Thursday, February 21, 2008

Fueling Obamania With the Milk of Infantile Omnipotence

Yesterday we were visited by a super-sophisticated Obama supporter who insists that unless we "work in politics, the media or academia I can assure you I spend far more time and effort being informed than you do." I guess I won't detail the stated reasons for his childish enthusiasm here, but you can read yesterday's thread if you're interested. If he's older than 21, he is indeed a sad case of pneumacognitive arrest.

Speaking of which, I never finished my discussion of how Obamania relates to the Devil Card, did I? Yesterday's callow Obama supporter reflects the truths of that card so perfectly, that this would be the appropriate time to do so.

As we were saying, the essence of the teaching behind the devil card is how (in the words of our Unknown Friend) "beings can forfeit their freedom and become slaves of a monstrous entity which makes them degenerate by rendering them similar to it." Thus, the card ultimately has to do with "the generation of demons and of the power that they have over those who generate them," i.e., how we can and do become enslaved by our own projected mind parasites, both individually and collectively.

Unknown Friend (UF) comes very close to Raccoon terminology when he writes that the world of evil operates "in the manner of bacilli, microbes and viruses of infectious diseases in the domain of biology." While there exist "evils" which function to strengthen us (i.e., "trials"), mind parasites form closed systems that become ends in themselves.

UF cites the example of monstrous "gods" that have been created by various communities down through the ages. He notes that these communities are "infatuated with the thrill of fear," but one could add anger and hatred; in fact, the fear is a result of the infantile projection of anger. The Islamists, for example, hate what they fear because they fear what they hate, in a vicious cycle. Jews and infidels are merely "placeholders" for a wholly intrapsychic process. Likewise, Bush Derangement Syndrome is nothing more than the left's hatred of its own projected fear and fear of its projected hatred.

In this regard, Bion had many subtle things to say about the development of human thought. In fact, it is fair to say that he felt that the entire human catastrophe could be summarized by the perennial problem of "thoughts and what to do with them." Yes, the logical thing is to think them, but that is not what usually happens. The problem is, there are many people for whom "contact with reality presents most difficulty when that reality is their own mental state." For such people, thinking will not be experienced as a liberation, but rather, a restriction.

Most of the cultural craziness in the world has to do with the need to form collective adaptations to problematic thoughts. For example, if I am persecuted by my sexual thoughts, I might come up with the idea of forcing women to live in bags (which is very much like covering the world in leather instead of inventing shoes). If I am persecuted by racist thoughts, I might come up with the idea of racial quotas. If I am preoccupied with the empty space that religion would properly fill, I might become a "climate change" fanatic. If I am preoccupied with my greed, I might "tax the rich." If I am persecuted by thought in general, I might come up with the entire structure of political correctness, in order to prevent the emergence of unwanted meanings. And so on.

Yesterday's Obama supporter depicted this perfectly, in his preference for the language of faux-infinity in order to preserve infantile omnipotence. Reasonable people -- i.e., the "grown ups" -- ask why Obama isn't specific, and this is why. To be specific would be to awaken from the infantile dream -- or to move from the "zero" dimension of infantile omnipotence to the three or four dimensions of the reality principle. The Obamaniacs are especially limited in a way that my generation wasn't, in that at least we had drugs to help fuel the illusion. Apparently, most of the Obamaniacs are producing their euphoria "on the natch," which, in a way, is quite an achievement. After all, the '60s basically started when the drugs kicked in and ended when they wore off.

Again, the brilliance of scripture is how it is a holographic language that can reveal all sorts of perennial truths merely by "rotating" it this way or that. In this regard, Obamania is foreshadowed in Genesis by turning the story upside down and seeing Adam and Eve as the parents of the infantile God.

"In the Beginning" is the infant, which is surely true for all of us. We are born into the limitless space of infantile omnipotence, and only gradually -- and reluctantly -- awaken to the world of limitation and frustration -- i.e., the world of the parents who actually created and rule over us. Under the best of circumstances, this is a shock to the system, and it it is perhaps not surprising that many adult babies pluck a "mask from the ancient gallery" and banish Mother and Father from the garden in order to preserve their godlike omnipotence.

