The Obamanation

[TheMercenary]

Actually, I am really not concerned that much about the disparity. I believe that there will always be uber rich and uber poor. I believe it is a natural distribution of society.

[classicman]

See, now was that so hard?

[TheMercenary]

And from our friend Barney the Purple Congressman:

But now, in a little-noticed move, the House Financial Services Committee, led by chairman Barney Frank, has approved a measure that would, in some key ways, go beyond the most draconian features of the original AIG bill. The new legislation, the "Pay for Performance Act of 2009," would impose government controls on the pay of all employees -- not just top executives -- of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government. It would, like the tax measure, be retroactive, changing the terms of compensation agreements already in place. And it would give Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extraordinary power to determine the pay of thousands of employees of American companies.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/po...-42158597.html

nice.

[classicman]

A long time ago m'dear.

[TheMercenary]

Yea, like I said....

[classicman]

Obama declares US not at war with Islam

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Barack Obama, making his first visit to a Muslim nation as president, declared Monday the United States "is not and will never be at war with Islam."

Calling for a greater partnership with the Islamic world in an address to the Turkish parliament, Obama called the country an important U.S. ally in many areas, including the fight against terrorism. He devoted much of his speech to urging a greater bond between Americans and Muslims, portraying terrorist groups such as al Qaida as extremists who did not represent the vast majority of Muslims.

"Let me say this as clearly as I can," Obama said. "The United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. In fact, our partnership with the Muslim world is critical ... in rolling back a fringe ideology that people of all faiths reject."

The U.S. president is trying to mend fences with a Muslim world that felt it had been blamed by America for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Al Jazeera and Al Arabiyia, two of the biggest Arabic satellite channels, carried Obama's speech live.

Obama said the partnership between the U.S. and the Muslim world is critical in rolling back what he called a fringe ideology that people of all faiths reject.

"America's relationship with the Muslim world cannot and will not be based on opposition to al Qaida," he said. "We seek broad engagement based upon mutual interests and mutual respect."

"We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over so many centuries to shape the world for the better, including my own country," Obama said.

Could someone please explain some of them to me. Specifically those in the US. I am curious.

[Happy Monkey]

They saved Classical knowledge from the Christians (and added a significant amount of their own), enabling the Rennaissance.

That was quite a while ago, though, and they now seem to be where the Christians of that period were. Hopefully it takes them less time to get through it.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by classicman

Specifically those in the US. I am curious.

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

They saved Classical knowledge from the Christians (and added a significant amount of their own), enabling the Rennaissance.

That was quite a while ago, though, and they now seem to be where the Christians of that period were. Hopefully it takes them less time to get through it.

I agree - I find his comments quite intriguing and with respect to the U.S., I am curious to know what Obama meant by that.

[Bullitt]

He might have just been speaking in general terms, alluding to the fact that we're a nation of immigrants all bringing different contributions to our local, state, and nationwide society. The "Great Melting Pot" idea and all that. An appeal to commonality, and an attempt to make the US appear more benevolent, in an effort to reverse the hawkish nature that some in the foreign Islamic communities see the US as is my knee-jerk reaction to what he said there. I doubt he'll make much progress with Turkey since he has recently (2008 I think) called for those yahoos to accept the Armenian Genocide.

[Undertoad]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timelin..._and_engineers

[sugarpop]

I applaud Obama for making that speech. What I don't get is, so many people in the US think that people in that part of the world are different from us, and in one sense they are, but others, not so much. I'm sure most of the people over there want peace, and respect, and they want to live their lives without oppression. That does not necessarily mean they want a system like ours. I don't think they want to be occupied by US forces, just like we would not want to be occupied by foreign forces. I do not think they want to be told what they can or can't have or what they can and can't do, by us or by the Taliban. They are not children, and we should not treat them as such. I think we'll find, if we act in concert with them, that we will get a much better response than we have gotten in the past. This antiAmerican sentiment has been building for a long time. In order to repair that, we can't act like their parent. We have to like their partner.

[TheMercenary]

So what happens when they act like our partner and in fact they are actually using the relationship to screw us at every corner and take advantage of our friendships to exploit the relationship for their gain at our loss or worse to facilitate our demise?

[sugarpop]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

So what happens when they act like our partner and in fact they are actually using the relationship to screw us at every corner and take advantage of our friendships to exploit the relationship for their gain at our loss or worse to facilitate our demise?

It is my contention that we are the ones who created the mess in the first place, by our past actions. We continually get involved in the politics of these kinds of countries, and it always comes back and bites us in the ass. Usually though, we do it for selfish reasons. Maybe if we try doing something for unselfish reasons we might find more success. However, there will still be some (al qaeda, taliban, etc.) who want to destroy us. We will never minimize those people if we continue doing what we've always done, because we know it doesn't work. It's time to throw that playbook away and try something different. Maybe we should just LEAVE that part of the world altogether and let them work out their problems on their own.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by sugarpop

It is my contention that we are the ones who created the mess in the first place, by our past actions. We continually get involved in the politics of these kinds of countries, and it always comes back and bites us in the ass. Usually though, we do it for selfish reasons. Maybe if we try doing something for unselfish reasons we might find more success. However, there will still be some (al qaeda, taliban, etc.) who want to destroy us. We will never minimize those people if we continue doing what we've always done, because we know it doesn't work. It's time to throw that playbook away and try something different. Maybe we should just LEAVE that part of the world altogether and let them work out their problems on their own.

Well just nail us to a cross.

Not.

Fuck that.

[piercehawkeye45]

We realize they are no different then any other country?