords Of Destruction" 
