Steve

I dont think Europe, America or any govt is underestimating China. They are all trying tn figure out how to deal with it.

Hard to argue against the logic. Big Oil has too much of a stranglehold on Washington. The oil companies globally are very powerful. I do think we will see a shift though. China has a voracious apetite for oil. Just like America did during its great expansion when it happened to us. Because of China's need for oil, they will take an increasing interest in the region to make sure the oil continues flowing. They don't have the navy to do that now but they are rapidly expanding theirs. We'll see Chinese ships in the Middle East in the future. Possibly near future.

Riots? Why? Look at the '00 election. If riots didn't happen under that scenario, I can't see how losing an election would.

Oh my! http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81618.html?hp=r4 Though Ryan had already decided to distance himself from the floundering Romney campaign, he now feels totally uninhibited. Reportedly, he has been marching around his campaign bus, saying things like, “If Stench calls, take a message†and “Tell Stench I’m having finger sandwiches with Peggy Noonan and will text him later.†Even before the stench article appeared, there was a strong sign that Ryan was freeing himself from the grips of the Romney campaign. It began after his disastrous appearance on Friday before AARP in New Orleans. Ryan delivered his remarks in the style dictated by his Romney handlers: Stand behind the lectern, read the speech as written and don’t stray from the script. Ryan brought his 78-year-old mother with him and introduced her to the audience, which is usually a sure crowd pleaser. But when Ryan began talking about repealing “Obamacare†because he said it would harm seniors, one woman in the crowd shouted, “Lie!†Another shouted “Liar!†and the crowd booed Ryan lustily. Who boos a guy in front of his 78-year-old mother? Other 78-year-old mothers.

Wow, this is a real shocker! http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-romney-nascar-poll-140401668--politics.html the Republican nominee appears to be trailing President Barack Obama among a traditionally conservative constituency: NASCAR fans. Obama leads Romney 49 to 42 percent among NASCAR enthusiasts, according to a new Zogby poll by JZ Analytics.

I totally disagree with this statement. I encourage EVERYONE to vote their conscience and for who they think is the best person. Not if I vote for this guy then that guy wins. Vote for the person you believe in. Even if its Romney or whomever. It goes to show you the character of a person like Ryan, who has an Obama out mentality at all costs. I am voting for Johnson. Many of the other people voting for Johnson are Repbulicans who would have voted for Romney otherwise. I applaud them for voting for the person they deem most worthy even if it means Obama wins. I'd say the same otherwise. I want as many people to vote as possible and vote for the person they deem worthy after great consideration. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/paul-ryan-want-barack-obama-elected-then-don-212347213--politics.html "For those of us who would have voted in the primaries for, say, Ron Paul, why should we vote for you and not, say, libertarians or Vermin Supreme and the Pony Party or something like that?" a man from the audience asked during the question and answer session. "Do you want Barack Obama to be re-elected?" Ryan asked. "Then don't vote for Ron Paul."

RealClear is the source I used because they use mulitple polling sources and then does it a composite. I prefer to look at individual poll with the highest number of samples personally. RealClear seems to be not only accurate but respected. The polls from there say its Obama's election as far as we can tell. It could be closer than we all think but the 'word' is that internal polling from Republicans suggest that Romney is in deep doo doo.

Abortion, gay marriage, teaching of evolution are religious issues for conservatives. Thats the heart of it. I recall studying the big bang, etc. in grade school. Never gave it a second thought other than passing the test at the end of the class. Never thought about it in relation to what I was hearing in Sunday school that God created the heavens and the earth. Fundamentals have this insane thought that America's schools are turning kids into atheists by teaching the big bang and other theories.

What gets me about the Republican party is the hypocracy. A social safety net is wrong for the poor or someone who has a run of bad luck but a corporation can file for bankruptcy protection and even be exonerated from legally binding agreements like a union contract and that is not a safety net? That isn't a government program by another name? The fundamentals are another head scratcher. The Republican platform they embrace totally contradicts biblical teaching. Totally. I am as disgusted by people abusing the social welfare system, etc. as anyone else. I am also no big fan of illegal immigration but the demonization is over the top. By that I mean, we're lied to that the reason we can't find a job or we pay higher taxes is because it goes to pay for these folks. Its PROVEN that corporate welfare costs far, far more than social welfare. I don't think I've ever lost a job to some latino illegal alien either. Someone summed it up succintly once. Democrats are against certain institutions (big oil, etc.), Republicans are against cerain Americans. The party seems to want to only appeal to white males. I believe in a lot of the old Republican values but I don't feel like I would be accepted. Were I a 22yo again, poor but full of ambition and a willingness to work hard for whatever I got without asking for anything and I saw the present incarnation of the Republican party I wouldn't feel wanted. I know others who are the same. There is just this atmosphere of us against them. Also the blatant hypocracy. There is plenty not to like the Democratic party about. However, they seem like saints these days in comparison.

