A somber gathering of America's elites in Aspen.
Comment: Bravo HollyROLLER, yOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. wE HAVE 4 MONTHS TO ELECTION, MAYBE SOME GOOD CANDIDADTE IS SOMEWERE IN USA. COME ON , INTRUDUCE YOUR SELF !!!
Comment: Holy Roller, too bad you don't think more Holy thoughts instead of cynicism and sarcasm. Your humor, if it can be called that, is neither amusing or appreciated. Just your usual political attack on all who do not agree with you.
Comment: Now Martin...it is the Hussein camp, that decided to call any and all, critics of their messiah, RACIST. He has alienated a huge part of the DNC, with personal attacks. Now, his camp wants it to end. I consider it my calling, to do whatever I can to show this crook and fraud for what his true being is.
Open your eyes. What do you find so attractive, about Hussein? He has never accomplished anything, in his very short legislative career. He is a fraud.
NOBAMA!!!
Comment: Appears Hussein is a man of character, after all. I just picked up this thank you letter due to be released across the country, to all his supporters. I apologize for all my negative comments. He may well be the Messiah...........
My fellow Americans:
As your future President I want to thank my supporters, for your mindless support of me, despite my complete lack of any legislative achievement, my pastor's relations with Louis Farrakhan and Libyan dictator Moamar Quadafi, or my blatantly leftist voting record while I present myself as some sort of bi-partisan agent of change.
I also like how my supporters claim my youthful drug use and criminal behavior somehow qualifies me for the Presidency after 8 years of claiming Bush's youthful drinking disqualifies him. Your hypocrisy is a beacon of hope shining over a sea of political posing.
I would also like to thank the Kennedy's for coming out in support of me. There's a lot of glamour behind the Kennedy name, even though JFK started the Vietnam War, his brother Robert illegally wiretapped Martin Luther King, Jr. and Teddy killed a female employee with whom he was having an extra marital affair and who was pregnant with his child. And I'm not going anywhere near the cousins, both literally and figuratively.
And I'd like to thank Oprah Winfrey for her support. Her love of meaningless empty platitudes will be the force that propels me to the White House.
Americans should vote for me, not because of my lack of experience or achievement, but because I make people feel good.
Voting for me causes some white folk to feel relieved of their imagined, racist guilt. I say things that sound meaningful, but don't really mean anything because Americans are tired of things having meaning. If things have meaning, then that means you have to think about them.
Americans are tired of thinking. It's time to shut down the brain and open up the heart. So when you go to vote, remember don't think, just do. And do it for me.
Thank You.
Barack Hussein Obama,
NOBAMA!!!
Comment: And that, in itself, is somewhat optimistic.
Comment: A gathering of brilliant people assembled to chip out the Constitution, long time passing. Their purpose was public and clear and they had the authority to do what they did for the welfare of the general public. The gathering in Aspen might have included as many brilliant people, but I can't find their purpose in the article beyond trying to find out what is going on, and then leaving to somehow make a profit from the information. A private purpose.
We could really benefit from these brilliant people if they intended to benefit the general public with their meeting, but it appears that they did not intend to benefit the general public. No complaint.
But, this private conduct by our brilliant people is why we look to government to benefit the general public. Oftentimes, brilliant and private interests prey on the general public, as in the present mortgage crisis.
When brilliant people who disdain public service for private profit service complain about voters voting for government to protect them from private predatory business practices, they need to look inside to see that ordinary citizens, not brilliant, but plodding daily to provide for their families, are helpless against brilliant schemes to separate them from their hard earned wages.
One of these long standing schemes is the Insurance Industry, especially that part that takes a profit from the premiums for hospitalization coverage. Our country is one of the few highly civilized societies that still permits this scurrilous practice.
The race for president speaks to this issue and it is clear that one party intends to keep the present practice alive at the expense of the helpless, and the other party intends to stop it and join the civilized world.
Comment: These have to be some of the most thoughtless responses ever.
Who on earth ( or should I say what op-ed column are you regurgitating the idea of ) that the president: controls the price of oil, wants us to be enslaved to oil, or favors big oil profiteering?
Can you at least not contradict your unfounded comments in the same post?
And this has to be the most ridiculous of them all: "Politicians no longer thrive for the good of the nation, but rather, for the good of the far too many interest groups (votes). "
These "special interest groups (votes)" as you call them, have always been played to...including Lincoln and any other lofty idealized president you have in mind.
The reason why this country falters is the fault of its people, who elect its government. Its all very nice to blame a politician for what is wrong...but tell the truth, what have you do to change it?
Comment: In partial agreement with nickchorey:
Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. That we are. Kevin Phillips, author and political strategist to U.S. President Richard Nixon, argues that the United States is a plutocracy in which there is a "fusion of money and government." Some in government are part of this elite class, and the rest are funded and elected by this class. Oil directs the world's economy. No politician will ever pull the plug on it.
Fascism is a political system which commonly promotes statist nationalism, and government-directed economic practises such as corporativism and national syndicalism. This we are not. The great USA has lost its identity for the sake of political correctness. Politicians no longer thrive for the good of the nation, but rather, for the good of the far too many interest groups (votes). Government sets standards/regulations for the corporate world, and then watches as corporate money runs and rules the nation and the world. Syndicalism in our nation is on a steep decline. Many labor leaders have sold out to both politicians and corporations.
Wars have been fought over oil, and wars will continue to be waged over oil. Is McCain or Obama willing to sacrifice his political life, or that of his party, by waging war against oil? I doubt it!!!
