Usa Thread

[Bangkoktraveler]

.... and why did it take 10 years?

 

Because GWB diverted the military' date=' resources, [color:red']intelligence[/color] and money to Iraq.

 

 

Next question, why did we have to invade Iraq? Do we really havemoney to burn?

[Steve]

The only possible way I'll vote for a Republican in the next Presidential election is if Ron Paul is the candidate. Hell, I'll volunteer to help his campaign...answer calls, mail letters, etc. As I've said before. I don't agree with some stuff and there are some stuff I would not want to see come to fruition and I don't think would. Too 'radical' for most Americans.

 

However, the number one thing missing from politics is integrity. A guy who honestly believes in doing what he thinks is right and can't be bought or scared off by the powers that be.

 

The Bush years soured me from the Republicans for the time being. At least on the national level. I'd go for a Republican statewide or local if the rihgt guy ran. Its the hypocracy that grates me. When they're not in office they want to balance the budget, cut spending and waste, etc. but as soon as they get in they find some reason to spend money. Usually defense. I also don't believe in the 'trickle down' theory. I'm all for lower taxes across the board. My issue in specific tax cuts for the wealthy under the guise of job creation is that I can't see how cutting someone like Paris Hilton's tax bill creates jobs? Some wealthy aren't job creators or at least not enough to warrant a huge tax cut. Those living on inheritances like Paris or others (although she makes her own money these days but you get my point). How does the salary for a svp or ceo who make a multi million dollar salary create jobs? Their companies do but I mean them pesonally? How does an athlete making 10 mil a year create jobs if his tax bill is cut? Or an entertainer? Okay, they hire a publicist and/or manager but is the return worth it? They save hundreds of thousands if not millions and pay someone 60k a year?

I can definitely understand cutting for small businesses. I used to believe cutting it for corporations was a good thing but my 'commie, pinko red' thinking nowadays tells me that corporations aren't patriotic. They don't want to hire people, they want to make money for the stockholders. Nothing wrong with that. That kind of thinking made us number one economically. But helping corporations make money by moviing production, jobbs, overseas isn't what I call job creation. Cutting taxes if they create jobs within the U.S. I can see.

 

I have a shed load of problems with the Dems. Always have. I know what I will get. I don't like a lot of it but at least there are no real big surprises. Frankly, I have no friggin' idea what a Republican will do in national office these days. Its a complete wildcard. Something will happen, something I don't like but its something I am not prepared for. Then there is the religious influence and social conservatism. I'm a Christian. Not a good one admittedly. My membership here is proof of that with you heathens...hahaha...(I love you guys though :nahnah: ). I'm a firm believer in separation of church state. Reasonable separation (complaining about 'In God We Trust' on money is a bit over the top by atheists. Who gives a shit? No one even notices that shit). What happened to keeping government out of our private lives? Its the complete opposite. I also don't want the government defining what makes a good American, what is patriotic and the Republicans keep preaching that. Doing what the f*ck you want to do as long as not violating the laws is what an American can do. I may not like it. I also wouldn't want the power to make my personal issues about something illegal as well. These days the pols do.

 

I only hear what the Dems and Obama are doing wrong. Not until recently have we heard any coherent, specific ideas and those that got met with outrage. Its taken this long to come up with something. The choices are all bought and paid for by special interest. Its all bullshit. On both sides. If the Republicans were serious and really wanted to send a signal, they'd show some love to the Ron Pauls of the party.

[Flashermac]

Press Release

 

For Immediate Release

Friday, 27 May 2011

 

 

Libertarians say restore freedom, repeal Patriot Act

 

 

WASHINGTON - Libertarian Party Chair Mark Hinkle issued the following statement today:

 

"Yesterday, Republicans and Democrats in Congress joined hands to renew several provisions of the Patriot Act. These provisions are unconstitutional and violate our right to freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.

 

"These provisions should be repealed, and if they're not repealed, they ought to be ruled unconstitutional by the courts.

 

"Anyone who believes that Democrats care more about civil liberties than Republicans ought to be disillusioned by this renewal. It has become painfully clear that the Obama administration is indistinguishable from the George W. Bush administration.

 

"The plain injustice of these search provisions is compounded by the secrecy that surrounds them. In some cases, Americans - even members of Congress - aren't permitted to know the legal interpretations that govern how these searches may be implemented. And of course there is the infamous 'library records' provision, which prohibits targets from telling anyone that they were ordered to turn over records to the government.

