Now that the error has been corrected... Want to answer the question now?
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Back on topic.
"It's the economy, stupid."
A National debt that will soon equal 90%+ of our GDP. 109 TRILLION and growing of unfunded entitlement liability.
Then, this....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...101956_pf.html
I'm calling out the Baby Boomers again... What are you willing to risk for your posterity? I don't care if you do not have any children of your own.
You life? Your fortune? Your sacred honor?
SS at 70? 72? Would you vote against a person who suggests such a thing?
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Or, we can continue to play word games. Your choice.
How about we start by getting the Federal Government back into its Constitutional role and start paring away the pieces which aren't authorised by either amendment of the establishment clauses?
Every four years, the DoD goes through a bottom up review of programs called the Quadrennial Defense Review.
There are no sacred cows in the QDR, and if it is used properly, it leads to the elimination of boondoggles such as FCS, Land Warrior, RAH-66, and other vaporware.
The concet of the QDR needs to be put in place for the Federal bureaucracy as a whole. Why on earth we still have the Rural Electrification Commission in place is beyond me (Though it is no longer a separate entity, it has been rolled into the Department of Agriculture).
No program should be exempt, with the exception of those programs/budget items which are required constitutionally.
I really like one of Heinlein's ideas about government. No more automatic extensions for programs. Vote EVERY YEAR to either continue them or not. An added bonus to that would be that Congress would then be so tied up keeping the Government running they wouldn't have time to interfere more in areas where they shouldn't be treading to begin with.
So other then supporting laws in the United States what are they doing actually in Islamic countries to improve womens rights? A petition in the US isnt doing much for the woman slated to be stoned to death. How many members of the womens rights group you belong to are in Afghanistan working on womens rights?
Bad example and you know it. It is not culturally accepted here and the men who use that defense are almost universally prosecuted for trying to use it.Quote:
Some men in America use, the same logic by using the "she was
asking for it" defense.
Next year I will be able to collect my social security & I am currently working part time being paid & volunterring hours to help the non profit place I work for keep their doors open. I work for mimimum wage when I do get paid. I also work with 3 young teenagers who drive cars & have cell phones & dress nicely. They don't clean toilets, sit on their asses complain over who's turn it is to give the next tour. Just damn down right lazy along with the rest of the children in the USA. They have it all & seem to want more. You know what I think you should all do is get off your fat lazy asses get out there find a job & work. You want it all then earn it.
As far as social security I earned it damn it. Whatever I spend will go back into my community. Lets have some of those Federal & State employees take a pay cut! The fat cats in Washington keep giving themselves raisies while the rest of us are suppose to suck it up. Locally our county attornery along with a bunch of county employees wanted raises while in the mean time our county roads are going to hell.
Another thing this country would not be in the hole if people paid their debts. Living beyond ones means can cause that.
I think we should clean up our own mess here in the good old USA first. As far as the Muslims go. They come here to work or live, plan on changing your life style or don't come here. Womens rights & the freedoms we have here don't exist in Muslim countries never have & never will. It a part of their so called culture. Men rule & women are just there to use & abuse.
As far as the war goes there is oil, minerals, things our greedy country can use. It is not just about terrorists their is more to it then that.
The problems in the USA come from within. It is all about greed & power & it sucking us all in.
You paint with a brush which is overly broad. I know younger people in jobs who work their butts off.
You don't think I earn my pay? I beg to differ.
So vote their collective behinds out of office and give them a permanent vacation. I tire of hearing these gripes and seeing polls with 14% approval for congress, yet the incumbent re-election rate is over 90%.
They can't be too bad if you keep sending them back to Congress and their other elected jobs.
How about having Congress loan money only to people who can afford to pay it back, and not punish banks with fines for good business practices in lending? Congress writes the rules the banks play by. Congress mandated that banks accept a certain % of sub prime loans. I know people with jobs in the $30-40K/year brakcet who were approved for over $250K in home loans. They didn't take them, but the money was there if they wanted it.
Again, an awfully broad brush. Prior to the Soviet invasion, women were doing pretty well in Afghanistan. There are also majority muslim countries with secular governments where women are allowed freedom.
Ahhhh, back to the war is about oil.........
What have oil prices done since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Last time I checked they went up.
