Your town: Los Angeles, CA
Your town: Los Angeles, CA
Obama says public tired of hearing about his former pastor
Welcome to the Bush-McCain Recession This is what happens after eight years of Republican mismanagement of the economy: The U.S. has finally slid into recession, according to the majority of economists in the latest Wall Street Journal economic-forecasti ng survey, a view that was reinforced by new data showing a sharp drop in retail sales last month. "The evidence is now beyond a reasonable doubt," said Scott Anderson of Wells Fargo & Co., who was among the 71% of 51 respondents to say that the economy is now in a recession. The survey, conducted March 7 through March 11, marked a precipitous shift to the negative from the previous survey conducted five weeks earlier. For example, the economists now expect nonfarm payrolls to grow by an average of only 9,000 jobs a month for the next 12 months -- down from an expected 48,500 in the previous survey. Twenty economists now expect payrolls to shrink outright. And the average forecast for the unemployment rate was raised to 5.5% by December from 4.8% in the previous survey. As important as the sentiments of these economists on high are, even more important are the views of actual Americans who overwhelmingly realize that the policies espoused by George W. Bush -- and overwhelmingly embraced by John McCain -- have done great harm to the American household. According to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll (.pdf), just 34 percent of Americans say that they are better off than they were four years ago -- the lowest mark in the poll since 1992. With this in mind, it's good news and good politics that the Democrats, and Barack Obama in particular, are hitting McCain for toeing the Bush line on the economy. Keep it up. McCain should not be allowed a pass on the economy, particularly when he advocates for a continuation of just the policies that have led America down this troubled path. In the end, the question before the American people should be made a simple one: Do you want more of George W. Bush in John McCain, or do you want change? And with the American economy apparently in recession and Americans worried about their financial security, I think the answer to that question will be very easy for voters. (8 hrs ago | post #5220)
Obama says public tired of hearing about his former pastor
McCain: Theres Been Great Progress Economically Since Bush Took Office Earlier this week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) delivered a speech on the economy in which he outlined his ambitious plan to cut taxes and balance the budget. McCain's plan would extend President Bush's tax cuts, reduce corporate tax rates, repeal the alternative minimum tax (AMT), and increase exemptions for dependents. But unfortunately for McCain, "economists and nonpartisan analysts" have dug deeper into the details of his plan and concluded that the numbers simply "don't add up." The offsets he proposes will not cover the estimated $3.3-$5.7 trilllion cost of the proposal and would end up ballooning the federal deficit. In January, Sen. John McCain said that economic problems were just “psychological.” Last week he said that last week, America had “great progress economically” during the tenure of The Worst President Ever. Maybe he's learned a few things from Economics for Dummies since then. Via Think Progress: This morning on NBC’s Today Show, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) attempted to distance himself from President Bush on the economy. When host Meredith Viera asked McCain whether Americans are “better off, by any means, than we were eight years ago,” McCain replied, “Oh, no. No.”Be afraid, be very afraid. (8 hrs ago | post #5219)
Obama says public tired of hearing about his former pastor
The Economy Needs Some Spare Change The stock market is a grand exercise in public perception - entire businesses are built on the ability to predict what a company's future earnings or share price will be based on an array of factors. These markets and many others have been brutalized by President Bush's economic and military policies. An Obama Administration would be the boldest statement we as a nation could possibly make to the rest of the world that we are serious about breaking with the failures of the past eight years. And for those who say that they don't care how foreigners perceive us, it is important not to forget that we live in the age of the global economy. Foreign governments and institutions are heavy consumers of our products and large investors in our markets. In my own industry, I've heard that Saudi money accounts for somewhere between 3 and 9 percent of all investment capital. A McCain Administration by contrast, would signal to the world that we have learned nothing from two terms of Dubya, and we would almost certainly face a hard slog to recovery. Just the prospect of war with Iran, a major supplier of oil to the world market, would provide more upward pressure on world oil prices. Ready for $5 per gallon gas? If you think I'm overstating it, ask yourself if you would have guessed 4 years ago that gas prices would now be approaching $4 per gallon. Rising gas prices will increase the price of everything else, and we run the risk of experiencing the stagflation of the ‘70s all over again. There are fundamental problems with our economy that need to be addressed and will take time to heal. But the one part of the equation we as voters have control over is who represents us to the rest of the world. Like Bill Clinton was in the ‘90s, Obama is the exact change our economy needs. (8 hrs ago | post #5218)
