Posted By: geoff  on Friday, August 29, 2008

Really back-assed half-wards. So: the US economy has grown, which means anyone who is losing their homes or being outsourced is really just hallucinating, and all this stuff about mortgages and the risk of banks failing isn't happening either, and the price of oil is having no effect on sales of cars whatsoever, and...? Or is this "boom" some kind of spin-off from oil company profits?

In comparison, is terrorism a real threat? or is Linda crying wolf by trying to distract attention from the real problems, i.e. the economy, by scaring trying to play the "fear" card yet again? Is that the only tool the GOP has available? Scare people... I wonder what bin Laden's doing these days.

And unfortunately, although we're not altogether sure just what Obama might do, we're all a little too worried that McCain just might follow thru & "Bomb Iran!"

He's already all but been accused of re-starting the Cold War all on his own...

Posted By: geoff  on Friday, August 29, 2008

Just wondering: why didn't Linda just quote Phil Gramm's view that America is a "nation of whiners"?

And, do we really know, at this point, why Bush started his war in Iraq?

Posted By: John Handforth  on Friday, August 29, 2008

Just ask anyone, Geoff.

The Halocaust never happened.

9/11 is just a story that the Republicans made up.  Ii never happened, either.

We've never had an American ship attacked, or an embassy bombed in the Middle East.  Every American that died east of Gibralter died due to their own negligence.  They shouldn't even have been there and should've known than to step on land mines.

Jihad is obviously a word for peace that we have misinterpreted.  Sorry about that, but I believe that they want us to have peace by no longer breathing.

Did I mention that America is not the only country that has been attacked by these animals?  Have you ever heard of Britain, Spain or Bali?

Why do you hate America so much?  There is no question that we have not made more than a few errors in the past, but we often didn't know that they were errors until we applied hindsight.  We went through Hell after 9/11 and passed some very reactionary and discriminatory laws.  Personally, I was sorry to see it happen, because I was affected, but that's another story.

You want to blame everything on George Bush.  You may not know enough about this Country to realize that there are 100 Senators and over 400 Congressional Representatives in Washington, D.C.  George is not all-powerful.  He was not elected king.  He just gets to make many final decisions and propose policy.  When the Congress doesn't like one of his decisions, or a policy, especially a VETO, they can meet and override him.

While George carries much of the blame for many things, there are a lot of other people in our Nation's capitol, besides Dick Cheney, that share some of the blame.  Three of them are candidates in the next presidential election.  The only outsider is McCain's choice for Vice-President.  She's a governor.

If you hate us that badly, move down here and vote for Obama.  That should make a mess of our Country, if that's what you want.

Posted By: John Handforth  on Friday, August 29, 2008

I need a better proofreader, AGAIN.

Just ask anyone, Geoff.

The Halocaust never happened.

9/11 is just a story that the Republicans made up.  It never happened, either.

We've never had an American ship attacked, or an embassy bombed in the Middle East.  Every American that died east of Gibralter died due to their own negligence.  They shouldn't even have been there and should've known better than to step on land mines.

Jihad is obviously a word for peace that we have misinterpreted.  Sorry about that, but I believe that they want us to have peace by no longer breathing.

Did I mention that America is not the only country that has been attacked by these animals?  Have you ever heard of Britain, Spain or Bali?

Why do you hate America so much?  There is no question that we have not made more than a few errors in the past, but we often didn't know that they were errors until we applied hindsight.  We went through Hell after 9/11 and passed some very reactionary and discriminatory laws.  Personally, I was sorry to see it happen, because I was affected, but that's another story.

You want to blame everything on George Bush.  You may not know enough about this Country to realize that there are 100 Senators and over 400 Congressional Representatives in Washington, D.C.  George is not all-powerful.  He was not elected king.  He just gets to make many final decisions and propose policy.  When the Congress doesn't like one of his decisions, or a policy, especially a VETO, they can meet and override him.

While George carries much of the blame for many things, there are a lot of other people in our Nation's capitol, besides Dick Cheney, that share some of the blame.  Three of them are candidates in the next presidential election.  The only outsider is McCain's choice for Vice-President.  She's a governor.

If you hate us that badly, move down here and vote for Obama.  That should make a mess of our Country, if that's what you want.

Posted By: rodney, mesa, az  on Friday, August 29, 2008

During raygun's tricle down days i saw mine and my friends' good union jobs disappear. It took over a decade to get a decent but underpaid position while my rent and utilities, and school tuition and perscriptions went up. Then the halcyon days of clinton arrived and my prospects for a future rose, and i had insurance! But of course georgie arrived on the heels of gingrinch's contract on americans, and once again i find myself out of a job, homeless, uninsured, disenfranchised, and considered as a blight on the american landscape of moralistic bootstrapers intent on building an aristocracy of rich repugnantcans. I much prefer choosing a man who i hope might can do as opposed to one who i know will definetly continue to undo regarding the american dream. That dream used to mean owning a home and a car and education for my kids and insurance to cover catasrophe. Now it is reduced to dreaming for a job that can pay the wildly overpriced rents i'll face, while keeping my bicycle tires aired up and chewing my food pantry starches with the few broken teeth i got left. Yeah it's a great economy if you got money to blow in the stock market, and can double or triple dip your pensions and golden parachutes. Hey maybe i should join the nra and talk ted nugent into letting me shoot one of his deer for lunch and shoe leather! This is by no means a whine, it's a legitimate straight out complaint against pachiderm pulcritude. So please linda, don't urinate on my leg and call it rain, save that "bill-o" bull for the 10 percenters who oppress us and blame us for our own oppression while they whine about not being able to get more of what they got too much of already.

