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Barack Obama Wins US Presidency
Last night, around 11pm, all the major networks announced that Senator Barack Obama had won the election. Soon after, Senator McCain conceded. There were no crazy partisan court hearings, just a simple election. This is your chance to talk about it and what it means for the future of our nation.
Please I hope "God"had nothing to do with it. Can we please get past this religion drug? Anyhow, now that the troll bait is out of the way. Congratulations to Mr.Obama, friends, & cow-orkers.
I wonder if an angry republican supporter will attempt to kill Obama.
Hold on to your butts.... Now that Obama won, I'll bet we'll see a regrouping of the extreme islamists, a great boost of their morale, and a redoubling of their efforts. They know that he'll let them get away with everything they've done. He doesn't want to fight them, he wants to "talk to them". Fat lot of good that'll do... Didn't work last time... One we pull out of (read abandon) Iraq and Afghanistan, we'll see the crumbling of their current governments, ethnic clensing of everyone not Muslim, executions of anyone who helped the US, and a return of the Taliban and Al-Quieda. The people that we abandon there will hate us even more than they do now. We throw them into chaos, give so many a taste of freedom, and now that the clean-up and rebuilding are getting uncomfortable (thanks to mostly foreign extremists) we're just going to wash our hands of it...
Logic is the beginning of reason, not the end of it.
Pop quiz: who just got his feet under the Big Desk at USCENTCOM?
That's right, it's General Smithers - sorry, Petraeus.
War were declared in 5... 4... 3...
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
I voted against Obama.
But now I do take solace in the silver-lining:
Racial healing.
May forever more, the words of racists like Reverend Jeremiah Wright ring hollow to black youth, and the youth of every other race.
May the coming generation now see that, whatever vestiges of institutional may racism remain, YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING IN AMERICA.
Truly this is a testament to the greatness of this country. Has there ever been a society in the history of the earth, where a once slave class later produced an elected leader?
A bright silver-lining indeed!
Remember that, cause all we're going to have left is "change" after he's done with spending...
Why do you care how we look to the rest of the world? Let's worry about the problems in our country. I really don't give two shits about how some snoppy European views our country.
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I sort of felt this thing might happen when Palin was selected. She was a women trying to reach a very conservative male base that has been steeped in two years of bashing Hilary Clinton and Pelosi. She brought he unwed pregnant daughter with the baby's daddy like they were the holy couple, and by the way have never announced a wedding date, again in a party that has characterized pregnant teens as future welfare moms. This probably cost McCain crucial states in the east that lead to disaster in the west. It is pretty bad when you have less than 10 votes, and your opponent is approaching 100.
In any case I think we can look on the bright side. Instead of MBA graduate who whined his way into the program on a legacy, we have a Harvard graduate that has consistently advanced on his merits.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
We've discovered something about ourselves, style matters over substance today. A man with little to no political accomplishments in his career was able to win the presidency by reading speaches written by others and looking more attractive than his opponent.
I took one look at his voting record in the Senate and made up my mind immediately. He has by far the most radical political history of any candidate of a major party, and he was able to hide this for over 2 years successfully.
At this point we can all just hope his voting record was a fluke. I doubt it.
If you're a right wing nutjob who, like bush, likes nothing more than a completely wrecked america.. yes, this is going suck really badly
Was there any rebuttal to the accusation that when Obama's mother married Lolo Soetoro, from Malaysia, and a young Obama entered school there, that his parents would have had to have taken Malaysian citizenship, renounced their US citizenship, and that Obama would have had to have been naturalized to regain it? There was "proof" shown that Obama's step father did "acknowledge" him as his son, thus making Obama a naturalized Malaysian citizen, and as the US does not allow dual citizenship, Obama would have lost his. There are school records showing that his citizenship at that time was listed as Malaysian, and his religion as islam (as non-islamics were not allowed schooling at the time). Just wondering if this has been resolved, or swept under the carpet...
Logic is the beginning of reason, not the end of it.
First thing I thought about ... Rev. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream".
I wonder what Dr. King would have thought about this line from Obama:
"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a Civilian National Security Force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."