Obama says public tired of hearing about his former pastor
John McCain admits having failing grades in Economics 101 Say this for the economic-policy trappings of John McCain: he travels light. Unlike fellow United States presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the Republicans' all-but-official presidential nominee does not offer an anti-poverty program or a universal-health plan to cover the 47 million Americans who are uninsured. The Arizona senator has no proposal for arresting the growth in America's national debt, much of it owed to China and other foreign creditors, which has nearly doubled under President George W. Bush, to almost $9 trillion (U.S.). McCain offers no plan for financing the $3 trillion in costs for the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which will further increase in a McCain presidency, because he pledges to continue those conflicts indefinitely. McCain has no interest in overhauling the regulation of a grossly undersupervised Wall Street, the recklessness of which triggered the current global credit crisis. He has no program for rescuing the two million to five million Americans threatened by the loss of their homes by foreclosure. (Headline in the liberal Nation: "McCain to home owners: Drop dead.") Why is that, when America is sliding into recession and concerns about job losses and declining personal incomes will probably dominate the U.S. general election this fall? Partly it's that McCain, by his own admission, is an economics dunce. As McCain confessed to The Wall Street Journal in a 2005 interview, "I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated." More recently, McCain allowed in December that "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should ... (but) I've got Greenspan's book." Partly it's the company McCain keeps. The public face of McCain's economic brain trust is Carly Fiorina, a champion of unrestrained capitalism who made such a botch of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s $19 billion takeover of Compaq Computer Corp. that H-P ousted her as chief executive officer in 2005. The intellectual flywheel of McCainonomics, former U.S. senator Phil Gramm of Texas, spearheaded the ill-conceived deregulation of Wall Street in the late 1990s. And as vice-chair of UBS AG, Gramm pleads he was "totally unaware" of the $37 billion worth of soured U.S. subprime loans the Swiss banking giant has written off so far. Last year, Gramm helped resuscitate a presidential campaign that McCain had mismanaged into the ground. And partly it's ideological. McCain remains captive to the shamanistic "supply side" economics of the Ronald Reagan era. McCain wants to make permanent Bush's fiscally ruinous tax cuts skewed to the affluent, and pledges still more tax cuts, under the mistaken impression they alone stimulate the economy. With McCain's undisguised insensitivity to Main Street, he would seem to have a November-election death wish. Noting Herbert Hoover's programs for curtailing home foreclosures, Susan Dunn, co-author of The Three Roosevelts, wrote in a March letter to The New York Times that "It is a remarkable feat for a politician running for president to be even more out of touch and indifferent to the economic distress of Americans than President Hoover." McCain is to be lauded for honesty in confessing his ignorance on economics. Logically, his next step should be removing his name from the ballot. (8 hrs ago | post #5217)
Obama says public tired of hearing about his former pastor
So we better not even speak the truth because if you speak the truth, somebody is going to get hurt. But truth is your best friend, because truth will give us a mirror to allow us to see ourselves and how far off we are from the standard of God. Somebody has to tell the truth. Somebody has to be willing to pay the price of the truth. Truth is more important than our little positions. Truth is bigger than us all. SO please look in the mirror honey! (8 hrs ago | post #5211)
Obama says public tired of hearing about his former pastor
