The Bucknuts Hot Spot

This is the perfect example of "vague" criticisms of Obama that aren't even saying anything. I respect your right to express yourself, but your complaint is that "too many things [about Obama] are unknown. What does that mean?

How come no one on the right talks about him using all of Bush's financial guys? How about doubling down on Afghanistan when the reports coming out where disastrous? Both, in my opinion, are very serious issues. How about increasing drone attacks around the world including targeting an American citizen in Yemen? That is a sticky legal situation, regardless of what he was accused of (and very likely was doing). Those are concrete criticisms.

How much about Bush did we know? The Republicans hid Bush's DUI in Texas. How about them hiding the fact he was a deserter from the Air National Guard? His drug use, his alcoholism and irresponsibility even as a full grown man with a family are all serious issues of character and judgement.

By electing George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, the right can no longer win an argument on the facts. I hope he was worth it, because now you guys lost the moral high ground on spending, the economy, and the phony cultural issues. It is a tall price to pay for 2 terms.

All of these people might have claimed to be christians, but they hardly acted like a true christian should. Good Christians do not blow up federal buildings like McVeigh, have a violent standoff with the ATF like Koresh, or behave like the Michigan Militia. The point is that none of these people behaved or lived their lives like a true Christian should. I ask you to not condemn entire religions based on the actions of a few. With that said, I want to talk about tOSU sports and not politics.

Hey, the round ball Bucks are handing out an @sswhipping! Anyone interested?

I don't think it's we who have been cheated by politicians, it is we the public who have cheated ourselves by changing the political atmosphere into one of pie-in-the-sky promises that can never be delivered upon and the endless ignorance and hyperbole that characterize our political debates. It is we who elect these people who promise undeliverable things because they know people are gullible enough to believe them or are ignorant enough to be easily scared into voting based on their emotions and not any rational thought. The public has brought this upon itself; we get the politicians we deserve because all they are doing is catering to what the public wants, which is not reality. The public doesn't want to deal with tough issues like actually making big, painful cuts in the budget that will affect them or how to make the transition to an energy supply that won't run out in a few decades.

We want someone to pull the blinders over our eyes and tell us that everything will be ok and money will grow on trees because we refuse to deal with any sort of pain or sacrifice and the people we elect happily oblige because it gets them reelected. We want more prisons to lock inmates up but we only want them to be built far from us. We demand cheap energy and food prices but refuse to invest the necessary resources to get off of oil and onto something that is sustainable for the long run and refuse to deal with the fact that our economy is built on cheap labor that keeps things like food and electronics cheap. We demand that the government educates our kids but refuse to help in any manner and want the schools to act as a babysitter as well as an educator and refuse to provide the funding necessary to give many schools the materials they need and decent wages for the teachers.

I think our political dysfunction is simply a symptom of the real problem with this country, which is the American public. We refuse to acknowledge or deal with any issue that could cause us the slightest pain or inconvenience and demand that our politicians do the same or they get voted out of office. Reality is not our strong suit because in many cases it is too painful to deal with so we blame anything and everything else that we can until the point comes where we can't do it anymore, and that will be a nasty punch in the face for a lot of people, who will then likely continue to blame everything they can because they won't be able to deal with the fact that they were part of the problem in the first place.

Oh the "Christians and Jews did it too" argument. Yeah they did it...a long fricking time ago. The blind belief that being critical of Islam and the terrorist fanaticism is equivalent to lumping all Muslims together and thus being a bigot for it is a very narrow minded opinion popularized by the left leaning. The truth is that the Fanatics take the Muslim world hostage. Their maniacal "stand with or you die like an infidel" scares most of the countries into being pacified to their abhorrent attacks or even sympathizing with them (9/11 was actually the US bombing ourselves!!!!!!). There lies the problem and the critical analysis of the so called bigoted opinion. Whether our reactions to Terrorism is wrong or not does not justify an "apology to the Muslim world tour" as some of our left leaning Dems loved to do. The problem exists and it is very black and white right now. Kill the infidel at all costs so he succumbs to the sword of Islam. We need help from our Muslim friends and we are not getting it is what it boils down to. Look at Pakistan for example. What is an expected outcome with a public bible burning vs a public Koran burning? Just ask Salman Rushdie or Theo van Gogh. It's incredibly safe to be critical of Religions that don't have a large and organized fanatical wing that pretty much has carte blanche to kill as they please. Al Qaeda, like any good professional company, has Mission Statement that people should read....it will open your eyes. This is were Ron Paul has some very good points as well when it comes to our political meddling being a galvanizing battle cry for them. But that is where it ends because the war has been declared and you can't take back past meddling.

As for the critical analysis of Obama being a Muslim is really only a slice of what the real problem that a great deal of us have. The real problem is "Who is this guy?". His background is so jumbled and murky that led a good deal of us just asking the question and not really getting a clear cut answer. It could be his camp was so arrogant that such criticism was dealt in long drawn out fashion but it is still not the way to answer questions that American Public would like to know. Transparency has not been the strong suit of this Administration even they he said that would happen. I just look at the attempted reduction to retired Military benefits as an example of behind-the-scenes maneuvering that is being personally led Obama's inner circle.

Just trying to clarify some opposing opinions and also express how frustrated some of us are to be Lumped into "General Right Wing Cry Baby Bigoted Complainists"...which do exist and give us a bad name....Moderate Rational Thinking people.

You said that criticizing Obama always evokes an anti-Bush response. Without Bush there would be no Obama Presidency. They will always be inextricably linked. Same as without George H.W. Bush there would be no Clinton Presidency. Most presidents are chosen because they are the opposite of what came before them. Without Carter there would be no Reagan Presidency.