Posted By: geoff  on Saturday, August 30, 2008

John Handforth: you need more than a better proofreader; you need to stop making unfounded assumptions. Why do I "hate America so much?" Do I? or am I just critical of hypocritical, self-serving, badly written comments by some idiotic pundits? or the way short-sighted American policies all too often prove to have long-term consequences for the rest of us? Global warming, for example, is effecting the Arctic, lots of populated islands in the South Pacific, countries like the Netherlands and Bangladesh. And the major worry in the US is that doing anything to mitigate the problems of CO2 pollution might harm the American economy.

I could note the problems banks here in Europe are having because they supported the US by investing in banks that weren't regulated properly; always nice the way you show your gratitude.

We could always look at a lot of the problems in the Middle East as "blowback" for supporting the Mujahadin against the Soviets, the Shah of Iran against your own professed beliefs in human rights, democracy, etc.; the House of Saud and the Kuwaitis against any popular aspirations towards democratic reforms there...

But then again, it seems that even if "we the people" vote in a majority opposing the war, their choices get vetoed anyway, or else George writes in some kind of secret clause about how he doesn't have to recognise any laws that are passed anyway, so I'm not sure how you can argue that George ain't acting like a king.

But otherwise, I'd agree more with Rodney: your country seems to get more damaged by Republicans "trickling down" on it than when Democrats are in power. And I don't think things will change much when political discourse has lowered itself to the level where even Republicans are so desperate to try to find a way to feel good about McSame & Palin that they're reduced to arguing that "It's important that America has a vice president who has eaten a mooseburger."

And by the way: don't project your ignorance of the state of the world outside your own borders onto the rest of us; some of us do learn history (we did a year of US history in Canadian high schools, and one on American literature in English; we also got all your networks beamed to us, plus TIME & Newsweek, etc.).

Posted By: Chris H  on Saturday, August 30, 2008

Whiners!

I heard the same things back in the 80's and I was one of them. Yep, it's true. My mother was on welfare because she was disabled and the government would not recognize this fact until a year after I turned 18, finally happened at near 20 in fact. I had to support both of us and I started a family at 19. I was sure it was all Ronald Reagan's fault! He did this to us!!!

Here's the difference: I did pull myself up "by my boot straps", even though I did not have any! I started working at 14 years of age. Yes, that's illegal in my state of California. The most expensive state to live in, do to its state taxes, (in addition to the fed's taxes). I went from Dishwasher, (to help support my mother and I at 14 – 16; I called myself a "Hydro-ceramic Engineer" to keep up my self esteem) to Cab driver to AAA Road Service to Freeway Service Patrol to management of that Towing Company; ( I planned to be a California Highway Patrolman and took the tests twice) to being injured on that job; Rear-ended and damaged beyond repair for physical labor, no CHP now...

Once again out of work now at the age of 26, I started working temp jobs for $10 an hour as a receptionist. I worked for a water company that caused me physical pain on a daily basis, (because I wasn't deemed disabled, I would heal, I was still young no money back on settlements either). Guess what, I’m still in pain to this day, still get the migraines no one else feels...

I worked at 7-Eleven for $7.50 and hour on the graveyard shift as well; until finally I was hired from the temp position at the Bank as their receptionist. I was trained to become a Financial Services Consultant. This was a huge pay cut from the $13 an hour plus 33% commission I had made in the Towing Industry: From 25K a year down to 18K. But I took it and ran with it. Have you seen the Pursuit of Happiness?

I NEVER said, that's not my job, I did not need a Union to fight for my rights and I DAMN sure didn't care who was President. Over the last 8 years in banking, I also moved to Las Vegas Nevada and left that bank that first gave me the opportunity to change my stars. I moved myself and my family from CA to NV to find better opportunities as gas prices rose, rents went through the roof, food and utilities increased; remember 2001's "rolling blackouts"? I don't because I moved to NV!

I gained further training from one of the largest banks in the land and found out what a difference lower taxes means to the middle class in NV. I call it my 9 month working vacation in Las Vegas, Nevada for 10K more a year. But when I came back, the CA tax yoke was placed on us again. I also found some "social programs" there that should be copied: Childcare provided by the County, for 1/3 the cost of childcare centers in CA; inside you child's school! They went until 8 pm, (6pm in CA with huge fines for being late) and the kids never left the school grounds, doing their homework prior to play.

This huge bank also taught me their philosophy: "The Great Eight". Get your customers into 8 products - From Free Checking and Savings to their Mortgage and Home Equities and get direct deposit. If you do so, they'll never leave the Bank because it's too difficult to do so." They had similar beliefs in how they lent money, the more credit cards and home e