How would you rate the US?

[jfkeav]

In his State of the Union address last night:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/31/ ... index.html

President Bush stated that:

Tonight the state of our union is strong -- and together we will make it stronger.

By 58%-38%, Americans surveyed by the USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll this month called Bush's second term a failure. In an ABC poll released today, 38% of Americans rated the state of the union as "poor" while 28% rated it as "excellent", in the same poll, 50% of those polled rated Bush's speech as "unconvincing".

The Boston Globe stated:

Nearly 46 million Americans have no health insurance, up nearly a million in the last year. Health care costs are increasing three or four times the rate of inflation.

One of Bush's first successes of his presidency was the 2002 No Child Left Behind, but parents still wonder about the quality of education in their schools. For the first time in generations, American children could face poorer prospects than their parents and grandparents did.

The President also stated:

we are in this fight to win, and we are winning.

Victory in the war seems elusive, with more than 2,240 American troops killed -- and counting. Not to mention that we were lied to about why we need the war in Iraq in the first place. And he did it again last night:

On September 11th, 2001, we found that problems originating in a failed and oppressive state 7,000 miles away could bring murder and destruction to our country.

So I guess my question to members of this board is "How do you think the state of the US is today? And explain why, not just "America sucks" but why.

Feel free to read the speech their is quite a bit to comment on. Like:

The Palestinian people have voted in elections -- now the leaders of Hamas must recognize Israel, disarm, reject terrorism, and work for lasting peace.

In other words, we support free and open elections only as long as you elect the leaders that we tell you to.

We are the nation that saved liberty in Europe, and liberated death camps, and helped raise up democracies, and faced down an evil empire. Once again, we accept the call of history to deliver the oppressed, and move this world toward peace.

I am not even going to touch that one.

If this question is a repeat or I subject that has been debated before on this board, I apologize. I am interested in what people around the world feel about this.

Peace,
john

[zakalwe]

as much as i tend to support the US from its detractors, there is no defending the stupidity, arrogance and sleaziness of GwB.

as a nation, i rank them above the mean.

[Worldbystorm]

I don't know, I've been listening to his speeches on podcasts (you can get them on iTunes for free - it's a treat) and I really don't think he's stupid. Astute, manipulative, sure, but not stupid. Wittier than I expected as well.

Incidentally on the Comedy side of iTunes podcasts you can get spoof half minute Presidential Speeches. There's one in particular from just before Christmas which was brilliant. Involving a small toothed mammal. Check it out.

[Seabird]

For the first time in my life I am truly ashamed of this country and being an American. I believe the current administration has brought shame to the ideology of what we are as a collective group of people and government.

This country has the highest poverty rate than any other progressive nation in the world, why is this? This is supposed to be the land of the good and plenty but the rich get richer and poor continue to struggle to make ends meat. We place such importance on professional sports verses feeding our homeless or our impoverished area. Please tell me how a man is worth 32 million dollars because he can play basketball, hello where are our priorities?

Our health care system caters to the rich or upper middle class only. If you are poor, you are met more often than not with waiting lists for important treatments. You do not get the same treatment, as we all should be entitling to. The drug companies continue to control the lobbying force with astronomical prices for their products. Explain to me how a person that is not insured can afford 3000.00 a month in medicine for cancer treatment etc? They cannot, so they go without. What makes that persons life unimportant to us as a nation that we sit back and allow our government to condone such treatment of our poor.

They scream about the welfare system but they continue to teach people how to stay out of the work force by their inability to provide some sort of training or educational experience to let some see there is more to life than hand outs.

Bush is an arrogant ****************************** that whips out excuses about Iraq but my mind drifts to Guantnamo. The abuse and torture continue, that alone places a black cloud over our administration. Lets talk about terrorist while we harbor Posada. The US created that monster now they should stand up to the plate with him and accept the punishment that he and the damn CIA deserve.

I won't even go into the Native American issues. Our prison system is bulging at the seam, what is wrong with this? Or the Patriot Act and the US/UK Treaty, spying on each other, all of this is so disheartening.

Well, John I could go on and on but I won’t. I m fed up something has got to change or I am moving to Ireland. 2008 cannot get here soon enough.
[size=7]ADIOS BUSH [/size]

[jfkeav]

[b]Worldbystorm wrote:[/quote]

I really don't think he's stupid. Astute, manipulative, sure, but not stupid. Wittier than I expected as well.

Well, you don't have to live with him

I mean:

Members of Congress: however we feel about the decisions and debates of the past, our nation has only one option: We must keep our word, defeat our enemies, and stand behind the American military in its vital mission.

That's very astute, that mean's if you voice opposition to the war, you are not standing behind the brave people that he has sent to fight and die in that war.

And tonight, let me speak directly to the citizens of Iran: America respects you, and we respect your country. We respect your right to choose your own future and win your own freedom. And our nation hopes one day to be the closest of friends with a free and democratic Iran.

So "REVOLT" we will stand behind you just like we stood behind those that revolted against Sadam after the first Gulf war.

