Under the Lincoln administration over 600,000 lives were lost in war. Yet he is considered a "great" President. Go figure.

I guess I have a propensity to want to talk about the in excess of the 90% who are still employed and that they and their companies deserve some visibility.

My point is the media certainly is not going to spend one millisecond accentuating the positive. That is my point.

And I guess 'W' is doing a good job the last couple of days since oil is down and the market is up!!!!!! Just kidding, but since he gets credit for the downside....who gets the credit for the upside. I really don't care about ones plumbing (male or female), dem or republican, black, yellow or tan or in between. Just a fair shake on the facts.

There is no confusion if one only wants to dwell on the statistical minority status of almost any subject.

Foe example (again) the foreclosure crisis.....it represents less than 2% of total mortgages.
It does include those who bought second homes when they were not qualified to do so and the permissive pacifist mentality is dawdling with how to bail them out. How about those struggling every day and making their commitments as signed up for. What do they get......furthering the media inspired crisis is how the media focuses on the significant increase in foreclosure rates ....up 52% over last year. It totally ignores the 98% who are not in foreclosure. The sub prime market is less than 1% of the total lending that is in place, but to listen to the media one would have to conclude we are all in jeopardy.

That is what I mean about media induced....of course we can drop down to the individuals who have innocently been caught in the manipulating by the lenders and the borrowers taking advantage of the booming market.

The media is not telling the public who should not worry and why about their bank deposits...they only focus on the individual who may be caught in a given situation because it sensationalizes the issue....has nothing to do with the masses.

My references have no partisan bent what so ever.....I detest putting the party first.
For me it is country first party and all else distant seconds.....AND THAT IS NOT WHAT THE MEDIA PEDDLES!!!!!!!

My $9.35 worth (two cents adjusted for media induced inflation).

BTK

Excellent post and all true whether the masses believe it or not!!

We'll see what the masses think in November. And Puterguru, for once we agree. To quote you "Some people only see what they want to see."

Just my $4.97 worth (2 cents adjusted for Bush's disastrous economic strategies).

It never ceases to amaze me how much "power" folk believe the President has.

He submits a budget, Congress chews it up, and then gives what Congress wants to.
He gets money from Congress, but cannot spend it except on what Congress has authorized.
He must report EVERYTHING (someday y'all need to try to identify all of the reports the Executive Branch - every office/department/agency - must provide Congress on what's going on, done, and planned).
He has term limits, while some Congresspersons have 40-50+ years in office.

The President is not a monarch or dictator, yet if you follow many posts it would seem the President controls how much sunshine will beam from the sky and everything else as well. Also, it's amazing how many people seem to WANT the President to be the Santa Claus of their lives and control everything.

How strange!

Originally Posted by Puterguru

You certainly got that one right.

Democrats complain that this President has done nothing about health care, yet in the same sentence say that he has wasted our surplus. Where in the world do you think money for a national health care program is going to come from? Selling girl scout cookies maybe?

The money would obviously have come from the billions we are spending in Iraq.

Originally Posted by Lil Dancer

The money would obviously have come from the billions we are spending in Iraq.

The money would have come from taxpayers. If taxpayers want something and are willing to fund it, then taxes are levied and the monies provided. There is no magic money fountain. The only money the Government has is what We, The People throw into the kitty.

When politicians ask "how are we going to pay for a tax cut?" I get ticked off. We PAY for oblligations and expenditures by taxes. If we cut taxes, all that means is the govenrment has less money to play with, and must cut obligations and expenditures accordingly. That's not rocket science - that's plain and simple money management. There is too much pork now, and the pig can afford to go on a diet now and then.

The idea that the dipping into people's pockets can continue at a certain level because they are used to it, and the government can take any unoblilgated money and spend it like a teenager who just found a $20 bill on the ground is ridilculous.

Originally Posted by Lil Dancer

The money would obviously have come from the billions we are spending in Iraq.

Well there was no war with the Clinton administration and yet still no health care yet I don't see anyone complaining about him, why, because he's a Democrat of course! Secondly we already pay enough in entitlements. Why should I have to pay for someone else's health care is beyond me. That's part of the American dream. Get crappy job making hardly any money and no health care. Realize your barely making it and can't afford to go to the doctor, a little light bulb should then come on in your head "hey maybe I should go to school or learn a trade so that I can get a better job that pays more and has health care"

That's how it is suppose to work. If it were up to Democrats however thru income distributon minimum wage would be $20 an hour and everyone would have fantastic health care. All of it paid for of course by the people who decided to get an education and a good paying job.

Sorry it just doesn't work that way.

First, health care reform is not a partisan issue. Who cares what past administrations did or did not do, the fact is that reform is needed. There are numerous reasons why people may not have health care coverage and they all don't fall into the "...go to school get a better job" category.
For example,
• Today, 47 million people in our country have no health coverage—including 8.7 million children—and these numbers are going up. In 2013, if we don’t change things, 56 million of us will be uninsured.
Retirees especially are losing employer-sponsored health care:
• Only half the employers who provided retiree health coverage in 2000 are still providing it
today—a 50 percent drop in seven years. (see link below for reference)

You can go to school, get the best of jobs, retire then lose the health care benefits you thought were guaranteed as part of your retirement package - just what happened this past week with GM retirees over age 65.

