#34
Post
by mrkelley23 » Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:18 am
Here's what I think, just to scattershot reply to the whole thread:
It doesn't bother me that Pres. Obama granted his first foreign interview to Al-Arabiya at all. It's certainly better than Al-Jazeera, and makes more sense than most foreign outlets. To say that this is his first interview as President is disingenuous at best, since he has been all over the news for the past week. At least he's actually had a press conference, which many Presidents have run from like the devil, including our most recent one.
My soul thrills every time I hear a news story that begins, "In another reversal of Bush Administration policy..."
I'm not surprised that people are shocked, shocked to find out that banks and financial institutions, as well as auto companies and other corporations benefiting from the "bailout programs (sic)" are abusing the money and trust they received from the American people. The people at the top of these companies did not have to experience any pain, so why should they change the way they do business? American workers, OTOH, are experiencing plenty of pain, are anticipating more pain, and have changed the way they do business. They're spending less, which causes Wall Street types to bemoan the poor benighted American consumer, who doesn't understand that the way out of this crisis is to spend and spend and spend some more (sic again!).
For all the complaining about the American government moving toward a "European model," which usually seems to mean a more socialistic government, I'm surprised that more people aren't complaining about the move by our journalistic media toward a European model, which is a heavily partisan press that survives by pumping up its core audience, not by reporting the news. Now American newspapers are disappearing, American television news is a fractious jumble of partisan bickering, and the WWW, which actually showed promise as a new journalistic model, has unfortunately followed the TV folks down the crapper.
I'm extremely skeptical that Pres. Obama's stimulus package, or bailout, or whatever you want to call it, will have any appreciable effect on the American economy at large. First of all, as a federal program, we can pretty much write off 20% of the money as wasted. Forty percent will go to programs that should have started a long time ago, and the other 40% will just be earmarks dressed up as something else. (I'm not going to make any sexist comments about lipstick on a pig, however.)
I, too, decry the increasing presence of government control of private industry. If only our corporate leaders as a whole were more like Warren Buffett, and less like Kenny Boy Lay and John Thain, perhaps there wouldn't be the political will to try such blatantly socialistic nonsense. But I also have to say that both parties have contributed equally to this vigor for nationalization. You can't blame it exclusively on the Dems, any more than a reasonable person can blame our current economic crisis exclusively on former President Bush.
Former President Bush
Former President Bush
(sigh)
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled. -- Richard Feynman
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