kamui

While the protest widened, and some media figures joined... ...police got more aggressive

The Dems will be sad.

If people could learn to be like Steve Jobs, we would have thousands like him. As someone wrote today: many imitated him but no one was able to surpass him.

I guess my text got scrambled up. Doesn't matter, it was just about the Tea Part, the constitution and taxes...

<br><br>First: there seems to be two schools of thought in the USA how the constitutions should be interpreted. <br>- Originalism: The constitution needs to be taken literally. = Tea Party<br><font face="Arial,">- Living Constitutionalism: the constitution has to be read with the huge changes in mind which happened since the constitution was written. = Dems and moderate Reps</font><br><br>Second: Tax limitation: most Americans think that creating jobs is far more important than lowering taxes.<br><br>Third: Balancing the budget can either happen when the income of the US government increases, or when vital parts of the government will be scaled down (military, infrastructure, social security, environmental protection, e.g.). Or it could be a balance of both. <br><br>Forth: In a complex world there are no simple solutions anymore. Those who prescribe populist and overly simplistic solutions like the Tea Party will fail in the end. They will fail at the moment when most Americans realize that the Tea Party solutions will make their lives even worse than their lives already are.<br><br>IMHO the Tea Party is a vital symptom of the US crisis, but not part of the solution. <br><br>The Tea Party is also a sign of the rapidly changing demographics in the USA. It is no surprise that it is mostly run by angry, elder, white males. (right, HH? <img src="http://t2.thai360.com/public/style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif" alt="" class="bbc_emoticon">)<br>This group has a lot to lose with the rapid increase of the non-white population. That's why they want to turn back to clock (see the debate on the constitution) as far as possible, back to a time when they ruled the country, the government, the economy. <br>Of course they still do rule (just look at Fox News, the Koch brother e.g.), but Obama is clear agent of change. <br><br>IMHO that's why Obama is being hated by the right wing conservatives. Obama is not hated for what he does - his actions are absolutely within the tradtional framework of US politics - but for what he stands for: the end of the rulership of the white males.<br>By the way, you don't have to forgot the relentless attacks on Hillary Clinton when she was the first lady and afterwards. As women, she was an threat to the white males as well, even though not as strong as Obama, because she still represented the traditional political class.

So where did Obama try to tear up the Constitution? And why is he a neo-fuhrer? It seems you have no idea how the real Fuhrer ruled Nazi Germany. These are just empty Tea Party phrases. Moreover: the recent downgarde of the USA was also a result of the GOP obstructionism, which did stopp parts of the US government von functioning properly. This had never happened before in USA history as far as I know. By the way, the GOP blocked was very influential in changing the opinion of the Tea Party from mostly positive to mostly negative. It is like in Weimar Republik in Germany: if a group, like the Tea Party GOP, does not want to compromise anymore and takes the government hostage with maxed out demands, the democratic system will be severely damaged.

I have to correct myself: 25% are supporting the Tea Party. Nevertheless: More Americans consider themselves strong opponents of the Tea Party movement than strong supporters, by 20% to 14%, and the ratio is a similar 22% to 15% among registered voters. When factoring in those who support or oppose the movement but not strongly, the opposing groups are more evenly matched, with 25% of Americans in total classified as Tea Party supporters and 28% as opponents. Link ---- And of course the Tea Party addresses social issues: Here are recent results on the Tea Party within the GOP. The GOP seems to be split between Tea Party supporters and moderates. All comparisons below are between GOP Tea Party members and GOP non- Tea Party members - "Demographically, the tea party movement seems to hearken back to the 'angry white men' - Nearly eight in ten tea party Republicans describe themselves as conservatives, - Most tea party Republicans say that Congress and President Barack Obama should pay more attention to the deficit," says Holland. "Most non-tea party Republicans say that reducing unemployment is more important than reducing the deficit." - Nearly six in ten tea party Republicans say that global warming is not a proven fact. - Tea party Republicans are roughly twice as likely to say that abortion should be illegal in all circumstances and roughly half as likely to support gay marriage. - Tea party Republicans are also roughly twice as likely to believe that the Social Security system should be replaced** Link ------ More on the Tea Party in general: - The percentage of people with an unfavorable view of the Tea Party in aNew York Times/CBS News Poll this week was higher than it has been since the first time the question was asked, in April 2010. Forty percent of those polled this week characterized their view as “not favorable,†compared with 18 percent in the first poll. - Tea Party groups and lawmakers made debt reduction their priority, but many Americans said creating jobs was more important. And while many Republicans, influenced by the Tea Party, insisted that they would not allow any increases in tax revenue, a majority of Americans said debt reduction had to include higher taxes as well as lower spending. Link **Like Perry who wrote in his last book that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Now he is in deep shit with elder GOP voters who don't want any changes to Social Security.

