Where would Obama be without his teleprompter??

Well perhaps you should look again because, actually, people from all over the world move all in all corners of the globe to seek their fortunes or a "better life". The proof is that though Africa is by far the poorest continent on earth, you see millions Chinese all over the sub-saharan Africa. How come Chinese are leaving China to go to Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo if the economy in China is booming and the country is on pace of becoming the next super power nation? How come there are 10 million white Africans in Africa if everywhere in the West, the quality of life is much higher than anywhere on the African continent? Why don't they just go to Canada, Australia or the US to seek their fortunes?

You don't see people moving to Dubai? Well, the overwhelming majority of people there are not indigenous to the region, most of them are foreigners.

Or, you should go to Durban, in Kwazalu Natal, the land of the Zulus. You'll see a lot of Europeans, East Asians and Indians. I wonder why those people chose and prefer to stay in South Africa rather than the USA. Why aren't they in Japan that still has the 2nd economy or South Korea or even in India?

Sweden, a country roughly the size of California is one of the best in the world at welcoming migrants while the USA is essantially a land of immigrants.

There's a Persian colony in Los Angeles, and there's also a Persian colony in France, and many of these people left Iran after the fall of the Shah of Iran.

According to the Human Developement Index, the quality of life in Norway is by far higher that in the United States, but how many people do you see moving to Norway?

My point is, the dynamic behind immigration/migration/colony etc is far too complex to just be oversimplified with petty nationalism or blind chauvinism

 

Objectivaly based? Hmmm... let me see: Has America been more influential than Greece, the Roman Empire, Egypt or even Britain?

Did America flood the world with the finest composers, the giants of literature, and the greatest thinkers?

Did America provide the world with the most highly valued works of art, the most superb culinary dishes, and the most refined fashions?

I don't think it was objectively based, but rather subjectively based because some would argue that the US isn't a great civilisation comparable with the Chinese, Roman, Greek, Ottoman, Maya, Aztec or British empires.

Britain gave the whole world its lingua franca, the Romans gave most of this planet the Roman Alphabet---the latin characters we are using now. Rome created a lasting template for systems of government and justice. Greece built the foundations of philosophy, science and mathematics. Egypt continues to whisper its mysterious spiritual fascination down through the ages and the Greeks said they got everything they know from the Egyptians...

 

Yes, even at the height of their civilizations, the reach of Greek, Roman, Egyptian and British power was no match for the level of political, economic, and cultural influence the United States has today.

Rumor has it that we've been to Mars.

For a republic that is only 232 years old, we've contributed more to the (popular and classical) arts and sciences than most other nations combined. Britain and Germany are the two primary nations of the modern world who can lay claim to producing world-changing scientific geniuses in Newton, Darwin, and Einstein. Despite this, the U.S. was at the forefront of scientific and technological breakthroughs even prior to the establishment of the republic with Benjamin Franklin and later Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, Linus Pauling . . . I could go on.

The United States also, by a wide margin, dominates among Nobel prize winners in most categories (physics, chemistry, literature, peace, economics, medicine). Even if you were to extract the number of foreign-born awardees, the U.S. would remain ahead of the pack. 309 winners in total.

The Mayans were the ones who believed that Cortez and his men were gods, right? Didn't they also predict that the end of the world will occur at some point in 2012? And I am comparing nations, not empires. Our level of influence doesn't make us an empire.

 

Political influence? How many foreign regimes the US has overthrown and how many democracies it has installed? Resorting to a $80 billion + a year enterprise better known as the CIA to have your way and organize coups abroad is not being influential, that's being a bully. Not the same thing, pal. Two democratically elected regime in Africa were removed by the CIA(Belgian Congo and Ghana). What about Iran?

The US is hated because of its horrible foreign policy so I fail to see how it's influential to people politically...though Barack Obama might change that since most of this planet seem to like him. If America dominated the world politically, it would be so indisputably powerful that it would always gets its way. Except that it doesn't, right? Look at the Iraq war. As causes go, this should have been a pretty easy one to argue. But America's attempt to get the UN to agree to the resolution failed dismally--and in a tremendously embarrassing way for the "politically dominant" US. Where were all these politically subordinate countries which rushed to agree to whatever America wanted? You can't even get Cuba and Venezuela to dance with you?

Remember the laughable list of "allies" in the war against terror? Look at the first country on this list: Afghanistan! Followed by such "mighty political" allies as Eritrea, Micronesia, and Latvia. And then Turkey---that mighty superpower who isn't strong enough politically or economically to join the European Union--- refused to let America use its military bases.