For such a person, their developmental arrest is essentially rooted in the discovery of no-thing at the end of their desire. Say the baby is hungry, or frightened, or angry. The parent who adequately responds to this helps usher him into the real world, converting these into thoughts instead of mere persecutory, ghostly presences. Conversely, excessive frustration contributes to the development of a real absent presence, a kind of "negative space" we are calling the realm of the no-thing. What to do about the no-thing? Usually it is evacuated, and then becomes a sort of persecutory psychic environment, "an object that is immediately hostile and filled with murderous envy towards the quality or function of existence wherever it is to be found." In this way, "the space of the ordinary man" can become suffused "with the objects of mental space."

Oh, it happens. But only all the time.

For the human being, thoughts are not only a problem, but the problem. You might say that tolerating the thought of "no breast" forms the basis of all subsequent thinking. You could also say that the thought of no-breast is specifically the thought that the left cannot tolerate. Therefore, they engage in the project of creating a collective, bountiful, limitless teat known as the State. This benign, omnipotent maternal State is always imbued with fantasy, since the intrusion of reality would spoil the illusion.

As Dennis Prager was saying yesterday, the truly odd thing about leftism is that we already know ahead of time that it won't work, based upon the abundant evidence of other socialist countries. But does that deter left wing fantasists? Not in the least. Obama's campaign is all about kicking adults who notice this out of Eden. Meanwhile, the way back in or out is deterred by adultolescent babies wielding flaming swords or pens. Only by remaining a closed system can the (false) infinite be maintained. The true infinite is located out and up, i.e., in the open spiral of the vertical.

Back to UF. He writes that the demons of the unconscious "become forces independent of the subjective consciousness which engendered them. They are, in other words, magical creations, for magic is the objectification of that which takes its origin in subjective consciousness." They have a semi-autonomous existence, and are analogous to parasitic entities "nourished by the psychic life of [their] parent." Therefore, to keep the parasite "alive," it requires a constant influx of psychic energy. Again, this is what Obamania is all about, as it is fueled by the projected psychic substance of its Obamaniacal co-creators.

Well, I still haven't gotten very far here. To be continued.....

56 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is calling those who disagree with you 'children' and 'infantile' all you can muster?

You claim Obama never gets specific because this would shatter his illusion. What is this based on?

Yes, Barack does not get into intense policy detail in his stump speeches, but neither does any other candidate. McCain, Romney, Clinton; none of them have given any substantially greater level of detail in their speeches.

But if you go to Barack's website, there is plenty of very detailed information. Comparing it with McCain I find at least as much detailed information, if not more.

Just because Barack doesn't spoon feed you his policy details[which none of the others do either] doesn't mean that those details don't exist.

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

Hmm, I think Fred Thompson was very specific on Policy Positions (as were other Repub Candidates.)

You remind me of the young fighter engaging the kung fu master; as soon as he strikes he is only striking where he thinks the kung fu master will be when his blow lands; he has yet to realize that his punches are not instant or where the master actually IS and ISN'T.

Anonymous said...

>>You claim Obama never gets specific because this would shatter his illusion. What is this based on?<<

Did you actually read Bob's post? He told you exactly what the illusion is based on. Howzbout you address his thesis, eh? If you disagree, say so, explain why. If it makes no sense to you, then see if you can't muster up the integrity to admit it.

Anonymous said...

Obamasupporter:

We realize that behind Obama's laughty rhetoric is the refried socialism, but the mass mania is caused by the former, not the latter. After all, nobody but the tenured and their young victims swoons at Marx.

debass said...

"Just because Barack doesn't spoon feed you his policy details[which none of the others do either] doesn't mean that those details don't exist."

If they do indeed exist, he cannot reveal them to his supporters. That would allow reality to intrude on the fantasy and his support would quickly wane. No one in their right mind would support the reality of socialism given its complete failure over the last 160 years since its inception.

julie said...

Of course, the caveat is that one must be in one's right mind to reject socialism. I believe that disqualifies any suffering from serious BDS.

julie said...

er, anyone

Anonymous said...

Correction: Obama can only spoon feed the Marxism, which is, after all, how one feeds a baby. Reminds me of Paul in a perverse way:

"Comrades, I could not address you as adults but as babes — mere infants in Marx. I gave you the milk of rhetoric, not the solid food of party ideology, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready."

Anonymous said...

Yesterday, our Obama buddy said:
If you are going to say I am uninformed and ignorant, terrence, perhaps you'd like to back it up with something.
How about some of your own rhetoric:

The current ruling junta of the Republican party[and those that enable them]

Junta? words mean things.