Stats say that voter fraud in America is as likely as getting hit by lightening. Its that rare and in the vast majority of cases it isn't even true intentional fraud. Its things such as moving from one state to another and not properly securing the new state's citizenship, etc. So we wonder why Blacks vote almost exclusively for the Democratic party. The Dems are far from perfect, some of the ideology is not good. However, the Republicans by far do the most odious things. Several key swing states which Romney needs and have a Republican secretary of state, are attempting to remove Johnson from the ballot because the Libertarian party will take votes from Romney moreso than Obama. Where is the national Republican leadership? Why aren't they threatening and telling these officials to cut that shit out? Why not? Because these are the same leaders who have told the same state officials ways of making it hard for Ron Paul to win the state during the primary to ensure Romney won. Paul won Iowa and other states but was cheated out out of the win by the state Republican leadership. Where is the religious right, fundamentals in all this. As we Christians like to say 'what would Jesus do?'. The religious part is silent. Hypocrites to the core. Call themselves Christians. Furthermore, they were willling to vote against Obama if they thought he was a moslem because he wouldn't have been a Christian but have no problem voting for a Mormon over a "fellow" Christian. These were the same pharisees Jesus drove out of the synagogues in his day. I would be ashamed to be a member of the party these days. Truly rotten at the core.

This is something that has never been discussed but I believe it to be true. Obama didn't expect to win the nomination in '08 and certainly didn't expect to win the Presidency. Like so many others, I believe Obama ran in '08 to set himself up for higher office. I would guess he wanted to make a good showing in the primaries and give Hillary a run for her money. If/when Hillary won, I think he was either going to ask for a high level appointment in her cabinet or set himself up for a run at Governor of Illinois and look to 2016 or 2020 for the Presidency. Its a path many have done, usually young candidates trying to get name recognition. My favorite pol, Cory Booker will probably try for the Governorship of New Jersey. Rubio is famous but I think he is vulnerable and Booker is very good. He has integrity. The only thing Rubio can criticize him for is his ideology. Maybe as a big city liberal. That's it. Not much else. No scandals that I am aware of. If Booker becomes Governor, I expect within 6 to 8 years of securing the position he'll run for President. If so, I'll be waiting to support him.

One of if not the biggest hindrance for the American people and the biggest advantage the powers that control everything has is the lack of international travel done by most Americans. We've all heard the stats, anywhere from 15 t 20 percent at most have a passport. 911 has forced many to get one to go to Mexico and the Caribbean. The few Americans that travel internationally mostly go to places poorer than they are (Mexico, West Indies) and think they are fortunate. I think once we get out to the developed countries thing will change. International travel has had a major impact on my ideological view. I would assume for most of you on here, whether you are American or not. Europeans live close to each other and a passport is the norm not the exception. Even if you're conservative your view of conservatism is not the same I think as the masses in America. I've met more than a few ex military guys who were in in Irag and Afganistan who are big proponents of huge defense cuts. Its the Americans who only listen to the news in America that are big on defense. Spending 20% of your economy on defense is insane, especially given the fact you have no enemies on your border or trying to harm you. Al qaida aside and if you really want to be honest they didn't arbitrarily come looking for us, we were in the Middle East. In some sense we went looking for them if you understand what I'm trying to say. Basically if we weren't so entrenched in the region they wouldn't have a reason to be trying to kill us. The big companies and the Forbes 400 types have made back all their 'lost' wealth and then some since the '08 meltdown. They are fine, its the rest of us that have to get back the lost revenue. The big lie in the Republican platform is that companies are just waiting to hire if they get their taxes lowered and regulations eased. Big companies, banks, etc. are sitting on a lot of cash. Look at the DJIA from '08 to now, they are making money. Why hire? If you have a business, an employee is the last thing you want. They are expensive and hard to get rid of. You can move to a less expensive building or office, get rid of a machine or factory machinery but try and get rid of people in America. Its tough. I was a corporate manager, trust me, its tough, you gotta document the hell out of it, give warnings, etc so you don't get sued. Machines don't take sick days or vacation days. Companies don't want to hire unless they absolutely have to. There is no incentive to. When I think of a business model I want to adopt when I have an idea the perfect one is where I don't have to hire anyone. Some turnkey internet site. My brother makes about an extra 800 bucks a month selling on eBay. No employees, no store to pay rent, etc. That's the business model that is almost perfect. What we need to be doing is incentivising companies to hire based on need. Where they have no other business choice but to hire a warm body. Infrastructure is one. Construction companies, etc. can't do it all with machines. Someone has to be there. Someone has to lay the high speed internet lines. Someone has to make the high speed bullet train that runs from San Diego through Los Angeles to San Francisco and from Boston to Washington stopping at NYC and Philadelphia on the way. You need engineers, draftsmen, etc. to retrofit the bridges, subway tunnels, etc. that are near collapse. Someone at the banks has to loan these companies the money to expand.

