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by Tom Kando
My friend Amir Jabery just sent me this brief article by a Canadian journalist.
It’s priceless; it’s an A+.
I HAD to share it with you all, dear blog readers.
I transcribed the article, so as to make it more readable:
Many of us Canadians are confused by the U.S. midterm elections. Consider, right now in America, corporate profits are at record highs, the country’s adding 200,000 jobs per month, unemployment is below 6%, U.S. gross national product growth is the best of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. The dollar is at its strongest levels in years, the stock market is near record highs, gasoline prices are falling, there is no inflation, interest rates are the lowest in 30 years, U.S. oil imports are declining, U.S. oil production is rapidly increasing, the deficit is rapidly declining, and the wealthy are still making astonishing amounts of money. America is leading the world once again and respected internationally - in sharp contrast to the Bush years. Obama brought soldiers home from Iraq and killed Osama bin Laden.
So Americans vote for the party that got you into the mess that Obama just dug you out of? This defies reason.
When you are done with Obama, could you send him our way?
Richard Brunt,
Victoria, British Columbia
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10 comments:
Nice to read that some people agree that President Obama is doing a good job considering all of the problems on his plate. I think that he definitely did not make things worse. I also think it's the perfect time for him to be president considering that the marches and racial tension is very evident and having a black president at least allows the world to see that he cannot only be unbiased but perhaps through his own personal experience share how being a person of color has shaped his experience. Thus the presidency under Obama has not only helped our economy but may also be able to help us to racially heal and examine our attitudes regarding race. Ironically we have emphasized a colorblind society and a post-racial society but here it is that we have a black man as U. S President at a time when our world is experiencing a lot of racial tension and a black man is president. This is so amazing to me.
Gail
Gail is right about everything she says.
Color blindness and “post-racialism” are the ultimate goal, I believe, but for now we can’t be color blind, I’m afraid. The ultimate goal is to be cancer free, but we can’t ignore cancer when it exists.
Everything your writer said is true, but he only touches a few salient points. Obama got Bin Laden, he is opening the door for many of our "citizens"who do the work that we won't do and he has had to deal each day with an openly hostile right wing Congress and marginal support from his own party. With due respect, I think some of your other responders live in some sort of dream world. If current events don't shake them, I don't know what will. Except for our erasing the cosmetic aspects of our pre-1960 Apartheid system, racial "prejudice" is alive and well in much of America and I don't mean just the deep South. A Jewish professor friend just remarked to me that he was "shocked at the Anti Semitism that he has found in Europe". My response is that "it's been there
for nearly a thousand years, but has been somewhat subdued as the result of WW2". The same applies to racism in America. It's always been here, but somewhat subdued until we elected a Black President.Just think what a hero that moron Bush would have been if he had done a fraction of what Obama has been able to do, faced with such adversity. However, just the opposite is true. Obama has been faced with task of bringing us back from the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld disaster and for that he's hated by much of America.
Great blog and comments!
Tom- I am confused - I do not understand your grading scale - is it for the most distorted presentation or is incompleteness given a higher grade?
The editorialist (who by the way chooses to remain in BC - which has the conservative Harper Administration which is doing quite well) leaves out things like -
* An $18 trillion national debt which grew significantly during his watch
* The lowest labor market participation rate in the nation's history
* A high percentage of new jobs that are part time
* A significant increase in the last six years in the percentage of Americans living in poverty
* A set of foreign policies which has hurt our friends and emboldened our enemies
* The most opaque Administration in this history of the nation
* A series of arbitrary and capricious policies like Fast and Furious and the IRS intrusions that come close to rivaling the Nixon era
* A huge growth in crony capitalism with nonsensical programs like funding Solyndra and Cash for Clunkers and almost no "shovel ready" projects
Then there are some positive effects where the Administration has tried to frustrate their development - for example while gas prices have reduced in the last year they are still higher than when the Administration took office AND
policies which allowed the US to be the first G& nation to reach the Kyoto protocol carbon goals (caused by the tremendous growth in fracking which has allowed power plants to substitute LNG for coal but which the Obama administration has consistently tried to delay).
That is only a partial list but it certainly reduces the veracity of the editorialist's conclusion.
Hi Tom and Madeleine,
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
This article is so Very Funny and true!
Greetings
Tom,
WONDERFUL!!
Dear Tom,
This piece is really great. Thanks for sharing it.
Just one question: Does your friend, Amir, belong to the
Ismaili community?
Happy New Year!
I thank Carol, Rene and Don for your supportive comments.
As to Bob and Jonathan, they counterbalance each other: Bob adds to the point I (and our Canadian friend Richard Brunt) are making. He is right. Jonathan is part of the problem which Richard Brunt is humorously making. He is wrong.
As to Csaba, I don’t know the answer, I don’t know who the Ismaili are
Blame Fox News (24 hour a day media machine gun spewing endless hate-Obama BS and Crush Limberger FAtso hyperventilating drug addict.) They will never be satisfied until the GOP team is in power, chanting their "free market solves all problems" BS, which really means Feudalism Forever and MORE PLUTOCRACY, MORE PLUTOCRACY, MORE PLUTOCRACY.
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