Comment: It seems clear that the reason we don't get off oil is that the high price of oil is supported, ehanced even, by the goverment's actions, or lack thereof, in favor of big oil and MIC profiteering. I get that. But why don't elite people outside of those interests start demanding that we follow Brazil's effective plan and get off the stuff? It's so obvious what can and should be done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAUmFjHxI1c
Comment: I've read through all of the comments submitted in your discussion column by the other members. They're
delusional. They believe they are living in a working democracy. I would like to remind them of Eisenhower's warning about cetain Texas millionaires and the oil industry. I suggest that we are living in a plutocracy embedded with a tinge of fascism. Voting is illusory, it doesn't make a difference who gets into the congress and the presidency becaise of the hidden plutocratic bossmen.
Comment: Obama truely does appear to be another Jimmy Carter. If you lived through the Carter administration....it was horrible. America was the laughing stock of the world. Carter had legislated a wage freezes on all Americans and at that time and there were lines at the gas pumps because of gas rationing. HORRIBLE!!!! Let's just hope Obama doesn't get into the White House!!!!!!!!!!11
Comment: Congress at this very moment is considering a bill to bail our Housing Speculators, as well as the Banks and Mortgage companies who financed their undertaking. Ironically the Chairman of the committee Senator Dodd received VIP treatment from the very company he would like to bail out. Something doesn't seem right???
Comment: looks like 48 democats got great deals on loans including obama guess we tax payers need to help those poor folks out !!
Comment: Obama got his sweetheart deal from Rezko, convicted felon
Comment: This entire economy has been talked down in an effort to elect the elitist Obama. Obama will ruin any remants of our economy, and may I ask you Mr. Fineman exactly how would you solve the economic problems of this country and the rest of the world?
Comment: In 1987, he reminded the crowd, the stock market had dropped 25 percent in one day. The current depressing run was months in the making. Nor is the situation like 1982, when we faced a recession driven by sky-high interest rates. By historical standards, unemployment is relatively low at 5.5 percent (the figure held steady this week.)
I think that it is interesting that Bush continues to get blamed when the rest of the world is experiencing problems, too, plus if you look at the above years, they were during Clinton's administration. However we FORGET!!!!!
Comment: Bush is to be blamed. His arrogance, incompetence, partisanship, laziness, aggression, and igorance have been perilous to our country
Comment: It seems to me that many of the people there are part of the problem and not the solution. Bush's Commerce Secretary, for example, can certainly make no claim to have created any solutions. J.P. Morgan Chase, charging poor and middle class Americans outrageous fees and interest, has not helped this economy. And those in the media have done their part to fail America as well. You have gone along with the government's spinning of the truth, when you had to know better. Shame on all of you gathered there who did your part in knifing the American people and our economy. You all act like "hired guns" that shoot BS opinions and pretend you are delivering the news.
Comment: One thing we can count on is that Obama has told the terrorists that he plans to surrender in Iraq 16 months after he hopes to take office. So now all the terrorists will sit tight and hope and pray that Obama becomes president. They are probably contributing to his candidacy just to insure his victory.
Comment: Many of us are sick and tired of having a responsible withdrawral from a pre-empitve attack being referred to as surrendering and cut and run. It's been six years. The terrorists are much more powerful under Bush than they will be after he is gone.
Comment: lillea, you're such an idiot - 'surrender' in 16 months or 16 years, it matters not because this 'war' against terrorists cannot be won in Iraq. America is there for oil at what cost? John McCain's demons from Vietnam cannot be allowed to dictate America's future foreign policy.
Comment: Why are the elites upset?. They're the ones who keep pushing through terrible presidential candidates
Comment: oh man all the smart people in the country met in Colorado and I wasn't invited.
Comment: Obama has "refined" his stand on all the issues he stated during the primary. So the Dems have been totally dooped!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment: In answer to lillea: I am a Dem and I have not been duped by my candidate of choice - Sen. Barack Obama. I have been cheated and lied to and stolen from by your President and his gang of criminals - George W. Bush. You apparently still don't realize that we were brought to this ppoint by the current administration. And you never will be capable of realizing this - it would require logical and indepentant thinking - something that apparently you and the other 20% of the "core" Republicans cannot grasp. The majority of the Republican Party members are also dismayed at the situation that - thanks to #43 - we find ourselves in. If we do not impeach him now he should definetly face criminal charges (along with Cheyney Rumsfeldt and the rest of them - after he leaves and President Obama has to clean up his mess. And I am sure that you and your fellow lemmings will immediately start whining when we all have to step up to the plate to start paying the $30,000.00 that this war has cost each and every one of us. I hope that you remember THEN that "W" got us into this - and that Wolfowitz thought they would get rich and happy on the Iraqi reconstruction that Irq would have to pay out of it's oil revenues. Isn't going to happen - the real democracid=es of the truly "free" world will see to that. Lemmings, parrots and sheep - what a disqusting group of ignorants the 20%ers are.
Katherine in Naples
Comment: I agree that George W. Bush has been a nitemare as our President, but I am an ObamaNot.
Comment: Bless your poor dooped soul.
Comment: The only person you were cheated by is the people who wrongfully educated you to the point where you would post such rediculous crap.
Comment: Here's a thought... line up all the elites who can classify themselves as a "liberal" OR a "conservative" in front of the Grand Canyon. Get a couple dozen 30-calibre chain guns and blast their useless posteriors into the Grand Canyon. Our political system and all the useless hacks that run it are useless and defunct. We need real leadership.
