Usa Thread

[Steve]

I will say this about Newt. Recently, he's come under fire for supposedly wanting to bring back child labor and break child labor laws. I saw what he said and it is taken out of context. He was discussing inner city jobs and said it may be best to offer the job of janitorial work in the schools to the poor students than to a unionized janitor. I can see the logic in that. One of the best things for teens in the inner city is to see what its like to get a paycheck. Janitors in some of these school districts are getting paid well over 50k a year or more because they've been in the job for a long time. Its a cushy job. A case can be made for either. That janitor probably lives in the inner city and raised a family, bought a house and car on that salary so although we may not like paying a guy 50k a year to clean a school the residual benefits of that wage probably did more good than bad.

 

Of course on the other hand provding a source of income for inner city kids and perhaps keeping them from gangs and drugs by instilling a work ethic and a paycheck will have residual benefits as well.

 

That said, I looked at Gingrich's economic plan and its pretty much the basic Republican mantra. Cut capital gains and corporate rates. Drill anywhere you want. Cut regulations so companies can do whatever they want. He wants a flat tax as an alternative as well. That will have holes as well. I think he's a smart guy. I just don't agree wtih his policies or politics. I don't care about his personal life. If he wants to bang two women thats his issue as long as it doesn't affect his job. Both the French and Italian leaders have mistresses and banging anything that moves and they're doing their job.

 

Finally NONE of the Republican leaders address health care. All they can say is repeal Obamacare as some mantra and offer NOTHING of consequences instead. Over 60 percent of Americans who file a BK do so for health cost reasons. If that isn't an urgent matter I don't know what is. However, they offer NOTHING. Why? The health care industry owns them. Pure and simple. The Health Savings Plan thingy is a crock of shit. Poor and working class can't possibly save enough for catostrophic events. They parrot the health care industry with this 'best medical care in the world' bullshit while those of us on this forum from America go to Thailand to have medical work done and its also why medical tourism to places such as India and Thailand is booming and has been for some time. That is a great system? They demonize nationalized health care as if its straight out of the communist manifesto. We have the great advantage of seeing what other nations have done right and wrong with national healthcare but the very notion is demonized.

[Steve]

I guarantee you this is a department that has nothing to do and trying to find anything to justify its existence. Give me a friggin' break. Just talk to the guy and let him keep his haul. Taking money out of the guy's hands that he could use to employ folks and god forbid make a little money. If I was the secretary of whatever department that oversees that I would call them up and say 'Really? Are you that bored? Use some friggin' common sense.'

 

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/man-catches-881-pound-tuna-seized-feds-194650751.html

 

A Massachusetts fisherman pulled in an 881-pound tuna this week only to have the federal authorities take it away. It sounds like a libertarian twist on the classic novella by Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, but for Carlos Rafael, the saga is completely true.

Rafael and his crew were using nets to catch bottom-dwellers when they inadvertently snagged the giant tuna. However, federal fishery enforcement agents took control of the behemoth when the boat returned to port. The reason for the seizure was procedural: While Rafael had the appropriate permits, fishermen are only allowed to catch tuna with a rod and reel.

It would seem that unlike the fictional New England shark hunters in Jaws, Rafael didn't need a bigger boat, just a better permit.

In an interview with the Standard-Times of New Bedford, Rafael disputes the claims from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) enforcement division that the humungous tuna was trawled from the bottom of the Atlantic. "They didn't catch that fish on the bottom," he said. "They probably got it in the mid-water when they were setting out and it just got corralled in the net. That only happens once in a blue moon."

And while Rafael is denied the mother of all fish stories, the federal impoundment of his catch also means he's probably losing out on a giant payday. A 754-pound tuna recently sold for nearly $396,000. NOAA regulators do not share any of the proceeds from the fish's eventual sale with a fisherman found in violation of federal rules.

"They said it had to be caught with rod and reel," a frustrated Rafael said. "We didn't try to hide anything. We did everything by the book. Nobody ever told me we couldn't catch it with a net."..

[Steve]

Newt is that type of guy that throws you a curve when you expect a fastball every once in a while. I know its a touchy issue but I agree with him. Did they break the law? Yes, however, the party picks and chooses which lawbreakers it wants to bring to task and which ones it doesn't. There are politicians who deserve jail time technically for stuff but they find a way to protect each other. These candidates are pandering. I don't like illegal immigration any more than the next guy. Live in LA or for that matter any of the southwestern states long enough and you'll come across very decent people who are just trying to make a better life for themselves. Many of whom served and risked their lives for this country in its wars. I absolutely guarantee you had the european immigrants to America been in Canada and Mexico instead of an ocean away they'd be streaming across in the same manner as the latinos have. All this my great grandfather came here from [insert any european country here] stuff is basically he had no choice but to come here legally. Even plenty of them came here illegally. I've often heard that many Italians (amongst others) had doctored and fraudulent papers. The REAL issue is enforcing the border. Is it enforceable? Some say no. I guarantee you if an Al Qaida terrorist did something tragic and came through the southern borders, it would be sealed faster than a New York minute.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/newt-gingrich-prepared-heat-immigration-043951171.html

"I don't see how the party that says it's the party of the family, is going to adopt an immigration policy which destroys families that have been here a quarter century," the former House Speaker said. "And I'm prepared to take the heat for saying 'let's be humane and enforce the law without giving them citizenship but by finding a way to create legality so they are not separate from their families.'"

