Question: "Do you approve or disapprove of the job President Obama is doing in office?"

Anyone would have been so much better than Bush that its hard to speak out against Obama. In many ways, he's got my approval.

But fundamentally he's more "more of the same" than he is of "change."

The stimulus is going to be an anchor on our economy for at least 20 years, and will become a battle cry of Bush-like people, the neocons and other even more wrong-headed folks, to allow them to tear down the valuable social services and protections for our natural resources, and to further prop up the old-money in this nation.

His continuation of our Imperialistic policies in Iraq and Afghanistan only continues to inculcate the young into Al'Qaeda and similar fundamentalist, reactionary radical organizations, which further erodes our economy and our political clout on the world stage.

He's continuing bush Jr's legacy of covering up our extremely questionable and anti-democratic actions at home and abroad, suppressing the release of evidence of governmental wrongdoing and protecting complicit companies from prosecution.

He's got a tough job, there's no doubt. But principles of freedom, democracy, and accountability should not be negotiable!

Studies have repeatedly shown that throwing money at problems doesn't work. Some ungodly statistics of failure come from throwing cash willy-nilly at things, especially governmental monies where they have only the most tenuous connection to performance and market viability.

Companies founded with Governmental grant money almost always fail, from what I understand. The role of government money should be in pure research and in social services, NOT in financially stable for-profit companies. The two do not mix in anything you might name as 'successful'.

The banks and fat-cats involved in the mortgage debacle and the ensuing stock market crash needed to fail. The market *needed* to correct itself. Those folks should have lost their shirts, pants, fancy boats, planes, and 3rd and 4th homes. The government should be helping out those who are screwed through no fault of their own: folks who have a solid history of being productive people living at the edge of being able to afford their homes. Loan guarantees, collecting the bad debts even. But the process of throwing money at the problem which more than less has saved those very folks who most deserve to lose everything due to their greed saves them from learning any lessons from their wanton greed and gluttony. They've Learned Nothing.

And because they've learned nothing, and because we, the schmuck tax-payers have paid the bill (and all of us Americans and most of the globe) will continue to pay this debt down for the next 50 years, we've doomed not only ourselves to a horrendous burden for the sake of the wealthiest top 1/2% of the world, but we've further ensured that the lesson that they've learned is: "Be too big to fail, and everyone will bail you out ensuring your reckless gluttony."

American Politics are strife with unbridled greed and self-interest at the expense of the greater whole. Despite current appearances, there have been times in our history and in the history of the world where politicians are at least embarrassed by their obviously unethical and selfish actions. Times when the masses have recently had an uprising against those in power and humbled them, reminding them that their position of power is predicated upon the people's willingness to go along with the social contract.

That hasn't happened in entirely too long in this nation, and in most of the so called 1st world countries. Politicians have become openly self-serving, openly flaunting their wealth and power and daring anyone to do anything about it. And the sad thing is, we generally don't. We just shrug our shoulders and figure its business as usual and the world is corrupt and always will be.

But change... real change... will come to America, and to Europe. China is rising fast. India is becoming more and more a player. And the damage we are doing to the planet, to our very ability to survive on this rock in space, is rapidly moving towards mass-self-extinction.

The question to my mind is whether we will do as we've always done: shirk our collective responsibilities and ignore the problem for as long as possible (which is often too long), and end up a lot of rotting corpses on an overripe planet? Or will we take the lessons of community and greater good to heart and start acting like we give a damn?

Obama is a good man... in much the same way Bush was a good man... they both honestly believe that they are helping the world. They both have strong ideas as to what the best way to do that is. But Bush Jr. was laughably naive, probably the dumbest individual to hold the office of President of the United States in our entire History; and in the name of loyalty he handed most of the reigns over to Dick Cheney, who was a cynical, power-mongering neocon, who worked unabashedly for his own personal and ideological self-interests and fuck everyone else, in this nation or abroad.

I prefer Obama's form of goodness. I think its closer to honesty, and further from the rampant self-delusion of Bush Jr.

But in the end I strongly fear that the road to hell is being paved with a 1 Trillion dollar money-printing binge which will falsely inflate the economy and allow us all to continue to ignore the looming threats to our very existence.

Global warming - or more accurately: the exponentially accelerating consumption and exploitation of the worlds finite resources polluting the atmosphere to the point that we cannot sustain our very existence, leading to massive, global, cataclysmic extinctions of the Human race, and most higher life-forms from this planet, effectively resetting the clock to the last time of the Dinosaurs demise. We are the comet, the super-volcano, the gamma-ray burst to end life as we know it on this planet. And it is our very predisposition to selfishness and greed that is rapidly becoming our self-undoing.

Economic ruin - which is really just another way of expressing the above: rampant self-interest, consumption of everything that the planet has to offer, is real and is here. We are trying to live in way that is predicated on the assumption that there is always more basic materials to acquire, in order to make more for less. This is untrue. Its been untrue for ever, but we're rapidly approaching a sort of cliff or wall: where there simply is no more oil, not enough arable soil to produce the food, where we cannot distribute the food we can grow because we no longer have the gasoline to run our engines with, where we simply cannot feed ourselves. And yet we persist in talking about the economy, as though its disconnected from the things we do, from the health of this world. We've long been guilty of pretending that our economy and its exploitative health doesn't directly harm those in so-called 3rd world countries (economic slaves, by any other name). But it doesn't just harm many of our fellow human beings... its harming the very land we stand upon, the air we breath, the water we drink. Its killing us.

I am very glad to be alive. Its an amazing thing to be conscious, to be aware, and to think about how to solve these problems. I am deeply grateful to live this life.

I only wish more of us were willing to put our own narrow, selfish, small-minded, pathetic self-interests aside and think beyond ourselves - to include the entire planet in our sense of "self".

There is so much publicity these days about "think global, act local". But really, just think global. Act global. Without many, many voices... and voices with teeth... we're just going to do more of the same.

Democrats and Republicans are far more alike than different. They use a lot of rhetoric to try to spin the tale that they're opposites, but the truth is they're fraternal twins. Both work for their own self-interests first, then that which keeps them in power, then that which looks like its helpful to the world but which is in fact a thin veneer which serves to help themselves to remain in power, and so on ad nauseum.

American hegemony is the real name of the game to the Democrats and the Republicans. Both remain entrenched in a view of the world that hasn't been relevant since before WWI. We're not a nation competing with other nations. That's just another illusion that galvanizes the plebes to get behind those in power and assure them of their ability to continue to live in luxury, unquestioned and obedient.

We are one people. One world. One collection of interrelated species of plants, animals, everything that lives and contributes to our existence on this blue-green marble. And without some balance, some dance of interdependent sustainable coexistence we're on a one-way ride to mass extermination, ourselves at the front of the roller-coaster to hell.

When I see on-the-ground true actions which are in alignment with the higher principles of "we're all in it together," and not just give lip-service to these ideals, or even consider them ideals all, but rather necessary survival mechanism, then Obama - or whomever is willing to go the distance - will get my full approval.

We're smart enough to recognize the elephant in the room... but so far we seem to be too lethargic and small minded to fix it.

I hope that our demise is slower than I think it will be, but fast enough that it will genuinely scare every man, woman, and child upon this planet into thinking of something beyond their next meal, next pleasure, next "me me me" moment, so that we can truly move on from being a world dominated by the emotional equivalent of two year-olds, into something more humane.

Will you work with me? Where do you see things going?