Is Barack Obama the right leader for America?

[jamiebk]

Well...whatever...Still Bush would have given his left arm (or something) for those ratings

[Shapley]

Well...whatever...Still Bush would have given his left arm (or something) for those ratings

He had them, at one time. Then again, President Bush was more concerned with doing his duty, as he saw it, than with winning the rating game. I suspect President Obama's rating will fall to Earth as the reality of his limitations begins to be realized.

[Shapley]

Obama Accuses Budget Critics of Taking 'Just Say No' Approach

"If there are members of Congress who object to specific policies and proposals in this budget then I ask them to be ready and willing to propose constructive alternative solutions," Obama said. "'Just say no' is the right advice to give your teenagers about drugs. It is not an acceptable response to whatever economic policies are proposed by the other party."

Interesting. Particularly since that was the Democrat policy for the past eight years, including the four years that he sat in the Senate.

It's time for the Republicans to call his bluff. They should step forward with their proposals now. I know there are better ideas out there, and they have access to them. President Obama is giving them an opening, they should take it. If he (or the Democrats in Congress) try to obfuscate or back off from this offer, they need to go public with it. Now is not the time for half-measures or timidity. We need concrete solutions that do not bankrupt our future, and we need them now, before President Obama spends every dime our children expect to make in their lifetimes.

[Shapley]

I wonder if the Dixie Chicks are embarassed to Have Obama for a President yet?

[Shapley]

Obamas to Employ Child Slave Labour To Plant Vegetable Garden

US First Lady Michelle Obama is set to break the ground for an organic garden on a patch of the south lawn to grow produce for the White House kitchen.

Local primary school pupils will help her with the planting and harvesting of the vegetables, herbs and salad crops.

I trust they are cognizant of child labour laws...

[Shapley]

Obama Bars Press From Press Awards Ceremony

[Shapley]

Obama Bars Press From Press Awards Ceremony

I have to double check every news item to make sure it's not from The Onion. This one isn't, it's from the LA Times. The slave labour one isn't either, it's from the BBC. Haggis' post about the DVD's not being compatible with the PAL system was also for real.

I remember when we had a real President. Hard to believe it was only two months ago...

[jamiebk]

Obamas to Emply Child Slave Labour To Plant Vegetable Garden

US First Lady Michelle Obama is set to break the ground for an organic garden on a patch of the south lawn to grow produce for the White House kitchen.

Local primary school pupils will help her with the planting and harvesting of the vegetables, herbs and salad crops.

I trust they are cognizant of child labour laws...

Please tell me you are NOT serious.

[Shapley]

I do not object to having school kids work as part of the learning process through the schools, but to use them to raise a garden for the White House' consumption does, indeed, constitute slave labour. If they pay them, they aren't slaves, but they will probably run afoul of the child labour laws.

What part do you believe isn't serious?

Here's another link on it, from the Chicago Tribune

In an interview, the first lady told the Times: "My hope is that through children, they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities."

Twenty-three fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington will help the first lady turn some soil for a "1,100-square-foot plot in a spot visible to passers-by on E Street.''

The family will help pull weeds ""whether they like it or not," Mrs. Obama said laughing. "Now Grandma, my mom, I don't know."

She hasn't decided whether or not to send the old lady into the fields, but the kids, they go "whether they like it or not".

[jamiebk]

Give me a freakin' break Shap... the opportunity for kids to have a day at the White House, partaking of a gardening activity with the First Lady??? You think that's slave labor? Sheesh. There's no point to my even responding on such an absurd notion

[Shapley]

Give me a freakin' break Shap... the opportunity for kids to have a day at the White House, partaking of a gardening activity with the First Lady??? You think that's slave labor?

Are you saying that, had Mrs. Bush put fifth graders to work in her garden to grow vegetables for
the Bush's own consumption, there would not have been a fuss?

There's no point to my even responding on such an absurd notion

And, yet, you did...

[Shapley]

Congressional Budget Office Predicts Obama's Budget Will Generate Unsustainable Deficits Throughout Next Decade

President Obama's budget would generate deficits averaging almost $1 trillion a year over the next decade, according to the latest congressional estimates, significantly worse than predicted by the White House just last month.

