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[Grakelin]

Because it's the remnants of a webcomic community that has been dead for eight years, has no overlying theme, and is hosted on somebody's personal webspace?

[Neonivek]

Saving for retirement is no guarantee of reaching it

Better yet are people who retire on their pensions only to lose it somehow (I honestly think Pension is somewhat... shady... actually it IS shady.) or have it severely reduced.

I just love how Pension is essentially your OWN money being taken away from you and buisnesses are somehow, not sure how, allowed to go "well you quit early, so you only get a certain percent of the total money you put into it" (or the buisness intentionally bankrupts itself to avoiding paying pension). Of course I know next to nothing about it, it is just that the very first time I heard what pension actually was I went "wow, that sounds criminal".

The problem with politics is that there is a STRONG idea of working towards your own political goals as opposed to that of a country. Compromise is rarely afforded even if a situation would have improved things.

But it hardly matters since the US-politics is about to do the DUMBEST possible things it can do. I can't believe Obama backfired SOO MUCH! I thought he would be considered a terrible president because he came in during a depression... I can't believe he will be considered a terrible president because he was a legitimately bad president.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

But it hardly matters since the US-politics is about to do the DUMBEST possible things it can do. I can't believe Obama backfired SOO MUCH! I thought he would be considered a terrible president because he came in during a depression... I can't believe he will be considered a terrible president because he was a legitimately bad president.

I'm hardly surprised that Obama turned out to be a bold faced liar. Honest politicians are few and far between. His personality cult-esq supporters during the election cycle should have been a red flag. The best thing he can do for the nation in 2012 is to step down without running for a second term so that the Democrats can have another shot at picking someone decent.

Really, I'm beginning to think that the President should only be allowed one term of office.

[Eagle_eye]

I used to think that, until I realized that reelection is the only thing remotely encouraging politicians to stick to their promises. Maybe campaigns should be made under oath.

[inteuniso]

I think Presidents should still have 2 terms. It's congressmen who need to be limited, possibly to just 3 2-year terms.

[Agdune]

But it hardly matters since the US-politics is about to do the DUMBEST possible things it can do.

As someone who lives outside the US and hasn't been able to follow international news for a couple of days... did I miss anything specific and new here? Because you're all talking like this is some concrete new thing that's happened.

[Darkwind3]

But it hardly matters since the US-politics is about to do the DUMBEST possible things it can do.

As someone who lives outside the US and hasn't been able to follow international news for a couple of days... did I miss anything specific and new here? Because you're all talking like this is some concrete new thing that's happened.

Well, part of the debt ceiling deal (if you haven't caught up that far yet, the US government can pay its debt but is seriously debating whether or not it wants to for some reason) involved cuts to spending in order to allow the government to continue spending, and the creation of a committee whose proposal will be pushed through congress on the express lane. This committee will presumably push through more budget cuts* to our welfare programs, general spending (education, infrastructure, etc.) and possibly to the military as well (though this is less likely). The outcome isn't certain yet, but considering what's happened so far, any sort of tax increase is unlikely.

Though I might be wrong; Neonivek might be thinking of something else.

*It should probably be mentioned that the US has extraordinarily low tax rates in some areas and huge loopholes that allow large companies to skate by paying nothing or next to nothing. However, a large portion of our legislature has flat-out refused to raise any taxes at all ever for any reason, and this is unlikely to change soon.

[Neonivek]

No that was exactly what I was refering to.

It will be beautiful.

[tehstefan]

Eeyup, this will be lots of fun.

Though I don't honestly think Obama is a terrible president.

Really needs to buck the hell up though.

[penguinofhonor]

No that was exactly what I was refering to.

It will be beautiful.

This is going to be one of those "beautiful to watch from afar, such as from another country" things, isn't it?

[RedKing]

No that was exactly what I was refering to.

It will be beautiful.

This is going to be one of those "beautiful to watch from afar, such as from another country" things, isn't it?

In the same fashion that a forest fire is beautiful in its own way. Until you notice the fire is spreading right towards you...

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

No that was exactly what I was refering to.

It will be beautiful.

This is going to be one of those "beautiful to watch from afar, such as from another country" things, isn't it?

In the same fashion that a forest fire is beautiful in its own way. Until you notice the fire is spreading right towards you...

And that you're sitting on a heap of dry logs soaked in petrol.

[RedKing]

Found a very interesting article written by someone who spent two years going to Tea Party meetings and events in an effort to better understand them.

To summarize the conclusions:

A. They're basically the Religious Right with some anti-tax window dressing.
B. They're fading, because the leaders of the movement are all DC insiders who know when to bail on a failing cause and repackage themselves.
C. They're also fading because for many, it was sort of an adrenaline-fueled fling, but they don't have the commitment to stick it out as a long-term political force.
D. The debt ceiling mess sealed their doom, because it shared the bejeezus out of the GOP corporatists. I think Tom Tomorrow summed it up pretty well:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Toady Two]

Could someone further explain the sudden Obama-bashing to a person outside America?

The way I see it is that outside of ruling during worldwide economic turmoil he is also facing huge resistance for both powerful lobbyists you oppose his policies as well as regular political opposition. The health care reforms were object to massive smear campaigns funded by insurance companies and undoubtedly the same or worse would happed if a corporate tax-raise would happen.

I find it peculiar that you condemn the president for this as much as the forces that actively oppose him.

Are you accusing Obama of being too weak to press the reforms which are needed at the cost of public support and consequently reelection?

This is a big problem in modern politics worldwide, not just in America. A reform that angers the money hoarders with money for a media campaign is more damaging to approval ratings than a reform that the general populace will disapprove of.

[RedKing]

Are you accusing Obama of being too weak to press the reforms which are needed at the cost of public support and consequently reelection?

Well, yes. He himself once stated that he'd rather be a great one-term President than a mediocre two-term President. But I don't see that same attitude in his actions. I think if he said, "Y'all be tripping. I'm going to introduce a package of spending cuts AND we're going to tax corporate jets because y'know....they're fucking assets like everything else a corporation owns. You wanna go on record as defending a CEO's right to fly in his own private Learjet while everybody is clipping coupons to buy a fucking Coke, you be my guest. See how that works for you come November." then a LOT of people would rally behind that.

Look, the Tea Partiers and the other assorted froth on the Right are NEVER going to like the guy. He could cure cancer while sweating gold bullion into the US Treasury and playing kickball with Osama's head, and they would still find a reason to hate him. So stop trying to win their support. Start putting their balls to the wall and squeeze really damn hard. Because that's frankly that's what the majority of his base wants to see. As for the disconnected middle, they just want to see something DONE. They don't care about the arguing, they just want somebody to try something. If he were to present concrete plans, and then let them get shot down by an obstructionist GOP, a lot of people would respect him for trying and rightly excoriate the Republicans for stopping him. But like far too many Democrats, he's more worried about what Fox is going to say about him than what his own supporters are going to say about him. The moment he started caring more for his approval rating and his re-election chances than in trying to fix the country is the moment he began losing support among the Democrats and Independents. He lost support among Republicans the moment he was born.