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Obama Launches Change.gov
mallumax writes "Obama has launched Change.gov. According to the site 'Change.gov provides resources to better understand the transition process and the decisions being made as part of it. It also offers an opportunity to be heard about the challenges our country faces and your ideas for tackling them. The Obama Administration will reflect an essential lesson from the success of the Obama campaign: that people united around a common purpose can achieve great things.' The site is extensive and contains Obama's agenda for economy and education among many others. They first define the problem and then lay out the plan. Everything is in simple English without a trace of Washington-speak. The site also has details about the transition. According to many sources, Obama's transition efforts started months ago. The copyright for the content is held by 'Obama-Biden Transition Project, a 501c(4) organization'."
They did talk about it, actually. There was also a YouTube video, one of the "Blueprint for Change" series.
Whether or not it's a good thing... I don't know. It seems perhaps a bit much to force students to help out... but then, it could do some serious good as well.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
This is not an uncommon use of a .gov domain. Just look at the Dem and GOP House Caucus sites. The GOP caucus has a nice set of articles on "THE COST OF THE DEMOCRAT CONGRESS" and the Dem site, while not containing any hit pieces, has a lot of advocacy.
Not saying it's appropriate, just there's a precedent for it and it's not beyond any pale of anything.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
The government is paying a good chunk of your tuition in exchange for 100 hours of community service. Sounds like a fair exchange for me.
Do you know what this program is? The government lets you to earn college credit while you are in high school. Many of my classmates were able to graduate with a bachelor degree a year before us chumps who didn't take uncle sam up on the offer.
How do you know this? Maybe it would have got you over it sooner. In fact, I wager most of the people in head start did it to get away from their high school foes and sit around people who respected smarts.
If you dont want to do it, pay full freight on your college tuition instead! Nobody is pointing a gun at your head saying "cash this government check!!"
http://www.change.gov/americaserves
Classic double-think
"When you choose to serve -- whether it's your nation, your community or simply your neighborhood....
Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.
Obama's chief of staff choice favors compulsory universal service
Obama and Hillary Call for a Draft Live on MTV
Text of H.R. 393: Universal National Service Act of 2007
Obama Calls For National Civilian Stasi
Constitution, what Constitution?
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
If you have something that you dont want anyone to know, maybe you shouldnt be doing it in the first place -Eric Schmidt
The Obama tax plan reaffirms the Bush tax cuts on all but the highest brackets past 2010; the salient change is that the $250k bracket simply returns to where it was when Bush took office: see here. In the end, the total tax rate of the country is still below where it was during the Reagan administration. It's astonishing to think we went through the first decade of expansion this century without collecting any money to pay down our debt; through the 50s, the highest brakcet had a marginal tax rate of over 90%, in order to pay down our war debt, and that was a tax code submitted by a Republican congress and signed by Eisenhower. At the time thus amounted to a huge wealth redistribution since the paper on the war debt was in war bonds, which were universally subscribed, not to mention the costs of the GI Bill and Marshall plan, which educated millions and could also be considered a form of debt repayment or infrastructure invetment.
It didn't help that he wasn't spending much; if we trim up taxation while spending gobs on infrastructure like in 1933. Of course back then, they didn't have $10 trillion in debt.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
The US may have left England when the colonists were taxed without representation, but I don't think you can compare the differences between the US and the UK then to the differences between the US and the EU now. I moved to Finland a few years ago and found excellent public services, fantastic support of the arts, adequate health care, and much more disposable income (even after the higher taxes here) than I ever saw in the US. Meanwhile, my family back in the US finds themselves struggling under rising costs, facing the prospect of working until they die, and never have any free time to travel because leisure time seems anathema there. My telling them about how good life is in the EU spurred them all the more to vote for Obama. While he's a very lackluster centrist politician from our view here, at least there's the slight chance he might bring things in the US to the standard of living of the countries rated most highly in that regard.
Why couldn't they think like that before the election? It is sad, truly sad.
Some years back, when I started to lose it on top, I shaved off my pony tail, and stayed a chrome-dome for a year or so.
A couple of months in, I was talking with pals over beers, and told them that the weirdest thing about it was that strangers treated me differently. Nervous looks in the grocery store line. Uncomfortable pauses when chatting with people on the bus. Crossing the street so they didn't have to pass me on the sidewalk. One of those friends, whose parents are African immigrants, and who is one of the most affable people I know, said, "Yeah, now you know how it is to be black."
I didn't, of course, not really. How could I? But I could see that if you spent your whole life with people treating you as different, lesser, or scary on a daily basis, it would tend to color your outlook. And what I'm sure of is that most white people have absolutely zero understanding of what it's like to not have the instant boost in regard that they get just from being white.