Here's an idea:
Drill where the oil and Natural Gas are available in the US, get GE back in the business of producing Nuclear reactors for civilian use, open up Yucca Mountain (but whatever you do, leave that waste in such a manner so we can get to it later......we might find uses for it), and end the NIMBY movement with regards to energy.
Either that or go back to an early 19th century societal energy use across the board.
I have no issue with either option, but pick one and deal with the reality. You CANNOT have things both ways.
You all wanted an opinion I jumped in. Politics as usual. My beliefs are broad so be it, they are my beliefs. Politicans are politicans they are all crooks, I don't care who you vote in. They start out with good ideas & get sucked in to it with the good old boys. Those kids that have jobs good for them maybe more kids will get out their & try to earn a wage instead of expecting mommy & daddy to pay for everything while the whole family goes into debt because they are living beyond their means.
Can you tell me why these banks are building big new buildings all over the USA? They must not be hurting to bad. MY son & daughter in law want to add on to their house & the banks are taking them for a roller coaster ride.
Lets go for other choices when it comes to powering our homes, cars, industry etc. Wind Generators are a start. Thermo energy, using the sun. All the things that are naturally there. Nuclear energy scars me to tell you the truth. Those barrels stored in that mountain are probably leaking as we speak.
As far as the Muslims go they have to change things their self. In Iraq, Bush had planned on educating the next generation, well it is not working out. The people are pissed over there they don't want our Western ideals crammed down their throats.
We all may have to give up something in the future if things keep going the way they are. Actually we have already so to speak. I know it is a broad response. ;)
Wind power is a very, very partial solution, as the wind doesn't blow 24/7, and the NIMBY crowd (strangely enough a large % of them are pushing for alternative energy, just not where they can see it)
Solar also is a very partial solution, with one caveat: Fund the hell out of NASA, and give the 10 years to have a solar power satellite system in place. Otherwise, you're limited to powering individual locations with photovoltaic cells, and there are some REALLY nasty chemicals used in manufacturing them. Eventually our house will probably be using them for supplemental power, but they aren't a solution unless you live in Arizona.
The other problem with both wind and solar is that you cannot efficiently transmit electricity over large areas. The loss is substantial Besides, as the recent fiasco in upstate NY shows, even high voltage lines aren't immune from NIMBY. (Unless you get into REALLY high voltages, and then forget even getting a permit to look at maybe possibly building a grid. China has accomplished extremely high voltage grid lines, we have not)
Nukes? TMI gave the residents in the immediate area an extra dental X-ray. It wasn't failure, it was proof of concept.
Chernobyl cannot happen in the US, as we don't use that type of reactor.
Barrels leaking in Yucca Mountain? They can't be. Last time I checked, there weren't any there.
Until people really decide they want alternative energy, it's not going to happen. The one option we know how to implement on a large enough scale to be an impact immediately is Nuclear, but it's so expensive legally that it's practically pointless to even ask for a permit for a plant.
Shifted from religion to the economy to energy about midway up the page.
I can't reference who did what in my wheaties this morning, as it is part of an ongoing investigation.
Blame it all on Pucky he started it further up the page. :p
Did you ever wonder why we (society) let our children get away with being lazy? I wonder if it has anything to do with discipline being so taboo? (Thank you Dr. Spock, moron.)
Before you respond, remember that it is those lazy kids who will be providing you your SS check....
Earned it? Last I checked, SS was not an investment system. The current working people pay for the current retired people. It is NOT a bank account saved up just for you. So, knowing that....Quote:
As far as social security I earned it damn it. Whatever I spend will go back into my community.
What happens 10 years or less down the road? When there are VASTLY more people drawing SS than paying into it? Something will HAVE to give.
There are no easy answer to the problems we face. There HAS to be pain. Pick your poison I reckon.
Better yet... Make public employee unions illegal. Let the cream get paid what they are worth and the less than cream.... What they are worth. You know, a free labor market?Quote:
Lets have some of those Federal & State employees take a pay cut! The fat cats in Washington keep giving themselves raisies while the rest of us are suppose to suck it up. Locally our county attornery along with a bunch of county employees wanted raises while in the mean time our county roads are going to hell.
As it stands now, in my state at least, the taxpayer is the one on the hook if the public employee pension system cannot afford its payouts. In times like this when the economy is down... Is it really fair to further burden those already deep in it to pay MORE? If everybody else is taking a cut, why not government?