As far as economic dominance, how much money does the United States owe the rest of the world? How much money does the US owe Japan and China combined and what would happen if those two countries were to call in their debt? Some economic dominance huh? Borrowing large sums of money might make you feel richer than other people for a short time, but all it actually means is that you are simply more in debt.

What cultural influence? Is America a monolithic whole? Do you have the same culture as George Bush? Which culture dominates or influence the world most, his or yours? Unless you have a completely different definition of the world culture, anyone that has travel the world would tell you that America's cultural legacy to the world is based more on McDonalds, Nike trainers, baseball caps, Hollywood action movies, Paris Hilton, Jay-Z, urban style and "The Simpsons". What this actually means is that America is fantastic at exporting popular culture. Popular culture by definition is transitory, worthless, and uninspiring. Any "cultural dominance" which America can claim is confined primarily to Japanese teenagers, and European pre-teens, and African wanna be rappers

First of all, since it's hearsay, we should dismiss it, should we not? And second, how exactly going to Mars is influential to the rest of the world? Couldn't the money spent been used to offer shelter for the 300 thousand in Los Angeles alone, or rebuilt the inner city schools? Isn't there enough problem on planet Earth that needs to be solved bu such an "influential nation"?

You just proved with this petty example how subjective all of this is. I always use GOOGLE and Microsoft or, social networking site such as Myspace and Facebook etc. as perfect examples of the United States influence on the rest of the world.

You seem to have a different idea of what being influential is. The most influential people never to write anything are Jesus-Chris and Mahomet. Martin Luther King is one of the most influential leader this world has known, so is Nelson Mandela for instance. Sports is very influential and movie is perhaps the most influential art form.

That's because the Greeks, the Romans, Germans, Anglo-Saxons, Africans, Asians, Irish, Arabs, Hispanics came to populate this republic. It's the combined geniuses of all these people. In 180 years---from 1820 to 2000---the US has welcome 66.8 million immigrants. So It's not like the achievement of Japan and Germany that could all be attributed to a a monolithic society.

Unfortunately, most of this scientific superiority is based on an illusion. Most of the expertise is purchased from abroad, including the scientists themselves. It's reasonable assumption that Einstein and his kind were seduced by America with part of that huge pile of cash, which is part of the debt that America has. If Saudi Arabia, the UAE or even Nigeria chose to make better usage of its cash reserve and not spend money of Yatchs, mansions in Switzerland etc and also decided to borrow enough money to hire the entire staff of Microsoft, GOOGLE and the top Foreign students, there's no doubt that these countries would also become more technologically advanced. Unfortunately, this wouldn't make any of the Saudis or Nigerians any more intelligent.

The achievements you just described are a direct result of the melting pot that America is and the indirect result of the brain drain of other nations. The United States attracts all of the best talent this world has to offer: artists, nobel prize winners, engineers, professors, advanced students.Even at the end of the 18th century, the US was already attracting for a golden price, English inventors who are at the origin of the industrial fortune of New England in textile and mechanique.

This has never stopped: The % of foreign born teachers/professors in US Universities went from 11.7% in 1973 to 21% in 2001. In engineering schools, the % went from 18.6 to 34%.


What about the H1B visa? It's given to any immigration candidate that has a high technical qualification(specialty occupation) in any high tech fields.

I am holding a copy of L'Atlas de l'Empire Americain by Gerad Dorel and in 2001 alone, 331 thousand of such visas were given. Most of them come from Asia, especially India, is the greatest annual supplier of such high

What's your point? How does this prove that the Mayans didn't have a great civilazation, a civilazation worhty of recognition? If you use such examples to discredit or dismiss the notion of great or influential civilazation, then there's no point of us arguing.

If you and were to tell some non black students on UCLA campus that Ethiopia is one of the greatest and oldest civilization this world has ever known, they would probably scoff at this idea or accuse us of being Afrocentric. Why? Because there's no prestige associated with Ethiopia and these people would have a different idea than us of what a great "civilazation" is.

For for the nation and empires, that's just arguing semantics and how can. Yes, your level of influence doesn't make you an empire, but your imperialistic values does.

 

Good post, Machiavel. You hit the nail right on the head.

These actions don't make America great at all.

 

Spoken like a true African. Why are you not in your homeland or in Europe right now? Your tag says Los Angeles. It pretty much negates your whole argument.

 

I wasn't aware that "true Africans" spoke like that. I just thought that true Africans were merely people that were indigeneous to the African continent and had a genuine African culture, so thanks for enligntening me in what constitute a "true African".


Why am i not in my homeland? Didn't I just say that the dynamic behind immigration, migration or colony of people who don't live in their homeland was very complex? There are many reason I don't live in my home land or in Europe. Just like there are also many reason so many Americans live right now in my home land, which is the Democratic Republic of Congo by the way.