Comment: America should be judged by its friends not its enemies...our upper class..infatuated with the British and Roman Empires have turned this nation into a reactionary power with enemies everywhere!!! We prop up the creations of the Euros like Lebanon & Kuwait,..support relics of the British Empire..like the occupations of Gibralter,The Falklands and "Northern" Ireland...and with economic policies like "Free Trade" impoverish the American middle class..is there hope for reform..probably not....perhaps the future lies in the rapid growth of Hispanic America...we will soon be populated by people more concerned with the state of the Western Hemisphere then with the creation of Kosovo and Macedonia...we have followed the British..strait to oblivion!!!
Comment: Is Barack "Dubya" Obama at the conference?????
Comment: This conference is a joke. The elites who steered America off the cliff, while getting very rich themselves at the cost of virtually everybody else, get together with the media's over compensated talking heads to see if anyone has any ideas, naturally, in Aspen, on someone else's dime.
And low, and behold, none of them have any ideas. They NEVER did have any ideas, except to grab as much as possible for themselves without scruple or regard for anyone else.
THAT's why they drove the car off the cliff in the first place.
Thomas Jefferson said that liberty required frequent revolutions. We are long past time in this country.
Comment: Food for thought, how concern do you think Rush Limbaugh is about the middle class with the recent signing of a 400 million dollar contract? Wake up folks!
Comment: I have always said that most voters are just ignorant. They vote for a party instead of issues. i my life I have voted for bith parties depending on what ibelieve to be growing concerns of americans and who I thought would better serve the country. Then you have those folks from the bible belt who have voted for one party and one issue, such as abortion or owning a gun. Then there are those hat can't see themselves voting for a black man and would rather see this country torn apart by power hungry republicans who's only god is money. This torn between the south and north. Why woul hardworking folks from the south and mid-west ever vote for a party that has done nothing for them, except take from the poor and give to the rich.
Comment: WHEN YOU WRITE LIKE THIS, it is like shouting in church while your pastor is trying to teach you something. Way too loud for the occasion.
Comment: You wear the flip on the left foot and the flop on the right foot. The Right had Flopped. The Flips are taking over. The "Caps Lock" key is the one on the left of the letter "A". Try it.
Comment: The big problem is Big Spending Republican Governors from Texas, not Big Spending Liberal Democrats from Massachusetts. Trillions. That's with a "T".
Comment: WELL ITS THE FORTH OF JULY AND I'M GOING TO THE LAKE WITH MY FAMILY AND MY MARINE CORP BUDDIES WE ARE GOING TO PARTY !!! I'VE GOT MY TRUNKS AND THE SUN SCREEN FOR THE KIDS AND WE ARE ALL GOING TO WEAR OUR NEW OBAMA SLIPPERS ! (THEY ARE FORMERLY KNOWN AS FLIP FLOPS ) THATS WHAT WE ARE CALLING THEM! NOW OBAMA SLIPPERS ALL MY FREINDS SAY THAT IT FITS PERFECTLY... SO LOOK OUT AMERICA BECAUSE OBAMA SLIPPERS ARE COMMING TO A STORE NEAR YOU !!
Comment: I have always said that most voters are just ignorant. They vote for a party instead of issues. i my life I have voted for bith parties depending on what ibelieve to be growing concerns of americans and who I thought would better serve the country. Then you have those folks from the bible belt who have voted for one party and one issue, such as abortion or owning a gun. Then there are those hat can't see themselves voting for a black man and would rather see this country torn apart by power hungry republicans who's only god is money. This torn between the south and north. Why woul hardworking folks from the south and mid-west ever vote for a party that has done nothing for them, except take from the poor and give to the rich.
Comment: You cant take from the poor they don't have anything worth taking. What do Republicans take from the poor? Name something this is just the typical democrat rhetoric we here every election. What the republicans are about is supporting the right of all Americans to build wealth. The government needs money to function so the rich pay the highest taxes and then the middle class and then the lower class and then poorest people get a free ride. I'm not claiming thier situation doesn't suck but they aren't poor because of the Republicans they are poor because they have never learned to succeed and no one has bothered to teach them.
Comment: I have always said that most voters are just ignorant. They vote for a party instead of issues. i my life I have voted for bith parties depending on what ibelieve to be growing concerns of americans and who I thought would better serve the country. Then you have those folks from the bible belt who have voted for one party and one issue, such as abortion or owning a gun. Then there are those hat can't see themselves voting for a black man and would rather see this country torn apart by power hungry republicans who's only god is money. This torn between the south and north. Why woul hardworking folks from the south and mid-west ever vote for a party that has done nothing for them, except take from the poor and give to the rich.
Comment: I have always said that most voters are just ignorant. They vote for a party instead of issues. i my life I have voted for bith parties depending on what ibelieve to be growing concerns of americans and who I thought would better serve the country. Then you have those folks from the bible belt who have voted for one party and one issue, such as abortion or owning a gun. Then there are those hat can't see themselves voting for a black man and would rather see this country torn apart by power hungry republicans who's only god is money. This torn between the south and north. Why woul hardworking folks from the south and mid-west ever vote for a party that has done nothing for them, except take from the poor and give to the rich.
Comment: So what is new. These problems have been around for along time from President to President the only difference is the degree of the problems and yes the depth is great for this President. The fact remains that they are passed down to each new President.
Comment: So what is new. Maybe the depth of the problems but that is all. These problems are always there it is the degree that differs.
Comment: Obama needs to reprint his signs and buttons to read "OBUSHA".