Who's greed and lust for power are you talking about?Quote:
The problems in the USA come from within. It is all about greed & power & it sucking us all in.
Puck, there's a REASON I'm an officer for what is, for all intents and purposes, a public employees' Union.
Research the labor conditions in the US Post Office prior to 1970 and it might open your eyes to see why the APWU exists.
For another example of why we need Unions, read:
http://www.pressconnects.com/article...cal-violations
and take into consideration that management at the plant has been screwing with the employees repeatedly about BS safety violations, but when someone finally has had enough and calls OSHA for real violations, what happens?
I spent this morning in a pre-disciplinary interview for my comments to OSHA.
Pucky, That is what bothers me, these kids that get whatever they want, whenever they want. There probably won't be any S.S. left but I am going to enjoy it while I can. A person can not just rely on S.S. to tied you over & if a person is smart there will be cash under the mattress. :D
When I talk about THEY, I mean the politicans & the richer than richer that control this country. You can throw the big CORPS.,in there too but they are owned by the richer than rich anyways.
Unions?!?! My dad belonged to the railroad union my husband United Parcel Service Union. If you didn't want to be working a 12 hour day 7 days a week with only a day off a month like my grandfather did on the railroad when there were no unions then a union would make sense. The employees pay into the union so it does not involve the state or federal funds that I know of. There are mom & pop companys in this country that still exist where you don't need a union they are good to you & you are like family. But when you get into the big Corps. you better have your back side protected.
Those wind generators may not work in your part of the country but they do here in the Midwest. The Dakotas & Nebraska have them all over the place along with Minnesota & Iowa. We also have grain ethonal plants the greenies don't like them, but whatever surplus corn we have goes to them to make ethonal & it is blended into the gas. Everyone has to keep trying to come up with something that will work, we can't be dependent on oil forever.
Yes this is a good discussion. I don't have numbers to back any thing up & when you do have numbers where do they come from? It would be like I won the championship with my steer at the fair. No one asks how many were in the class with me? What if there was only one other person & they got reserve? ;)
If the primary goal of being safe, was the mission of public employee unions, i'd be behind you. But when my property taxes go up 15% so that the teachers don't have simply not get a raise ONE year.... And so they don't have to contribute ONE CENT to their super-duper cadillac health plan... AND so they can build a shiny new stadium for the worst performing high school in the county... AND so that their pension plan remains solvent... All in a time of financial crisis.. (Except for public employee union members I guess.)
Ya see where I am going?
We told our staff... If it ever came up that we have to unionize our company, we are just closing the doors.
I get the safety thing. What I can't stand is the stuff I described.
Puck, I just sent you a PM, but for everyone else:
If I wrote a novel about the reality of the USPS and tried to sell it as fiction, it would fail, as no one would believe it.
What do I tell my kid(s) then?
I have no problem with private company unions. So long as the employee knows what he is getting into.Quote:
Unions?!?! My dad belonged to the railroad union my husband United Parcel Service Union. If you didn't want to be working a 12 hour day 7 days a week with only a day off a month like my grandfather did on the railroad when there were no unions then a union would make sense. The employees pay into the union so it does not involve the state or federal funds that I know of. There are mom & pop companys in this country that still exist where you don't need a union they are good to you & you are like family. But when you get into the big Corps. you better have your back side protected.
I agree 100%. But until we get 'there', what do we do?Quote:
Everyone has to keep trying to come up with something that will work, we can't be dependent on oil forever.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/Quote:
Yes this is a good discussion. I don't have numbers to back any thing up & when you do have numbers where do they come from? It would be like I won the championship with my steer at the fair. No one asks how many were in the class with me? What if there was only one other person & they got reserve? ;)
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/...cit_chart.html
http://www.visualeconomics.com/gdp-v...bt-by-country/
For starters... But, any one can do the math. Look at the current debt. Add the current (projected) deficit. Look at the pending number of retirees, then compare that to the number of people who will be working and paying SS taxes.
Something HAS to give. One way or the other. Wait till all the 'stimulus' money is spent, with nothing to show for it, save shiny new roads and bridges. 2.5 trillion or so in 'new' money, chasing the original amount of goods and services.....
Simply put, the government(s) has to stop spending money like they are.
