Wanna Know Who Is Running For U.S. President?

[Julie Marie]

But would you want Rick Perry for President? Bush 43 screwed this state (Texas) and this country up! Want another Republican Texan to do even more damage?

Obviously enough Texans thought "you da man!" when they voted him in for governor.  And that's why he's able to do what he's doing today.  That any politician, especially one like a state governor, would host a religious rally is evident where this country is today.  Where's the Tea Party protesting separation of church and state?

At "The Response" rally Perry even teamed up with the hate group, The American Family Association in sponsoring the event.  There's no doubt the Republican party is filled with phobes but some of these people take it to extremes.  Yet there they are, the herds of mindless sheep, following the wolf in sheep's clothing to the slaughter.

Even though Michael Moore is often over the top, I think he got it right when he pointed to Reagan busting the air traffic controller's union as the starting point where the transfer of wealth, and the beginning of the end for the middle class, began.  Now you have millions of desperate people who are looking for salvation from having to work twice as hard to make less money just to survive.  Our country seems unable to help them so they turn to god.  That's not working out so well either.

No doubt the US citizens are still too blind, too uneducated, and still too lazy, to do their homework and make the right decision for themselves and their country.  The evidence of that is everywhere.  So the thinking citizens will be strapped with more of these blood sucking politicians until we hit bottom.  Then, maybe enough voters will wake up and vote them out.

[SandraJane]

So sad but true, and though your comment feels like salt being rubbed into a wound, the evidence is there for all to see! One day the USA will get back its SP AAA+ credit rating, just not today!

[tekla]

One day the USA will get back its SP AAA+ credit rating, just not today!

The way the nation is split, and with the extreme hatred of the right wing for America and American values, coupled with their 'we had to destroy the village in order to save it' mentality, I doubt we'll see it in our lifetime, if ever at all.

[SandraJane]

Who knows, immortality might be right around the corner! Remember "Contract on America?

[BunnyBee]

I'm Reading Howard Zinn's book 'A Young People's History of the United States'. Much of what he writes about I already knew. I recommend the book.                                                                                                               Gennee

I always looked up to Howard Zinn.  You will never see the whole of something until you've look at it from all angles.  The minute you mute or stop listening to dissidents is the minute you've stopped being intellectually honest.

It was sad to see him go.

[BunnyBee]

Here is the secret.  There never was money.  It's all made up.  We just agree to it, that's all.

Shhhhh!  You'll ruin EVERYTHING!

[Tammy Hope]

a lot of this thread is unintentionally hilarious.

[SandraJane]

Why not? Overseen by fools and idiots.

[Julie Marie]

Overseen by fools and idiots.

Oh, not at all.  They are clever, cunning and making fools and idiots of everyone who actually believes them... and votes for them.

Make no mistake, these are intelligent people who know exactly what to say, when to say it and how to say it.  They analyze the herd, identify their prey and promise them the world.  And when we buy the snake oil they are selling, it feeds their inflated egos and compels them to continue feeding on the prey.

In the wild, the prey know to run from their predators.  In human society, the prey walk right into the lair, thinking they will find Nirvana.

[justmeinoz]

People forget old adages like, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is", and "there is no free lunch."
Applies world wide, hence the last couple of Federal election results here.

I mean, the difference between a credit rating of AAA and AA+ is stuff all really.  You'd think it was the end of the world.

Karen.

[Julie Marie]

I mean, the difference between a credit rating of AAA and AA+ is stuff all really.  You'd think it was the end of the world.

Investors lost over one trillion yesterday.  For some of those, it probably felt like the end of the world.

[justmeinoz]

Our share market and dollar both dropped on the news of the US fall, but then came back up to higher than before the fall.  There was no concrete reason for people to do this, just following like sheep.  It would have made more sense for our market and dollar to rise against the US, surely?

Our PM Julia Gillard, and Opposittion leader Tony Abbott are flying to a politician's funeral.  Abbott says, " I could throw a $1000 cheque out the window now and make someone happy."  Gillard says, "I could throw ten $100 bills out the window and make 10 people happy."  The pilot turns to the co-pilot and says, "Listen to them will you, trying to out do each other on the way to a funeral.  I could throw them both out and make 23 million people happy."

[kate durcal]

One day the USA will get back its SP AAA+ credit rating, just not today!

The way the nation is split, and with the extreme hatred of the right wing for America and American values, coupled with their 'we had to destroy the village in order to save it' mentality, I doubt we'll see it in our lifetime, if ever at all.

IMO

The way the nation is split, and with the extreme hatred of the left wing for America and American values, coupled with their "we are entitled to not work and be matained" mentality. The end of the "freebies" is at hand.

