[Digital Jedi]

Originally Posted by Shelley_c

I've never been called stupid indirectly, I understand obama, let's say "agenda" perfectly because when the day is through, it is an agenda he has to pull all you gullible americans onto the ship of dreams. For sure, that ship will sink, along with the optimism, faith, hopes dreams or however you want to wrap it. Real life is something, living in a movie is another thing. Yet, I'll be there, creating that thread titled "obama - I told you so" in the foorseeable future. If I were to look up to someone, it wouldn't be some american president pouring out what I wanted to hear, Actions speak louder than words and that's all these presidents do is speak untill they regain popularity again. We will all hold to our faith, believes no matter how bad the times are. Let me say you are living in good times, the good ole days where not actually all that good, infact they were downright crap.

Realists tend not to do much in life or go far? Optimists do? I'll point to one example right away without getting into that and show you two other examples that show you otherwise. I won't, because it's not my story to say but that statement is flawed. What happened to individuality?

What I should have said is pessimists who think of themselves as realists. You see, real-realists know that faith, hope and optimism are not anything to be gullible about. Without faith, no one finds the will to say, believe in themselves enough to change something about themselves, like loose weight, quit smoking, manage their time more efficiently, etc. Without hope that you cant change anything in human nature, then that gives you absolutely no reason to change your self if you are, say, addicted to drugs, alcohol or have problems managing your anger. Without optimism, then none of these people in college right now would even be bothering learning a trade, because there's no reason to believe you'll ever make anything of yourself. That's not realism to think that way, because it isn't realistic to believe that something isn't possible, just because it's hard; just because it means fighting some of our nature. That's pessimism, and that's wholly different from realism. Realism at least gives optimism a chance, it doesn't dismiss it outright. Real-realism looks at both sides of the issue, not just one. Dismissing something outright as a pipe-dream has made more then a few people look foolish for their historical statements.


To your comment about actions speaking louder then words, it's Obama's past actions that won him public admiration, and partly the election. Obama is a successful father and husband. That means a lot to me personally, because these are two of very few things that I hold sacred in my life. Many so called realists dismiss being able to make family life successful because of all the hardships that getting ahead in this world entails. Well, here's one family that's proved that's wrong. Obama is also part of demographic that is, by all accounts, repressed in our society. For decades all I've ever heard out of young black men was that the only hope they ever had of being successful was to be a rapper or an athlete, and if they couldn't do either then they were SOL. These days I'm hearing young black men say, "if he could achieve the top spot, the why can't I do anything I want to do?" That's a pretty significant accomplishment.

If you think Obama says what people want to hear, then you must think people want to hear some funny things. From the beginning of his campaign he said that the economy was probably going to get worse before it gets better. He told us that we have to fix our own problems at home, because government can't do it all for you. He told us that we're going to have to make some sacrifices and work hard to overcome this recession. He's also told the major industries of our nation that they had better completely renovate the way they do things to begin to start going green. There is difference between what you want to hear, and what you need to hear.

I don't know what great disappointment you think we're going to see in a year or so, because Obama's made no promises as to what the year will look like other then it will likely look worse. But that if we do nothing, it will never get better. That's pretty realistic talk. Watch out about prophesies made in disbelief, because they, more then any, have a tendency to not come true.

Originally Posted by GSeybold

Since Gut Bay was conceived out of an act of war, I wonder if Obama will need HR and Senate approval to close it? And yes I know a formal declaration was not established but 9-11 was still an attack on a sovereign nation, it is considered an act of war. And yes, I also know the terrorists we're of multiple nationality so declaring war on another nation would have been impossible. Let's just get those arguments of of the way now. However, there is not doubt about it, there are those amongst us who want to kill us-carry out an act of war, so how do we go about rounding them out and prosecuting them? I don't think Gut Bay is the long term answer but a start I guess?????? I don't know.

The way I understand it, he doesn't. But that's anecdotal, and there may be more to it. The way's he's stated it though, is that he'd close it within the fist month. I suspect, he'll close it before he's completed the tribunals. A good chunk of those prisoners were in CIA custody a few years ago before being transferred to the Bay, so it's not stretch to think they'd be moved first.