PS: it is absolutely fascinating to see how the Tea Party, which has just 20% support among US voters, is able to force the GOP candidates to take more and more radical right wing positions - it shows how powerful the right wing foundations, think tanks, media, corporations are already are. They control and drive the conservative discourse almost 100%.

Under the Rep governments the upper 10% gained considerably while the masses lost. Blue collar workers are back to an income level of the 1970s and even the middle class is losing more and more. So what are the GOP governors doing? - cutting education - cutting health care - cutting public work projects - raising prices public transportation e.g. - while keeping tax loopholes for the rich open - cutting tax for the rich e.g. Remember Bush's "compassionate conservatism". It has been exchanged by raw capitalism, which favors the rich and the major companies. Many in the US already talk about democracy just being a facade for an increasing powerful oligarchy. - And to the surprise of many, Obama is a major player in this game. To describe Obama as a socialist or 'evil' just shows how the Reps, the connected media, think tanks, e.g. have been able to distort the reality that much, that even those who already have a much more miserable life under a GOP governor are still see Obama as the enemy of the state.

Have your read the last sentence. It's complete nonsense. a.) Buffet said the opposite b.) It's not about how much the secretary earns, but how high her tax rate is.

I think only GB has a sizable number of blacks. In France it's Arabs (Algeria) mostly. In the Netherlands it is people from Indonesia (Molukken), e.g.. The slave ships went North America and Haiti e. g.

Actually we don't have that many 'blacks' in Europe. In Germany they are a minority within the minority of immigrants - btw my sister was married to an African, she ran a shop with African goods but did not do well because the customer base was too small... Different European countries have different main groups of immigrants, due to their colonial and post WWII histories. In Germany for example you'll have to talk about Turkish immigrants. But they are here only in the third generation and just started to climb the social ladder a decade or so ago. Very different to the history of black people in the USA.

This doesn't matter at all. Like Obama before, they just need a good narrative. For foreign eyes the US people seem to be extremely naive and gullible. Just sell the narrative they want to hear (preferably a mix of religion, US patriotism and capitalist ideology) and they will trust you, even though you might be as able to run a country as a loaf of bread. Just have a look at GWB. He almost single handed ruined the country, lost (two wars) and destroyed the US world leadership...

GWB was able to win over a lot of Latinos. But of course they abandoned the GOP when Obama entered the field. The question is how many of the Blacks and Latinos will vote at all after being abandoned by Obama? I guess regardless how Obama will do in the next 12 months, the next election might not be for Obama, but against a GOP candidate: If a right wing hardliner like Perry will win the GOP nomination I think many of the non-whites might not explicitely vote for Obama, but against the GOP candidate. A right wing GOP candidate is probably the best what could happen to Obama. The Tea Party is already falling below 20%, while the GOP candidates are still playing to the conservative fundamentalists. If they keep on doing so, Obama will be able ato place himself as s center candidate who might not be liked by the independent and moderate voters, but who would be the only electable candidate for millions of people.

I am wondering about Latinos and Blacks. While they might not be impressed by Obama anymore, a GOP president will definitely be far worse for them in regard to immigration (see Arizona e.g.), education (see Texas, e.g.), social security and medicare, infrastructure (like reduced and more expensive mass transit), consumer protection and labor rights. Since the majority of them is lower or lower middle class the proposed cuts and changes will hurt them deeply.

