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I fail to see the logic that says because I work hard and earn a good salary I should pay money into the government so that they can give it to peole who don't make as much. I pay more than they do for national defense, infrastructure, welfare, research, and other government sponsored programs. Why must I be responsible for improving the quality of life for another person. Feeding the hungry? Sure. Educating the underprivilaged? OK. Providing health care for those who need it? Yes. Giving someone a subsidy in the form of a rebate check that doesn't pay their fair share of these things? No. I remember my dad telling me that he couldn't afford going back to work when he was laid off because he would have to take a pay cut. I never understood the logic of that either. Maybe things aren't as good as they should be but I cannot agree that the answer is resdistribution of wealth. If you are unhappy with the government now, think about a future where the government buys votes with redistribution. I see it here in Europe and it is rotten system. With all the spin on the economy yesterday this one reason alone is a significant reason why Europes fundamentals are worse than ours. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

I'd have to yes they have. It has been done in the primaries repeatedly. It hasn't been done lately directly to Obama but has been asked as a comparison to Obama. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

I'm gonna take that as a "no". --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

He said both campaigns have gone too far. I agree with that. Of course the media only reported he said McCain went too far, taking his statement out of context. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

You might be right. I'll make a prediction here and now that the economy starts improving right after the elections but won't really be felt for a year. Throwing blame at a party or administration is simplistic and misses the mark. I'd rather see some positive action. I saw the response of the two campaigns today. One was blame and gloom and doom, the other was acknowledgement of mistakes and direction of action. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

Bingo. He is a Senator. If it is true it is treason. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

Let's see. In my 35 yrs. of working in the USA the only time I was out of work for an extended period of time was under RR and the Bushes. take that to thre bank. If your bank doesn't fail soon. Ever occur to you to blame yourself? --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

Another zinger, albeit without teeth. Sorry gotta go to work. Just in case Obama wins I've got to make sure that I can make enough to pay for some liberals brie and chablis and someone elses mortgage. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

And yyou haven't checked the NAR to see how many homes it has actually put in the hands of people that were not able to afford them prior? Looked at the percentage of those that failed to retain those homes? And recognized that that legislation was not the contributing factor of the mortgage institution problem that is at the root of the current situation? If people would quit ending their investigation at left wing blogs or liberal press articles and anctually do some research they wouldn't be Democrats. You can't make a case with a zinger. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

Shades of the double dealing seen with the Canadians regarding NAFTA, news has surfaced that Obama was trying to stall US troop withdrawal from Iraq. http://www.nypost.com/seven/09152008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/obama_tried_to_stall_gis_iraq_withdrawal_129150.htm?page=0 --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

Now didn't I ask you to do your homework first? BS and Lehman are investment banks. And If you would check the legislation that led to the S&L and Banking (read Mortgage) crisis you most likely won't want to list who sponsored it. Or as David Axelrod says, "nana nana nana. I can say anything I want cause Americans are too stupid to check the facts." --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

FAB --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

In researching present financial data in the wake of Lehman's bankruptcy I kept running up against data that did not support what I was hearing from the Obama campaign. Listening to the junior first term senator from Illinois one could be lead to believe that the end is nigh. Words like "Crisis" and "Meltdown" get tossed around and now the phrase "since the great depression" are working their way into the mix. Here are some facts, and before you disagree - do your homework. Foreclosure rates were setting records for the day -- in 1999, at the peak of the Clinton-era prosperity that Obama celebrated in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. (Source: Mortgage Bankers Association). According to the MBA, 6.4 percent of mortgages are delinquent to some extent, and 2.75 percent are in foreclosure. During the Great Depression, according to Wheelock's research, more than 50 percent of home loans were in default. Obama is wrong on his campaign Web site that "the personal savings rate is now the lowest it's been since the Great Depression." The latest rate, for the second quarter of 2008, is 2.6 percent -- higher than the 1.9 percent rate that prevailed in the last quarter of Bill Clinton's presidency. According to the FDIC, there have been a total of 13 bank failures in 2007 and so far into 2008. There were 15 in 1999-2000, the climax of the Obama-celebrated era of Clintonian prosperity. And in recession-free 1988-89, there were 1,004 failures. Since the Great Depression, the average number of bank failures each year has been 94. There have been 11 recessions since the Great Depression. And we're nowhere close to being in the 12th one now. "Worst since the great depression", come on Mr. Obama. You can't just make this stuff up. You can't recreate the economy to suit your own political spin. The only depression in America today is that being injected into the morale of the nation by the Obama campaign. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

There seems to be a lot of righteous indignation these days referring to racism. I recall in the 70's being required to attend Navy "Upwards" seminars designed to reduce the effects of racial predjudice in that service. The cornerstone of those seminars was the premise that if in identifying an individual or a group you used words like "Black" or "White" or "Catholic" or "Jew" you were in essence predjudiced. That has always stuck with me and so I seem to pick up on it when reading articles. I've included a link to a two particularly interesting articles that speak to the effects of predjudical dynamics in this election. Neither will be viewed in the same light as the one from USA Today, but in fact they are all about how what we think and feel affect our vote. That is, of course, the fundamental premise of the system. There are no simple, easy, magical, or any other means to address this issue. I have travelled all over the world at length and find bias in all cultures to one degree or another. I see no useful purpose in focusing on this other than to more closely focus on the real meaning of the polling data. The "Bradley Effect" is just as real as the "Ferraro Effect". Young candidates vs. old, fit vs. handicapped all must deal with some form of predjudice. Attacking that predjudice will not remove it. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/12/AR2008091202414.html?hpid=opinionsbox1 http://blogs.wsj.com/politicalperceptions/2008/09/14/palin-stokes-class-war-among-women/?mod=homeblogmod_politicalperceptions --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