Right now the farmers in this country are needing help & are asking our own people to come & work for them. It is hard work but the rewards are great exercise, accomplishment getting the crops in, do you think any of our people will want to help out? Oh & we would all be paid most likely a minimum wage. This is true I heard it on our local farm forum this morning.
There probably won't be any social security, sorry kids you probably will be living under a different kind of government. We owe China big time maybe they will take over our country.
Haven't BO & the rest of his friends talked about a world government? Maybe that is where we are heading? :confused:
I've been trying to get back into dairy farming for a long time now. 18 months ago it was really serious. But most guys are only getting 11-14$ a hundred weight right now. The 'good' predictions talk about $16.
I bet you know why the prices are what they are....
Why should I work my self to death, 7 days a week to break even, HOPEULLY? Even with a 300 head herd (260ish milkers).... If only the market determined prices....
Would you be willing to sacrifice anything to help your posterity?Quote:
There probably won't be any social security, sorry kids you probably will be living under a different kind of government. We owe China big time maybe they will take over our country.
Who knows? You can draw comparisons from Biblical prophecy.Quote:
Haven't BO & the rest of his friends talked about a world government? Maybe that is where we are heading? :confused:
How do you feel about that? The idea of the United States (or any nations really) conceding it's soverginty to the UN?
There are still mom & pop farms hanging in there but it takes a whole family some of which work outside the farm to keep it going. Farming is likea roller coaster ride up & down. Been there did that.;) Eighteen years of hogs did help finally pay off the morgage though. A person has to learn to deversify & farm half the country to make a real go of it now. Seven days a week being your OWN BOSS, I use to like that. :)
The kids have to get off the couch & find their own way. There is a lot out there for them now & they should take advantage of it but most are to busy texting. :( I already lovingly (it comes from the heart) give my time volunteering hours helping out with a program for troubled youth, & mentally physically challagened adults. I still am going to draw my S.S. & it will go back into my local community. Got to start somewhere. There are a lot of non profits in my area that need volunteers & help finanically. A person gives back to which you have taken. I am confident I can do a better job of it than our government has so far.
The United Nations is suppose to be a peace keeper if I remember from my years of public schooling. It would be scary to concede our sovergnity. This country is use to doing its' own thing just like we are use to doing our own thing. Only time will tell?
Wondered if you had noticed that France passed the ban in one House
of their Parliement. The vote was 335 to 1 supporting the ban of face
coverings. The law now goes to the Senate where it is thought to pass
also. Although, it should not come up for vote till maybe September.
I'm glad that cooler heads prevailed. This group will never be taken
seriously unless they tone down the outright HATE within the group.
http://www.twincities.com/news/ci_15...nclick_check=1
I don't see the issue. The DNC and their shills did that and worse with the previous administration.
Why is it now hatred, when before it was merely expressing their disagreement with the "regime" in D.C.?
A few years ago hanging or burning Shrub in effigy was considered dissent and patriotic. My own brother made the front page of USA Today holding a picture of Shrub portrayed as hitler, not just comparing him to hitler but actually as hitler.
Fast forward to today, comparing Barry to his peers in history is HATE? What happened to dissent being patriotic?
North Iowa Tea Party co-founder Bob Johnson said he and other leaders agreed with critics that the image of Obama between Hitler and Lenin was offensive.
"They are absolutely right in their criticism because the image of Hitler just totally wiped everything else and it misrepresents the tea party movement," Johnson said. "They were right from the standpoint that the image was not a positive reflection on the tea people."
For educational purposes... What are acceptable forms of expression, and what are considered expressions of HATE to left wing loon... sorry, to Progressives?
Acceptable.
http://janeqrepublican.files.wordpre...0-2044_img.jpg
http://therealrevo.com/blog/wp-conte.../11/effigy.jpg
http://files.myopera.com/akpostal/al...itler_bush.jpg
And this is HATE.
http://hope-alexander.com/wp-content...olf-hitler.bmp
http://doctorbulldog.files.wordpress...bama-lenin.jpg
http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives...ObamaJoker.jpg
With BO, he is heading us in the direction of SOCIALISM no qualms about it. It doesn't take a bunch of posters with adolph on them to tell us that we already KNOW.:rolleyes:;)
What I mean is in reality we are stuck with BO & his Socialistic Ideals until the next election.