As a guy who spent a lot of time not being very pleased with civilian security forces, I do wonder what he'd think about a giant, powerful new one with a huge new bureaucracy slurping up gajillions of new dollars, operating inside the borders. Huge bureacracies and giant new security forces tend to look for something to do, and someone to do it to.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
What does it say about our country when so many Americans are unwilling to vote for a physically-challenged candidate with a multi-racial family?
I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
Or maybe I just wanted to know how old he is, cause I'm curious about trends in political attitudes for various age cohorts.
That you read what you did into it speaks volumes about you, however, and some apparent feelings of inadequacy.
Ha.
I love how completely distorted the placement of the Overton window in the US really is.
your your political opponent isn't automatically evil incarnate? That may work for vi-vs-emacs and Apple-vs-MS wars on /., but it's just juvenile in the real world.
You have it backward.
It is juvenile to think someone is evil because they use a different text editor. It is just clarity to see evil in someone who will bring suffering to millions of people.
All of us welfare recepticles now have a voice in the White House. And what a voice we have... I'll let him speak for me and you better let him speak for you too, especially if you aggregate with what he's saying. Now, we just need to do something about all of those illegitimate guns out there and give them to the government so we can all be safe. Yeah, verily, the devine wind has come and it is Barak Osama.
If I'm still around here in 2 years or so, I'll check back in and see how all you Obama-lovers feel then... I'll bet you'll have changed your tune.. Obama by himself would be bad enough, but with socialist majority in Congress, it can't get much worse...
You people think Bush did a bad job, then you are REALLY gonna hate Obama, after the honeymoon is over... Or ... maybe thats what you guys actually want.. A socialist state lead by Obama, that will trash industry, bring unemployment higher than its ever been. and tax you till you bleed.. Yes.. I know, he's only gonna increase taxes on incomes over 250K/yr.. yeah, right.. if you believe that, I have a bridge in NY I'll sell you cheap... He's gonna tell you WHATEVER it takes to get elected, and now that he's elected, gloves are off...
Mark my words.. In two years (or less) all you Obama-lovers will be singing a different tune.. Along with the rest of us who've been singing it all along....
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
Yes, I'm aware that anecdote is not the singular of data.
What's with you people getting all nuts about Idle curiosity?
Of course they do, they just elected him.
Wow. Like we give a crap about establishing our top spot in the Miss Congeniality pageant. Almost all of the American-hate (or phony praise) is jealousy or is spawned from disappointed self-interest of other nations. It must really suck for Canada to have to be in a massive shadow. It pains me to hear the red-headed step child cry for mommy's attention in the form of congratulating us on our path to blunting our world influence.
As a halfway-isolationist (that is, wait until Iraq says 'okay, we're good', leave, and stop messing around out in the world), socially-rightist McCain supporter who could care less what the rest of the world thinks, I'm shocked to say "I agree completely."
I'm tired of helping my fellow countrymen. I've been helping them for about 15 years now by paying taxes that get "returned" to someone else who had kids or wrote off their car as a business expense. I've been paying taxes to pay for some kids schooling that they aren't even really getting anymore because no kid can fail. I've been paying taxes to help support social security that I might not even see. I've been paying taxes to support a failing medicare/medicaid program that will somehow be magically replaced with an even more comprehensive and magically cheaper system...
When can I STOP "helping" my fellow countrymen from being so lazy and get them to work for themselves?
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
Rev. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream".
Martin wanted us all to get along. Obama used racial tension to divide and install anger, mobilizing the blacks to vote for him because he was black and promised to give them free money. He consistently played the race card while McCain avoided the topic. Obama used past generations of racism to his advantage.
And at his acceptance speech, he began to back-peddle on all of his promises. 52% of the nation was played for fools.
King would be appalled at Obama's actions. Obama has create a division that could tear this country apart.
Bearded Dragon
Let me just back this up with an "Amen". I am sick and tired of Europe thinking they can tell America what it should do with its own goddamn country! Just yesterday I had a German telling me that his vote counts more than American votes, and that the American election system is old and outdated. Save for the fact that Germans don't elect their President (their representatives do) and EU residents can't elect that President either (they vote for a party).