His overwhelming victory will give the Republican party a simple choice; fundamentally change[by excising the far right from the party] or be prepared to spend the next two decades out of power.

In other words, kick out the ones you disagree with, ie: conservatives.

Obama will correct the catastrophic lunge to the right that Reagan manufactured
Catastrophic? "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" Yup. pretty darn catastrophic.

Obama has put his finger on significant areas, all he gets is calls that he is a fascist..

I don't recall anyone calling him a fascist. Bush, on the other hand is regularly called fascist by you progressive types.

That someone like him (Jonah Goldberg)is considered an intellectual by conservatives demonstrates why there are so few conservatives in real intellectual communities.

I forgot. We so dumb.

JWM

Anonymous said...

Eh, I dunno. Certainly lots of what you said in the post is compelling. But I think that the state predates your psychoanalytical account, and I am somewhat sure that the state originated for mercantile & military & political reasons rather than socialist no-breast reasons.

Plus, a lot of people like Obama because though you say there is nothing specific, what is specific is how he communicates the political process in a way that accords with commonly held notions about US democracy. I would have to imagine Reagan did the same thing, using civics class notions about America to implicitly critique the current political discourse and offer himself as the leader who restores America's visions of itself.

I'm never going to convince you to like him of course. But there are both conscious and unconscious aspects which appeal to people. I think, you could say its fascist, but that may be confusing leadership for fascism. It probably won't result in the holocaust, whatever the case is. If it results in higher taxation, eh, I've got enough disposable income. I don't like taxes, but I don't like a 10 trillion dollar debt. And I am pretty sure the Democrats will not cut spending on social programs.

Anonymous said...

At least Withers honest about the situation. In the context of object relations theory, this song makes makes perfect sense.

"Ain't no sunshine whens she's gone.
Only darkness every day"

Ain't no sunshine whens she's gone.
And this house (infant) just ain't no home
Any time she goes away."

Follows that the world is not home, and the most people are audaciously hopeless.

Anonymous said...

My guess is that it's a she.

Anonymous said...

Maybe I'm just piling on with The Cousin(s) here, but, OSup, I think the "saying nothing" meme that so easily attaches to Obama has two prongs. Much of what he says, orally, vocally, in his rallies is circular "we-are-us-here-we -are-good'n'will-be-happy-together." i.e. the seducer's special brand of Nothing. In addition, the little of substance he implies is rewarmed collective Good Ideas that are nothing new, refried indeed. It is the combination that creates the "nothing there." Not to mention his relative youth and its limited performance record.

Please realize, your exasperation with our response is not itself logically substantial, so much as it demonstrates just how dark and angry this utopian disco-ball discourse becomes when everyone's not marching rhythmically on board; because, in the mind of the thrilled, it's all so "beautful" and "obvious" and "inevitable." Those who disagree must be malicious or stupid. No need even to reach questions of ideology there, for sure.

Every upcoming generation, mine included, thought it was all pretty evident, a few simple and obvious changes would solve it right up. Tom Stoppard's recent and acclaimed Coasts of Utopia delves deep into the dreams of the Russian revolutionaries. Sounded хороший at the time [The Russian word for "good" sounds like "horror show."] But the New Vision -- "the as yet undiscovered social system by which people can live in harmony and equality" (NYTImes) -- solved nothing except a few intellectuals' resentment and boredom, and shoveled millions under the steam-roller of a hard-bitten and yet dionysian capitulation to unconstrained historical forces.

The preternatural balance of the Founders' constitutional legacy, not just happy memes, but a balance of the tragic and hopeful, with a canny understanding of the limits of reliable human goodness. You will not accept the parallel. But it cannot historically be dismissed, and thus the suspicion you encounter. "Change" has no, or deadly, content. Homeostasis, nature, etc.

The unintended consequences are what we find oddly enough pretty predictable, and The Obamas, since we have not drunk the kool-aid, do not inspire us with confidence of constraint by basic good sense. We wonder if they're believing their own besotted press, never wise.

P.S., part of effective persuasion is, uh, "spoon-feeding the details" when asked...

Oh well, pixels are not expensive... Probably wasting my cyber-breath. Say it ain't so, O.

Anonymous said...