Out of curiosity, what about Barack Obama strikes you as being Socialist?
Government bailouts of private corporations )TARP and its continuation)
Government takeover of 1/7th of the economy (HCR)
Direct government ownership of corporations and banks through the bailouts
Government controls (not regulations, but control) of free market systems (Banks, stock market)
Government Control of Health Care
Let the Government do everything for you while you give up your freedoms. Eating Away of Democracy the Birthing of Socialism.
My point was that is historically correct to compare Obama to Stalin, and Hitler, but that is considered HATE. While comparing Bush to Hitler is acceptable but historically inaccurate. There is a double standard when it comes to the loony lef... sorry, the Progressives.
Like the ACLU, they bring out the big guns when a minority is discriminated against but do nothing when the New Black Panthers intimidate voters. The ACLU goes all guns blazing for the Fist Amendment but sits quietly when the Second Amendment is trampled on. Or the NAACP, a group based on race, accusing the Tea Party Movement of "racist element and activities".
Lady's Human & Blu, I can more than agree with you. Right on. ;)
Just what we don't need right now is another war, "sacred" or otherwise.
US aircraft carrier ups pressure on NKorea
Published - Jul 24 2010 06:07PM EST
By ERIC TALMADGE - Associated Press Writer
ABOARD USS GEORGE WASHINGTON — A massive nuclear-powered U.S. supercarrier began maneuvers Sunday with ally South Korea in a potent show of force that North Korea has threatened could lead to "sacred war."
The military drills, code-named "Invincible Spirit," are to run through Wednesday with about 8,000 U.S. and South Korean troops, 20 ships and submarines and 200 aircraft. The Nimitz-class USS George Washington, with several thousand sailors and dozens of fighters aboard, was deployed from Japan.
The North routinely threatens attacks whenever South Korea and the U.S. hold joint military drills, which Pyongyang sees as a rehearsal for an invasion. The U.S. keeps 28,500 troops in South Korea and another 50,000 in Japan, but says it has no intention of invading the North.
Still, the North's latest rhetoric threatening "nuclear deterrence" and "sacred war" carries extra weight following the sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors. Seoul and Washington say a North Korean torpedo was responsible for the March sinking of the Cheonan, considered the worst military attack on the South since the 1950-53 Korean War.
The American and South Korean defense chiefs announced earlier in the week they would stage the military drills to send a clear message to North Korea to stop its "aggressive" behavior.
The exercises will be the first in a series of U.S.-South Korean maneuvers to be conducted in the Sea of Japan off Korea's east coast and in the Yellow Sea closer to China's shores in international waters. The exercises also are the first to employ the F-22 stealth fighter _ which can evade North Korean air defenses _ in South Korea.
South Korea was closely monitoring North Korea's military, but no unusual activity had been observed Saturday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
North Korea, which denies any involvement in the sinking of the Cheonan warship, has warned the United States against attempting to punish it.
"The army and people of the DPRK will legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces," North Korea's official news agency in Pyongyang quoted an unnamed government spokesman as saying. North Korea's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Though the impoverished North has a large conventional military and the capability to build nuclear weapons, it is not believed to have the technology needed to use nuclear devices as warheads.
Its rhetoric regarding using nuclear deterrence was seen by most as bluster, but its angry response to the maneuvers underscores the rising tensions in the region.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Wednesday, after visiting the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, that the U.S. would slap new sanctions on the North to stifle its nuclear ambitions and punish it for the Cheonan sinking.
On Friday, the European Union said it, too, would consider new sanctions on North Korea.
The North's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that Pyongyang will further strengthen its nuclear deterrent and again mentioned "powerful physical measures" in response to the U.S. military provocations and sanctions.
In an apparent bow to China, the George Washington will participate in the exercise in the Sea of Japan, but there are no plans for it to enter the Yellow Sea for the subsequent exercises.
China, a traditional North Korean ally, has voiced concerns that military drills in the Yellow Sea could inflame tensions on the Korean Peninsula and also fears exercises too close to its own shores could breach Chinese security.
The George Washington had been expected to join in exercises off Korea sooner, but the Navy delayed those plans as the United Nations Security Council met to deliberate what action it should take over the Cheonan sinking.
The council eventually condemned the incident, but stopped short of naming North Korea as the perpetrator.
__ Associated Press writer Kwang-Tae Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.