The vast majority of those on this site are hardcore anti-Obama, but do not use any concrete criticisms. No one in this country is benefited by saying Obama is a socialist or Obama is the most anti-religion president in American History. The Right has a huge credibility issue when criticizing Obama. Most of the "legitimate" criticisms of Obama come from the Left.

Out of curiosity...have you ever read the Quran or do you just believe what the news casts say?

This is the issue. Being critical of "the terrorist fanaticism" is not lumping all Muslims together. Being critical of "Islam" in general absolutely IS lumping all Muslims together. Your very statement seems to suggest that 1) you acknowledge that these are two separate things, and 2) you're critical of both of them. Maybe that was just poor wording, and if so I apologize for calling you out, but I hear very similar comments fairly routinely and can’t help but notice the inconsistency...

I do think it’s a little ironic you point out some of the conspiracy theorizing that takes place in the Muslim world regarding 9/11 as though it’s demonstrative of their problems in a thread discussing the fact that a significant portion of the US population believes our President is a secret Muslim. Maybe we shouldn’t be casting the first stone on the conspiracy theory issue ;)

Christianity and Judaism have been developing for quite a bit longer than Islam has, and both have populations based mostly in developed nations, which I think is key. You say a long time ago, but there are plenty of “Christians” in parts of Africa today who are just as barbaric as the worst Muslim extremists out there. A lot of these problems have more to do with societal issues than religious ones.

I also have never understood the whole “NO APOLOGY” stance. If I make a mistake in my personal life that hurts someone, I apologize for it. If I make a mistake at work that causes a mess for someone else, I apologize for it. Hell, if one of my friends is acting like an idiot I end up apologizing for it sometimes even when I didn’t actually do anything wrong. That’s not weakness; it’s acknowledging that something I did (or that someone in my circle did) caused problems for someone else and that I will try to avoid that in the future. We’ve killed hundreds of thousands of people, many of them completely innocent. I fail to see why apologizing for that is inappropriate.

i don't care if he believes in aliens as his god......and people aren't going to vote for him now because he has failed in what he said he would do......he even said he should be a one term President.....and a lot of people are going to hold him to those WORDS........

don't see all the bumper stickers for the lovefest of Obama on cars anymore.......but then again most of the cars were probably turned in for the famous "Cash for Clunkers" giveaway......

I am a moderate but I am focusing on the right because 1) They are far more influential than any liberal group (despite what any right-wing conspiracy theorist thinks), and 2) You don't see liberals making such a huge issue of the religion of candidates in their elections. The far left, despite what many conservatives think, does not exist as an influential group in this country. If you want true socialism, go to Europe, but as for here it has no influence. The Democrats are a center-right party and Obama reflects that in many of his policies that have angered a lot of liberals.

Just because I am a moderate doesn't mean I don't have problems with both liberals and conservatives but the reality of the political situation in this country is that conservatives have far more influence than liberals and so most people are going to concentrate on them.

You obviously haven't read my complete post AND my wording is a little off:

1.) Being critical of Obama being a Muslim or not is only part of a bigger criticism of who this guys really is. His campaign never handled it properly and at best were arrogant in giving answers to the American public on his history. Being a Muslim is just part of his less than clear past and is used as an indicator not a condemning notion. Taking that little slice of criticism out of the entire equation and then using it to brand the critics is ridiculous.Honestly, I wish he was a Muslim in good standing because that could help us get more of the Muslim nations on our side to actively help with the extremism. If any part of that entire equation I mentioned that can be taken as a specific worrisome aspect is his association with Bill Ayers. I would think that any ambitious politicians would stay clear of any controversial or extremist associations. That is one the concerened the crap out of me as an American and I think it should to anyone else.

2.) I am being critical of Islam when it comes to a Islamic country turning a blind eye to the extremists and even sympathizing with them. I also understand that these extremist groups use a mafia type terror hold on those countries: "We will kill you and your family if you don't comply". Believe me I know first hand on how they operate. I gave Pakistan as an example. In fact, I challenge you to give a Muslim country that is ACTIVELY trying to deal with extremists or just even help us. Our best Muslim allies have been our own Citizens and Immigrating Citizens from the Muslim world. Again, I know this first hand. I guess I was trying to say the REST of the Muslim Countries and not all of Islam. 9/11 conspiracy was in fact started via wide spread word of Al Jazeera giving that implication. It is now widely accepted throughout the Muslim Nations as fact. Again, I know this first hand.

3) As for Africa....that is deadly ground to trample. To say that there are "just as violent" Christian mobs to justify violent "Muslim" mobs is wrong. In fact, I really don't see the Christian Mobs committing genocide in the name of religion, the are committing Genocide in the name of tribal and racial "rights". Muslim mobs are doing the same but they are also using Religion. All are abhorrent.

4) I for the "No Apology" label that you branded me with, let me just say that implicated politicians doing active and public Apology tours is just flat out ridiculous when we have troops in harms way at that time. It's like getting kicked in the nuts by those politicians while at the same time they are telling you to get the job done and "we believe in you!". It was handled completely wrong. And if I am branding the left leaning politicians as Apologists incorrectly then somebody has to explain to me why it was publicly stated within the initial stages of the Fort Hood tragedy was "This is not terrorist related" when they knew it was. That order is only given from on high and not from the FBI. Again, I know this.

I agree with you completely and you just validated my point. I know how they operate and how they lean....I have worked with them. Unfortunately everyone gets their news from somehwere.