Well sure, it glosses over some things, and also, supporters think its so obvious. But I got to remind you, that's what we thought about ya'll and Bush. Not to mention a third or so of ya'll believe WMD were actually found? It's just politics. Nothing will really change. Business and the military will keep doing our thing, and our culture will continue to evolve from one new thing to the next.

Anonymous said...

Correction--

2/3 don't realize WMD were found.

Anonymous said...

Heh, don't stop believing, apparently.

Anonymous said...

Anon said,

"If it results in higher taxation, eh, I've got enough disposable income."

You mean WHEN it results in higher taxes.
My question is, what about those of us whio are loggers or carpenters etc. who are working our asses off and need all the disposable income we can get.
I have an idea that if adopted by Obama, might actually persuade me to come on board.
How about taking all that disposable income that liberals like you, Bill Clinton and all the Hollywood liberals always talk about having and not needing but which never seems to get donated to any cause other than moveon.org, and dividing it among those of us who are being taxed into the ground and don't have the excess income. We'll call you guys, Big Lib, you know, like Big Oil and Big Pharma and we'll empower the Government to confiscate all that excess profit.
Now that's something I can get behind.

Anonymous said...

I think it is important to understand that in the same way Bush I gave us Bill Clinton, Bush II's leftism and anti-founder's policies have given us a "choice" between Obama/Clinton and McCain. Conservatism convinces constantly when it is implemented and thoughtfully explained. The conservative movement was highjacked by leftists who labeled themselves "neo-conservative". There is enough fascism to go around.

Anonymous said...

Anon 12:11
"I don't like taxes, but I don't like a 10 trillion dollar debt."

Economics 1-0 homework assignment:

Compare your per-capita share of US National Debt to your share of US GDP to
get some perspective.

http://pajamasmedia.com/2008/02/
how_bad_is_the_national_debt_r.php

Sheesh

Anonymous said...

One Obamaniac's Buyer's Remorse, as the dawn descends upon the dreamer:

Suddenly, I’m nervous. Very nervous, actually.

I’m nervous because an otherwise normal grownup told me yesterday she’s watched the “Yes We Can” Obama video about 100 times and gets “weepy” every time....

I’m nervous about the “O’Bambi” factor. Will the terrorists move in next door when Obama’s in the White House?

.... I’m nervous because too many Obama-philes sound like Moonies, or Hare Krishnas, or the Hale-Bopp-Is-Coming-To-Get-Me nuts....

At campaign rallies people scream, cry, even faint as Obama calmly calls for the EMTs. When supporters pant en masse, “I love you!” (like The Beatles, circa 1964), Barack says, “I love you back” with that deliciously charming, almost cocky smile....

I’m nervous because it’s gone to a lot of other people’s heads as well. Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings introduced Obama last week in Baltimore and said, “This is not a campaign for president of the United States, this is a movement to change the world.”

“He walks into a room and you want to follow him somewhere, anywhere,” says George Clooney.

“I’ll do whatever he says to do,” says actress Halle Berry. “I’ll collect paper cups off the ground to make his pathway clear.”

I’m nervous because nobody’s quite sure what Obama stands for, even his supporters. (“I can’t wait to see,” said actress/activist Susan Sarandon, declaring full support nonetheless).

I’m nervous because even his biggest fans can’t name Obama’s accomplishments, including Texas state Sen. Kirk Watson, an Obama-man who humiliated himself when MSNBC’s Chris Matthews asked him about five times to name something, anything, Obama’s done. Watson hemmed. Watson hawed. Watson gave up....

Anonymous said...

If I may wax all mystical and stuff for a few trembling moments . . . (and be afraid, Dupree, be very afraid . . , well, be concerned anyway)

I think that all true pilgrims/warriors have to see the Bright Side here. Such is our duty, our privilege, even.

I am convinced that this 'bama fever, this blind ecstatic dance around an obvious candidate for antichrist does, in fact, mean that a Change is soon to come. People are sensing it, it's in the wind, and is, though I haven't exactly taken a poll, in peoples' dreams in some form or another.

Those who are spiritually bereft are, of course, going to misinterpret what said Change really is at the core. They're going to secularize it, in effect. They're going to render it political. It's a matter of misplaced concrete-ness.

Sure, this has been done in the 20th century, but not here, not among this many rank 'n file Americans. This time, however, because the Change is likely ever so near, the revolutionary fervor of misplaced concrete-ness has reached into the heart of America.

Well, isn't it logical that before the real deal comes along there will be a false deal, one that separates sheep from goats?

