Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Gov. Bobby Jindal

He has participated in an exorcism on his college girlfriend. He does not believe in abortion in the case of rape or incest. He mocked the stimulative effects of purchasing 300 million dollars worth of federal vehicles. He is the governor of a state that suffered the worst natural disaster in decades, and mocked money being used to fund disaster preparedness. Eight billion dollars is going to be used for mass transit, this is true, but it certainly will not be used exclusively to build a mag lev train from Las Vegas to Disneyland.

This is the bright shining star of the Republican party.

All right, now as a citizen of a democratic country, it is my duty to be skeptical of my leaders. Indeed, Obama has used American military might to conduct an undeclared air war over the skies of Pakistan. It has resulted in a cease fire in the Swat valley. Chances are good that we will not be out of Iraq in 15 months. However, our presence there will be substantially reduced. On the other side of the coin, Afghanistan will most likely be a hotbed of American military activity. Guantanamo bay will be shut down, and we aren't torturing people any more. Now we have to figure out what to do with the detainees being held there.

As far as foreign policy goes, Obama is a mixed bag, and I can't rightly say if he is doing a "good" job. I CAN say he is doing a "better" job.

Now, domestic policy... well, this stimulus package is HUGE. It is the biggest thing the American Federal Government has ever done in the history of this country, and that is after inflation adjustment. It is Keynesian economic theory at its most bold. And nobody knows if it is going to work.

If it does work, to put it bluntly, we won't have to worry about who will pay for it. Simply put, if money from nothing gets us our chicks for free, it won't matter that we have billed our children for government projects today.

If it doesn't work... the entire world is fucked for at least a decade. Talk about stark contrasts.

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