Let’s have some straight talk, it’s not a huge amount of money. But it might be nice to be able to save a few bucks and maybe buy something else the next time that they have to fill up their gas tank and say,“You know I’m going to be able to afford that little expense now.” A little psychological boost. That’s what I think it would help. But we also, I think, we need to stop competing for a limited supply, as far as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is concerned. Let’s just stop buying that as well. But it might be a nice thing to happen. There’s nothing wrong with your mortgage payments; it’s all in your mind.” There’s nothing wrong with the way our government operates; it’s all in your mind.” There’s nothing wrong with the progress in Iraq; it’s all in your mind.” “IT’S ALL IN YOUR MIND, DAMMIT! WHY CAN’T YOU FU(KING IDIOTS GET THAT THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULLS???” McCain, Please make sure you give more tax breaks to the Oil Executives, not that they need them,$400,000 million for the sacrifices they make is not enough. We appreciate the 60 cents a day we will receive. Let me caluculate that out by seven days,$4.20 a week, that will cover a gallon of milk. I know we should be more grateful, and less bitter, about the handouts we receive from the government. We know that all of you, could care less I mean, are looking out for the middle class families. In fact, they are. It’s psychological to issue widespread subprime and predatory loans, and it’s ignorant to refuse containment of the damaging effects. The virus from the fallout is spreading, and McCain’s antidote is a water-and-sugar (wealthy tax-cut) syringe At least this psychological cure won’t affect the bottom line of the oil companies. This guy is either very dumb, winging it, or is getting very bad advice from his handlers. I just cannot let myself believe this frickin nut case has any chance of actually being elected. McCorpse = death for what is left of this country. (8 hrs ago | post #5210)
Obama says public tired of hearing about his former pastor
Jane you ignorant Sl*ut here's you Hero: You can make light of it, but your dumb enough to think a guy that has been a POW tortured and They kicked him, and hit him with a rifle butt, breaking his shoulder. He was taken to the Hanoi Hilton, a Vietnamese prison camp infamous for its ill-treatment of prisoners of war. John McCain would spend the next 5 1/2 years in captivity in North Vietnam. According to his account, the first two years were harsh, spent mostly in solitary confinement. Thtat's the worst case of PTSD b/c of the solitary confinement that's when he went nuts, JUST LIKE YOU! and the outburst that he STILL HAS, that scares all his co-workers the other senators in his own party know he's got issues, on the Hill numerous stories about him losing it and being extremely scarey to those around him, expose the disorder this guy has. And you want him in charge, lacking judgment is big time here! Vietnam has the largest amount of people that suffered from this, and they weren't even a POW just fighting in the war. and He wants our son's and daugthers to suffer with this like he did. McCain:‘A lot of our problems today are psychological (TOLD YA HE"S PSYCHO) I’m very concerned about it, Neil. And obviously the way it’s been going up is just terrible. But I think psychologically — and a lot of our problems today, as you know, are psychological — the confidence, trust, the uncertainty about our economic future, ability to keep our own home. This might give them a little psychological boost. Let’s have some straight talk, it’s not a huge amount of money. While he now states that America is in a recession, McCain earlier this year dismissed such concerns as “psychological.” To find out how little money McCain’s gas tax “holiday” really delivers for average Americans, go to the Wonk Room. Transcript: CAVUTO: I think you know, Senator, we’ve been in and out another all time high for oil and gas prices today. Oil hovering around 113, 114 dollars a barrel. Many are sort of jumping on your proposal to nix the federal gas tax — a little north of 18 cents — throughout the summer. Are you afraid though, by the time we get to the summer, we’ll be up that much and more in gas prices? MCCAIN: I’m very concerned about it, Neil. And obviously the way it’s been going up is just terrible. But I think psychologically — and a lot of our problems today, as you know, are psychological — the confidence, trust, the uncertainty about our economic future, ability to keep our own home. This might give them a little psychological boost. (8 hrs ago | post #5209)
Obama says public tired of hearing about his former pastor