One day the USA will get back its SP AAA+ credit rating, just not today! True, but soon after some changes are implemented.

Kate D

[SandraJane]

Oh, not at all.  They are clever, cunning and making fools and idiots of everyone who actually believes them... and votes for them.

Make no mistake, these are intelligent people who know exactly what to say, when to say it and how to say it.  They analyze the herd, identify their prey and promise them the world.  And when we buy the snake oil they are selling, it feeds their inflated egos and compels them to continue feeding on the prey.

In the wild, the prey know to run from their predators.  In human society, the prey walk right into the lair, thinking they will find Nirvana.

Ouch! But I think its their handlers that are the intelligent ones. You have such flowing prose in saying such horrible things...autograph my book please!

[Julie Marie]

"Entitlements"... sticks in my craw.  Social Security is an entitlement.  Really?  You mean all that money that the government took on my behalf all those years and that I'm now hoping to get back as a return on my investment is an "entitlement"?  BULL!  Same goes for Medicare.  I ran the numbers and I figure with conservative investing I'd have almost $400K in my account, enough to pay me more than SS is willing to and enough to buy better health insurance than Medicade and Medicare will give me. 

Politicians are spinning the truth on this one because they won't admit they blew our retirement money when they should have been investing it.  And the media is buying it.  SS & Med aren't the problem, the people who spent our money on their pet projects are.

I agree Kate, there are some people who are leeches but the majority of people want to work, want to earn a decent wage and want a government that puts its citizens ahead of the politician's agenda.

Now if it's socialism you're fearing...

[Tammy Hope]

"Entitlements"... sticks in my craw.  Social Security is an entitlement.  Really?  You mean all that money that the government took on my behalf all those years and that I'm now hoping to get back as a return on my investment is an "entitlement"?  BULL!  Same goes for Medicare.

Nah. it was a tax - just like all the rest of them. They just dressed it up in a prettier outfit to make it easier to sell.

I don't care whether it's called an entitlement now or not, but if you are still deluding yourself into thinking that it was "insurance" that you have coming because you paid into your "account" then you will believe all sorts of other lies as well.

It was just a tax with a pretty name - whatever it might have been intended to be. Once they started spending it on anything else, it lost that virtue.

[Cindy]

I think it got invested in the stock market. Same as mine in Oz, worth jelly beans.

Cindy

[Julie Marie]

Nah. it was a tax - just like all the rest of them. They just dressed it up in a prettier outfit to make it easier to sell.

I don't care whether it's called an entitlement now or not, but if you are still deluding yourself into thinking that it was "insurance" that you have coming because you paid into your "account" then you will believe all sorts of other lies as well.

It was just a tax with a pretty name - whatever it might have been intended to be. Once they started spending it on anything else, it lost that virtue.

It doesn't matter to me what anyone else calls it, when I talk to my local politicians, I'm calling SS & Med a return on my investment.  No way am I giving them an out.

When SS was enacted you would get a check when you retire, for the full amount you put in, plus interest.  Soon Uncle Sam decided on doing payments.  Before you know it a pile of money was there and one day SS became totally self sustaining.  Yep!  Invested properly, we'd never have to add another penny to it and we could go on paying retirees indefinitely.

Then someone saw the pile of cash.  An elected official who couldn't find the money to pay back his campaign supporters?  A corporate big wig who felt he had a better use for the money so he twisted the arm of a local politician?  Maybe lots of people.  Whoever saw it first, the vultures started circling.  Arms were twisted.  Elected officials were "reminded" they were "lawmakers" and bills were passed opening the floodgates of the Social Security cash pile. 

They called it borrowing, but they never intended to pay it back.  Politicians know it's easier to be forgiven than it is to get permission.  So they took.  And they know it's easier to spin a story than it is to be forgiven.  So they spun.  And the spin turned into the "truth" that "The Social Security System is breaking us."

Yeah, I guess it is, now that it's been raided all those years and stripped of all its value, by the same people we just keep electing.

So I will keep saying SS & Med are a return on my investment.  And everyone who has had even a penny taken out of their check for SS or Med should say the same thing.  It's time to unspin the spin.  Let the politicians figure out how to squirm out of that.

[Sarah Louise]

I agree with that statement, politicians have been robbing our social security funds for too long.  They need to quit lying, admit why it is in trouble and find a way to fix it, without penalizing those receiving these funds.

I paid into Social Security for 50 years, I expect to receive my funds now, we have not been given an increase in two years now, because politicians claim there hasn't been inflation.  I'd like to see a politician live on the money I receive monthly.

[ativan]

There shouldn't be anyone running for president. But there will always be those people who love to make fools of themselves.
And then complain when a news publication points out the fact. They all have an excuse, w/o solutions.