Let us take heart in the fact that this mass hallucination may very well indicate that the Real Deal is sonn enough.

Anonymous said...

And I don't mean we should just sit back and numbingly accept the "inevitable", even though it might be inevitable.

We also have a spiritual obligation to howl away at the madness, do what we can to arrest it. Just saying that, worst comes to worse, there is a Bright Side.

Anonymous said...

With apologies to Lerner and Loewe:

I'm going voting in the morning.
Ding dong Obama's gonna shine.
Don't ask no questions
'bout his positions.
Just get me to the booth on time!

I gotta be there in the morning.
I'll be the first one in the line.
I vote for changin'
and rearrangin'
so get me to the booth on time.

What does he stand for?
Don't give a fig.
Long as sticks it to the fascist pigs!

Oh I'm goin' votin' in the morning.
Hope the republicans will whine!
Raise all my taxes
Ignore the facts and
Get me to the booth on time!

JWM

Anonymous said...

Will:

Yes, I suppose that, in addition to the spiritually attuned, the beings most likely to intuit the penumbra of the involutionary vibrations of the approaching eschaton would be children, animals, the simple, the anti-intellectual, the Obama supporter, or all of the above.

Anonymous said...

Imagine how much more strongly they'd feel it with the appropriate pharmaceuticals...

Anonymous said...

Will:
Like BabbaZee says-
R, or D it's only a matter of mph and eta

...and I feel fine!

JWM

julie said...

Dupree, I wonder what will happen when they come down from this high?

Suppose Obama does get elected. It is a certainty that at some point, perhaps sooner than later, he will disappoint those adoring worshipers. He will not pull out fast enough, he won't come down hard enough on rich people, or he won't do enough to save the whole world from mankind's evil environmental influence. They won't feel so inspired by him anymore, and eventually, inevitably, they will see him as just another president, a compromiser, a withholder of the utopia they expect at any moment.

What will happen when they realize he is merely human, and that even as POTUS there are limits to what he may accomplish?

I wonder, I most surely do. And if McCain gets elected? Expect four years of MDS, this time coming from both sides of the aisle. Either way, it's going to be a very bumpy ride.

Anonymous said...

Julie:

I was actually going to help Bob post about that yesterday, but got called away to a Steely Dan session. The short answer is that they will conduct a furious ritual sacrifice of the king, as in days of old. This will happen just as soon as he enters what is known as the "cracking" stage, and is felt to be unable to contain and process the primitive content now being projected into him. This kind of ritual sacrifice is just what pagans do, being that they cannot sublimate it through religion (i.e., all their transcendent hopes are imamentized or politicized, which included a regular need for sacrifice).

Anonymous said...

Bob, your point about the missing teat is well taken. However, why can't humanity develop a foolproof system for meeting everyone's needs?

I've always maintained there should be an organized system for making sure everyone is getting enough touch stimuluation, especially hugging, handholding, kissing, and intimacy. Is it so much to ask that each human being gets snuggled as often as needed?

Once that one goal is made, the rest of the challenges of life are pretty much gravy.

So, humanity, I throw down the gauntlet--can you make this happen? We need dedicated and enthusiastic snugglers to provide for those who aren't getting enough.

Anonymous said...

Forget Obamama, Man-crush update:

That bovine Canadian Thought Police drone shown on the videos has resigned from Levant's case "because of the public backlash against the commission...she didn't like being called a censor in the blogosphere."

Points: our side.

I-HEART-Ezra

Anonymous said...

What most do not see is the hidden hawkishness of Obama. There is a pugilistic and warlike spirit lurking in his boyish mien.

If elected Obama will make war, lots of war. Count on it.

Anonymous said...

Whatever. I sure like those old Kenny Burrell records in the sidebar, though.

Anonymous said...

anon @2:56
(assuming you're kidding, here)
Maybe we need a law. Or a government sponsored program that would send professionally trained huggers to all the lonely people. (Where do they all come from?)
Or maybe just federal guidelines for intimacy like the nutritional information that comes on all our potato chip bags and water bottles.

JWM

Anonymous said...

>> . . . the beings most likely to intuit the penumbra of the involutionary vibrations of the approaching eschaton would be children, animals, the simple, the anti-intellectual, the Obama supporter, or all of the above<<

Also the earth itself, I think. "Gaia" does exist, not as the eco-new agers would have it, but as a non self-aware planetary consciousness, plastic in nature - it responds to collective human thought, more so as the influx of Light increases . . . earthquakes, tsumamis, hurricanes, tornadoes.

