20 January 2009

Obama'ing the day and night away

| johnboy
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A lot of you are very excited about tomorrow’s inauguration of Barack Obama as the US President.

So where are the best public parties going to be?

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farnarkler said :

It’d be like being made captain of Titanic an hour after the iceberg hit.

Dear Mr President,

Congratulations on winning the 2008 election, the people of the United States made a choice, blah blah blah.
I have constructed several albatrosses for around your neck, so that at least one will match any color of suit you choose.
My only regret is that I didn’t make them bigger.

Regards,
George Walker Bush

tylersmayhem11:29 am 21 Jan 09

It’d be like being made captain of Titanic an hour after the iceberg hit.

So what are you suggesting…jumping ship? Or maybe just leaving it to another incompetent w**ker to worsen the situation for another 8 years?

Seriously – what do you suggest farnarkler?

No he can’t. The US car industry is on its’ knees, the poor get ever poorer and the pensions debt gets bigger by the second. America is on the verge of bankruptcy.

It’d be like being made captain of Titanic an hour after the iceberg hit.

tylersmayhem8:46 am 21 Jan 09

I feel sorry for Obama

Don’t. I believe if anyone can do it – he can. He’s very inspiring, which is exactly what the Americans need across their nation.

I feel sorry for Obama. All the poor in America are thinking he’s their knight in shining armour who’s going to drag them out of poverty. Wrong!! He’s inheriting a pretty shitty economic position and he, like the last few presidents, will be owned by US big business who will be calling in the favours guaranteed by donations to the Democrats.

“Leader of the User Pays World.” ;-]

Eyeball In A Quart Jar Of Snot11:35 pm 20 Jan 09

Obama, Clinton, Bush, Reagan…….

They’re all paid by the same people.

“Chains we can believe in.”

WIN is streaming live abc telecast from dawn at inauguration day, complete with US weather reports, streamer at teh foot of the screen and we even got a snippet of a US ad before they cut to australian ads adn then teh late news. It’ll be cutting back to it any moment now.

It has been important on many levels, I think.

Russia is in many ways more a third world country than a superpower.

In some ways they were looked after better under the socialist regime, but the priority given to matching US spending on space and arms has created a lot of poverty for the Russian people.

However, the rise of capitalism has also created a climate where the mafia is thriving like weeds.

But overall I would have to say the change has been good. Summer camps which were once used to indoctrinate children are now used for holiday and recreation, more cultural exchange is taking place, and ordinary people have opportunities they could never have dreamed of before.

The fall of the Berlin wall was pretty important for the half of Germany that lived behind it.

dexi: The best thing Obama can do in that regard is to get the CTBT ratified by the US Senate.

Yes Thumper, the Cold War really is over. Russia may be a crony-capitalist oligarchy not afraid of using military power to advance its interests in what it regards as its “backyard”, but a nuclear confrontation between it and “the West” is remote and unlikely in a way that it simply wasn’t only 20 years ago.

Caf. We are closer to global nuclear war. Getting closer with every nuclear deal. By accident or design. Lets not forget its not just the russian Vs America deal. America is selling arms to the world.

Maybe Obama can save America, but who will save the free world.

I’m excited.. only because we should have to only put up with the BS being plastered all over the news for another 24 hours.

Nambucco Deliria8:29 pm 20 Jan 09

caf said :

“meant very little”???

The fact that Vladimir Putin can’t put in a call and have five tank armies take all of Europe up to the French border within a few hours isn’t sufficient meaning for you?

The fact that we’re no longer one rolling f.ckup away from accidental global nuclear war isn’t sufficient meaning?

The trouble is, we are. Putin pulls Medvedev’s strings, and Russia is re-arming at a rate not seen since the cold war. Luckily, a cowboy has just been kicked out of the White House. But he’s been replaced by a man who doesn’t seem that keen on changing too much, foreign policy wise (beyond closing Gitmo, so no. Not much has changed. And Gorbachev, in the end, didn’t make a great deal of difference.

“meant very little”???

The fact that Vladimir Putin can’t put in a call and have five tank armies take all of Europe up to the French border within a few hours isn’t sufficient meaning for you?

The fact that we’re no longer one rolling f.ckup away from accidental global nuclear war isn’t sufficient meaning?

Nambucco Deliria7:56 pm 20 Jan 09

Anyone remember how excited we were when Gorbachev rose to power? Did anything really get better in the USSR? Is Medvedev, backed by ex-KGB men any more democratic? Obama has already undertaken to follow through quite a few of Bush’s policies – it’s just now SBS and ABC will say they are dynamic forces for good rather than desperate bailout measures over a range of policies.