Somehow I think I see this factor in a completely different light. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

Oh there have been plenty of smears. You must have missed them, He's old He's had cancer He's old He can't remember how many houses he has He's old He wants a 100 year war He's old He doesn't know how to send an email HE'S OLD ISN'T ANYBODY LISTENING HE'S OLD!!!!!!! --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

Democrats are of saying how poorly stocks have performed under George W. Bush, here's a sobering fact: Stocks averaged 14.1% return in those Bush years when Republicans controlled Congress -- and when Democrats got in there and mucked things up, the average has been a loss of 8.9%. That's not even including 2008 year-to-date, which doesn't look so pretty. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

Kudos for both Gov. Palin and Charlie Gibson. Both had alot riding on the first contact of three interviews. Charlie was faced with the same damned if you do and damned if you don't situation and I believe he acquitted himself well, albeit maybe a little stilted trying to put forward the image of a hard hitting investigative reporter when that really isn't his style. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt when he occasionally deviated from his normal third person style making a few of the comments sound personal. Governor Palin also did well in staying on message, probably one of the most difficult jobs for a VP candidate. Certainly the acerbic bloviating bloggers will parse and dissect each phrase and word. They will certainly fit out of context excerpts to their own aims. I think that ABC has made a mistake in editing the interview. The cuts are very sloppily done and will undoubtedly lead to question and comment. Probably not warranted, but when has that stopped the blogosphere? I'll predict now that the left will say they left out the Governor's gaffs and the right will claim they edited it to make the Governor look less prepared. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

Come on, even you can't expect anyone to believe that references to lipstick (pit bull) and stinking fish (barracuda) in the same stump speech could be a coincidence. I'll give the campaign points for being clever with subtlety but it was just a bad idea. If the cameras had not been rolling it would have been effective. Sorry folks, no plausible deniability on this one. At any rate I do agree that it has gotten too much press. By the way, being originally from Iowa (the nations largest hog producer) I have seen pigs with lipstick. The shade is the key, they're quite a handsome animal - even without lipstick. I think we can both laugh this one off. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

This broke about 8:30 PM this evening - want to start a pool on how long it takes to hit the news cycle? From Politico.com Jonathan Martin's blog S.C. Dem chair: Palin primary qualification is she hasn't had an abortion South Carolina Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler sharply attacked Sarah Palin today, saying John McCain had chosen a running mate " whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.” Palin is an opponent of abortion rights and gave birth to her fifth child, Trig, earlier this year after finding out during her pregnancy that the baby had Down syndrome. Fowler told my colleague Alex Burns in an interview that the selection of an opponent of abortion rights would not boost McCain among many women. “Among Democratic women and even among independent women, I don’t think it helped him,” she said. Told of McCain's boost in the new ABC/Washington Post among white women following the Palin pick, Fowler said: "Just anecdotally, I believe that those white women are Republican women anyway." --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

We may have woken up in a parallel universe this morning and not even realized it. Parallel to what? Why never a perpendicular Universe? If it were perpendicular we would know, in a parallel universe it's really really really hard to tell. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

Just got back from Germany this morning. Had lunch and dinner with collegues from Germany and the topic swung to the elections in the USA. The concensus around the table (Mostly scientists and engineers) was that McCain is desirable because he is a known quantity. What was very surprising was that several of the older people brought up their concern he was similar to Kennedy. Having thought they the Germans loved JFK I asked what the concern was. It seems the comparison was around the extent of experience and the current world situation. I went something like this (and yes, I am paraphrasing). Kennedy had military experience but it was somewhat limited. He was a man of character but limited life experience and less world experience and didn't understand world politics. When he took office he abandoned the allies Eisenhower has made in Cuba (referring to the fact that Kennedy did not follow through on Ike's promise to back the invasion of at the Bay of Pigs). With a rising Russia (they stated that they never considered the Soviet Union anything but Russia) Kennedy failed to see the bigger picture. Interestingly their point was that Kennedy was inadvertantly the root of the Cuban Missile cirsis and the resolution of that crisis was like being the hero by putting out a fire that you started. They continued by stating that world politics are to them very much like the late 50's early 60's except that Europe is not in shambles, but America could take Europe back to conflict if we don't read the situation properly. Failing to follow through with commitments in the Middle East and the caususes are unknown with Obama. His positions seem to shift with politics much like Kenedy's did with Cuba. Listening to this I had to fight back the urge to debate the American solution for the European civil war. Still it was enlightening to get their reasoning for seeing McCain as the better of the two from their perspective. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

We may have woken up in a parallel universe this morning and not even realized it. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

Apparently you do not. At least they haven't needed them in parts of Europe for years. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

I think the gist of ths is that Olbermann and Matthews were there as reporters and not political commentators, a distinction that means alot more to the industry than it does to the public. That's why nobody is out to lynch O'Reilly. If Fox had put O'Reilly in the reporter's chair and he went on one of his rants he'd catch flack too. Why do you think Olbermann and O'Reilly have such high ratings - same reason as Doctor Phil and Springer. Frankly, I was glad to see it, but it doesn't mean much, he still has a 4 million dollar contract. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.