Are they supposed to go back to school and get a better job?

http://www.aflcio.org/issues/healthc...vey_aflciosite

Originally Posted by Number 6

Under the Lincoln administration over 600,000 lives were lost in war. Yet he is considered a "great" President. Go figure.

Its not the cost of a war, it is the reasons it is fought. Lincoln was defending the idea of a nation of united states, and he was a republican (the liberal party of his time) who had just driven out the wigs (the conservatives of their time). He had progressive ideas that eventually led to the emancipation of slaves. To be honest, I would have fought in that one (there are a few others). But to kill Americans over some stupid economic experiment to see if Milton Friedman's Chicago School of economics could actually work is (if you ask me) criminal.

Quote from: SteveZ on Today at 10:47:38 AM
It never ceases to amaze me how much "power" folk believe the President has.

If you take GWB and add Elliott Abrams, Gary Bauer, William J. Bennett, John Ellis "Jeb" Bush, Richard B. Cheney, Eliot A. Cohen, Midge Decter, Paula Dobriansky, Steve Forbes, Aaron Friedberg, Francis Fukuyama, Frank Gaffney, Fred C. Ikle, Donald Kagan, Zalmay Khalilzad, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Norman Podhoretz, J. Danforth Quayle, Peter W. Rodman, Stephen P. Rosen, Henry S. Rowen, Donald Rumsfeld, Vin Weber, George Weigel & Paul Wolfowitz, you have a very powerful and criminal organization. These were the signers of the Project for the New American Century. They believed America should become an empire and control the world and its resources. In order to have a military which would be powerful enough to be and continue as the sole superpower a new Pearl Harbor would be just what was needed and required to get the support of the American people.

The media is for the most part owned and controlled by Rupert Murdoch which explains why Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Riley can be such big stars when their strong supporters are such a small minority.

Originally Posted by Puterguru

Well there was no war with the Clinton administration and yet still no health care yet I don't see anyone complaining about him, why, because he's a Democrat of course! Secondly we already pay enough in entitlements. Why should I have to pay for someone else's health care is beyond me. That's part of the American dream. Get crappy job making hardly any money and no health care. Realize your barely making it and can't afford to go to the doctor, a little light bulb should then come on in your head "hey maybe I should go to school or learn a trade so that I can get a better job that pays more and has health care"

That's how it is suppose to work. If it were up to Democrats however thru income distributon minimum wage would be $20 an hour and everyone would have fantastic health care. All of it paid for of course by the people who decided to get an education and a good paying job.

Sorry it just doesn't work that way.

Yes, that's how it's supposed to be. I haven't seen this much "fluff" since the Donna Reed Show. Get real!

The issues mentioned in this thread are much too complex to be discusses so lightly.
The post from junglejim reminds me of the mytical Trilateral Commission of the 50's/60's where Rockefeller was accused to want to dominate the world. It is absurd. America, wanted or not is the only major player in the world today (as a single country) and all those insults and critics come with the job. I will like to see Mother Russia in this position and see how wil they do, or a Real Squizofrenic case like Venezuela's Chavez trying to unified Latin Americn behind him by showering them with the Venezuelan peoples oil, in the mean time Venezuela is in shambles with robbery, kidnapping, drugs, deep social and economic problems, hunger and lack of medical care, in a country that is inundated with dollars from oil. Or go to countries in Europe where the medicine is socialized and you have to wait years for a procedure, besides you can only go to the clinic and doctors assigned to you with no recourse to change. WE ARE THE LUCKIEST PEOPLE ON THE WORLD, and still complaining. power in this country is in the hands of the Pentagon, the Multinationals, Wall Street and big money. this is my understanding

Did I just read back a post or two that the media is controlled by Rupert Murdoch? That is just too funny! Sen. McCain goes to the middle east and no one notices. Sen. Obama goes to the middle east and the three news anchors, Brian, Charlie and Katy, all travel along with him. Tell me the media is not in the tank for Obama! Bernie Goldberg is indeed correct.

Originally Posted by efrahin

[b]in the mean time Venezuela is in shambles with robbery, kidnapping, drugs, deep social and economic problems, hunger and lack of medical care, in a country that is inundated with dollars from oil. Or go to countries in Europe where the medicine is socialized and you have to wait years for a procedure, besides you can only go to the clinic and doctors assigned to you with no recourse to change.

What planet are you on?!?!?! You need to turn Fox news off and buy a plane ticket. Take it from a person who HAS traveled. Every time I hear someone go off like that, it makes you look like you listen to Rush too much because the people living over there totally disagree. Take Chavez for example. He has been able to reduce poverty on a steady rate of 25% per year and has the popular support of the people (as much as Reagan did here). He has internationally supervised elections, freedom of speech, and the people have to approve any government actions through democratic elections. You know why Fox news hates Venezuela. Because it is a democracy that has not elected right wing nuts who only care about 'corporate interests'. In the sense of democracy, it is much more democratic than we are. Turn off Fox, they give a distorted and incorrect picture of the world. Simply put, you are factually incorrect.

And, btw, everyone I have spoken to a lot of people from Europe and they say that there are some problems with the health care, but they would NOT give it up for our system. And the only reason we don't have to wait here is because 1/4 of this nation is not allowed ANY health care. I would gladly wait an extra 15 minutes if it meant that all my neighbors had access too. But I understand that republicans have this superiority complex where they don't value all human life as equal (that is unless you are 3 cells big and living in a rape victims stomach).