Another in the series of "do I have that right?"

[Safetykitten]

So just so I have this correct...

Everyone that did not vote in the midterms is to blame for war, union busting, bad budgets,and everything that has gone horribly wrong since, but President Obama is not to blame.

Also, he was elected as President in a huge ground wave of people wanting things to be different, and then spent the next two years making every effort to not adress the then emerging tea party, finacial reform, a wildly nutty republican resurgence, and went OUT OF HIS WAY to appease republicans no matter how insane.

But that's our fault. His two years of missed opportunities before the midterms to make meaningfull reform in our society when he had the power, he did not, that's our fault. Then people were not too keen to go out and vote after that, and that's why it's still our fault.

Is that about right?

[Sherman A1]

1. Yup!

It's all our fault... we just haven't been supportive enough.

I did vote straight Dem in the last election, but having held my nose to do so, I am now feeling very guilty for that lack of total commitment.

[Pholus]

2. Surely you've heard of "The Tinkerbell Effect"

Believe and all will be well. Have doubt, even if you voted, even if you donated, even if you worked and you are the entirety of the problem.

[WolfoftheWild]

9. shoot your own feet off and you can still walk, miraculously...

[Pholus]

13. With which computer language did you shoot your own feet off?

With apologies to http://www.fullduplex.org/humor/2006/10/how-to-shoot-yourself-in-the-foot-in-any-programming-language/

The excerpts relevant to me:

C
You shoot yourself in the foot.

C++
You accidentally create a dozen clones of yourself and shoot them all in the foot. Providing emergency medical assistance is impossible since you can’t tell which are bitwise copies and which are just pointing at others and saying, “That’s me, over there.”

JAVA
After importing java.awt.right.foot.* and java.awt.gun.right.hand.*, and writing the classes and methods of those classes needed, you’ve forgotten what the hell you’re doing.

FORTRAN
You shoot yourself in each toe, iteratively, until you run out of toes, then you read in the next foot and repeat. If you run out of bullets, you continue anyway because you have no exception-handling ability.

FORTH
Foot in yourself shoot.

Unix
% ls
foot.c foot.h foot.o toe.c toe.o
% rm * .o
rm: .o: No such file or directory
% ls
%

Python
You try to shoot yourself in the foot but you just keep hitting the whitespace between your toes.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Pholus]

17. You're not racking up the correctness percentage on that one...

Why the *heck* would I make unix jokes if I didn't use it.

[WolfoftheWild]

18. previous post updated for your pleasure.

[Pholus]

19. Actually, the problem is that it's incomplete if it is supposed to create an automated DU.

Here's a diff that can be used to patch it.

Edited to change subject line and add comment: Look man, we're all frustrated just in different ways. This is a place to vent, so we do. I completely believe we act different out in the world.

6a7,8
> Call Cry();
> Call Whine();
30a33,51
> public function Cry()
>
> Msgbox ("But he doesn't have a majority in Congress, how could he pass anything!");
> Msgbox ("You're irrelevant and a minority, so shut up!!!");
> Msgbox ("It's going to be your fault if we lose the next election!")
> Msgbox ("Long winded Legalistic Parsing of Promise wording so it counts as kept!");
>
> end function
>
> public function Whine()
>
> Msgbox ("N dimensional chess game -- you don't understand");
> Msgbox ("You know, the post 'Legalistic Parsing' was brilliant!!!");
> Msgbox ("He's so busy the long game you have to give him time...")
> Msgbox ("We are rational and you are not!!!!!!");
>
> end function
>
>

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Pholus]

22. Hmmm, you're still incomplete. "Long term progress" certainly was covered in the whine routine.

See, I agree that the President has done some good things. Repeatedly. Go look it up. But that isn't good enough for some of your positive colleagues because it's combined with negatives.

1) The civil liberties abuses started by Bush are being continued (and even embraced) by this administration. Inquiries into whether surveillance of the general population is continuing go nowhere.
2) The healthcare reform laws had some good points, but didn't go far enough and we'll be paying for that later when the still increasing costs collapse our economy.
3) By pardoning the Bush administration officials we have legitimized their abuses. They will happen again and the world did notice it.
4) The financial reform laws were nice, but again we didn't end the real abuses. They will happen again.
5) I highly disagree that the wars Bush started are ending anytime soon. You certainly cannot be so optimistic that you think a withdrawal from either country will happen in short order.
6) We allowed the single greatest damage to our budget to continue for TWO years in exchange for one year of unemployment benefit extensions. Really. My 11 year old bargains better than that.
7) We have allowed the social security trust fund, supported by the workers, to be repeatedly classified as an entitlement. When combined with the red ink resulting from 6, we are pretty much guaranteed that this program will see cuts in the name of compromise.

So, overall he could have done worse but frankly it hasn't been that great either (even in the long game). Sorry to not be as enthusiastic as you are but everyone has an opinion and only time will tell.

Anyway, I seem to be on the fence. However, as the son of a long time blue collar laborer and a member of the DFL I am waiting for the campaign-promised solidarity with labor and I will be particularly awaiting whether a particular unambigous promise from 2007 will be kept when the time is right. If it isn't, I am afraid it outweighs ALL other considerations because I am a member of the working class. I cannot afford for my fellow workers to be treated badly, for problems they face, if left unaddressed, will become a problem for the rest of us.

So labor gets a tepid statement two weeks ago and half a tweet today, The Bush family OTOH looks quite nice on stage with the President I suppose.

YMMV

[damntexdem]

3. The only rights we have are those we exercise.

But the right to vote INCLUDES the right not to vote.

[jwirr]

5. Hmmm. I was always taught that the right to vote includes the responsibility

to vote.

[AtomicKitten]

10. +1

[Jackpine Radical]

4. You're forgetting about the chess game.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Jackpine Radical]

12. Hardly a grudge.

More of a continuing disappointment.

And yes I recognize he has done some good things.

[WolfoftheWild]

14. maybe you just expected him to do the impossible and that is why you are disapponted.

[derby378]

23. That chess game is looking more like Go Fish (n/t)

[great white snark]

24. More likely the moves are too complex for you to understand. nt

[derby378]

25. Oh yes, I can't POSSIBLY understand with my fragile little mind...

See, this is why I am ultimately an optimist, even if I'm a really ornery one. I believe in the human potential to understand what some people tell us is beyond our reach. That's called progress.

[kickysnana]

6. Dead horse.

My Aunt missed the absentee deadline but she would have voted the same as I and EVERYONE I vote for was elected, most importantly here, Gov Dayton and we still lost the State Legislature and the Senate.

Look forward and urge the Dems to support candidates of the people and you would not have a voting problem. Having to hold your nose and vote is the problem.

PS. I want my vote back from Obama. If I had wanted to vote for a GOP I would have.

[jwirr]

11. I agree this next election could be the last one we have any power

in other than numbers. The corporations are going to outspend us totally if they destroy our unions.

[WolfoftheWild]

7. so, you didn't vote, huh? That says everything.

[JoePhilly]

16. If you did not vote, you gave away your power.

And coming on DU and "speaking" now, won't get it back.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[derby378]

26. And, lest anyone forgets...

...even though I am often critical of Obama, I voted in November 2010, and even served as an election judge.

So if you didn't vote, what's your excuse?