Clinton sounded less like George Washington and more like George Wallace. Imagine a presidential primary where, after more than 16 months, almost two dozen debates, hundreds of speeches, millions of dollars, and countless chicken dinners, the rationale for electing someone boils down to this: Vote for me. I'm white. I can win because other whites will vote for me. Meanwhile, some white Americans are turning themselves inside out to come up with excuses for why they're not supporting Obama. It seems like just yesterday that these folks were arguing there is no racism in the immigration debate, and now they're insisting there is no racism in the presidential election. Thank God not all White American's are like these racist folks on this board. There are actually some White American's that are very firm in their committment to work on race relations. So don't think all White People will cast their lot with the likes of you. YES there are white folks that want change too. Many are responding quite well. Obama won the votes of many, to borrow a phrase, "hardworking white Americans," in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming. campaign Well you may have a point about him being a "liberal " to the degree inwhich one can be define as one. The Latino vote hasn't been courted yet with the customary promises and the usual nothing delivered by either party, they are like free chips at a poker game! New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson’s endorsement of Barack Obama, an informal advisor to the Clinton campaign. The gun toting bible holding draped in the confederate flag white crowd that Billary is after have a long distinguished history of being victims of something and are in reality the living proof and example of how they describe us, lazy whatnots! As for the gay vote well you can be assured that vote is strictly democratic but we pubs have our share of gays also, the Lincoln log cabins gays or some nonsense like that! Their vote is courted more seriously because they are in every avenue of public life holding jobs and power! Those who are against him fear him for the same reasons as Hillary and McCain. But many of us who support him know what's happening and why. And we know that this extraordinary man will be the next president of the United States. My only point here is that this is beginning to look like what typically happens when blacks try to assert power. But, as a high school history teacher once enlightened us-"There are no bloodless coups." (8 hrs ago | post #5206)
Obama says public tired of hearing about his former pastor
Well all you got to do,is find a forum in Minneapolis, cuz you don't live here. I could give a flying flip how I make you feel, I say GREAT! Your just salty b/c Hillbilly didn't make it. You are surely one frustrated woman with men. You are quoting information that happened so long ago which show how deep your hate is for men. And you have the nerves to try and defend some real examples in Hilary and Bilary who are two of the most known dysfunctional couple. Boy, Barack is going up against the Frustrated Women Club. And he faced the Backward Inbreeds Hillbillies State tonight. He and his campaign should be given the Lifetime Achievement Award when this campaign is over. Your hate for men is so pronounced that reality doesn't much matter. Here it is: Gilary ain't going to win squat. Everyone is just placating her. You ain't going win anything either except more disappointment. She is in the same vain. Only, you will have to go on and deal with your own issues. (8 hrs ago | post #5199)
Obama says public tired of hearing about his former pastor
No Hillary is keeping the past injustices of the black race alive, but I'm sure your going to excuse her with "uneducated white folks vote for me" crap.. that's the double standard you people love to play, always wanting to point out and stay stuck on stupid like somebody's pastor, WHO AIN'T ON THE DAMN TICKET RUNNING FOR NOTHING.. ASK ME IF I CARE WHAT YOU FEEL OR THINK HELL NO! I know I make it hard for you to continue your righteous indignation about Rev. Wright how appalled you are! b/c you just want to come on here and run down Obama over his EX PASTOR, b/c nothing he can say will be good enough. Oh but Hillary can lie, worship in a secret clut with Jim Jones type like spirital advisor, play every dirty trick in the book, AND NOBODY SAYS A DAMN THING? McCain's camp started this Huge Lie that Obama is a muslin BS, and its ok for them to do this, why? b/c they white and its right? If your black and any lie comes out about you, its the gospell truth! Don't have no prove Rush Limbaugh told you, and its the gospell according to the book of Matthew! You act as if I invented Slavery and/or Racism? LOL thanks for giving me all that power and authority! He and his campaign should be given the Lifetime Achievement Award when this campaign is over. This campaign is bringing out all the Nuts and Covert Haters. To have gotten as far as he has is really something Amazing. She is just desperately using every possible argument she can come up with in order to change the playing field. Same as agreeing that Michigan and Florida votes would not count...until she needed them. Same as saying Obama is not experienced enough to be President. Same as lying about being shot at. Same as saying that Wright would not have been her pastor. Same as saying Obama is unelectable. Same as arguing that the popular vote in Puerto Rico is a valid benchmark for deciding who should get the nomination. Same as challenging Obama to a bowl off. Same as arguing that Obama is scared to debate Clinton...for the 22nd time. Clinton has repeatedly demonstrated that she will say or almost do anything in order to try and get elected. She didn't actually say anything racist, nor did she really invoke a racist frame. Nope. She deliberately played to racist sentiment and feelings in order to appeal to a segment of the American population. You are in more denial than Gilary now. (9 hrs ago | post #5196)
