Inauguration

Just curious who's watched/watching the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Not intending to discuss his policies, just interested in a few things:

Why are you watching?
What are your thoughts while watching?
Even if you're not American, did you watch it? (I've heard that foreign countries pay much more attention to our politics than we do to theirs)

Oh bummer. I do not. I less care about rituals. One reason is that other countries pay attention to American politics is that because its actions affect globally.

I dont say this as an offence, but I think most Americans do not care for politics of other countries because of strong nationalism.

None taken, I could see that as one possibility.

It's all over our news and television today. I think him being elected is a great landmark for racial equality, but I don't care about the inauguration though. As Emperism said, it's just a ritual. The important, exciting bits happened back in November.

while there is a strong crippling nationalism (there is no doubt about that) but more importantly most just don't care. look at the number of people that actually vote in the USA. i don't vote because there is no one good to vote for or he/she wouldn't win with my vote or without it(there more or less trying to get different views out there), but i am registered. Norm Chomsky stated a good statement on the political status in the usa but this isn't the place for it. most USA citizens aren't dumb and stupid like the world view is made out to be it is just the problem is the media is privately owned and it was once a thing that made the usa great, but now it has become very dangerous. and ever since Frank Zappa died there is no one fighting for the people's right anymore or no one with any charisma/dealing with the things that matter(bill of rights). While the USA WILL NEVER BECOME LIKE Nazi Germany the propaganda aspect is starting to be remarkable close/already is like it.

this isn't the place for this i know and more than like this is my only post just thought it need to be said

i watched during school.

It got me out of math homework. =]

Then I cam home. Talked a bit. Fell asleep on the couch and am posting this post.

i watched. i ithnk he's a communist who's going to raise my families taxes, and by the way the colors of his outfit today were NAZI GERMAN colors. white, black, red.

nbo hes not communist, but yes hes gona put america in more of a slump then it is now. nothing he can do about it...but his plan, tax the rich give money to the poor. wont work, never has worked, will make it worse. no doubt a smart guy, just his ideas arnt going to work. what will work is a flat tax of 25%, no tax deductions, more people would pay, gov would get more money, tht would work.

Haha, I should've figured that would happen.

@ Patleh

I hope you're not serious about that Nazi Germany colors stuff. Red, Black, and White... hmm... those are such uncommon colors. Also, Nazi Germany wasn't communist, they were fascist.

Anyway, back on topic. I missed his inaugural address, but I did watch him make his "first official act as president". I can understand why people might avoid watching it because it's all ceremony, but I still feel like it means something to watch him be sworn in. I mean c'mon, the first African American President is a pretty big deal! People may say racism doesn't exist in our country, but it is definitely still present.

The other thing I picked up on while watching him is that he's very warm and youthful. Even with all the hoops that he was jumping through, he still found opportunities to crack jokes about "not stealing the pens" when he was signing official documents.

@ emb, foog you can be comunist and facist at the same time. and emb the whole point of socialism and communism is to tax the rich and give to the porr, its called spreading around the wealth.

More like all the hoops he's shooting through! (Even though Hansborough is gonna toss that stuff)



He's Barack O.Balla! :P

In all seriousness, I think it is too early to judge. I'm not really sure if I like him or not right now, so it remains to be seen how he will do.

I did not watch, but I've yet to watch one of these inauguration things. I did not see a reason to watch.

I don't see what the big deal is really? if were all supposed to rise above the argument of race then why do we keep bringing it up. I've not seen President Obama as a black man, just as i do not see Foogered as a white man. just, men.

Over all I think President Obama's presidency is going to be seen as a failure. The reason i say that is because every one is putting too much faith in him. He seems to be the "savior" of the world and I think there is only one direction he can go and that's down.

Heh, no, Fascism is very anti-Communism. Also, communism doesn't tax the rich and give to the poor; It eliminates class altogether. Don't believe everything the media tells you.

And I agree with what you're saying Telecrater, about perceiving race. However, if segregation is one extreme, then what you're describing is at the complete opposite end, and I think we have a long way to go to get there. The way things are right now, I think it's a very important achievement when more and more blacks are beginning to enter positions that were predominantly held by whites.

Don't believe ANYTHING any media tells you as the "only truth"

alright, alright i see what you mean. personally i kind of see all the communism, nazism the same thing just a few slight differences which probably weren't enforced anyway.

but i think we can both agree that nazism and communism both are stemmed from socialism.

and i don't beleive anything the media watches because it is in love with barack hussien obama. it's actually kind of cool though because, the vice president lives in my state and his son lives on the same street as me.

GRX40 HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. That picture is priceless. Oh man, that's good.

Unfortunately, all elections are, are corporations fighting each other. For all I care, pespi could be running against the nfl.

The fact of the matter is, that the federal reserve has everything controlled: media, politics, government, our privacy, our rights, our money. And Bush was a puppet for them, which destroyed every last fiber of this nations integrity. Looking back at his "terms" you can see everything he did was a joke.

