Tag Archives: President Obama
Football, Politics and Life
Autumn is my favorite time of year. The days get cooler as we approach winter, the leaves change color, kids are back in school and life just seems to be more invigorating. That, and the football season begins on college campuses and pro stadiums.
Metaphorically, football is much like politics and life in general. The “good guys” don’t always win, sometimes it isn’t even very fair and the “right team” can be easily upset, even when they have the lead. In football, it seems that any team can knock off another on any given day.
In life, the same is true. Life is rarely fair, and the bad guys seem to win more often than the good guys.
Four years ago, the Democratic Party seized control of the House and Senate from the Republicans. Two years ago, Barack Obama was elected president in an Electoral College landslide. It looked like the “good guys” were finally in control and a progressive agenda would be realized. Everything seemed to be in place for a bright future for the Party of “evil liberals.”
Everything except the economy – the Great Recession changed all the rules.
Like the winless football team that rises up and smites the champions, the recession handcuffed the progressive agenda. The Republicans seized the initiative from the Democrats and backed the “good guys” up to their own goal line. Republicans have a unique ability to shamelessly ignore their past failures and pass off their “new” agenda as somehow being different from their “old” agenda. Unfortunately, the voters are incapable of seeing through the deceit.
In 2010, the Democrats are likely to lose both the House and Senate. President Obama may well be one term president. The progressive agenda appears to be dead and a return to a far right philosophy seems inevitable. In football parlance, we had a big lead at half time and blew it all in the second half.
Now what?
Well, in football, the schemes of championship teams are frequently copied by the lesser teams. The Democrats need to take the playbook of the Republicans and recognize that there is more than one way to cross the goal line.
The Democrats have to learn to play the game with the Republicans. They have failed miserably, especially over the past two years. Now is the time for a new game plan.
William Stephenson Clark
Filed under Democratic Party
Do you know what I don’t care about?
Well, I don’t care that Alex Rodriguez just hit his 600th career home run. I don’t care that Lady Gaga just was nominated for a thousand awards. I could care less about Bristol and Levi. And who, other than Shaq, cares that Shaquille O’Neal just sign with the Boston Celtics?
I do care that the Republican side of the aisle is trashing the President and the Democrats, with little resistance from our side. The pace of distorted “facts,” outright lies and conveniently ignored data has quickened as we move through primary season and into the fall mid-term elections. Could someone please tell me why Democrats don’t “fight fire with fire?”
I don’t care about the Maxine Waters and Charlie Rangel ethics issues. As far as I am concerned, they should resign now. I don’t care what Todd Tiahrt is going to do now that he has lost his primary race to Jerry Moran.
I do care about the ruling of the Federal Judge in California regarding gay marriage. I do care that that Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, two Republicans, did the right thing and voted for the Senate jobs bill. The rest of the Republicans voted against, despite the fact that it is deficit neutral.
I don’t care that someone has come up with a new sitcom entitled “Shit My Dad Says!” I also don’t care that the Parents Television Council wants advertisers to boycott the show. Hell, I don’t watch television other than sports, so why would I care about any of it? Besides, what’s a “Snooki?”
I do care that on January 20, 2009, Republicans suddenly became anti-war and fiscal conservatives. I do care that Bradley Manning may have betrayed our soldiers and allies in Afghanistan. I do care, that while about 90% of Democrats support President Obama, we seem to be gun-shy about saying it. I do care that the Con/Republicans seem to want to ignore the facts that they caused the Great Recession and the Democrats, led by President Obama, have brought us to a slow but steady recovery.
I don’t care that Albert Haynesworth can’t pass his conditioning test and Mike Gloic can.
(Haynesworth is a $120 million defensive lineman for the Washington Redskins. Mike Golic was also a defensive lineman – he retired sixteen years ago and now is a sportscaster. Haynesworth has failed his test three times. Golic, to prove a point, ran the same test and completed it within the allotted time.)
There are many things I do care about and a whole bunch that I don’t care about.
How about you?
William Stephenson Clark
Filed under American Society
Racism v Reverse Racism
In a recent “discussion” with an individual of the Right Wing persuasion, I was told that “racism is no long a problem, reverse racism is the issue.”