We show compassion abroad because Americans believe in the God-given dignity and worth of a villager with HIV/AIDS, or an infant with malaria, or a refugee fleeing genocide, or a young girl sold into slavery. We also show compassion abroad because regions overwhelmed by poverty, corruption, and despair are sources of terrorism, organized crime, human trafficking and the drug trade.

Ok, now that we are done talking about America.......

[Rocky]

Bush did make one very good point though and that was on the issue of oil. America and the west in general including ourselves are too reliant on oil and that has to change. For two reasons it's running out and most of it's in an unstable area, the Middle East and other unstable countries like Venezuela and Nigeria around the world. More effort has to be made now to improve renewable sources of energy and it's good to see an American President finally come out and say that. Hopefully he will back that up with actions.

[mbari hogun]

For the first time in my life I am truly ashamed of this country and being an American. I believe the current administration has brought shame to the ideology of what we are as a collective group of people and government.

Oh, come on. You weren't ashamed to be American when Clinton booted millions of people off the welfare roles, bombed a medicine factory in Sudan, failed to stop a horrible genocide in Rwanda, and so on?

On the rest of it, I agree with you. The American health care system is terrible and the "war on drugs" has put millions of non-violent offenders behind bars. The only disagreement you'll find from me is that basketball players deserve what they earn as much as anyone in the entertainment industry does. They're the reason teams earn hundreds of millions in revenue, it's only fair they get paid with that in mind.

[Seabird]

We show compassion abroad because Americans believe in the God-given dignity and worth of a villager with HIV/AIDS, or an infant with malaria, or a refugee fleeing genocide, or a young girl sold into slavery. We also show compassion abroad because regions overwhelmed by poverty, corruption, and despair are sources of terrorism, organized crime, human trafficking and the drug trade.

Ok, now that we are done talking about America.......

I was thinking the same thing!

[MichaelHennigan]

For the first time in my life I am truly ashamed of this country and being an American. I believe the current administration has brought shame to the ideology of what we are as a collective group of people and government.

This country has the highest poverty rate than any other progressive nation in the world, why is this? This is supposed to be the land of the good and plenty but the rich get richer and poor continue to struggle to make ends meat. We place such importance on professional sports verses feeding our homeless or our impoverished area. Please tell me how a man is worth 32 million dollars because he can play basketball, hello where are our priorities?

Unless you have a short memory, many of America's problems date from pre-2001 and as for Bush's foreign policy, many of his leading critics, supported the authorisation for invading Iraq. In 1998, many of them supported a measure in Congress calling for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

What really revolts me about the US business system is the way the top buckcats not only take the cream but they want the whole trough while the earnings of the typical worker have been kept low by Chinese competition.

IBM for example recently reduced pension benefits for staff while the CEO had his benefits enhanced.

The mean average income of Americans in 2004 was $44,000 ( see: http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusiness ... 4217.shtml )

America is also a place where a Germn born Jew, a son of Jamaican immigrants and a former Austrain bodybuilder, in modern times, have held high political office in the country.

America was intrumental in freeing Europe of the menace of Hitler, helping to rebuild afterwards and containing an aggressive communist dictatorship to the East.

We should also recognise that when there is a major disaster in the world today, don't wait for the Europeans or Chinese to do the heavy lifting.

As for the Irish, if America ever suffers a bad recession again, then some of us may well appreciate how much we owe our prosperity to America.

Eaten bread is soon forgotten, but our debt to Germany for the huge cash benefits they gave us via the EU, should also be noted.

[coconut]

For the first time in my life I am truly ashamed of this country and being an American. I believe the current administration has brought shame to the ideology of what we are as a collective group of people and government.

This country has the highest poverty rate than any other progressive nation in the world, why is this? This is supposed to be the land of the good and plenty but the rich get richer and poor continue to struggle to make ends meat. We place such importance on professional sports verses feeding our homeless or our impoverished area. Please tell me how a man is worth 32 million dollars because he can play basketball, hello where are our priorities?

Our health care system caters to the rich or upper middle class only. If you are poor, you are met more often than not with waiting lists for important treatments. You do not get the same treatment, as we all should be entitling to. The drug companies continue to control the lobbying force with astronomical prices for their products. Explain to me how a person that is not insured can afford 3000.00 a month in medicine for cancer treatment etc? They cannot, so they go without. What makes that persons life unimportant to us as a nation that we sit back and allow our government to condone such treatment of our poor.

They scream about the welfare system but they continue to teach people how to stay out of the work force by their inability to provide some sort of training or educational experience to let some see there is more to life than hand outs.

Bush is an arrogant ****************************** that whips out excuses about Iraq but my mind drifts to Guantnamo. The abuse and torture continue, that alone places a black cloud over our administration. Lets talk about terrorist while we harbor Posada. The US created that monster now they should stand up to the plate with him and accept the punishment that he and the damn CIA deserve.

I won't even go into the Native American issues. Our prison system is bulging at the seam, what is wrong with this? Or the Patriot Act and the US/UK Treaty, spying on each other, all of this is so disheartening.

Well, John I could go on and on but I won’t. I m fed up something has got to change or I am moving to Ireland. 2008 cannot get here soon enough.
[size=7]ADIOS BUSH [/size]

Don't let The Conservative Dubliner see this post - he'll have a seizure.