Palin

[pomtzu]

This is just an observation on my life but for some odd reason whenever we have a democrate in office, my life gets harder. (yes, I have voted for a few)
(like no raise in my disability for 2 years because they say there is no inflation. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Wish they would shop for groceries for themselves once in a while instead of having their hired help do it for them)

One thing else I have observed: when everyone gets harping on cutting spending the first things they want to go after is Social Security and Medicare but never ever have I heard a word about them reforming Welfare!!! (nor about taking illegels off the system that they just granted benefits too a few years ago.)
Just saying!

One thing our president has done, is let everyone and their dog drill off our shores but not let the US companies do it. Hence we are being held at the mercy of other countries for oil. Just peek at the price of gas.

I hear ya' and I'm with ya' - 150%!

No raise in my Social Security check for 2 years because the cost of living has not gone up enough to warrant it? Oh please - give me a break. I'd sure like to see these decision makers, live on what I do. My supplemental healthcare insurance went up, my car insurance increased per statewide increase, take a look at the price of going grocery shopping, my car doesn't know what it is to go to the gas station for a fill up ($20 at a time only!), I just received notice from my trash removal company and we are being forced into recycling per state law (at a fee of course), and I could go on and on.

Nope - we seniors sure don't need a cost of living raise. We're happy as clams with things as they are...........

[momoffuzzyfaces]

Here in Kansas quite a few years back, our congress decided to live on food stamps for one month. They somehow thought the ones on food stamps were living high on the hog so to speak. They though it would be a snap. Mind you, you can only buy human food, no toliet paper or toothpaste or things like that with food stamps. I had to go on them for a short time while my disability was being determined. I got $75 a month.

the congress couldn't even make it through one month. the sissies

[momcat]

Two years ago my son spent 14 days in Vienna, Budapest, Prague, and Venice with the International Scholar Laureate Program as a member of the diplomacy delegation. It was a few months before the Presidential election. Mike had the opportunity to talk one-on-one with a diplomat about what problems the next president would face. The diplomat told him it's going to take YEARS to undo the damage done by the Bush administration. The delegates, who represented our best and brightest, experienced a lot of anti American sentiment while there. The advisor told them not to take it personally because it wasn't aimed at them as individuals, it was because Bush was so intensely despised by other countries.

[Marigold2]

Exactly, and you will find this theme over and over again. Folks the world has strunk. Now a President's job is not just taking care of the US but managing to get along with an entire world. With the internet and our more sophiscated weapons this is a far different world then Kennedys time or even the first Bush's time.
The changes in medicine too have altered our values and morals. Test tube babies once science fiction, cloning, stem cell research. These things have changed our lives but not those people in the Middle East that don't even have clean water to drink.
A President needs to understand all this and so much more. He needs to be feared and respected, admired and also become a friend and trusted statesmen.
Obama has that ability, Bush did not. It will take a long time for the Bush jokes to end all over the world and for the world to get to know and respect this new man and his wife. They are a gem. And I am very proud of our President.
He is a good man and his wife from all I have seen and heard is truly a good and intelligent women.
If he fails at something it will not be for a lack of trying or intelligence. It will be due to people like Rush would said they wanted Obama to fail.
It will be morans like Huckabee who say he lived in Kenya.
It will be the people who believe he was not born in the US.
These people who believe this sort of thing. They will try and make a good man fail and a country suffer. These are people who don't think things through. Sheep who believe the insanity.
Let me ask you good people of PT when canidates run for office the mud slinging is INTENSE is it not? Nothing is held back. Detectives are hired to find dirt from 20 years ago.
They look into past love affairs, children, grandparents, old jobs, college, grade school, churchs they look at every little itty bitty part of a persons life trying to find the goods.
If there was any proof at all that Obama was NOT born in this country then it would have been brought to light and he would have been disquilified way before he won the the election, way, way before, yet people still believe this. Do you honestly think the Republicans would have not shown proof of this during the election if they had it????
Huckabee reminds me of a KKK, how dare there be a black in the White House, why he lived in Kenya don't ya know? And then all those hints about not being born here.
We finally have a good and decent man in the White House, a man without scandal.
Let us support him and make the US strong, healthy and a country to be proud of again.

Two years ago my son spent 14 days in Vienna, Budapest, Prague, and Venice with the International Scholar Laureate Program as a member of the diplomacy delegation. It was a few months before the Presidential election. Mike had the opportunity to talk one-on-one with a diplomat about what problems the next president would face. The diplomat told him it's going to take YEARS to undo the damage done by the Bush administration. The delegates, who represented our best and brightest, experienced a lot of anti American sentiment while there. The advisor told them not to take it personally because it wasn't aimed at them as individuals, it was because Bush was so intensely despised by other countries.

[wombat2u2004]

If he fails at something it will not be for a lack of trying or intelligence. It will be due to people like Rush would said they wanted Obama to fail. It will be morans like Huckabee who say he lived in Kenya. It will be the people who believe he was not born in the US.