I don’t believe that, in the least.
I could research pages of data to support my contention that racism is alive and well in the US. The statistics are endless and, of course, are subject to interpretation, correctly or not. Rather than a dry, academic exercise, I am just going to express my thoughts on a couple of recent observations.
It has been my thought that the election of President Barack Obama has done more to expose the racist underbelly of America than any other event since the assassination of Dr. King in 1968. In my view, the election of the first black president did not prove that America has moved past race, rather it proved just the opposite.
The barrage of racially-tinged commentary about the candidate and now president was bewildering. The intensity of commentary was made even more disconcerting by it’s acceptance, particularly by the Right.
Affirmative action is usually given as proof of the claim of reverse racism, which is laughable to me, considering the long history of discrimination in America.
“Blacks have a 375-year history on this continent: 245 involving slavery, 100 involving legalized discrimination, and only 30 involving anything else.” – Roger Wilkins
How can leveling the playing field be “reverse racism” when the minorities were the victims of discrimination for a century and a half?
The term “affirmative action” was first used by President John F. Kennedy in Executive Order 10925, issued on March 6, 1961. Despite a 50 year history, various efforts at affirmative action have not yet to eradicate discrimination in housing, employment and education. Significant improvements have been made, but the road ahead is still very long.
I have faith that a new generation, one that has grown up without segregation and discrimination as obvious as that that we grew up with, will break through the barriers that kept racism alive during our lifetimes.
I can only pray.
(The tread photo is of the dead body of Michael Donald, a black man randomly chosen by the Ku Klux Klan and lynched in 1981, after an unrelated black man’s trial was declared a mistrial in a case of a murder of a police officer in Mobile, Alabama. The lynching was totally an act of senseless violence. Donald had nothing to do with the trial. His family sued the Klan and were awarded a $7 million settlement.)
William Stephenson Clark
Filed under racism
President XXXX
The thread title is a reference to another blog, where Democrats and progressives are not allowed to mention the name of the President that “served” from 2001 to 2009. Frequently, we are not even allowed to mention the years between 2001 and 2009, as if those pages have been wiped from history.
History, however, has a funny way of refusing to cleanse its self of unpleasantries. These days, in particular, the flow of information is so instantaneous and pervasive that there isn’t much that flies under the radar.
They say, “history is written by the victors” (Winston Churchill) but history is now written as it happens.
In my not so humble opinion, President XXXX, will go down in history as one of the most bumbling incompetents ever. The years between 2001 and 2009 will be viewed as a disaster for America, a disaster that President Barack Obama is valiantly trying to overcome.
How did we go from the relative peace and prosperity that was handed to President XXXX by President Clinton, to the full-blown train wreck that was handed to President Obama?
Unlike some, I do not blame 9/11 on XXXX, although he could obviously have paid more attention to the terrorism issue that he was warned about by President Clinton. The initial invasion of Afghanistan and subsequent defeat of the Taliban was necessary in light of the attacks by al Qaeda. After that, the train ran off the tracks.
The list of bad, horrible, disgusting and truly idiotic decisions that were made beginning in 2002 are well known, and there is no need for me to rehash them at this point. You know them all too well.
Despite all the evidence, there are still some that say that history will vindicate President XXXX and there are even some that say that he was a great President.
Hopefully, those folks are getting the mental health treatments that they obviously so desperately need.
My thought is that President XXXX is an American tragedy.
What are your thoughts?
(I am temporarily implementing a new rule for Pop Blog. Please limit profanity to a single curse word per sentence.)
William Stephenson Clark
Filed under Bill Clinton, George W. Bush
Obama Donates Peace Prize Money
All $1.4 million awarded to President Obama in conjunction with his Nobel Peace Prize is going to 10 charities, including the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund and the United Negro College Fund. The money comes in tandem with the Nobel Peace Prize he was awarded last October for his work toward global peace. At $250,000, the most money went to Fisher House, which “provides housing for families of patients being cared for at major military and VA medical centers.” The next highest recipient was the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, which received $200,000. “These organizations do extraordinary work in the United States and abroad helping students, veterans and countless others in need,” President Obama said in a statement. “I’m proud to support their work.”
Read more here.
Filed under President Barack Obama
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 