 

"I don't believe that these violations of our rights are making us any safer. I think it's security theater. And I'm certainly reminded of Benjamin Franklin's words, 'Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.'

 

"Our Constitution guarantees our rights. It doesn't make an exception for 'fear of terrorists.' It's time to end these violations of our rights, and repeal the Patriot Act.

 

[color:red]"We can never perfectly protect ourselves from foreigners who hate us. One useful thing we can do is to try to stop antagonizing foreigners. Our government should stop invading and bombing their countries and stationing troops in them. It's time for a non-interventionist foreign policy."[/color]

 

 

 

Link

 

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

Looks like I will be looking into the Libertarians to see what their platform is and who they will field as a candidate. That post/quote was spot on and exactly what I believe myself. I'd love to see a real third party with some clout, some balls and brains, no religious bullshit, and a chance of winning or at least forcing the other parties to start behaving intelligently and responsibly toward the country and the citizenry/taxpayers due to a growing influence and popularity among the citizens of said third party.

[Flashermac]

TSA Thug Grabs Crotch of Wounded Vet

 

 

Paul Joseph Watson

Prison Planet.com

Friday, 27 May 2011

 

Two injured US military veterans traveling to a ceremony to honor the lives of fallen friends who gave their lives to protect the rights enshrined in the Constitution were harassed by TSA thugs, with one of them having his crotch grabbed, according to David Bellow, an Army National Guardsman and a State Republican Executive Committeeman.

 

“One of the wounded warriors, a friend of mine who personally told me what happened, has bullet fragments in his leg. The other wounded warrior has shrapnel in his face,†wrote Bellow on the Texas GOP Vote website.

 

[color:red]The TSA agents responded to the men having set off metal detectors by interrogating them about what they were hiding in their bodies. “What are you hiding in your face?†screamed one.[/color]

 

“My friend told me that one TSA agent came up to him and asked what he was hiding in his leg, but before my friend could answer he said that the TSA agent grabbed him, without notice, right in the crotch area as if trying to find something hidden,†writes Bellow.

 

When the TSA goon grabbed his crotch and didn’t let go, the veteran felt inclined to lash out violently but was somehow able to control his fury.

 

This story is just one of hundreds if not thousands of examples that underscores the fact that low-grade TSA morons who have proven themselves prone to predatory, perverted and criminal behavior have no place in a free society.

 

Airports need to act now by kicking out the TSA and replacing them with private security.

 

...

 

 

 

Welcome home, GI ...

 

 

[Flashermac]

p.s. My grandmother's brother carried bits of shrapnel in his head until they day he died. He got them as a US Marine at the Battle of Mont Blanc Ridge in 1918. Wonder how he would have reacted to such treatment.

 

 

[Hugh_Hoy]

 

HH

[Steve]

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/risks-enormous-why-morgenson-rosner-worried-152700730.html

 

Too Big to Fail: Now, Even Bigger!

"We have even more 'too big to fail' institutions; more politically interconnected, very deep and wide institutions that could create another systemic event," says Morgenson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist at The New York Times. "It's almost as if the situation that brought us to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac having to be bailed out has now been squared or quadrupled. It's worse, not better."

Rosner, an analyst at Graham Fisher, wholeheartedly agrees.

"The risks are enormous" because there's even more concentration of assets among the biggest banks, which are "too big to analyze and manage," he says.

If the financial system was a "house of cards" before the crisis, the situation is worse today because back then investors had "some sense the numbers being given in annual reports and quarterly filings were accurate," Rosner says

[Steve]

Here's a great discussion on search engines and Facebook. Did you know that these sites track your computer and then tailor the search results of your searches instead of giving you the most important results? You and your friend could type "Korea" in the Google search engine and each get totally different results.

 

Google itself track something like 57 different types of info on you including your I.P. address, what kind of computer you have, and how long you hover over a link.

 

Facebook deleted 2 of the speaker's friends without his asking. The reason: he didn't click on them enough.

 

Google wants to intrude an app called Google Wallet which you track what you spend your money on.

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/27/eli_pariser_on_the_filter_bubble

 

[Steve]

Maybe this would be better for the Board Bar area but since its an American based story I thought it wise to post here.

 

http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20110527000630

 

Authorities say a US man kept his wife's body in a freezer for a decade so he could continue to collect her benefits.

 

Officials say Allan Dunn committed suicide last August at age 86.

 

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office reports that a woman who was helping prepare his estate went to the Sun City Center condo Tuesday to clean. That's when she found the remains of an elderly woman, believed to be Dunn's wife Margaret, in a freezer on the back porch.