Now here I see some know-nothing here on Slashdot telling us that "America is on notice"? The arrogance! Just who the hell do you think you are? This is our country and we will fix it as we see fit. If you don't like it, worry about divorcing your own country from ours. If we drive it into the ground (which I very much doubt), it will be ours to drive into the ground. Not yours.
So BACK OFF.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
You're not supposed to be talking like this... but I'm glad you are.
"We have the right to bare arms. PERIOD. That means if I want a magazine that holds 50+ rounds, I can have it. If I want a machine gun, so be it. Handgun -you bet - and NO license if I want to carry."
But this is the problem with sticking so vigorously to your bill of rights. It was conceived in a day when machine guns simply didn't exist as they do today. When guns weren't something that could lead to a massacre of innocent people.
You're assuming that when this was written into the bill of rights that it was written in with the knowledge that it was going to continue to be adhered to indefinitely regardless of how deadly weapons get. Do you feel it should even stretch as far as nuclear arms for example? if not why not?
If you don't believe everyone and anyone should have the right to nuclear weaponry then you accept that a line has to be drawn somewhere and this is the problem with your view- you're drawing your own line and suggesting that the line set by your government is incorrect. The reality is neither of you are more correct than the other if both of you agree that the bill of rights shouldn't extend indefinitely to cover all possible eventualities covered by the vagueness of some parts of it. Americans are brought up to believe the constitution, the bill of rights are infallible, that they should be adhered to at all costs but as with many things in life, something that remains static and defies change is extremely prone to becoming obsolete or at least partially obsolete and this is the problem with the bill of rights. Instead of the bill of rights it's better to have rules that are flexible that can be voted upon and changed as required- well that's basically what laws are so the constitutions usefulness is actually questionable, particularly when many nations get by just as well, or in some cases better in terms of personal happiness and freedoms without one. As the Bush administration has demonstrated, the problem is ensuring laws are enacted fairly, the Bush administration has pushed unfair laws through in contradiction of the constitution anyway, fix that problem and you'll find you don't need the constitution if the process of pushing through legislation is fair.
Many Americans still of course cite that the right to bear arms is important so that people can rise up against government but this is simply an excuse to argue against gun controls and is an impractical reason in reality. The scenario posed has the following results-
1) Civilians armed with weapons they can afford aren't going to stand a chance against a well trained, well equipped military
2) The military are citizens too anyway, even if the government does need to be overthrown the military will be on your side to do it because it consists of your sons, daughters, cousins, friends and so on.
In result 1, you're screwed either way. You're not going to be able to defeat the military. If guns were completely banned, you'd still be able to rise up and perform guerilla warfare if that's the path you REALLY wanted to take because in these situations illegal arms are easy to acquire anyway. In result 2, you still don't need guns, because the military has them and will do the job for you.
Result 2 is the most realistic scenario because it's happened and does still happen, not in the US but elsewhere in the world. Lebanon and Turkey are good examples, their armies have stood up against governments to overthrow them and protect the nations against governments trying to destroy their secular constitutions.
The argument for being able to carry guns to protect the constitution simply doesn't match up with reality. It does however result in an absolutely massive increase in murder rates and other related crime and gun related accidents. To put it another way, the right to bear arms actually takes away many other people's legitimate right to life than it ever saves and I know which I think is much more important.
Finally I'll not I'm not entirely against guns, I enjoy shooting, in fact, I reall
Now...honestly, what do you think is really going to change?
Everything. For one, in a few months we will no longer have a functionally retarded president.
Do you think he'll get the Dems to undo the Patriot Act?
Probably not all at once, but yes, I have no doubt at all the Patriot Act will be dismantled.
Do you think he'll get to the bottom of and stop the Wiretaps on US Citizens?
No doubt at all in my mind that this nonsense ends with the Bush Nightmare.
Do you think he'll have us 100% out of Iraq in the next week? Month? Year? Decade?
He's always been for a withdrawl, but he's not going to risk American lives (or Iraqi lives) for it. Given that Iraq wants us OUT before the start of the year, and given that Iraq has used us as an excuse to not do the things they need to do, I am fairly certain our time in Iraq will be over sooner than the Republicans would like. (Read: While they still have oil.)
Will he magically fix the economy? If so, how long? What exactly is he going to do?
Regulation, Regulation, Regulation. The age of faux conservatism and market speculation is over. If we're REALLY lucky we'll also get to see some frog marched wall street execs.
