January 20th, 2009
Change is here!!!
On November 4th last year, voters of the United States did what hundreds of millions of people across the world hoped, prayed for and elected Barack Hussein Obama the 44th President of the USA.
In one short hour, he will become President, being sworn in by the Chief Justice and holding Abraham Lincoln's Bible in his hand.
At last.
America, we salute you. Welcome back!!!
Created 01/03/2009 18:29:29 by lwtc247
(lwtc247 http://lwtc247.wordpress.com)
Akum.
Many people put a lot of hope in Obama, chanting 'change' and 'yes we can' despite the people never really knowing the substance of what that actually meant or Obama having the courtesy of telling us exactly what it involved.
Almost 2 months on and it seems like the only 'change', is that now we have a President that (as one commentator put it) 'actually has a grasp of the English language' and is of a darker skin tone.
Are you still optimistic?
lwtc247 dari Selangor
[2] Yes I Am
Created 07/03/2009 16:08:56 by Dave Harris
(Dave Harris http://www.wavysworld.com)
Peter
Yes I'm still optimistic. OK, so the global economy has gone to shit in the last twelve months, which won't be fixed quickly, but we saw change within days of Obama taking office: the ending of extraordinary rendition (plain and simple rendition was always legitimate since it followed due process - it continues), the reversal of the ban on embryonic stem cell research, the willingness to reach out to other nations (eg, Russia, Iran), the forthright ban on torture, and last but not least, on Day 1, the announce ment of plans to close the detention camps at Guantanamo.
Healthcare reform looks like it's very high on the agenda, which is probably the most significant long term piece of domestic legislation he'll pass (fingers crossed) even if he makes two terms, notwithstanding the $787bn stimulus package. That's emergency spending to fight their way out of a crisis, but the money is only provisioned for a couple of years.
For further reading, I thoroughly recommend Nate Silver's excellent fivethirtyeight blog { Link } plus the erudite Reality Based Community { Link }
Thanks for stopping by.
[3] No change there
Created 08/03/2009 09:28:57 by sam_m
(sam_m )
Hey Dave. I'm one of the billions across the world who could hear no foreign policy difference between McCain, Obama or Dubya during the campaign.
OBTW I preferred what Ron Paul had to say and still do when I hear him talking about economics :)
[4] Your confident of change
Created 10/03/2009 05:36:38 by lwtc247
(lwtc247 http://lwtc247.wordpress.com)
Hi Dave.
My optimism has suffered multi-decade attrition. The "barrel of hope" is well and truly empty.
I think US foreign policy is more important than what I'd consider a few tweaks of the knobs on the domestic scene. US foreign policy involves the life/death of far more people than at home.
I question whether torture is now not practiced, and even if it is, the Obama administration is already taking steps to stop torture cases coming to court. In Britain this has been widely publicised. Obama has spun an Iraq pullout to continual occupation. The war against innocent Afghani's has experienced escalation. Pakistan is fast entering Obama's cross-hairs. As for 'reaching out' I believe that's just spin.
Guantanamo is still open, but so are all the other US torture bases across the planet, the second most notorious is in Afghanistan.
Domestic wise:
Healthcare? Nothing yet. Trains still carry unwell USans to Canada to buy cheap drugs.
Illiteracy in schools - nothing on the horizon.
Drugs - no change
Homelessness - bigger problem.
Joblessness - bigger problem.
Global warming - the same pseudo science is still the order of the day.
What Eisenhower identified as the “Military-Industrial complex” still hold great sway in the United States today, as of course does the Zionist lobby
I actually hope I'm wrong on all this and in a few years I can come back here and congratulate you for being right.
Time will tell..
All the best...
lwtc247
[5] Hopeful, but there’s a long way to go
Created 12/03/2009 15:42:21 by Dave Harris
(Dave Harris http://www.wavysworld.com)
I understand your pessimism, I really do, especially with the prospect of years of stonewalling in Congress, but so much of what needs to be done takes so much time.
Domestically, a comprehensive health care reform bill will take months to write, and probably longer to pass, so despite optimistic noises in other quarters, I can't see it happening until 2011: it won't happen this year, and it will never pass in an election year.
On drugs, the appointments this week of the new drug "czar" (and I must state that I think that's a ridiculous term) and his core team demonstrate a willingness to radically change approach.
Homelessness & joblessness I think will sadly have to take a back seat to the economy (and, Sam, there are certain issues where I agree with Dr Paul but on the whole I fundamentally disagree with him on most. I'm much more of a liberal than a libertarian), although I'd like to see a tighter safety net.
Global warming, well let's see what Stephen Chu comes up with, given he's got to undo eight years of ideology-based, rather than science-based, policy.
On foreign policy issues, I/P is always going to be a real problem, you just have to look at the problems wiith Freeman's (eventually fruitless) nomination process to see how difficult it's going to be to get any kind of useful movement there. Again, there's been some really interesting suggestions coming out of RBC, as I linked above.
On Afghanistan/Pakistan, I see real problems ahead, but I don't know what the hell a solution could look like. But given the numbers of girls' schools being blown up or closed in Afghanistan or NWFP, I know what shouldn't be part of it. Put it this way, I really don't like the look of the deal Zarkawi (sp?) cut in NWFP recently.
As for torture, how can we verify that it's ceased? It's a "when did you stop beating your wife?" question, almost, except we know it did happen. It's clear that Gitmo has to close, as a detention facility at least, the rest is between the US and Cuba, and for as long as they're in Afghanistan, the US forces will always use Bagram.
We're just over fifty days in the new administration. Mistakes will happen, and some things will happen too slowly, others too quickly. Some things that I want to see won't happen at all (eg, stimulus spending on mass transit rather than new highways), but even in these tough times, the signs are there that most things promised are in train.
