Humorous... "Socialism"

My Critique

I wrote the commentary below after review my classmate, The United States' Power and Regime Blog.

I say give the guy more of a chance. When I first read your post regarding scrapping NASA, I was perplexed. Why would a liberal, forward thinking president like Obama cut spending in an area like science, where we have fallen far behind? The first thing that comes to my mind is that it probably was not his first choice, but in light of wars and economic recessions, cuts had to be made somewhere. I did a bit more research on Obama's new proposed NASA program, which allots millions of dollars to creating space jobs in Florida, and billions towards going to Mars and beyond. So maybe we won't be going back to the moon anytime soon.... but it's not going anywhere for awhile anyways. The budget cut was necessary in my opinion to give headway to more advanced space programs.

During a speech to NASA, Obama was quoted saying:

“I am 100 percent committed to the mission of NASA and its future. Because broadening our capabilities in space will continue to serve our society in ways that we can scarcely imagine. Because exploration will once more inspire wonder in a new generation -- sparking passions and launching careers. And because, ultimately, if we fail to press forward in the pursuit of discovery, we are ceding our future and we are ceding that essential element of the American character.”

I know it may seem a bit hard to comprehend at this very moment, but reforms brought about in the health care industry were much needed in my opinion. It presented more mandatory regulations (like not being able to turn down health care to children), not what so many refer to as “socialized medicine”. You still have plenty of options for health care providers depending on your budget. Just look at the handful of other industrialized societies and you will see they give us a run for our money. Somehow, they manage to provide every one of their citizens decent, affordable health care and have not incurred near as much debt as we have over just the last 9 years.

Now I am trying to think of what other measures Obama has “done away with”? Are we referring to the issues on torture, Guantanamo, illegal wiretaps? Not much has happened there. And he followed right in ex-President Bush's footsteps when he lent trillions of dollars to keep our weak financial system afloat. He did not reverse the unconstitutional Patriot Act, which ultimately gave the government the right to listen read any pertinent email, conduct “sneak and peek” searches of residences, search medical and library records, etc.

So as far as leaning right or left, Obama has done a fantastic job of riding the line of a cautious moderate. I get that he is trying to be “partisan” and take things slow, but he better realize the ones who elected him to office expect to see more changes in the upcoming years, and more campaign promises fulfilled.

  Right now I think one of the most important developments largely ignored by the mainstream press is brewing in Senate in the form of new legislation proposed by Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman eerily titled the Enemy, Belligerent, Detention, and Interrogation Act of 2010. At only 12 pages long the bill proposes into law sweeping executive power giving the President the ability to detain anyone, including American citizens, indefinitely on mere suspicion of involvement with terrorist groups against the U.S. or its allies. What kind of a democracy allows the President to use king-like powers such as the ability to detain without charges? Changes such as these are over-reactions at best, this is a complete subversion of our balance of power system. It reminds me of some of the worst policies of the Bush administration, only this time they are being designed for use at home. It it a complete step back on civil liberties at a time when the Obama administration has already floundered on many key issues such as the his support to renew the Patriot Act and his support for the illegal NSA wiretapping program.

I feel like we should be working to roll back many of the unconstitutional Bush era terror powers and that this bill is a reactionary step in the opposite direction. Whether President Obama supports the new legislation in question remains to be seen, however there is support from both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate right now so this could theoretically pass. This is an issue of what we want to look like as a country. If you have no right to trial by jury then you are no longer have to basic right afforded to you in a fair justice system and that is not the country I wish to live in.