I honestly hope Obama has the intellect and courage to bring the power back to the people.

But if you look at the founding fathers, they even said that with democracy you need some form of people uprising nearly every 20 years, or it just becomes a "pipe dream", which it most certainly has. Thats why france is in good shape, their government is afraid of the people.

socialism is like mild communism it allows more equality than capitalism but no ones equal. Britain is socialist to a degree because we have benefits, people who can't work because they have a disability can get a tiny bit of money to allow them to have a home and dont have to live in the gutter. Communism is anti religion and wants everyone to be carbon copies socialism wants people to have as equal oportunities as they can get resonably.

Socialism isn't evil if anything capitalism, communism and facism are holding the most people back.

You do have benefits and council houses in America right? Cause if you do thats pretty socialist

I wanted to watch it, but I was working. I honestly think he needs double protection, because so many people are convinced he'll be assassinated. Which is obvious why.

America has been socialist ever since the Great Depression destroyed Capitalism. Capitalism - like communism is a system that after so much build up simply can not support itself.

Socialism is not perfect, but aims to create a balance between the economic freedom and economic control. The people intervene when large corporations that the people have come to rely on are simply too inflated to support themselves. Look at what's happening with Chrysler, GM, and Ford. If we were a true Capitalist society, they would have simply let those corporations fail.

@Jazz: I agree that he needs double protection. It's really kind of sad that people would go out of their way to kill someone just for taking a position such as that. I'd hate to see something happen to him, but chances are is that someone is going to make an attempt at some point.

I've heard that they'd already stepped up security for his inauguration quite a bit compared to previous elections. For example, the plexiglass surrounding the stage.

A lot of my friends who're in the national guard were also deployed to Washington D.C. earlier last weekend to help with the event.

This is getting too heated.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HplZ_taHXLM

Nice one BHS.

no, i didn't get to watch. while im glad for a new breath of air, it just didnt seem like that big of a deal to me to see the inauguration. i heard that arethra franklin was amazing though.

Have you guys seen Obama's car? It's known as "The Beast" haha It's an armoured cadillac!

what a waste of money

Do you say that as a commentary on the new President, or because you really think it's a waste of money? :P

As the President, I think he should definitely travel with as much security as possible.

Waste of money!? Hes pimpin' AND protected in that thing!

they didnt build a newone for bush

yeah they did. well, i dont think it was GM that did, but they built bush a limo. they didn't build him one on his second term though.

I the letters after the presidency between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson when American became godless America would fail. (completely off the topic but i found it itersting)

But also every responsible modern nation had instilled certin "socialist" programs. There is nowhere in the constitution were it discusses education and there is not right to a free education yet we provide it as a government.

I have a hard time with all this wasteful spending when the economy is in as bad of shape as it is right now.

I also have a hard time with all this "stimulus Packages". anyone who has even a basic understanding of economics will see that if dump a bunch of cash into an economy then your have inflation, and those monies become worth less. Are we not doing that with all this stimulus packages?

Wake me up and ask me again when the vote is for a world leader in a world government dealing with and solving issues of global importance. Otherwise, "Snoooore"

Well, every body knows about supply and demand. In macroeconomics you're start dealing with Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand (GDP). Aggregate Demand is made up of component demand curves like consumption and government spending (can't remember what else there is at the moment). So you can increase demand by increasing consumption. Consumers can't consume more though without an increase in income, wealth, etc. So the idea is that by giving consumers more money, you can increase aggregate demand. Of course, there're tons of other things that can factor into how well this works, like a consumers propensity to save.

This measure should counter a recession, but it will indeed increase inflation.

Stagflation, like we're experiencing, makes it even trickier, and I haven't heard of a good economic theory that deals with it yet. What it sounds like is being done is that they're trying to deal with one problem at a time.

Still, I'm fairly impressed with the moves that our new Administration has made. The President just interrupted all war crime trials at Guantanemo Bay and moved to close it down within the year.

Don't forget that he froze all the lobbyist salaries.

Nice way to go through life.

good point, foogered, been a long time since my economics class (was not my strong subject either.)

I always thought the patriot act, and Guantanemo bay were bad ideas if you were going to have a military prison then why not a military tribunal.

That's all i won't say anything more.

@ Tele - Good news for you then, Obama [or for BHS O'Bama, lol] is shutting down Guantanamo. Or so the paper said.

what's with him having no torture???

He's quoted stating that the United States is going to continue to tackle terrorism, but in a manner that is in keeping with the ideas that the United States represents.

In my opinion, torturing POW's has always given countries a bad rap. You hear about people being captured overseas and undergoing months or years of horrific incarceration and torture. How do you think the outside world perceives us when we're water-boarding POW's. Pretty inhumane if you ask me. Fear tactics have always been characteristics of totalitarianism, not democracy.

Guanntanamo bay is evil...

I have little more to say