Comment: the comment liberals are spending all our money on welfare is the crux argument of the right wing..Unfortunately they fail to mention that Carter's 200 mil deficit was enlarged to 1 trillion under Reagan. Yes the same Reagan that ran under" I'm gonna balance the budget". Bush Sr. took Reagan's 1 trillion and turned it into 3 trillion while managing to still raise taxes. Bill Clinton managed to lower the deficit by cutting Federal spending (gee I thought the republicans did that) Now look what Dubya has done..please don't go raising your flag saying how much right-wingers love America while you piece by piece destroy the country by giving our Budget away to corrupt Corporations and Oil Companies...Besides there is more money spent on Pentagon retirees than the entire Welfare department..Over 51% of our budget goes to Military spending..In the words of Jimi Hendrix "When the Power of Love overcomes the Love of Power then the World will know Peace"
Comment: Reagan defeated the soviet Union without firing a shot. Then this new peaceful situation is what led to the great prosperity that followed up until just recently.
Pentagon Retirees earned their money Welfare recipients didn't do a damn thing.
Those corrupt corporations are actually American's doing what we do best creating wealth providing all the goods and services that make this country great.
Comment: onepoker
The Afghanistan war broke the Soviet Union - they did it to themselves, just as we are doing it to ourselves in Iraq. If the truth hurts, so be it.
Comment: I agree with most everything that "natureboynik" has to say - would like to add that even though 51 % of our budget may be Military spending these people will spnd our national wealth on military hardware but when it comes to Veterans Benifits they vote against these programs - from tuition for our Vets to all other Veterans programs. Yex, these "support our Troops" people want only to support them if the funds are funneled throu the likes of Haliburton and other defense contractors - not direct funding to support our troops and their families where they need it - in benifits and pay and better care facilities and good housing etc, etc. The members of this administration from the president on down are treasonous, corrupt and unpatriotic.. W even threatened to veto one bill that called for a pay increase of 3 1/5 % increase instead of 3%. Shame of them all.
Comment: natureboy has done his homework. Although I thought we needed a tough son-of-*** like Reagan in the 80' (we were getting our butts kick around) it is true that he started this upward turn with the deficit and it continued with Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. Clinton did more to lower the deficit than any republican since yet we are led to believe that the Democrats are to blame. In the last three decades the disparity between the rich and the middle class (if there is such a thing anymore) has only gotten wider and its not because o the Democrats.
Comment: SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, Obama WAS wrong on all issues all along. Otherwise he wouldn't be crossing over and "changing his position" on EVERYTHING. Dems have been dooped!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
Comment: The party elites pushed Obama through to the nomination without stopping to think
Comment: obama is actually a republican it looks like he really is listening to Bill Clintons advice run as a dem and govern as a republican.
Comment: DOWN WITH THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!
Comment: It is the Republican party that is rather taking advantage of the intelligence levels of Americans..........LOL
Comment: The truth is we need a candidate who looks at all the issues for all the people. Not just some. We need a visionary that actually studies the issues and listens and observes ardently. We don't need idealogues who just attempt to win on divisions and who don't approach issues with a clear and open mind, even if they already have a stance. America, like it or not is a country attached to the world, we must work to problem solve here within and out. The problems we face are of the country's own making and they do involve universal and worldwide issues.
Comment: "I wish I could say that the American elites here???people with money, connections or world-class expertise, or in many cases all three???were brimming with optimism. But they aren't, which means that they are not much different from you and me."
Speak for yourself Howard. Plenty of us are brimming with optimism. Stop confusing the beliefs of "elites" as reality. Or better yet, stop hyping gloom to get your candidate elected.
Comment: I am an avid reader of history and it is clear through the history of our nation or major civilizations that transformations many times require a visionary. Without going into a hisory lecture, think of the great leaps we made in the last century, they coincide with men of thought and ideas at the head of the nations, think Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Kennedy. Aside from these men, only Reagan comes close because he right or wrong pursued policies that doomed the Soviet Union. It may not be a generational leap forward on the same level as the other three, but can you imagine if today the "Evil Empire" existed along with a post 9-11 world? We would have WWIII for sure.
In this day and age as in everyday and age we have issues and we elect Presidents to fix the symptoms, we only truly look for more in a President when there are so many symptoms we need someone who will fix the bigger problem not just put go around fixing issues as they are now or come about in the near future.
My point here is we are at another crossroads where we can choose to make a leap with someone conducive to ideas even if they are not his own and who possess an imagination to put it all together into a vision for America. Who among the 2 candidates do you honestly think has a chance of delivering that to America? To me, an independent, Obama can be that person, no one can guarantee it, I am not going by soaring speaches or charisma, but objectively I see him able to bring that to us. I certainly cannot see a 30 year veteran of the political system who must have had a ton of chances to deliver the "transcendental" changes he now claims to embrace, be it climate change or getting us off our dependence on foreign oil or for that matter proposing any one bill to do with the economy or economic benefit for us the public. I know his track record indicates ZERO accomplishments. I am very happy with his signature efforts at campaign finance reform, but that does not put food on my table, I am happy he has been a good senator, but we need a leader of a nation in transition. Can anyone tell me otherwise? He has had 30 years, can you seriously tell me his record is all that is achieveable in that time?
Obama may not be it in the end, no one elected FDR or Teddy with a guarantee, the people took a chance based on the situation needing it, it worked, and we are lucky for it. Can you forgive yourself McCain and a few years later see that we have more band-aids but no cure? I DO NOT want to elect just another President to join the pantheon of so many other we have forgotten about. For me its a decision between somehow overcoming today only to have issues a few years later, versus an actual future of promise. You should decide for yourself based on your prioritires.