The Congressional Budget Office figures, obtained by The Associated Press Friday, predict Obama's budget will produce $9.3 trillion worth of red ink over 2010-2019. That's $2.3 trillion worse than the White House predicted in its budget.

Worst of all, CBO says the deficit under Obama's policies would never go below 4 percent of the size of the economy, figures that economists agree are unsustainable. By the end of the decade, the deficit would exceed 5 percent of gross domestic product, a dangerously high level.

The latest figures, even worse than expected by top Democrats, throw a major monkey wrench into efforts to enact Obama's budget, which promises universal health care for all and higher spending for domestic programs like education and research into renewable energy.

[Giant Communist Robot]

As always, Shapley posts like "his hair's on fire, and he can't look for the extinguisher until he's through typing."

[Shapley]

CBS's Kroft to Obama: 'Are You Punch-Drunk?'

Apparently, President Obama found the current economic situation humorous, or so Mr. Kroft seemed to think.

[Shapley]

Well, good for President Obama. He has announced that he is opposed to the 90% tax on bonuses, and even used the word 'unconstitutional' in discussing them. There may be hope for him after all.

[piqaboo]

I do not object to having school kids work as part of the learning process through the schools, but to use them to raise a garden for the White House' consumption does, indeed, constitute slave labour. If they pay them, they aren't slaves, but they will probably run afoul of the child labour laws.

What part do you believe isn't serious?

Here's another link on it, from the Chicago Tribune

In an interview, the first lady told the Times: "My hope is that through children, they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities."

Twenty-three fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington will help the first lady turn some soil for a "1,100-square-foot plot in a spot visible to passers-by on E Street.''

The family will help pull weeds ""whether they like it or not," Mrs. Obama said laughing. "Now Grandma, my mom, I don't know."

She hasn't decided whether or not to send the old lady into the fields, but the kids, they go "whether they like it or not".

Shap, she's talking about HER kids will pull weeds whether they like it or not.
For the rest, its a school fieldtrip.
MY kid pulls weeds, like it or not. Feel free to accuse me of slave ownership. She does!

[piqaboo]

As always, Shapley posts like "his hair's on fire, and he can't look for the extinguisher until he's through typing."

<snort>

[Shapley]

Shap, she's talking about HER kids will pull weeds whether they like it or not.
For the rest, its a school fieldtrip.

I understood that. But she is clearly putting schoolkids to work in the fields, to toil in the hot sun in order for her family & her to enjoy the fruits obtained through the kids' labour. Generally, the term 'field trip' these days does not entail actually toiling in a field...

MY kid pulls weeds, like it or not.

As do most peoples' kids. Your own children are largely exempt from the labour rules that apply to the use of other peoples' children. You can make your own kid toil in the hot sun and, as long as it doesn't become abusive, suffer no legal consequence for doing so. However, if you or I went down the local school and told the headmaster to send us a group of fifth-graders to hoe our gardens, I'm afraid we'd find ourselve in a bit of hot water.

Feel free to accuse me of slave ownership. She does!

Of course you own a slave, as do most married women. They just call us 'husbands'....

[Haggis@wk]

Sen. Judd Gregg (R, N.H.), formerly President Obama's nominee for Commerce Secretary and the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, just castigated Obama over his budget proposal in a press conference on Capitol Hill.

"This translates to a debt-to-GDP ratio that we have not seen in this country since the end of World War II, when we were trying to pay off war debt," he said. "If you take all of the presidents from George Washington to George Bush, and add up all of the debt they put on the books of the American people, President Obama's plan adds more debt than that."

Sen. Mitch McConnell, standing with Gregg, warned Democrats against passing the budget along party lines and using budget reconciliation to pass sweeping new programs. "If you do it with no bipartisan buy-in at all, then you own the whole thing."

Yep.

[Shapley]

Government Seeks Expanded Power To Sieze Firms

The Obama administration is seeking authority to seize facilities other than banks, to which it is currently limited. I believe President Obama has been studying the Chavez model...