By being right-leaning, Fox IS the balance.
But it is still one right-leaning network to several left-leaning ones, so you can rest secure that your leftist propaganda will be pushed on TV more than the rightist propaganda.
I don't know if you understand the significance of this election, so let me spell it out for you:
Barack Obama promised to refuse lobbyist and PAC money, and he kept his promise.
His entire campaign was financed by individual donors.
If you don't understand the significance of this, and why it means a change from the politics of the past, I can't really help you. You might start by avoiding the right-wing media which seems to have brainwashed you into believing you don't have a choice.
We do have a choice, and we chose Obama because he is different. Wait and see what happens; it will be awesome.
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
Who will you people (Dems, not Blacks) blame after Obamma and the dems have complete control for the next 4 years? Keep stretching for the Bush blame game, but eventually your own roosters are gonna come home, and you won't have a evil white man or stolen elections to hang them on. How fast (oops, it already happened) before they say that things will take more than 4 years to fix "everything" that Dems view as broken.... Sounds like CYA to me...
--- Relax, that mass muderer is just trying to reduce our carbon footprint, one fetus at a time...
It's a little disheartening how angry the ultra right-wing is about all this. They couldn't be more pissed about what happened last night, and a lot of them showed their true colors last night when they booed at Senator McCain's gracious speech, where he (along with Obama in his) tried to heal the divide in this country.
Just booing??
I recall two elections in a row of the left being such sore losers they filed lawsuits over the results.
Give me a little booing any day.
I'm still disappointed Bob Barr didn't get any states. ;)
When you're the leader of a nation of 300 million people, your slightest mistake can bring suffering to millions of people. Good decisions may even bring suffering to millions of people.
By your reasoning, the previously-mentioned Siberia stuff is no longer evil, because a good decision could lead to it.
By your reasoning, the previously-mentioned Siberia stuff is no longer evil, because a good decision could lead to it.
I said "Good decisions may bring suffering to millions of people", not "Decisions that bring suffering to millions of people are good".
As an example: Was Allied involvement in World War II evil because it brought suffering (death, even) to millions of people? The generally accepted answer is NO, because it was in response to an attack and prevented something far worse.
You're now setting up straw men through sheer cluelessness. What you're saying cannot be seen to have a clear relation to what I said.
Saying that even good decisions can make people suffer doesn't mean "Siberia stuff is no longer evil".
The last part was simply an example of a decision causing suffering, and still being good.
It is so tiresome to have to explain this. It reminds me of why I now only tutor motivated private students instead of annoying brats who don't want to learn.
The example of evil that Bheer gave was about people being sent to Siberia to die. I presume that he places it in the evil category due to the suffering caused (I did ask whether there was a more specific reason, and got no reply). I presume that you agree with him (I detect no disagreement).
You then try to make excuses for terrible actions of US presidents by saying that good decision can cause great suffering. This is a tautology: by definition, a good decision cannot cause great suffering (decisions that seemed good at the time are covered under the topic of mistakes). If I pluck a splinter from my finger, then I have reduced my suffering, not increased it. In the same way, x + 2 - 4 gives me a number which is lower than x. It is meaningless to describe it as an increase. The reverse is also true: if I remove a splinter with a machete, then I have increased my suffering, in the same way that x + 4 - 2 gives me a number higher than x.
Why, then, would you say "good, splinter-removing decisions sometimes cause suffering" when I object to machete-wielding presidents? It can only be that you think that x + 4 - 2 is an improved level of suffering, that you are being disingenuous, or that the + 4 made up of foreigners' blood just doesn't count for you.
In answer to your disingenuous (or clueless) question about what I consider evil, I must direct you back to my very first post. I clearly stated that bringing suffering to millions of people is evil. A demand for greater precision than that can only be interpreted as a bigoted belief in the idea that it depends who those people are.
If you want examples of suffering being caused, one only has to look at the rape of Iraq, which has claimed a million Iraqi lives, and done huge damage to the USA. The splinter removed is tiny in comparison, and put there by the US in the first place. McCain is an enthusiastic supporter of this adventure, and is fanatically opposed to negotiations that might prevent the same happening in Iran.