Comment: I am an avid reader of history and it is clear through the history of our nation or major civilizations that transformations many times require a visionary. Without going into a hisory lecture, think of the great leaps we made in the last century, they coincide with men of thought and ideas at the head of the nations, think Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Kennedy. Aside from these men, only Reagan comes close because he right or wrong pursued policies that doomed the Soviet Union. It may not be a generational leap forward on the same level as the other three, but can you imagine if today the "Evil Empire" existed along with a post 9-11 world? We would have WWIII for sure.
In this day and age as in everyday and age we have issues and we elect Presidents to fix the symptoms, we only truly look for more in a President when there are so many symptoms we need someone who will fix the bigger problem not just put go around fixing issues as they are now or come about in the near future.
My point here is we are at another crossroads where we can choose to make a leap with someone conducive to ideas even if they are not his own and who possess an imagination to put it all together into a vision for America. Who among the 2 candidates do you honestly think has a chance of delivering that to America? To me, an independent, Obama can be that person, no one can guarantee it, I am not going by soaring speaches or charisma, but objectively I see him able to bring that to us. I certainly cannot see a 30 year veteran of the political system who must have had a ton of chances to deliver the "transcendental" changes he now claims to embrace, be it climate change or getting us off our dependence on foreign oil or for that matter proposing any one bill to do with the economy or economic benefit for us the public. I know his track record indicates ZERO accomplishments. I am very happy with his signature efforts at campaign finance reform, but that does not put food on my table, I am happy he has been a good senator, but we need a leader of a nation in transition. Can anyone tell me otherwise? He has had 30 years, can you seriously tell me his record is all that is achieveable in that time?
Obama may not be it in the end, no one elected FDR or Teddy with a guarantee, the people took a chance based on the situation needing it, it worked, and we are lucky for it. Can you forgive yourself McCain and a few years later see that we have more band-aids but no cure? I DO NOT want to elect just another President to join the pantheon of so many other we have forgotten about. For me its a decision between somehow overcoming today only to have issues a few years later, versus an actual future of promise. You should decide for yourself based on your prioritires.
Comment: I disagree with you and the others who think Reagan was the greatest thing. I also disagree that taking down the Soviet Union was necessarily good. We still have a Communist Juggernaut, namely China. China is much more dangerous than the Soviet Union could have ever hoped to be. So you know, Ronnie Baby almost provoked the Soviets into a first strike. Actually, The Soviet Union kept alot of what are now terrorists in line. With it gone all of the burden falls to us. Nixon and Ford's policies towards the Soviet Union were best. The old party hacks would ultimately been replaced, Western Culture would have been desseminated in the Soviet Union and it ultimately would have become less of a threat. Now, we have something in Russia called the "Slavic Union", a Russian National Socialist (Nazi) organization. Combine that with another Great Depression (which we look like we are headed for thanks to the Republikans) a fascist leader could take power in Russia and you will have WW III!. Right before Reagan took power, the conservatives had some valid complaints: welfare abuse and fraud, coddling of criminals, disregard of the work ethic and traditional values. One would have thought he and his underllings would hold those values high. Not so--like his hero, Calvin Cooledge, he brought deregulation, corporate corruption. He got rid of income averaging, a tax device which helped small businesses. He also gave tax breaks to the rich and welfare to the rich. His administration wanted to count Kechup as a "vegetable" school lunches. The first thing he did upon taking office was to bust the Air Traffic Controllers Union and lower safety standards for auto safety bumpers. He started deregulation of the Airlines and now they are in shambles. He brought us the Savings & Loan Crisis of the 1980's and the recession of 1990. He also brought us the Taliban and Al Caida. His obession to vex the Soviets led to aid to the Mujahadin, including Osama Ben Ladin in Afganistan, which of course are the Taliban. Hell, we should have been helping the Soviets get rid of the Islamists. American reaped its Karma! Now it is stuck there instead of the Russians. Reagan, like all Republicans, was a reverse Robin Hood. He robbed from the poor to give to the rich. Hate to burst your bubble but Reagan was not good. He, like all Republicans in the extreme!!! He was a bad governor of California as well. He closed down our mental hospitals and turned the loonies into the streets and our neighborhoods.
Comment: Your view of history is extremely distorted.
Comment: this country is more messed up than EVER.wait ten years ,Amerixa will no longer be the great.....In bad times past you had a whole different type of peopple that ereall Loved asand cared about this mess we call America...............You haven't see nothing yet people wise up or lose your country.
Comment: You got it right, jenxyz78. You said it just the way it has to be said. These Republikans are exactly like Calvin Cooledge (Mr. Deregulation of the 1920's) and Herbert Hoover. Actually, the Republican Party is the FATHER OF LIES! It has been one big lie since Reagan took power in 1981. He eschewed "piling debt upon debt for the convenience of the present to the deteriment of the future" (1st inagural address) and what did he and Daddy Bush do? Ran the national debt up to $3Trill (it's >$9Trill now, thanks to Dubya and his cohorts), gave us the S&L crisis of the '80's, leveraged buy-outs which eviscerated good companies, crook Keating, Junk Bond Milken, jobs oversees. After the S&L's what are we doing with the subprime crisis? It's the same old same old. Cast these followers of the Left Hand Path down into the bottomless pit with their master, Satan and his angels! Your Grandmother was so, so right!