Anonymous said...

Very excellent ditty, JWM.

And why has this fabled BabaZee not landed in here? Would be fun, obviously.

julie said...

Ximeze, I agree about Ezra. He does make the heart go pitty-pat...

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Will. I don't know why the Outraged Spleen of Zion hasn't come by here. Well, I could make a guess. She and Bob are on somewhat different, although not incompatable wavelengths, or frequencies. Bob could probably be more precise, and I don't want to try to speak for either of them. (BTW, she has a blog right here on Blogger entitled- The Outraged Spleen of Zion.) She and I traded notes for a while, but the correspondence has fallen off. Actually, it accomplished what need to be accomplished, which was to give me a little direction and inspiration in my own journey of Spirit. She posts frequntly enough on LGF, but her health is dicey, and there hasn't been a new post up at her blog in a while.

JWM

Anonymous said...

Anon. 2:56 said:

"I've always maintained there should be an organized system for making sure everyone is getting enough touch stimuluation, especially hugging, handholding, kissing, and intimacy. Is it so much to ask that each human being gets snuggled as often as needed?"


I volunteer you and assign you to Michael Moore.

Anonymous said...

OBsupporter,

Talk to me about the Cuban Flag with the Che' picture emblazened on it at the Obama campaign office in Texas. Just a coincidence and out of his control? Just a coincidence with no symbolism whatsoever?
You might want to pull your head out of your ass. The clues are everywhere.

Lisa said...

Did everyone see the lunar eclipse last night? I blame Bush....er is it global warming?

Anyhow, it was pretty cool...;)

Anonymous said...

Well, as per our Obama friend's suggestion, I visited his hero's website. A few pages into his 'Blueprint for America', I have already found a few things that will warm any conservative's heart:

Universal Coverage: Obama will sign a universal health care plan into law by the end of his first term in office. His plan will provide affordable, quality health care coverage for every American.
Employer Contribution: Employers that do not offer or make a meaningful contribution to the cost of quality health coverage for their employees will be required to contribute a percentage of payroll…
Mandatory Coverage of Children: Obama will require that all children have health care coverage. Obama will expand the number of options for young adults to get coverage, including allowing young people up to age 25 to continue coverage through their parents’ plans.
Support Disease Management Programs: Seventy five percent of total health care dollars are spent on patients with one or more chronic conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. Obama will require that providers that participate in the new public plan, Medicare or the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) utilize proven disease management programs. This will improve quality of care, give doctors better information and lower costs.
Obama will strengthen the ability of workers to organize unions. He will fight for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Obama will ensure that his labor appointees support workers’ rights and will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers..
Work-Family: Obama will double funding for after-school programs, expand the Family Medical Leave Act, provide low-income families with a refundable tax credit to help with their child-care expenses, and encourage flexible work schedules.
Technology, Innovation and Creating Jobs
Support Job Creation: Barack Obama believes we need to double federal funding for basic research and make the research and development tax credit permanent to help create high-paying, secure jobs.
. Obama will also provide assistance to the domestic auto industry to ensure that new fuel-efficient vehicles are built by American workers.
Create New Job Training Programs for Clean Technologies: The Obama plan will increase funding for federal workforce training programs and direct these programs to incorporate green technologies train¬ing, such as advanced manufacturing and weatherization training, into their efforts to help Americans find and retain stable, high-paying jobs. Obama will also create an energy-focused youth jobs program to invest in disconnected and disadvantaged youth.
Boost the Renewable Energy Sector and Create New Jobs: The Obama plan will create new federal policies, and expand existing ones, that have been proven to create new American jobs. Obama will create a federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that will require 25 percent of American electricity be derived from renewable sources by 2025…
Raise the Minimum Wage: Barack Obama will raise the minimum wage, index it to inflation and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit to make sure that full-time workers earn a living wage that allows them to raise their families and pay for basic needs.
Expand the Family and Medical Leave Act: The FMLA covers only certain workers in businesses with 50 or more employees. Obama will expand it to cover businesses with 25 or more employees.
Protect Social Security: Obama will preserve Social Security by stopping any efforts to privatize it and working in a bipartisan way to preserve it for future generations.
Help Americans Save More: Obama will make retirement savings automatic.
Obama believes that the first place to look for ways to strengthen Social Security is the payroll tax system. Currently, the Social Security payroll tax applies to only the first $97,500 a worker makes. Obama supports increasing the maximum amount of earnings covered by Social Security and he will work with Congress and the American people to choose a payroll tax reform package that will keep Social Security solvent for at least the next half century.