Many people, especially republicans believe Fance,Germany and most of Europe are socialist states.

Many people, especially republicans believe Fance,Germany and most of Europe are socialist states.

They wont call it an entitlement, welfare or a government substinence program but there is no friggin way Romney pays 13% taxes without the govt doing or letthng him do something they dont let his secretary who pays a much higher rate do. Its an entitlement when you and i get it but "creating jobs" when you area billionaire. I am not anti rich. Like every Americani hope to join their ranks. But lets be fair and honest about it all.

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Romney caught in a maelstrom about what he said to big donors in a private meeting. It sounds bad and he will suffer for it. Similar to Obama's "clinging to guns and religion" statement in the '08 campaign. I am not gonna castigate Romney as much as others. The reason is when you're dealing with big money donors you tell them what they want to hear and you have to give them a reason to part ways with thousands if not millions of dollars. I'm sure if you were to hear a tape of what Obama says to the Hollywood elite, HH would sell all his belongings and move permanently out of the country. I think both have probably said some pretty scary stuff ideologically, culturally, etc. to big donors. The one tag that some on the right (including HH) say about Obama being a socialist, or at least a closeted one bent on turning America into one big welfare state doesn't hold true for two reasons. One is he's governed from the center, a little left of center but not enough to be tagged liberal. The Republican party is so far right that Reagan is left of center, so in their view Obama is a socialist but its that the Republicans have moved so far away from the center that the center looks far left. The second is the speeches Obama gives to Black churches. Its not done for the media because they rarely report or go to the church meetings. Obama preached self help to the point that Jesse Jackson disliked him and made that hot mic comment about him. Jackson said 'He's been talking down to people'. Obama would have gotten them more excited had he did the time tested 'the man wants to keep you down' speech. It would have carried over very well but he spoke what he truly believed and that is that the black community needs to be more self sufficient and stop doing the dumb things (babies without marriage, drugs, decorum) that doesn't help.

Not surprised really. http://news.yahoo.com/y--big-picture--homegrown-terrorism-domestic-terrorism-and-extremism.html Since the beginning of the Obama administration, hate groups have grown 755 percent, according to the Southern Law Poverty Center. Besides the recession, antagonism over a black Democratic president has been cited for its rise: A known neo-Nazi Web forum, which had amassed 90,000 users over 12 years, saw an increase of 5,000 sign-ups the day after the 2008 election. By April 2009, membership had nearly doubled to 160,000.

HH! LOL. That post has to go down as a classic! I was cracking up reading it. Wow! Dont go away for too long. I miss u buddy!

As stated before, no one expects anyone to join the military arbitrarily in peacetime. In fact, I would contend that one would expect a person who is college bound and especially someone capable of getting into an Ivy league school like Columbia that has not only okay not to go but would consider someone forgoing or delaying Columbia as foolish. Most fathers, even one with a military background wouldn't advise their son to join if he has the brains for college and especially Columbia during peacetime. We don't know what Obama would have done if there was a war and was needed but we know what Romney, Clinton, Cheney and Bush did. Joining the military or at least serving if drafted in time of war IS the issue. Romney failed that test. I am forgiving of someone not serving, especially in an unpopular war such as Vietnam IF they admitted it and have grown since then. The hypocritical thing with the conservatives in that list save Romney is that waged war and made others serve in an unpopular war. Romney is a hawk and also appears hypocritical.

http://now.msn.com/ervin-mckinness-tweets-yolo-before-dying-in-car-crash What a dumbass! Sorry, I have no sympathy for idiots like this and I'm gonna get myself in trouble for saying this but the downside of the social media phenom with Twitter, Youtube, Facebook and the like is that the ghetto/trailer types and I mean that in terms of some people in their mentality not in terms of their income level, because I was in that same income level in my family growing up but the mentality of some of them. They do the most stupid things and say the the most stupid shit on Youtube, etc. It goes viral and seeing the complete moronic things they do and say it really makes you wonder if mankind has not reached our peak and we are on a decline. The ghetto folks and the traier park folks (the mentality of some) are two sides of the same friggin' coin. This stuff follows us forever. There is a permanent electronic record of your acts. These folks don't realize it. Anyway, tragic event but I am not feeling sympathetic.

