Originally Posted by ptownrob

Funny, we spend billions to have a "War" of drugs (except for the Limbaugh kind) but illegal drugs are responsible for about 10,000 deaths a year.

On the other hand, we subsidize tobacco growers AND more than 475,000 Americans a year die of tobacco related illnesses (Lung cancer, emphysema, etc.). How many billions of taxpayer dollars go to subsidize the lethal habits of smokers? Smoking is still legal, but taxes placed on tobacco don't begin to cover the indirect costs of 1/2 million people dying every year.

Good things about the Obama Administration so far?
-Stopping the shredding of the U.S. Constitution by the Bush Admininstration which, in unprecedented treason, used "signing statements" to ignore the laws that the Congress had passed. All previous signing statements concerned the technical carrying-out of the law, not ignoring it. If the Bush Administration wanted to disagree with a Constitutionally passed law, it should have vetoed the bill.
-Stopping the illegal and unconstitutional(as determined by the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress) violation of rights regarding habeus corpus, illegal surveillance, speedy trial, etc.
-Restoring honesty and dignity to the Department of Justice
-Restoring science to departments that had been run like political ideology clubs
-Ending torture- as defined by our own courts, and by our international agreements
-Calling the war in Iraq what it is while the Bush Adminstration punished or threatened or villified anyone who questioned the dishonest coupling of 9/11 with Sadaam Hussein- the wrong war, in the wrong place, in the wrong time.
-Stopping the illegal, wholesale giveaway of pristine national parkland to developers without environmental review
-Enforcing the Supreme Court's order that the EPA allow California to set its own emission standards.
-Being honest about the cost of the war in Iraq, something the previous administration refused to do.
-Returned the science of stem cell research to science.
-Expanded children's health insurance for the poor by 5 million. Something the Republican Congress passed before, but the Bush Adm. vetoed.
-Restored environmental concerns to a scientific basis.
-Eliminated the purely ideological ban on family planning by countries receiving U.S. aid.
-Came forward with a bold (yes, risky) plan to restore a financial system that had become so unregulated that the entire world's financial system almost collapsed. The Bush Administration and John McCain kept insisting the "economy was sound." Phil Gramm, who pushed through the deregulations of hedge funds, derivatives and the like called Americans "whiners."

On taxes, why is it that Americans who make a fortune on Capital Gains (Literally "unearned income") pay virtually no tax on that income, while the working person is taxed on his/her labor? Class warfare was started by the rich to protect their assets and sources of income at the expense of people who are trying to earn a living.

On Estate taxes, why should the five Walton children each inherit 7 billion dollars a piece simply for being born to Sam Walton, and expect to not be responsible for taxation on those billions? Do you know the Bush tax "cuts" gave the Waltons an extra 2.5 billion dollars? At the same time, he conducted an unfunded war that took us from a surplus to a massive deficit.

Seems like Yoda and a few others may be afraid that something "new" is equal to something being "communist" or "socialist." Give it some time guys. We are the "passing" generation- those children and grandchildren who will be our legacy need to live in a world that is much different from ours.

I find it fascinating that Rush, Sean and locals like Sandy Mott & Joe Angione continually refer to the Obama adminstration "taking power." How Orwellian! Lacking the integrity to admit that the American people voted overwhelmingly to throw the right-wing "bums" out, they now imply that the Democrats "took" power- as in a takeover. Admit it guys- the not so "free market" economic system, the religious ideological torching of the Constitution, and the politicization of every aspect of the Executive Departments- has been rejected by a majority of the American people.

This economic crisis is as dangerous to our way of life as was 9/11. Perhaps it's time to start saying to all Americans who don't support the President's policies: You're either with us, or you're with America's enemies."

Creepy huh? Now think back to how those of us opposed to Iraq were treated.