Ah right. So what you are saying is that if Obama makes a bad decision or fails, it's someone else who is to blame ????? Like Huckabee ??? Or Bush ???
Piffle !!!!!
Can you tell me why your president is suing the State of Arizona for trying to protect their own border against illegal immigrants, which is one of your county's biggest problems ???
Was it not you in the not so distant past who was ranting and raving about illegals in your country ?? What was the term now ??? Insects or grasshoppers or something like that ???
So tell me, what remedies has your president in place to stop this mass illegal immigration ???? The drug running ??? The cartel wars that affect people on both sides of the US/Mex border ???? Well, President Obama won't fail at that will he.....he hasn't done anything in the first place, so how could he fail ????
Bush TRIED to do something about it. The State of Arizona TRIED to do something about it. Do you think it's a big enough problem for your president to at least TRY and do something about it ???? Maybe he's afraid of failing.
But then again....if he does fail....well, it's Bush's fault.

[Grace]

But then again ............ it's Bush's fault.

Took you long enough - but you finally got it

[Edwina's Secretary]

Did you know that around 24% of those living in Australia were not born there???? Compare that to around 10% in the US and I think I know which country has a "mass" immigration problem.

But of course one way to take care of it is to get rid of those pesky Aboriginal people - who have about a 20 year shorter life expectancy...

Very amusing to read someone who really knows not what he speaks of - telling other countries how to cure their problems!!!

Immigration in the United States is a federal issue. Damn that Obama for letting the Constitution get in the way!

Furthermore... it appears other states are not thinking what Arizona did is such a good idea after all...Momentum Shifts Away from Arizona

And then there is that whole Pima County AZ (you know...where the border is???) wanting to become a separate state....get away from the whackos in Phoenix!!!

But do continue to share your well-informed wisdom!

[wombat2u2004]

Took you long enough - but you finally got it

OMG !!! I did. I did say it.
Poor George, I'll have to send an apology to him.

[Grace]

Two years ago my son spent 14 days in Vienna, Budapest, Prague, and Venice with the International Scholar Laureate Program as a member of the diplomacy delegation. It was a few months before the Presidential election. Mike had the opportunity to talk one-on-one with a diplomat about what problems the next president would face. The diplomat told him it's going to take YEARS to undo the damage done by the Bush administration. The delegates, who represented our best and brightest, experienced a lot of anti American sentiment while there. The advisor told them not to take it personally because it wasn't aimed at them as individuals, it was because Bush was so intensely despised by other countries.

Very interesting. Our neighbor's daughter was in Austria for a one year Fulbright Scholarship the last year of President Bush's term. She and the other American students were subjected to a lot of anti-American sentiment. It was so bad that most of them opted to come back to the USA for their second year of post-grad work.

And nothing has really changed - has it? We're still killing innocent people; still trying to impose our policies on others.

[Lady's Human]

There has been anti-American sentiment in Europe for decades, it's not a new issue. To hear a European Diplomat say that it's all the previous President's fault is rather amusing, after all, European diplomats have done a wonderful job keeping the peace for the last 200 years. These are the same people who referred to the empire building and warfighting in the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries as "The Great Game".

Not sure them not liking us is a bad thing.........

[momoffuzzyfaces]

Don't forget between the two Bushes was a Clinton. He didn't do us any favors either. (In my opinion of course)

[momcat]

There has been anti-American sentiment in Europe for decades, it's not a new issue. To hear a European Diplomat say that it's all the previous President's fault is rather amusing, after all, European diplomats have done a wonderful job keeping the peace for the last 200 years. These are the same people who referred to the empire building and warfighting in the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries as "The Great Game".

Not sure them not liking us is a bad thing.........

Who said it was a European diplomat? It wasn't, it was a career American diplomat who was working with our delegates. Bush alienated our foreign allies through his idiotic, war mongering policies not to mention his stupidity. Sadly, the anti-Americans the delegates encountered didn't understand or realize the majority of the ISLP delegates did not support Bush or even vote for him.

[Lady's Human]

In which case the diplomat in question should be fired, as the diplomats are supposed to support and carry out the directives of the Administration.

To elaborate, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Diplomats need to be completely and totally apolitical, especially when dealing with underlings/recruits/trainees. If they can't be apolitical, they need to find a new line of work.

[momcat]

In which case the diplomat in question should be fired, as the diplomats are supposed to support and carry out the directives of the Administration.

You couldn't be more wrong or misinformed about the ISLP program. The student delegates were NOT trainees or anything of the sort. This is a selective program for high college level academic achievers to add an exceptional learning experience to their education. They learned about the role of diplomacy in international relations through many different activities. This conversation was exclusively between my son and the diplomat at a private reception for all diplomats and students in the program. I fully support this diplomat and his comment. He was absolutely right and said it in a private conversation. This gentleman is entitled to his opinion and in this case it's based on hard facts. As long as the diplomat participates in negotiations and other diplomatic activities in full compliance with established diplomatc protocol there's absolutely no reason for him to be fired. You don"t know that he does or ever has violated diplomatic protocol while on the job