The American School of Kinshasa

http://www.tasok.cd/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_School_of_Kinshasa

http://kinshasa.usembassy.gov/

There's an American consulate, there's an American Embassy, an American cultural center, there was ZALI, (American Language Institute) etc. Dave Chapelle's mom used to live in my country and was Patrice Lumumba' secretary. So I wonder why so many Americans expatriates or immigrants chose Zaire

There are also several thousand African Americans in Ghana, Liberia etc many settled in Tanzania in the 70's and that includes some of the Black Panthers that fled the United States.

So, next time, try to come with arguments that just refute what I say and don't just resort to personal attacks. Me being here doesn't negate my whole argument since there are also many Americans who live in my country. Just ask the State Departement to provide you a list of all Americans who currently reside in the Democratic Republic of Congo. By the way, we also have millions of Europeans, Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants, and we don't resort to the "Why you're here" if they don't agree with us on something

I am born in Western Europe, Brussels, Belgian to be exact and I live in Zaire till I was 19. I just wanted to change air and see the world. I chose the US for many many reasons

 

lol Tony, you always on this "i aint readin all that" tip whenever someone posts something wonky.

 

Machiavel is the greatest philosopher this site has see....:smt023

Lemme guess tus es Kasaian??

 

Hm, that was more like an oscar introduction monologue than a presidential speech, I wonder who was the comic genius behind it??...certainly not Barack.

Here is another vid of Obama sans teleprompter [or when a teleprompter fails]...revealing how clueless this guy can be....

[youtube]GeJsyoKIabY[/youtube]

^^^Here are most significant moments of that speech:

the last words that scroll before the teleprompter malfunctions are:

"...........scientific innovation."

Then what occurs next is a complete teleprompter failure. What are the next words out of Baracks mouth? Something like this:

"In addition to John....."

Obviously, the scroll on the teleprompter had reversed to a prior comment in which introductions were made. Does OBAMA realize this? NO. He actually says "In addition to John..." AGAIN. He is so unfamiliar with the text that he has to read it aloud in order to understand the situation.

He realizes there is a problem now. Does he react with confidence.....tell a joke (Even Bush made jokes in such situations to calm everything down)., but NO, OBAMA cant even small talk about Michelle's size 16 booty….NO

Like a 10th grade school kid that chokes giving a book report, he says his next thoughts ALOUD. They are:

"Sorry....the.....uhhhh.....I just noticed...."

You're damn right you JUST FUCKING NOTICED. He doesn't even know what the fuck he's reading. He doesn’t even have anything memorized. He is not concerned with the context or the validity or the direction of his comments. He merely reads them like the robot he is.

Not only that, it takes him more than a few seconds to realize that he is not making sense and needs to read it aloud to understand his error. Read it aloud like a 4th grader. Now he is really screwed. Next words out of his mouth are.

"I.....I....jumped the gun here...."

No, you did NOT get ahead of yourself moron. You don't know where the fuck you are at all, how could you be AHEAD of anything? You're lost.

Next:

"Go ahead and move it up...." At this point, you can almost sense the level of anger in his breath. The crowd’s loud laughter is what truly gets to him: The mockery. He can almost sense it. He is nothing more than a white house Negro (or a house Negro) and not the TRUE Commander in Chief. He knows that, of course, but having it out there in the open for all to see is extremely embarrassing. You can see it in his eyes at this point. As a black man it is so embarrassing to watch.

Next:

"I had already uhh.......I had already introduced all you guys..." More laughter.

More bullshit as he tries to regain and maintain composure. Friendly little blurbs like "You guys." Take a good look at his face immediately after the words "You guys." You can note him biting his lower lip as he tries to bottle up his fury.

Amazing to watch

I'm not saying he lacks intelligent, as I've stated numerously a year or so ago on this very forum: The guy has an IQ for 125, which is the same as G.W Bush, so we should judge them accordingly. If you want to call bush an idiot, the same should be said about this guy

:smt023

 

Non, je suis Mukongo, de Boma, mais j'ai grandis a Kin, Kin Malebo, Kin la belle. Et toi meme?

 

It's a lotta disillusioned ass people on this board.:smt009

 

word, kid!

 

Some African guy from God knows where saying that America ISN'T a beacon of freedom and democracy that immigrants want to flock to, while sitting his ass in Los Angeles of all places enjoying the sunshine and fine (white) women.

Does anyone else see the BULLSHIT here?