Obama says public tired of hearing about his former pastor
White folks all scared of Rev. Wright, absolutely hilarious! White folks all scared of Obama, and your voting for a complete nut case McCain, that's who you need to be scared of! LOL and you say he knows we have 50 States, as long as he takes his meds that day! Nothing in all, the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true. (9 hrs ago | post #5183)
Obama says public tired of hearing about his former pastor
WHY AREN'T YOU JUST AS CONCERNED WITH WHITE HILLARY'S CRAZY NAZI LOVING PASTOR? Or crazy PTSD McCain bi-polar a*zz pastor? NO you want to continue to harp on Obama's pastor b/c apparently you can't deal with all he had to say about your race! and its a fact and you prove it, everytime you write some stupid a*zz comment. It was inevitable. More to come too. They were gonna paint Obama with someone. If not Wright, then Farrakhan. Right? I mean they painted Dukakis with Willie Horton. And which campaign was it when a commercial put the Black male hand with the white female hand? I'm down with Obama. But I am loving Wright b/c its bothering you. I feel bad that it might really detract from the Obama campaign. But to be for real...folks in America are going to start to have to know....Black folks are not always gonna be like Arthur Ashe and Bill Cosby. Or Oprah. Those folks are real enough. But not the whole deal. Black folks is Funky. And proud of it. Black folks is Bougie and proud of it. We be rich and middle class and poor. We be all kinds of thangs. Many of us are mainstream. Very diverse. (9 hrs ago | post #5179)
Obama says public tired of hearing about his former pastor
What is interesting here is that Obama tried to run a campaign without regerencing his race. Yet, neocons and people like yourself dragged race into the subject by highligting comments that were made by his pastor. By the way-which comments that Pastor Wright were racist? Which were unpatriotic? Apparently you didn't hear his speech on race, what a idiot! Did you also know that you retained little of substance from his speech. Listen again. He did not let black folks off the hook for self-determination . But, like your neocon friends, you have taken text out of context and created a pretext. So, why all of the flap about Reverend Wright who has been the pastor of Trinity Church since 1972? By the way, he has received presidential citations and been invited to the White House by a former president whose last name was Clinton. Why the flap? . White folks dream of King. And they love the clean-cut, articulate, happy, smart Negro who is talking about healing and not making white folks feel guilty about things. They are not against "Blacks" as long as they are the right kind of Blacks. The MLK Black. The Obama Black. Stark contrast from the James Brown Black. Or the Frances Berry Black. Or the Angela Davis Black. Or the Dr. Dre/Snoop Dogg Black. Before you even get to Malcolm X (whom they love once he's dead) or Farrakhan. No. The mainstream folks want the television Bill Cosby "Black". The Oprah Winfrey (television) "Black". If the Black folks ain't doing or trying to do the "white" thing, then white folks get uncomfortable. And some fantasize that we get on each other for "acting white". ROFL. Sometimes we do. But it is white folks who are obsessed with race and how folks "should" talk and "should" act. (9 hrs ago | post #5175)
Obama says public tired of hearing about his former pastor
You do ask a bunch of hypocritical stupid questions as though him being black has nothing negative to do with it from some white people's point of view. They still don't want to admit that there are still a good number of white folks will deny you because you are black. If you had the late JFK Jr. with the same political skills as Barack Obama, the whole election process would be considered a formally. They still hold Us to a higher and different standard. Things have evolved, but they have not really changed completely. Ah, you have stumbled upon the power of race in america that your foolish enough to think doesn't exist. The explanation is simple. White men could do whatever they wanted, and your blind, deaf and dumb or a COMPLETE FOOL if you think time has changed in this regard to racism. Isn't it ironic that the black male is the icon for fathers of illegitimate children? White men had numerous children out of wedlock that went completely unacknowledged. So, this pattern of irresponsibility was not started by the demonized black male, but rather by the holier than thou white male of that period. Hypocrisy abounds. What would Rush Limbaugh say if a black were to confront him with the fact that some of the Founding Fathers no doubt