You can by oil from Hugo Chavez. Anyway, what I wanted to say is, that business men don't give a shit which religion his business partner has or if his home country respects human rights. Just have look at Germany. The country is a second strongest export nation (until recently it was the most strongest). How do you think this happened? Because German companies deal with every nation and company in the world (and selling German weapons to anybody who is able to pay).

That's strange view. No company is being forced to do business with Muslim countries. In contrary, since the old in regime in Libya fell a few days ago representatives from (oil) companies from around the world are racing to Libya in order to secure a piece of the oil market. Being forced to do business looks very different.

The GOP elite is very unhappy about the conservative presidential candidates: It’s a tough time to be a conservative intellectual. From The Weekly Standard to The Wall Street Journal, on the pages of policy periodicals and opinion sections, the egghead right’s longing for a presidential candidate of ideas — first Mitch Daniels, then Paul Ryan — has been endless, intense and unrequited. Profoundly dissatisfied with the current field, that dull ache may only grow more acute after Ryan’s decision Monday to take himself out of the running. The problem, in shorthand: To many conservative elites, Rick Perry is a dope, Michele Bachmann is a joke and Mitt Romney is a fraud. They don’t publicly express their judgments in such harsh terms, but the low regard is obvious: The Journal’s editorial board, the bible of conservative intellectual orthodoxy,pretty much excommunicated Romney from the movement in May for his health care sins. Then, last week, the editorial board suggested that Bachmann and Perry couldn’t be elected, and that “now would be the time†for “someone still off the field to step up.†more: http://www.politico....0811/61882.html

"like tears in the rain" wasn't even scripted: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTFQBHBeleE&feature=player_embedded

Yep. A perfect movie. Fantastic cast, revolutionary depiction of a future city, perfect atmosphere and soundtrack, great story...

Don't worry Steve, it's all good!

New subsection: On the campaign (trail): Today: Mitt Romney ROMNEY TO QUADRUPLE SIZE OF $12 MILLION CALIFORNIA HOME | Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who in June told voters that he was “also unemployed,†has applied for a permit to bulldoze his 3,000-square-foot, $12 million home in La Jolla, California, and replace it with one nearly four times its size. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the new home will be two stories and more than 11,000 square feet. Romney also owns a $10 million estate in New Hampshire. His campaign declined to comment on the renovation plans. http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/08/21/300363/romney-to-quadruple-size-of-12-million-california-home/

The Tea Party is slowly going down: Tea Party is increasingly swimming against the tide of public opinion: among most Americans, even before the furor over the debt limit, its brand was becoming toxic. Polls show that disapproval of the Tea Party is climbing. In April 2010, a New York Times/CBS News survey found that 18 percent of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of it, 21 percent had a favorable opinion and 46 percent had not heard enough. Now, 14 months later, Tea Party supporters have slipped to 20 percent, while their opponents have more than doubled, to 40 percent. In data we have recently collected, the Tea Party ranks lower than any of the 23 other groups we asked about — lower than both Republicans and Democrats. It is even less popular than much maligned groups like “atheists†and “Muslims.†Interestingly, one group that approaches it in unpopularity is the Christian Right. Contrary to some accounts, the Tea Party is not a creature of the Great Recession. Many Americans have suffered in the last four years, but they are no more likely than anyone else to support the Tea Party. And while the public image of the Tea Party focuses on a desire to shrink government, concern over big government is hardly the only or even the most important predictor of Tea Party support among voters. So what do Tea Partiers have in common? They are overwhelmingly white, but even compared to other white Republicans, they had a low regard for immigrants and blacks long before Barack Obama was president, and they still do. More important, they were disproportionately social conservatives in 2006 — opposing abortion, for example — and still are today. Next to being a Republican, the strongest predictor of being a Tea Party supporter today was a desire, back in 2006, to see religion play a prominent role in politics. And Tea Partiers continue to hold these views: they seek “deeply religious†elected officials, approve of religious leaders’ engaging in politics and want religion brought into political debates. The Tea Party’s generals may say their overriding concern is a smaller government, but not their rank and file, who are more concerned about putting God in government. NYT

Wow, that's hardcore music. I guess after Hardrock, Punk and Grunge this will be the next big trend in youth culture.

Margaret Bourke White: The American Way of Life, 1937