You know we’re in trouble if the Scorpions decide to re-record Wind of Change in Obama’s honour…

I think all the Obama hype is a little unfortunate… It has created some astonishing expectations. A party is a party though, I wouldn’t complain.

Absent Diane5:17 pm 20 Jan 09

yeah i have never seen so much interest in an american presidency change over.. i guess people just really hated bush.. however i think obama is a good symbolic president for the yanks but probably won’t offer much to the rest of the world.

and yes ron paul would have been the real revolutionary but he never had a chance unfortunately.

I think thats a “We’re so sorry you’re leaving Mr Old Ambassador”\”Hooray, here comes the New Ambassador” affair though, isn’t it?

US Embasy is having a bash

tylersmayhem3:16 pm 20 Jan 09

Last time I looked we were Australian.

Yeah, but Thumper I suspect you and most Aussies will experience the pain caused by the good ole’ US of A in the next 12 months. you can’t tell me the financial crisis they have caused will have no knock on effect to us. Hang on – it already has!

I think it’s pretty important to have a leader over there who actually has an interest in improving the country, rather than purely in personal gain.

I think its exciting that there is a feeling of hope. And mine has nothin to do with what the media is telling me. It’s what his constituents are sharing.
Nothing wrong with a bit of optimism Thumper! 🙂
Cynicism will keep you warm at night sure, but as JB said why not just enjoy this for what it is worth.

🙂 see you at the phoenix.

“Or sit and grump, nope, frankly I couldn’t give a rats, I just find it odd that people in Australia are celebrating like he’s the messiah of the world.”

“The leader of the free world”. Its all over the media.

Some of you seem to be channelling SGS.

Enjoy the party while it lasts I say, or sit and grump, your choice.

Don’t remain excited about Obama beyond the tumbling of the race barrier. He’s a cynical, tough-school politician. We don’t know what his values are – it’s all PR. The hype is nonsense – he is no orator, and all his post-election speeches so far have been pretty banal. I’m already disappointed in him!

neanderthalsis1:24 pm 20 Jan 09

I can’t wait to hear the crack and tinkle of the broken dreams of the idealists when they realise that Obama is not the messiah, he’s just another politician.

We’re seeing the dreams of the left here in Aus shattered as they slowly realise that Kev is not the Labor saviour come to lead us to a socialist paradise, he’s just like most mid-level bureaucrats trying to drown us in reviews and reports.

We’re the 52nd state (behind the Phillipines) these days.

Deadmandrinking12:39 pm 20 Jan 09

If only public kickings were allowed in the case of unpopular out-goers.

I can dig it Deadman.

Deadmandrinking12:34 pm 20 Jan 09

True JakeZ…but it’s satisfying to see both Howard and Bush go out so unpopular. Deeply, deeply satisfying.

Deadmandrinking said :

What’s bizarre about it Thumper?

I do actually think that Obama might be a fresh change. He seems committed to alot of social causes, which is what America needs right now considering the current economic clime and the way the last administration handled the US.

Of course, I could be wrong. But Bush is gone! Howard is gone! Wow…I never thought I’d live to see the day. Sometimes literally…

And the world looks just the same
And history ain’t changed
‘Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
No, no!

I’ll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I’ll get all my papers and smile at the sky
For I know that the hypnotized never lie

Do ya?

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

There’s nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now the parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
Don’t get fooled again
No, no!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

Deadmandrinking12:07 pm 20 Jan 09

What’s bizarre about it Thumper?

I do actually think that Obama might be a fresh change. He seems committed to alot of social causes, which is what America needs right now considering the current economic clime and the way the last administration handled the US.

Of course, I could be wrong. But Bush is gone! Howard is gone! Wow…I never thought I’d live to see the day. Sometimes literally…

There is nothing that special about the incoming guy, it is the departure of the outgoing guy that I will be celebrating.

There are no ‘public’ parties, they’re all private ones, just being held openly.

It would have to be a pretty special politician to make me party. I don’t even like admitting I like the politicians I like. It encourages them too much.

The Ron Paul Revolution continues…in my computer.

I think it’s awesome that there is this huge party going on in DC at the moment.
I lived there in 2006 and wish I could have been involved what is going on there at the moment. It’s massive!

All I got was a lame tour of the dining rooms in the White House.

“And this is where President Bush drinks his tea…”

Yeah…whatever…

Something a little closer might be of more help to the rest of us.

I hear the Phoenix is having a do in the evening.

Nambucco Deliria10:46 am 20 Jan 09

Washington, I would imagine.

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