Political Hippo Circle Jerk - America, farg YEAH!

[Rome]

ahaha - that's great.

[rjs246]

That is some fairly funny shtein. What the farg is wrong with this country's political parties? Jesus Christ.

[Rome]

What the farg is wrong with this country's political parties? Jesus Christ.

lol - talk about asked and answered.

[Sgt PSN]

well played. 

[Eagaholic]

Glad to see this issue, all to often swept under the rug, getting more widespread attention from both the military and the medical field, as well as the general public.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/01/psychiatric_problems_send_more.html

[rjs246]

Anyone actually watch the SOTU last night?

Highlights:
- Very centrist speech but still talk of money for education, money for a jobs bill, etc.
- Obama went on the offensive in two ways. First, by refuting the idea that the stimulus didn't do anything. Second, by chastising congress (both sides, but clearly it was directed at the Right) for partisanship behavior in the face of needed reform. Both offensives were necessary politically in order to gain back some of the ground that he's lost.
- Lots of economic talk obviously. Jobs bill in 2010. Calling for a bi-partisan fiscal commission (which was just voted down in the Senate and which he issued an executive order for in response). Spending freezes in 2011. Pay as you go mandate for 2011 proposals and beyond. Etc. Also reminded everyone that 9 years ago we had a surplus of several hundred billion dollars, and that by the time Bush left we had a deficit of 3 trillion dollars. Acknowledged that he has added 1 trillion to the total. Voew to work towards clearing that deficit.
- It reminded me of the leader that I thought we were getting last year who hsa been largely missing for the last six months.

Republican response:
- Much better than Bobby Jindal but basically uninsipring. What I found funny was that McDonnell actually said a lot of the same things that Obama said about spending, which leads me to believe that the speech writers for the Republicans may have been caught a little off guard by just how centrist Obama's speech was.
- More talk of bi-partisanship than I expected, which was nice since I live in this guy's state.

The end.

[ice grillin you]

the congress just gave another standing ovation

[rjs246]

the congress just gave another standing ovation

Ha. For real. Is there a more irritating thing on earth than having the President's speech interrupted every 45 seconds by a standing ovation? Awful.

[PhillyGirl]

From the Republican response....I especially enjoyed this quote: "we do not want to turn over the best medical care system in the world to the federal government."

Best medical care system, eh? 

[rjs246]

Not to mention the fact that the public option has been dead for months so no one would be turning anything over to the government... but you know, who cares about details like that.

[reese125]

the congress just gave another standing ovation

Ha. For real. Is there a more irritating thing on earth than having the President's speech interrupted every 45 seconds by a standing ovation? Awful.

yes, having to look at Pelosi's corny ass grin the entire speech

[Sgt PSN]

i caught roughly the last 30 minutes or so which i guess was about half of the entire speech.  thought it was a great speech and i liked the ideas and talking points, but even as obama pointed out, i'm skeptical.  i'm not skeptical about him or his motives or his policies.  i think he's legit and sincere.  i'm skeptical of all the idiots in congress and will continue to be until real changes are made and progress becomes reality rather than a vision.

i also enjoyed watching the the big business supporters squirming in their seats when obama talked about things like keeping jobs in america, taking the money that wall street has paid back to the gov't and investing it in community banks so they can in turn loan money to small businesses.  choke on that you corporate farging whores.  

education reform and college tuition was another big topic, at least on my priority list since i have school aged kids who are not far from being college aged kids.    

best part of the speech though was when he was talking about freezing gov't spending in 2011 and a small group on the right started groaning and he looked at them and said "that's how budgeting works" in a sarcastic manner.  i wish they'd have shown on camera who the moaners and groaners were just so the entire country knows what morons on capital hill don't like the idea of tightening the govt's budget. 

other issues he hit on that are important to me - immigration reform, allowing the open gheys in the military (the look of disappointment on the joint chiefs of staff was great), improving veteran benefits and facilities.

like i said, i liked the speech overall.  thought it was great.  now lets see if congress can pull their heads out of their asses long enough to work together in an effort to find a common ground and start moving forward.  

[Sgt PSN]

here's the thing i don't get though, and the reason why our politics in general is so nauseating, and tired and almost a complete and total failure. 

obama said alot of things last night that pretty much every single american should agree with regardless of whether you stand on the left or the right and those comments basically revolved around obama wanting the us to be the #1 country in the world in nearly every possible aspect.  and yet as he's saying these things that should appeal to everyone, there were still plenty of people on the right who refused to stand or applaud with everyone else.  why aren't they applauding?  don't they want our kids to go to better schools?  don't they want middle class families to be able to afford to send their kids to a decent college?  don't they want to compete with europe, china and india?  i can't believe that anyone in congress doesn't want those things.  so the only reason they didn't show any support is simply because they don't support obama.  either because he's on the left or because he's black or both.  and that is exactly what's farging wrong with our congress.  you don't have to like all of obama's policies and ideas.  you don't have to cheer his healthcare policy if you don't like it.  but if the man says he wants better schools for our kids, there's absolutely no farging reason at all for anyone to not want to support that. 

farg those crusty old white fascists.  they can't die soon enough.     

[rjs246]

education reform and college tuition was another big topic, at least on my priority list since i have school aged kids who are not far from being college aged kids.    

I love the fact that he is pushing so hard for support of community colleges. State and Private Universities have become a Big Business of their own with ever increasing tuitions that put students in debt for decades. There is literally only one competetive force (from an economic standpoint) in the country that could start to act as a counter-balance to that and it is the system of community colleges. They provide inexpensive education and if resources are pumped into them they can act as true competition to bigger universities and hopefully, maybe, possibly start to bring the cost of education down to a reasonable level.

[reese125]

here's the thing i don't get though, and the reason why our politics in general is so nauseating, and tired and almost a complete and total failure. 

obama said alot of things last night that pretty much every single american should agree with regardless of whether you stand on the left or the right and those comments basically revolved around obama wanting the us to be the #1 country in the world in nearly every possible aspect.  and yet as he's saying these things that should appeal to everyone, there were still plenty of people on the right who refused to stand or applaud with everyone else.  why aren't they applauding?  don't they want our kids to go to better schools?  don't they want middle class families to be able to afford to send their kids to a decent college?  don't they want to compete with europe, china and india?  i can't believe that anyone in congress doesn't want those things.  so the only reason they didn't show any support is simply because they don't support obama.  either because he's on the left or because he's black or both.  and that is exactly what's farging wrong with our congress.  you don't have to like all of obama's policies and ideas.  you don't have to cheer his healthcare policy if you don't like it.  but if the man says he wants better schools for our kids, there's absolutely no farging reason at all for anyone to not want to support that. 

farg those crusty old white fascists.  they can't die soon enough.     

It really is nauseating to watch the divide that goes on..especially even more-so at those addresses. I will give the right a little bit of credit...when he was talking about overseas jobs and competing with India and China they did stand up. They stood up less about education which I cant seem to understand for the life of me..probably because they felt he was yet again throwing around their money to fund something else when we are in a time of crisis--even it is for the good of everyone. shtein, they should be jumping for joy on anything regarding our youth, but thats how selfish and farged up our country is.

I also agree with your response about Obamas speech, and he just has a knack of saying things that really just hit home on you and make you feel like youre being guided by the best person for the job...more-so than any other president Ive ever heard....exactly what a true leader is supposed to do. It will just be a crying shame if all this glorious talk he can spit out so fluently turns to garbage.

I still have my doubts, as its hard not to in a time like this, but I still feel like this guy comes out on top in the end