had black illegitimate children? I know, that black would be a racist. And Jeremiah Wright is our problem-oh yea!!! They had to inject it with Reverend Wright. A couple of things: • Obama never made the remarks. • Most of what Wright said was true. • None of what Wright said was racist. • None of what Wright said was unpatriotic. • Obama is a member of a church. The church is not defined solely by the pastor, if so, all catholics should renounce their religion. This attack constitutes an utter disrespect for the spiritual faith of black folk. • Obama's flimsy association with Ayres is nothing more than guilt by association. Obama has never taken any position even remotely close to some of what Ayres has stated. If this is a problem, then Bill Clinton's association with William Fulbright, a notorious racist from Arkansas, should have prevented him from becoming president. • The attack on Reverend Wright's lack of patriotism is laughable. He gave up a student deferment to join the MARINE CORPS. After completing his tour of duty, he reenlisted in the NAVY. Most of these neocons have NEVER SERVED. Hillary claims she never would have remained in Rev. Wright's church. Well, she stayed in a marriage with a man who sexually exploited an awful lot of women for an awful lot of years, so, who's to say? Hillary voted to go to war in Iraq, then denied that's what she meant, then voted to do the same in Iran. In the name of demonstrating her superior "electability ," she and her surrogates have invoked the racist and sexist playbook of the right -- in which swaggering macho cowboys are entrusted to defend the country -- seeking to define Obama as too black, too foreign, too different to be President at a moment of high anxiety about national security. This subtly but distinctly racialized political strategy did not create the media feeding frenzy around the Rev. Jeremiah Wright that is now weighing Obama down, but it has positioned Clinton to take advantage of the opportunities the controversy has presented. (10 hrs ago | post #5172)
Obama says public tired of hearing about his former pastor
And when the kids' bodies—they had been brutally beaten and then shot—were found by the FBI buried in an earthen dam, Mississippi's nearly unanimous response was to say that as "outside agitators" the kids had brought their fate upon themselves. When the FBI implicated both the sheriff and his deputy, a few Klansmen also were indicted on federal charges of violating the victims' civil rights. A Mississippi jury turned them all loose. Not a single elected official, not a single significant business or religious leader in the state of Mississippi, decried this horrendous crime. The few courageous whites who spoke up were threatened, ostracized or literally run out of the state. Soon after, President Lyndon B. Johnson throttled official racism with the Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts. Southern whites, led by Mississippi, bellowed in collective outrage in defense of so-called states' rights, and rapidly began to desert the Democratic Party. And it was in Philadelphia, Miss., at the annual Neshoba County Fair, that Ronald Reagan chose to kick off his campaign for president in 1980. "I believe in states' rights," he declared. "I believe we have distorted the balance of our government today by giving powers that were never intended to be given in the Constitution to that federal establishment. " His message to Southern whites was intentional and clear: "Boys, I'm on your side." When he was governor of California and when he was president, Reagan opposed every single piece of civil rights legislation that came his way. Was Reagan a white racist? I reported extensively on his campaigns and knew him as well as any reporter could, which was, probably, not a lot, and I don't believe he was. But he did what he and his handlers thought was necessary to appease Southern whites. Was that morally wrong? Absolutely. Is Obama a black racist? Obviously not. In not leaving Wright's church, Obama did what Reagan did—not affront a powerful constituency. Was that morally wrong? Absolutely. Whose crime, though, was the more egregious? This is a fair question, because Reagan took very little heat from the allegedly liberal media, little from Democrats, and none at all from Republicans for his pandering in Philadelphia, Miss., which was a painful insult to every black and Jew in America. And since then, of course, Reagan has been elevated to something approaching sainthood by the Republican right. Will Obama get off so lightly? Not a chance. His failure to totally reject and repudiate Wright already has caused a national uproar, and if he wins the nomination, the Republicans certainly will "Swift Boat" and "Willie Horton" him relentlessly with Wright's more incendiary remarks, and with that photo of Obama with his arm draped over Wright's shoulder. And fair or unfair, it will starkly validate Obama's brilliant dissection of the still festering problem of race in our country. (11 hrs ago | post #5147)
