Do politicians care about Gay rights?

[jackfaire]

I'm reminded of the film "Brazil", where in one scene, people in a restaurant try to order food, and are told, nay commanded, to olrder by number, not name....

*groans* I sadly remember the film

[Skunkle]

Yup. Also, films/books like "1984" in which, no matter which candidate takes office, it's just business as usual.

People keep chiding Obama for not getting stuff done...yet. YET. "He promised change! I don't see any change, and we gave him a year! Maybe he's a dud". Palin pulled out the line "How's that hope-y, change-y stuff workin' out for ya?" Once again, 'We gave you a year, nothing is different, so I guess you're a liar'.

Let's see: Massive deficits. A very large war - two battlefronts running concurrently, in fact - in which trillions have been spent, with much of it being shunted off into people's pockets before it reaches the front lines. And a Congress so concerned with stonewalling any progress, solely for the purpose of stonewalling the Democrats, but with no Republican alternatives proposed beyond vague terms and inspecific commentary intended to simply sound nice. And Obama telling people quite plainly that his change requires time and effort - effort on his part, on his cabinet's, on Congress, on the public. This requires time and hard work.

...and the public has seen him set down in front of a speeding freight train... the engineers (Congress) aren't helping... the passengers (public) aren't helping... and they're upset that he hasn't managed to put it in reverse yet. This is going to take YEARS of HARD WORK, people. From EVERYONE involved. For a while, I was annoyed by Obama's requests for bipartisanship which, even in the best times, really doesn't happen. But he finally addressed this, in essence telling Congress "I'll settle for a lack of open hostility. Go get things done. If you don't like the Dems' plan, Repubs, tell us EXACTLY what your plan is and we'll work with it. Don't be content to stop us at every turn but propose nothing yourselves".

Obama has finally come clear about intending to end "don't ask, don't tell". Great. It will still take time. And with countless other things to handle related to the economy and the war(s), it will take more time.

One more thing, public-at-large: We're trying to fix a failing economy, bring back jobs, jump-start businesses, bring affordable health insurance to the masses, and fund the troops. THIS IS GOING TO COST MONEY. A LOT OF MONEY. So quit whining; the Obama administration is not going to do what the Bush administration did, i.e. spent billions, trillions, and shunt it off into peoples' pockets.

As a staunchly conservative friend, a former supporter of Bush, has stated: To him, Obama represents monetary conservatism. (Don't laugh and quit reading here, hear his idea out) Here is, he says, what conservative spending means: You spent ONLY as much as you have to to get the job done. But you spend AS MUCH AS YOU HAVE TO, and you make damn certain it gets where it's supposed to go; anything else is waste. What turned him off the Bush admin was that, with as much was being spent on the war, our troops did not have properly armored vehicles, or parts for repairs, or a myriad of other needed supplies. The reason we waged war with bare bones at the start was supposedly "we go to war with what we have, not with what we wish we had", and yet we were spending billions and this same explanation was being held strong, as though we had billions to spend and still couldn't afford armor!

...a close friend dated a man who was touring in Iraq. His job was to repair the troop vehicles. They had no parts. And they had NO TOOLS. NONE. They never had any at all. This was throughout 2008 and into 2009.