Comment: There is nothing like a crisis to unify the American people. Our country has been at it's best when faced with crisis. From the Revolutionary War to the widespread, albiet temporary display of patriotism after the 9-11 attacks we have pulled together as a nation when in crisis. It seems however that we are too easily distracted by our own freedom to understand what is required to preserve it. As a whole Americans, the people of humanity for that matter, are generally concerned with their closest interests first. Security and comfort for our families and those dear to us. We spend our lives pursuing goals to reach that end. And now, as critical issues draw our attention to the larger picture, we blame our government for it's shortcomings and for the inevitable crisis we are sure to face. Before we point the blame at individuals in government we should accept that they have been doing just as we do. Concerning themselves with their closest interests first. And as the fiber of America unravels, we can only hope that the looming crisis will help us once again refocus as a nation.
Comment: I am voting democratic after a lifetime of being a GOP loyalist . I see nothing in Mccain that shows he takes the health care nightmare seriously . ( I am living it ) . While the economy was spiralling downward the Republican debates pictured a party of candidates who wanted to pretend things are not bad at all. That is an insult to those of us with health care problems, income loss , and higher utilities and food bills .
Why should I give a vote to a party that strongly resembles the Hoover Republicans my grandmother reviled . I used to think she hated the republicans because she was uneducated . NOW , I read about the hOOVER administration and marvel at how similar the Republicans and neoconservatives seem to Hoover .
There are things that Bush could have done , that other Republican presidents have resorted to in the past , like : sending illegals home en masse ( Eisenhower) , having the FTC investigate the oil companies for gouging ( Roosevelt ) and Freezing prices ( Nixon ) .
The indifference to hardship that is being lived out on Main Street will sink the party , just as Hoover's indifference with the orchestra at Whitehouse meals of seven courses ( while the average folks were
struggling ) caused the domocrats to rise to power and reign for years .
There is no defense for a president not CARING . There is NO optimism unless a leader rises up ( like FDR or Lincoln ) and implements specific plans to attack the problems that gnaw at us head on. Dancing around the dead horse in the living room does not win the trust and confidence of the American people , especially when they face the stench each day . Ultimately a president and his team must genuinely care
about the little people , who have been forgotten for eight years by those who are economically isolated from the hardship because they are fortunate to be on a higher rung of the economic ladder .
It will be a cold day in Hell before I ever vote for a Republican agin. Willie Marie Leggett , my grandmother who raised me with a fifth grade education , would be proud . She may have been uneducated , but she was RIGHT !
Comment: The biggest problem with the Dems, however, is that they have become so ideologically liberal, thet the have sacrificed the interests of the American worker in favor of foreign multiculturalism and pluralism, and care more about political correctness and the pleasing of ethnocentric minorities than the rest of us. This translates into them fighting tooth and nail for Amnesty, otensibly to gain the Latino vote, and their endless support of wasteful government handouts such as welfare, so they can maintain the black demographic. Say what you want about that, but it's true. We've been sold out by both political parties; Repubs to the oil and corporate giants, and Dems to ethnocentric special interests, enabling the poor at the expense of everybody else. Either way we go, we're screwed, it seems....
Comment: Can we not do both, increase our domestic energy supply, while giving more tax breaks for solar, wind, and nuclear. Congress needs to get off their collective asses and start thinking about main street rather than wall street. Talking about religious extremists, the liberals have their own extremists that think that high gas prices are a great idea to go green! What a great idea.........middle class and lower class folks will not be able to pay for gas to go to work, We will all be sitting at home looking at the very clear blue sky with no place to go
Comment: The problem is so great and the options so limited I doubt the economy will ever recover to the point middle America has seen in the past, simply because the middle class is disappearing and may never recover.
The whole point of globlisation is to put American workers on the same economic level as the workers of all other counties, China and India included.and it has been said it now cannot be stopped.
.
The trickle down economics introduced by Regan and pursued by the Bush administration and touted by McCain (now called supply side economics) is in and of itself very shortsided, in a consumer driven economy it is unwise to kill off the consumer.or even reduce the discretionary income by wage cuts and periodic unemployement and of course inflation has a profound effect.
Yet that is exactly what has happened. and the Bush/Cheny Co can't figure out why the consumers are not consuming
It worked fine as long as Americans were the suppliers but that in now behind us, greed and the shortsighted view held by these folks has brought America to it's knees.
Comment: Anent the comment by "thehappyamerican", I am very tired of the right-wingers who claim to be persecuted and vilified, when these same right-wingers think nothing of persecuting and vilifying liberals (which, btw, is not, and should not be, a dirty word). Can't we come to an agreement in this country that respect and good stewardship of our environment (the only Earth we've got), tolerance for those who hold different religious views, compassion for those who (often through no fault of their own) have fallen on hard times, and sensible (firm but nonbelligerent) foreign policy all help our country and make it great?
Comment: Sure not a gathering of the elite in this blog.
Comment: We ain't seen nothing yet! If Obama actually wins, the liberal media will celebrate but Wall Street will tank. The economy will go into a free fall. It will be Jimmy Carter all over again but worse. Obama is a real Liberal. People forget that Bill Clinton was a moderate Democrat. That is why the economy didn't fare too badly under him. Residual racism will rear its ugly head in America and either Obam or his wife will be assassinated! That is the future folks!
Comment: Yep, by the time either of them step foot on the White House steps the war will be over, it will be the economy and Obama will lose.
Comment: The general mood lately on these boards is that American has seen it's best days. Will we be owned by China, Russia, or OPEC by 2015?
The middle class is slowly being phased out- to the poor side- so I have to go with Democrats- I'm going to need those food stamps. ;-)
I don't think either candidate has the power to fix this. Our Senate and House are too busy arguing over their 'earmarks' to get ANYTHING done.