There seem to be a lot of expansions of the role of government and requirements of the citizens. Ain't socialism great? We have a lot to look forward to.

walt said...

"Policy details":

"Obama will require that providers that participate in the new public plan, Medicare or the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) utilize proven disease management programs."

Now, don't even be thinkin' about any of those silly alternative approaches. "Get with the Program!"

Anonymous said...

Lisa -

Saw it and felt it, baby. Most powerful.

Anonymous said...

Obama will require that providers that participate in the new public plan, Medicare or the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) utilize proven disease management programs.

In other words: The FEHB will decide for you how much you can weigh, how much you can smoke (none), what you can eat (icanthazcheezburger)and how often. Those not in compliance with FEHB determined average adult parameters will be assigned a counsellor who will help them achieve their federally mandated goals. Regular blood tests for nicotene, caffeine, alcohol, and controlled substances will be the order of the day with helpful rehab sessions, and/or hospitalization required for those habitually not in compliance.

Go ahead and laugh. Try telling someone 20 years ago that someday it would be illegal to smoke a cigarette on the beach.

JWM

debass said...

Well, it is for our own good and the trains do run on time.

NoMo said...

I'm wondering where they will locate the gulags? Some of us might not fit in.

Anonymous said...

They recruit from folks who read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and root for nurse Ratched.

JWM

Anonymous said...

...mind parasites form closed systems that become ends in themselves...

The sad and funny thing about your blog is that, obviously unknown to you, it is an instant of your own complaint.

Bob, you are an egomaniac and you don't know it. Sounds like NPD to me. I highly doubt you are able of even hearing, let alone integrating, criticisms and disagreements. Yours is the sound of one voice yapping (with your coons yapping along in your wake).

julie said...

"Employer Contribution: Employers that do not offer or make a meaningful contribution to the cost of quality health coverage for their employees will be required to contribute a percentage of payroll…"

Oh hooray. Combine this with mandatory "fair" minimum wages, and extra penalties for creating and maintaining wealth, er, higher taxes for the eeevil rich; what's that spell?

G-r-e-a-t D-e-p-r-e-s-s-i-o-n!!!

Obama-mama, he's our man, if he can't do it... (well, he damn well better because that's what he promised at all those rallies, and if the worshipers don't get theirs, there'll be hell to pay. And even if they do, there'll be hell to pay. Man that's depressing...)

On top of all that, I missed the eclipse last night (not for lack of trying) because the Arizona skies perversely decided to host a thunderstorm instead.

Sheesh.

Anonymous said...

Please. They'll all be happy that he's elected. They'll be happy that he will gloss over the country's problems with a new, savvy media campaign. We can get back to the business of military and corporate policy, it will reap benefits for us in terms of economic growth, and if it takes throwing the liberals a few bones, no big deal - just like conservatives needed a few bones thrown to get on board the US global train. We have a globalist empire to worry about, we need to be popular now. If we aren't popular, we'll inevitably shrink back, and our system will fall apart. And then our awesome system will be no more. If it's all or nothing, I am in.

Anonymous said...

Yap yap yap yap.

Anonymous said...

Petey's Golden Bow: "This...is just what pagans do, being that they cannot sublimate it through religion..."

The first commandment has come down.

Lisa said...

Will- I knew you saw it. ;) I actually thought of you and the dark night of the soul...Yeah, change is a coming, allright!

I wonder when Omama's wife is going to put down the shovel. Everyday she says something more stupid. Plus now I have at least one reason to like McCain- his wife. She is charming, pretty, and proud to be American all throughout her life...what a concept!

Anonymous said...

And I bet she's got a great medicine cabinet. I would love to get together with her.

Lisa said...

Yes, only in America are we fortunate to have plenty of good drugs in all of our medicine cabinets...good point, anoinny!

Van Harvey said...

Will said "...if you disagree, say so, explain why."

Heh, more likely to see Dracula chowing down garlic bread while sunning himself by a pool of holy water.

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