Gingrich—who advocates the Vernon K. Krieble Foundation's immigration proposal to create "red card" work permits-- said he does support deporting recent illegal immigrants. But he did disown a hardline policy of seeking out and punishing children of illegal immigrants, including those who wish to serve in the U.S. military. As rival candidate Michele Bachmann was quick to point out, Gingrich's position shares many affinities with the DREAM Act proposal defeated in Congress last year. And Bachmann, together with other conservative candidates on the dais, called out Gingrich for backing a version of amnesty for the families of people who entered the United States illegally.

[kamui]

While I think that the president of the USA is much more powerful than many other heads of states, it seems that the system is so dysfunctional that even the strongest president can't win against the vested interests, the extremely powerful lobby groups and the corruption. The failure of the super committee has shown that there are extremely strong groups which are not interested in a solution which would pull the USA out of the mess. For those groups their own interests are more important than the fate of the USA.

 

 

 

[Hugh_Hoy]

Yeah, Newt, the one who started f@cking upcoming wife 2, while still being married to wife 1. He asked wife 1 for divorce while she was in hospital recovering of cancer. Next he left wife 2 with whom he was still married for wife 3. While being married with wife 2 and f@cking upcoming wife 3 (of course a House staffer and 23 years younger) Newt lead the impeachment of Bill Clinton because the Monica L. scandal.

 

The Newt who received 300.000 USD from Fannie (or was it Freddie) for advice he gave as an historian for ca. 1 hr. a week? I guess that was the best paid job a historian ever had. Too bad that I did study history for just one year - I could have beene a rich man by now.

 

I guess that's the candidate who represents the GOP's values best.

 

 

So which is worse? Newt fucking upcoming wife #3 while married to wife #2...or Obama fucking every taxpayer in the U.S?

 

As for the work done by Newt's COMPANY for Freddie Mac, maybe you should have studied harder if you wanted the contract. LOL. Jealousy is a sin

 

HH

[kamui]

As for the work done by Newt's COMPANY for Freddie Mac, maybe you should have studied harder if you wanted the contract. LOL. Jealousy is a sin

 

HH

 

Newt has a company for historical advice to financial institutions?

I am becoming even more jealous. Why did I not come up with this...

 

 

I am just trying to figure out what advice he must have given to them just before they needed to be bailed out with billions of US taxpayer's money. It was probably on the level of "Pecunia non olet".

[Steve]

While I think that the president of the USA is much more powerful than many other heads of states, it seems that the system is so dysfunctional that even the strongest president can't win against the vested interests, the extremely powerful lobby groups and the corruption. The failure of the super committee has shown that there are extremely strong groups which are not interested in a solution which would pull the USA out of the mess. For those groups their own interests are more important than the fate of the USA.

 

I knew a guy who was a congressional page in his idealistic years just out of college. He left completely convinced the country was chronically broken and would never be fixed...and this guy was a page in '70s! He said, idealistic people often go and after they see the enormity and the endemic corruption that permeates all levels of government even the judicial to some extent they just give up and either return home or join the money/power train. I spoke to him on skype a few weeks ago and he laughed it took me this long to realize something he had told me years ago.

 

The sad fact is that even if a Ron Paul gets elected it won't matter. The real problem is that members of congress are usually there longer than the President as well as the CEOs of the corportations that own them. Even if the CEOs leave or retire the corporation's main goals of favorable laws and regulations remain. They can wait out any president that opposes them. Even 8 years. Congress has to change, thats the place that needs a lot of Ron Pauls or Gary Johnsons.

 

Take away the special interst and I think opposing ideologies can compromise. They don't now because they have toe the line. Remove this and I honestly think, two honest and decent guys with different ideologies like BT and HH on here could find middle ground. No doubt both want the best for the country and wouldn't be bought off. Both would have some deal breakers but that's okay. I honestly think there is enough left for things to get done. We just have to remove the power brokers behind the scenes. Maybe I'm still a bit too idealistic.

[Bangkoktraveler]

So which is worse? Newt fucking upcoming wife #3 while married to wife #2...or Obama fucking every taxpayer in the U.S?

 

As for the work done by Newt's COMPANY for Freddie Mac, maybe you should have studied harder if you wanted the contract. LOL. Jealousy is a sin

 

HH

 

I am surprised you support a commie/socialist.

 

Didn't you listen to the debates and hear Newt claim he doesn't want to send illegals back?

[Bangkoktraveler]

The chap who came up with Arizona's SB1070 which rekindled the illegal immigration debat got bounced from his job. The citizens asked for and got a recall election and Russell Pearce lost. It sounds like things are changing. There is even now talk of having a recall for the Arizona govenors position.

[Steve]

The banks can do what they want to a large extent. I don't like what BofA are doing and I think the government should be doing a better job of protecting the people when they offer contracts such as these. What is worse is the big banks having the influence to kill of the alternatives like credit unions who they have been trying to legislate out of existence even though they are a tiny part of the banking market.

 

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/11/14/367467/bank-of-america-unemployment-benefit-fees/

 

...Millions of jobless Americans [like Busby] have little choice but to rely on the bank’s prepaid debit cards to collect their monthly benefits. Forty-one states have contracted with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, and other banks to provide access to public benefits, allowing them to collect unlimited fees, both from the unemployed and state governments. South Carolina, for instance, pays Bank of America a fee for each transfer it facilitates on a debit card, and for handling direct deposit of unemployment benefits.

 

Families who are living hand-to-mouth are outraged to discover that banks worth trillions of dollars are taking such a big cut of their benefits, when they depend on every penny. The New York Times reports today that banks have been quietly raising fees on everything from replacing lost cards to monthly maintenance. BofA customers can be charged $1.50 for speaking to a customer service operator more than once a month, $1.50 for using an “out-of-network†ATM, and $0.50 for entering the wrong PIN number too many times...