Phase out the 'earmarks', STOP the lobbyists, and if there is a conflict of interest, (Bush and his affair with Exxon) SHUT THEM DOWN.
That's the only way anything will change.
Comment: Daunting tasks that need someone who knows how to be independent enough to work well with both political parties. And, we need someone with non-partisan experience in Washington DC who is able to stand up even to his own party if need be to do what is needed for the nation. I wonder is there anyone with that kind of experience? Some who has more than mere words to offer.
Comment: I just couldn't agree with you more, JJ...it is a huge task and will requre all you mention and more. It will also require a revamping of Congress to bring them more in line with the "will of the people" and less in line with the will of the moneychangers.
Comment: the world econmoy is in a train wreck in slow motion i just hope russia and brazil come up WITH SOME HUGE oil and natrual gas developments.
in the mean time america needs to build INFRASTRUCTURE like every city needs trams sub ways and intra city trains run on electric power hydro and wind and solar are the cleanest so go for that.....
the car companies can make the rail system cars and component structures and the local governments can float everything on bond issues ...its the only way out of oil dependency for transport of goods and people.
Comment: What you're talking about may work back east where cities are closer together and people practically live on top of each other...what about the west? Do you propose we have subways and trams in cities of 5-10K people? What size city will be required to implement these? How much will the cities have to pay and how much will the federal government pay for requiring this? What if the local governments try to "float" all these costs on bond issues and they fail? Will the feds come in and force something down the throats of the unwilling citizens? Do you start to see why this will be come a huge mess if the feds step in and try to push things on the voting population?
Comment: just who are these people talking about when they say the american people / voters are too smart .... i live in bush country tx now as a result of regan nomics of the 80's which devestated many nothern state economies ,he sold us the people ,the voters a line of *** and we bought it for two terms and escalating nation debt with rah rah go usa and with slogans like rising tides lift all ships, and ooh it.s all carters fault ,than we bought his protagee's continued bs of new new taxes ,what he meant to say was no new corporate taxes,actually not only no new taxes but also that, the burden of those needed taxes would be pushed onto the people/taxpayer/ voter .and still it was the democrates fault ,those damm liberals and learn to buckle up and get used to to less because its just the of the world with armagedon and all coming up , than we did 'nt buy nor see or acknowledge was the progress and equality for all of america's people including debt reduction,the promotion of education,attempt at universal healtcare, peace, job and wage growth etc, and instead of continuing forward with these mostly progressive and well intended police's with al gore ,we the people ,the voter allowed the self rightious radical right to anoint their messiah George *** -W Bush . who ,after all that went to hell during his first term. we the smart wise and knowledgeable Vote re-elected this Moron. If all the desruction he caused could be summed up in blow - job i would give it to him myself !
Comment: IF ANYONE I A MORAN, IT'S YOU. YOU ARE SO UNINFORMED!!
Comment: finnland: I believe the word for which you're unsuccessfully groping is "moron" .
"MORAN" ,or MURRIN is the Anglicisation of two Irish names, O'Morain, and O'Mughrain who are an ancient Connacht family of Ui Fiachrach and were located in north of County Mayo and County Sligo. Another branch settled in south County Galway. In latter times, the name became changed to Moran, in Irish, O'Morain, possibly deriving from the word mor, meaning big. (courtesy www.brennan-laois.com).
By the way:
No! YOU'RE uninformed! So there!
Comment: You are completely right. Bush's subtle mantra in the 2004 campaign was "I hate gays more than I hate war". All of his cronies and the Republican party followed in lockstep. People ignored the fact he was a right wing radical, incompetent, arrogant, ignorant, out of touch, bigoted, elitist, spolied oil tycoon and heir. In 2004 I thought it couldn't get worse. IT DID !! I didn't think Bush could get re-elected. HE DID. Did democrats learn? NO. Democrats are about to nominate the weaker of the two finalists. Now, in 2008, I know... It CAN get worse
Comment: The DNC has wages 5 discrimination campaigns against Americans, and they are not subtle.
These are against Christians, Achievers, Law Enforcement, Military Experts and Gun Owners. (AKA Fellow Americans).
Maybe you'll feel better if the Discrimination Campaigns were more ascertive than they have been? You're sure a very un-happy American.
I wish to respectfully point out that the Congress under DNC leadership has lower approval than President Bush...consistently. The 70's style Discrimination Campaign formulas are now militating against the DNC because Americans are put off by discrimination campaigns, and their crafted buzz-word terms.
There are those who insist Obama maintain and use them in their original form, like Clinton did and still does.
And most of what Bush has done over the years,particularly with the war, was approved by the Congress. The DNC controled Congress.
Bigoted elitists and their creepy little discrimination campaigns laced together by the ACLU and National Lawyers Guild and groups of very hatefull little people,and silly people behind closed doors.
Comment: You're right, the happyameican. The Congress' approval rate is at 19% (a lot LOWER than Bush's).
Comment: I am a proud patriotic american, not the least bit unhappy. Bush had a republican controlled congress for 6 years, and Democratic for a year and a half. Between Bush's vetos and republican's filibusters, congress can't accomplish much.. BOTH democrats put up partisan, elitist candidates, including Obama. Have we learned nothing after 7 1/2 yearsof Bush's living hell?.
