Aquarian Weekly 2/17/10
REALITY CHECK

READERS RESPONSES

There are three problems with this article. (HEALTH CARE FINALE - Issue: 12/16/09) 1. The Dems have the majority; they can pass the Health Care bill without the Repubs. 2. I wouldn't call 52.7% of the vote a mandate. You're talking 6 million voters, like dead people, Mickey Mouse and whatever else Acorn could dream up. Oh yeah, and don't forget the Black Panther party in Philly intimidating voters. 3. The Legend of Obama is NOT Hardcorrrrrre!!!

John Menzzasalma

It has become painfully clear that our paradigms have long since expired. Even as more and more of us - even some political and industrial leaders have started using Twitter (could you possibly have chosen a more chaotic or irrelevant technology vector? I think not), almost everyone with noticeable influence and/or media access is trying to prevent the future from happening.

It's way too late for that. The world has, for the most part, changed right under our feet. What little change remains to complete the transformation is as inevitable as the follow through at the end of the swing of a baseball bat. The impact has already happened. The ball has launched and we are watching its arc, about to peak, and the people in charge actually believe they can at least alter its flight. Some think they can bring it back, or perhaps the ball will foul out to the left or right, or be caught by an outfielder.

Nope. This is a grand slam homer, right down the middle. No matter where you're sitting, or if you're watching the game on TV, even if all you've got is a tiny transistor radio with dying batteries and poor reception, it's obvious to everyone but those with excessive money and/or power.

Their vested interests were created in a different world. That world is gone. Forever.

So the only thing left to do is to throw tantrums and to name enemies and fight, with words, with pictures, and, of course, with guns and bombs.

I'm certain that this period in history will be understood as one dominated by formerly reasonable adults, acting like spoiled children because that which they thought they were entitled to, in perpetuity, is gone.

Brad Morrison

Love this line - "a mass filibuster on "All-Things Obama" from Republicans." That makes about as much sense as saying the Washington Generals always give the Harlem Globetrotters a run for their money. Last I checked the Dems don't need jack shit from the Republicans to get anything passed so their pissing and moaning about Republican non-cooperation is just a bunch of hot air meant to snow the easily distracted among us (aka every sucker who voted for Obama, Mr. Cheesecloth Resume) from the glaring fact that they can't scrape together a coalition of their own to decide when to take a dump no less pass legislation that will most definitely be an albatross around this country's neck for years to come.

And let's get our history straight - Reagan's expansionist policies were enacted as a CURE for the recession of '80-'82, not the cause of, which squarely belongs on shoulders of the blandest US President of all time Jimmy Carter. Hey you want to go around believing the sky is green be my guest, but it's fucking blue. You want healthcare scare tactics? There's plenty of that coming from the proponent's side, or haven't you been listening?

As for the whole healthcare debate, hell even our political system in general, the trenchant-minded economist Thomas Sowell nailed the inescapable reality of it all - "The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics."

Ken Eustace

"…the Republican negation ploy has served to stall what is unquestionably the closest the United States has come to sweeping National Health Care Reform, angering many Liberals and frightening away Independents in droves."

What planet are you living on? Independents are flocking from the left as fast as they can according to all the latest polls. Independents voted for a moderate center-left Obama and got a far-left ideologue and are running away in droves.

Kevin

Man am I pissed at the government for blowing up our national debt on entitlement programs, like I was plenty pissed when we wasted money on Homeland Security and expanding Medicare beyond all measure of understanding. I only wish the same Democrats who were pissed with me then would be just as pissed as I still am and all those Republicans who ignored the Bush payouts were half as pissed then as they are now.

Angry Dan Pasquiloni

As usual, you are right on the money about "the new guy". (BARACK OBAMA'S AMERICA: YEAR ONE - Issue: 1/20/10) This is the place I go for sober reasoning, as insane as that sounds, since you normally and to great effect use anything but sober reasoning. But when both sides get going it sounds like a bunch of braying sheep just regurgitating the usual "talking points". You bring The Real to such an important and historical moment for us all, and for that Reality Check is always a MUST READ.

Sarah Phillips

"What the new guy is not is a New Politician. He is the same one we have seen before, making the same mistakes and settling on the same hard decisions that don't always jibe with the far-reaching, inspirational sonnet of the 'outsider'. And in the end, which is only the beginning, Barack Obama's America: Year One may have taught us a lesson we already knew deep down: twelve months does not a term make."

Nicely summed up & no real disagreement from me except the last sentence ... what we already knew deep down is that he was not going to have the balls to follow through on all the major changes he called for - as you yourself pointed out. I don't think that'll change in the next four years and I'm terrified of the Republican candidate he'll run against ... because I don't think he's a two-term president.

Vincent Czyz

James,

You are unbelievable! Your column seems like it was written in Cloud Cuckoo-Land.

Obama's first year has been failure upon failure. First he lies to the American People about how if we don't pass stimulus, the American Economy may never recover and unemployment will not go above 8%. Oops, it is 10.2% after stimulus and now the lie is stimulus kept unemployment from going even higher than the 10.2 it is currently at. Well how can that be when you said it wouldn't go above 8%?

Then he refuses to call it the "War On Terror" while during his first year he has the Arkansas Recruiting Station shooting, Fort Hood shooting and the Fruit of The Boom bomber. He claims we can't rush to judgment...well except if you're a Cambridge cop and then you acted "stupidly".

You talk about Obama's great moves in Afghanistan...except most of the world's terror plots are coming out of Africa in places like Sudan and Somalia. Not to mention he short shrifted the general's Afghan troop request in his attempt to dance both sides of the fence. On to healthcare, it was doomed from the start. Oh, that is not to say it won't pass. There are enough line-toeing Democrats to pass it. Retribution will come in November when they are all cast from Congress in what will be massive punishment at the polls over their "governing against the will of the people" healthcare vote.

Obama could never overcome the fact that a majority of the American People like the coverage they have now and do not want government intruding in it, yet they push on. How can you praise these people while skewering Republicans for doing far less in terms of poor governing or legislating?

This, James, is an Imperial Congress. Completely governing against the will of the people and it is that cause precisely that has caused the rise of TEA Party movement. Oh and in your liberal blindness, you lump everyone together "TEA Party/"Birther". Sorry man, I don't buy into conspiracy bullshit, I do support getting government out of my wallet. If the left put down their copy of Saul Alinsky's book and actually took a look around, you will see the TEA Party is truly defending America and her financial future.

Nice column James...you just had a few things wrong. Glad to help.

Rob Kulessa

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