Bullying is traumatic. There are whole genres of movies about a person who comes back to their HS reunion, sometimes as long as 25 years after to exact revenge or confront demons. I'm not belittling the impact. I've seen it, once or twice been bullied and I still remember vividly. We have a snapshot of people from HS and if we don't follow them, at our reunions we look at our classmates and think of them the exact way we left them. The fact is that people change and when I've re-connected with HS classmates its amazing how different they are. I had a teammate on my track team who was an atheist. He thought how silly of me to believe in God. I found out he changed his major in college and studied eastern religions and became a bonafide Shaman and holds designations in various beliefs. Shocker for me. There was this one guy who was picked on relentlessly, felt so sorry for him. The guy is now a local radio show host. Seemingly well adjusted. One guy is a politician or at least ran for public office in his district. Never would have pegged him as the type. Great guy though, when I went to HS in the 'burbs he would invite me over for dinner. Lovely family but didn't peg him as the politician type. HS bullies often get theirs. If they go to college they are often small fish in a big pond and someone decks them for that kind of behavior. Also, 'life' happens. Often something tragic and it makes them change their ways. One girl from my neighborhood who I used to make out with became a minister. Malcolm X was a drug dealer and pimp. He eventually changed from the racist ideology of the Nation of Islam to one where he accepted all people after he saw blond blue eyed moslems on his pilgrimage to Mecca. I would be interested in Romney's personal journey since those days. He doesn't strike me as a bully or having bullying ways now from the way he seems in public. could be an act or he masks it well. Until I hear otherwise, I'll leave his actions in the past. I won't judge him on it.

Really? What a joke.

What Romney did years ago in school is only relevant IF there was recent proof he hasn't changed. Students do stupid sh*t. We have all done stuff or thought a certain way, ways that in retrospect is wrong. Its called being human and growing as a person. No way in hell I'd be in favor of gay marriage when I was in college. I've banged and dogged out a few girls back in the old days and some could use that to say I am a mysogynist. (okay, I am but that's not the point :-) Obama has shown that he has changed. He has a checkered past as well. There is more than enough on the issues NOT to vote for Romney.

The cold hard truth of the matter its done to reduce the number of voters, specifically traditional Democratic voters, Blacks, Latinos, the poor of all stripes. Disgusting. In a day and an age when we should be encouraging people to vote, this is disgusting. I would love to see over 90% of eligibility voters vote. Even if it means my person didn't win. I may be naive but I think the people will eventually get it right as they become more enformed. This is also disgusting. http://www.policymic.com/articles/14389/republican-use-dirty-tricks-crack-down-on-ron-paul-and-gary-johnson-in-state-courts Republican Use Dirty Tricks, Crack Down on Ron Paul and Gary Johnson in State Courts The Republican Party is running scared. Either that or they think the country is better served by restricting voter choice to only those candidates they want to appear on the ballot. Could this be the same party that is supposed to totally support the Constitution and personal freedoms? In Iowa, the Republican Secretary of State is attempting to remove Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson from the presidential ballot because leaving Johnson on the ballot “will cause “irreparable harm to other candidates and political parties who must compete against him.†In Virginia, Gary Johnson was successful in fighting a GOP attempt to remove him from the ballot. In Oklahoma, the Republican Attorney General is attempting to remove Gary Johnson, Libertarian Party candidate for President from the ballot tying him to Americans Elect. Meanwhile, in Michigan, Johnson has to sue the Republican Secretary of State because she says he missed the filing deadline by three minutes. In Pennsylvania, the state Republican Party is challenging validity of signatures even though more than double the required number were turned in. As for Ohio, the GOP is suing to remove Libertarian Gary Johnson from the presidential ballot. Washington State's turn-a-bout is fair play. The Libertarian Party is suing the GOP that is a minority party under state law, and therefore the party’s presidential candidate does not qualify for the ballot. In Nevada, the GOP is worried about “None of the Above†because the state Republican Party “fears “none†could siphon votes from the Republican candidates.†“None of the Above†has appeared as a choice on all Nevada ballots since 1976 as a mean for Nevadans to express dissatisfaction with the choice of candidates. “None†cannot be declared the winner even if it receives the highest number of votes. Why is the Republican Party doing this? Do they believe they fielded weak candidates who cannot stand on their own in close races? Do they not truly believe in freedom of choice and want to restrict, through any means necessary, voter choice? Have they forgotten what freedom really means? Or maybe they’ve gone off the deep end and don’t know how to get back on solid ground In ever election there are some lies, half truths, mistruths and naughty business with the facts. I expect as much from BOTH sides. I take it with a grain of salt but my line is when a party knowingly inhibits a person's right to vote and/or the choices we have. I used to vote Republican on occasion, depending on the candidate. I can't support that party in anything anymore. They've become odious. They have shifted so far right, they're more right wing that Gordie Howe. The irony of the party that likes to define Americanism, is by the far the most 'unamerican' of the two parties. There are lots of things not to like about the Democratic party but Republicans are making them look almost saint like.