Comment: Over the years? Bush had a republican congress for 6 years, and a democratic congress for 1 1/2 years. Bush REFUSES to work with congress, and the republicans in the Senate filibuster any legitimate legislation. I am not promoting the democratic party, they are about to nominate a terrible candidate. However, Bush is by far the worst president in recent history. Unless you are a wealthy radical republican, he doesn't give a damn about you.
Comment: America needs solutions...period. All this money that keeps getting allocated to numerous B.S. programs, the war, etc. Should be poured firstly into energy solutions. AND OIL/GAS is NOT a solution to our energy crisis!!
It is true that with energy alternatives certain big businesses will not make as much money, however, with the economy in the downward spiral it is in now, they will not be making ANY money off of America if it continues to go downhill.
Comment: There is no alternative fuel or energy in the wings ready to come out. That's a Little Green Man's promise and the Little Green Man strangely insists that oil has to be completely out of the way before he comes out!
Another version is that big oil has to be strangled to "force" a situation for the little Green man to come out.
Another myth is that the little Green mans' energy will be much cheaper to the consumer. And undesirable to Big Industry as a profit source.
When the little Green man's low-cost enviro-friendly lubricant comes out on the market for bicycle chains, wheel bearings,and for sewing machines THEN is when we will know it's real! Not a day sooner!
The Little Green Man is going to have to convince me and the country threw small practical miracles before the big ones,(keeping the machinery running of a continental nation.).
Come on Little Green Man! Can't you give us something Greener and more cost effective than a can of WD 40?That works? Or just top the can of 3 in 1 oil?
Until you do, Little Green Man, I'm not counting on you for anything! I AM going to oil my car. Boat and trailor,
Gun and lawn mower! And kids toys!
Maybe a shot of WD 40 into the workings of the Congress is what we need . They've pointed their fingers elsewhere enough!
Comment: good post happy american...I'm with you on that one...a good housecleaning in Congress ought to do the trick...the Dems made big promises in 2006 and haven't done a thing except make a bigger mess and refuse to work on energy.
Comment: Thanx,and i fear that as a practical matter we won't see much house cleaning until 2010 BUT what we can do today and this week is Email those people in the Congress on both sides, and insist they quit screwing around and playing the blame game! It's a Lame Game!
Comment: News & Notes --- You make some great points. When the smoke clears, the bias stops, and reality slaps us in the azz, these are the issues we are faced with. I do agree that McCain and Obama may not have been the best two choices (that's an endless debate). But, there is no doubt in my mind that Obama has the support, charisma, strength, and respect to at least bring us closer to the future that you are alluding to here.
Being as open-minded as a human-being can honestly be, I absolutely DO NOT believe that McCain has the MAJORITY of our nation's population's best interest at heart.
What a dillema our country is in.......China is licking it's chops, no matter who gets elected.
Comment: So how are we going to solve it with the presidential candidates we have? Hillary was the only person who could have fixed this mess, but the Democratic elites made sure she got pushed out of the way. Obama is a smooth talking underexperienced radical liberal, and McCain is a tired old relic who used to be a maverick but is now pretending to be a radical conservative. We spend tens of billions of dollars on pure crap. We've ignored the oil crisis for 35 years. We're entrenched in a senseless war with no turning back. Social security is a ponzi scheme paid for by the poor and middle class. We talk about abortion and flag pins while we watch our economy, reputation, and dignity fall to by the wayside. Neither one of these two creeps will resolve much of anything. It's one step above hopeless.
Comment: it's tiresome to hear Obama labelled as a liberal - he actually has some conservative values if you bother to look more closely. He is a progressive, but you might notice he talks to righ to lifers, he talks to hard core republicans, he talks to free trade fanatics.
What we need is for ALL the smart people to get together and bounce ideas off one another, work out the best solution.
I am fed up with politicians blaming current issue on the other party and refusing to work together to solve the issue.
americans only have themselves to blame over the energy issue. Jimmy Carter told us 30 years ago, but we didn't wanna...
we don't need a doddery old man who isn't familiar with new technology, isn't willing to examine past mistakes and is ready willing and able to dump more US treasury in another war...in Iran.
we need all our attention here. for too long those of us living below the upper middle class and the elites has seen declining life styles and lack of concern for our needs by our elected officials.
Comment: All they are doing in Aspen is drinking fine wine and telling each other how wonderful each other is. What a waste
Comment: Well you can go on and on howling about how Hillary would have done this and this, she lost. So what do we do now. Yes it is stupid to look at lapel pins and preachers and all the other junk people look at to keep from confronting the problems. One of the first things that has to be done, is the ethics have to be gotten in on Congress and Washington all together. We have been controlled by the lobbyists and corporations who have only a five year plan in mind, their goal to retirement. They could care less for any real solutions, do you think for one minute the oil companies are paying anything more than lip service to the idea of alternate fuels? Those aren't the solution anyway. The scam of taking something that we didn't produce enough of (mainly grains) and using them now to make fuel (which we waste by the millions of gallons) is not the answer. We have the solution that would put the existing cars we have (internal combustion engines) into using hydrogen (which works great in an internal combustion engine) by retrofiting the car to handle the new fuel (note that that is NEW fuel). We wouldn't be taking it from somewhere else (not too many people use hydrogen, the most plentiful substance in the universe) and putting a scarcity of it there. We just have to put us some fueling stations and some retrofitting places. Seems like for about two or three months of the costs of this stupid war, we could do that.
Anyway, the problems are here and now. We can't lament over who could do what and when and how it could have been better. There's nothing we can change back there, but there is plenty to look forward to change, this is a democracy, make your voice heard. I'm sure there are all kinds of people out there who would listen to a solution that actually has a chance.
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