 

From God knows where? lol, I just told you exactly where I was from. Didn't you learn Geography in high school or College? Okay, fair enough. I am from the ex-Zaire, it's now called the Democratic Republic of Congo and located it Central Africa. It's the third largest country in Africa and it's about 6 times the size of California. The CIA organized and coup and killed our first prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba and put Mobutu, the guy in my avatar in power. :smt023

I am sure that everyone will see the sheer ignorance and the lack of culture of some guy who can't understand simple examples of involuntary and voluntary immigration. I really don't see why do you have a problem with me being in Los Angeles since neither you or I are indigenous to the United States in the first place. You're also the product of massive immigration, but it was involuntary immigration from your ancestors, no?

I wonder why so many African Americans go to Africa if America offer so much fortune?

African-Americans returning to Ghana

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/photo.day.php?ID=73241

There are approximately 1,000 African-Americans living in and working in Accra, Ghana's capitol city. The number of African-American visiting Ghana a year amounts to 10,000. Ghana attracts far more African-Americans than any other nation on the continent. This is due primarily to to mild weather, beaches, a low cost of living, and the sense that Ghana could be a spiritual homeland for many African-Americans.


Ghana and The Right to Abode For African Americans

http://www.nathanielturner.com/ghana.htm

In Ghana, electricity and water supplies are often interrupted. Malaria is rampant. Wages are meager by U.S and European standards. Now tell me, what is Ghana's appeal to all these black AMericans? How come they chose to live the "beacon of freedom and democracy", live their fortunes to go live in a remote country in West Africa?

Could it be because...

Poverty hits African Americans hard too ?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8013102.stm

Food aid is needed to feed the poor in the world's wealthiest country.



According to the Human Development Index, Norway is the #1 country in the world by quality of life and income per capita. How come there are so many people in Norway in Los Angeles? How come there are millions of French in Africa if France has the best healthcare system in the world and is richer than the entire African continent? By the way, France has democracy and freedom too

There are millions, and I mean millions of Chinese in Africa and China has become one of the US biggest lenders. How come if China has so much cash that it can loan the US money but Chinese leave China to go to Cameroon, The Democratic Republic of Congo etc?

I can understand poor people wanting to come and live in a rich country. But people leaving a rich country to go live in the poorest ones? Hmmm

You see the difference between you and me? I didn't attack you personally or tried to put you down. I gave examples to explain what is endemic to the world, and not just to the United States. All you have is your lame attacks. I've met people like you before...people who tell you "Go Back to Africa" or ask you"WHy are you here?" just because they don't have the wit to argue constructively and lack the general knowledge to understand normal things. I just told you that immigration is a very complex issue and you're proving that you can understand it. SInce you're not a Native American, and physically African like I am, you being here negate your argument just as you thing me in LA negated mine

 

Not just white.

 

So right wingers is going after Obama about a teleprompter that's the best they have. We have a failing economy two wars in the middle east and record job loss and republicans is going after our newly elected president about something has trivial has a teleprompter. This should be the time when all Americans conservative and liberal black and white find common ground and dig ourselves out of this hole. If you find fault in the president policies lets debate that it is surely more constructive than this teleprompter talk. This is what I feel about the teleprompter issue please click on the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14-A4yqBc0I&feature=channel_page


Bush was one of the most unarticulate American president that we have ever had. And right wingers gets a boner for Sarah Palin they just love her and yet no one can decipher what she is saying. So republicans are the last ones that should lecture anyone on speaking ability with both of their candidates sound mildly retarded. This link is for BlackMasterJay Bush the guy that is smarter than Obama.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niHYZe-FZd0
Sarah Palin is like a child.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbQwAFobQxQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj7nBrdm4LE&annotation_id=annotation_341233&feature=iv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z75QSExE0jU

One thing good I can say about Sarah Palin she worked hard like Obama did. She didn't get any hand outs unlike George W. Bush that had everything handed to him. By his rich father senior Bush he was the only reason Bush jr. got into Yale.

 

It would be nice to hear a intelligent counter argument to the democrats but the republicans appear to be void of any logical thinking. They are chasing all of the moderates out of their party the only conservatives left in that party are republican fundamentalist. And them losing that elections has not awaken them at all the American people was talking to them in those elections but just like children the republicans covered their ears and jumped up and down screaming I CAN'T HEAR YOU I CAN'T HEAR YOU. I have debated right wingers at school and at work at home and on the internet and one attribute they all share is a lack of original thought. Whatever right wing radio hammers day after day they repeat just like the brain washed parrots they are. I guarantee that this teleprompter business starter on right wing radio and filter down to this little republican automatons. I'm going to coin a new term for these kind of republicans I'm going to call them radio birds. Being that they parrot right wing radio so much. Republicans = RADIO BIRDS :smt038

 

It can be difficult to argue with someone who still lives in the old testament and still believes that the earth is flat.:smt042