Nightowlhoot3 wrote:

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Granted, what a breath of fresh air after 8 long years of oppression for the entire lot of us.

BUT...isn't there just a little bit of danger in this overt pedestal we're placing this guy on? Let's look back at Sept. 11, 2001. In the weeks following, GWB was instantly escalated to hero status. Look how long it took for anyone to acknowledge his mistakes. It was considered "unpatriotic" to question anything he did for the next year or more.

The results speak for themselves.

I wonder....

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You think the chia pet thing is flattering, or idolization??
I find it mildly insulting -- which is cool, I mean that's one of the cool things about being in this country -- we can be insulting to our national leader without facing a firing squad.

yeah i had a momentary pause when i saw this. my first take was that it was racist but then who knows? it might be nothing more than another way to make money on the booming inaugural biz. lacking loads of taste perhaps but then too the bobble heads, face on coins and chocolate bars are equally demeaning.


My thought is that right now, love him or hate him, he's what we've got, and its in our best interest to hope he succeeds. We need for him to be a strong leader, and to inspire us, as a nation. We need to adjust our national mindset, and hope for the best, rather than, as many of us have been doing for the last eight years, fearing the worst.

this is where i am too. this is an extraordinary opportujnity to create the world that we would really like to live in but to do that we all have to get involved and make it happen. if we dont in a year the opportunity will be lost to disillusionment.  i worry that peoples expectations are way too high and unless they back up those expectations with personal actions they are bound for disappointment.
ive been looking at things like oprah and starbucks getting involved along with the new govt website and ive seen a few other corporate giants jump on the lets really make a difference and change thing here. pepsi for one. loved their ad after the inauguration. really. it was a great ad. i hate pepsi but the ad was fab.


 The era of Gitmo, waterboarding, and a vast array of other national insults has passed.

this was the only area of his list of changes this week that gave me pause. honestly i go back and forth on this one. i know in my head what the right thing to do is. well right in terms of american values and ideals anyway and yet i worry about what the outcome will be if we do it.

anyone watching 24 this season? this is the basis of the shows start this year (with cherry jones as a hillary like pres, bsmh)
im glad that there was an opportunity left in there to rethink this as necessary. i do think and believe that we are a nation of laws and that this is what makes us who we are but the concern is that al queda apparently picks just those things to use as weapons against us.  the question that i always ask myself is, if you knew that one person knew the location or the plot that would kill millions what would you do to get that information? stick to the army manual or administer an hypnotic drug or water board or drill his oral cavity nerves like in that old dustin hoffman movie. im ok with the drug, im less ok with the torture, tho what of the torture of the innocents who would die violently. what if it were 100 thousand? what if its 100? see thats where i struggle with this. one scum sucking terrorists rights vs 1 million innocents or even 100 innocents? and yet the promise of what is really lost there is perhaps worse than the 1 million dead.  i see nicholson giving that fantastic sorkin movie speech:

"Son, we live in a world that has walls and those walls need to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and curse the Marines; you have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives and that my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use then as the backbone of a life trying to defend something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said "thank you," and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest that you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to."

i want to live in a world that holds to the ideals but what do we do when others dont?

 I say monitor the guy, sure, absolutely, but give him a chance to help this nation heal. Just seems to me, all need each other right now. After the reign of "I'm the Decider and don't want or need your input" it's a refreshing change. I think America has been aching for a departure from what we've endured the last eight years, and the expression of that, as much as anything, may be what you're seeing right now. I certainly don't idolize him, and I didn't support him in the primary, but right now, I'm danged glad he's there.

 

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Psych Lit wrote:

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BoxDog wrote:

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47% of Americans did NOT place him on the pedestal. Matter of fact I thought I saw his image on my blueberry donut just now. Funny what they're (really, whoever they are) trying to do to us. If you have an idle minute check out the following video. Obviously there are several ideas on how to address this disgraceful display, as it relates to the Office of the Presidency. Seems Obama just finds it silly to discuss. Me? I find it degrading, inflammatory and far more divisive than anything GWB ever said or did. Worse thing the gop did in an after party was to shoot their lawyer in the face, not spit on the office and create further racial tension.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R49EK0lGwEM

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not a very pleasant video. i understand the feelings but still not cool and certainly off the presidents message.  this however is the land of the free or maybe its becoming that once more anyway and its ok for us to hear things that piss us off and get people talking about these things and obama isnt responsible for what others say tho if this kind of stuff continues to fester id hope that he steps up and addresses it. i do think racisim has to be reconceptualized in a pres obama world tho i also believe that just because this happened the world hasnt come full circle just yet. i think whats happened is that we have a chance with his election to change some of the institutionalized faces of racisim but people are still living with the results of generations of this. 

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Psych Lit wrote:

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i tried to attach a photo of this but it wont stick. theyve turned obamas image into a green haired chia pet. really. im not kidding.

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Or did the DNC actually turn a green haired chia pet into Obama? ;)