The only clear posts are the Bush bashes. Go figure. nm

• another oft-repeated distortion - nuance
  • I am unclear about your point here. - annabanana
    • The only clear posts are the Bush bashes. Go figure. nm - Observer
      • what is distorted? - annabanana

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I saw the posts for myself, no one "ran" to me. Note that all boards were reviewed for inappropriate posts.

you would have had him do....stand there folding it like a doofus folding towels in a laundromat?  I dunno, seems that might have reduced the dramatic impact somehow.  He had the knife in one hand, which would have made folding a tricky thing to accomplish.  Seriously, not sure how else he could have handled the flag, given the situation.  Maybe throw it over one shoulder like a toga?  One would assume those who had improperly hung the flag might have been nearby, maybe a little P.O.'d over his cutting it down.  When ''exigent circumstances'' exist, you get the flag down as efficiently as possible and worry about the frills later.  Tell us all, exactly what would Amanda do?

Decreasing the mortgage payment by 30% would only lengthen the repayment terms.  Mortgage holders wouldn't get anything out of it, but probably would end up paying more over the course of time due to interest.

What cracks me up is you asking "what's in it for me?" and then complaining about the greed of others.  Hypocrits are everywhere.

... I know we don't want to digress, but please stop blaming the fact that we have to resort to these measures on the current administration

Here’s what a lot of us believe:  We don't 'have' to print or borrow money to buy our way out of this mess.  That is the thing most people will not acknowledge.  The mortgage crisis and  the housing ‘bubble’ were caused by government meddling with Fannie/Freddie loan standards. That sent the whole house of cards tumbling and the cascade of threatened failures that resulted.  More government meddling will not fix this.  You cannot shore up a house of cards.  It's still cards.  It should have been allowed to fall and be rebuilt, even if that meant starting from the ground up.  Sucks to be us.

Foolish people who bought too much house for their means must be allowed to lose them.  Bad companies have to be allowed to fail.  Bad politicians with worse ideas also should to be allowed to fail; I'm doing my part not to get in their way.

I don't think anyone can name three things government does as efficiently and/or cheaply as private industry.  Now government will part owners in AIG, banks, and other failing concerns.  Now government wants to control  health care?  And all of this - plus much more - was put in an 1100-page document nobody who voted on it could even read?

Even though this is all mostly a done deal, I still cannot go along with the can't-we-all-get-along; wait-and-see crowd.  Of course we’ll all just have to ‘sweat it out’ now, what choice?  This is so reminiscent of the FDR New Deal 70 years ago that I cannot believe we have learned nothing from history.  What am I saying?  Of course I can believe it.  We’re still idiots! 

Tell me if any of this sounds familiar:

‘We seldom know six weeks in advance, what we are going to do.’  ‘It is common sense, to take a method and try it: if it fails, admit it frankly and try another.  But above all, try something.’  FDR 

Some of the things he tried:

National Recovery Act (fixed prices and wages).  Forced smaller companies out of business, since lower wages and prices where the only way they could compete with big companies. 

A law in Washington, DC, mandating a minimum monthly wage for women (only), resulting in women losing their jobs to men who were willing to work for much less than that guaranteed wage. 

Agricultural Adjustment Act (subsidized farms by taking acreage out of production and fixed prices).  Designed to curb overproduction and support prices.  In reality production rose because farmers used their cash subsidies to buy fertilizer, and they had taken their worst acreage out of production anyway.  They switched to the crops whose prices were guaranteed, hence, even more overproduction. 

Works Progress Administration (to provide employment and improve infrastructure).  Turned into a giant political patronage system to reward supporters with ‘shovel-leaning’ jobs and to punish detractors.  To get most such jobs, you had to declare your political party, ‘vote right’ and ‘tithe’ to the D party.

Emergency Relief Act (made available to governors to assist the needy in their states).  Since it was supported by huge tax increases, it all but shut off voluntary charitable contributions that traditionally went to the needy.

Excise taxes arbitrarily levied on a few luxury items of the rich such as yachts, furs and jewelry, but also on cars, gasoline, radios, cosmetics, cameras, bank checks, long-distance phone calls and movie tickets used by lower-income groups.

Tariffs on imported goods, which caused other countries to retaliate by taxing or not buying our goods and damaged our export business.

Top income tax bracket for the too-rich (only) 79%  and the IRS was used as a weapon to harass and punish the wealthy, as well as critics of New Deal policies.  Roosevelt was incensed that the wealthy (though he was born to wealth)  used tax loopholes such as charitable deductions and business losses to legally avoid taxes, so he instructed the IRS and Congress to close them.  Meanwhile, FDR himself used such loopholes to deduct the value of materials he donated for his own future presidential library.  He took business losses and farm losses on his personal tax returns. 

Roosevelt was one of those silver-spoon guys, subsidized by someone else’s money (his mother’s) his entire life.  He failed repeatedly in businesses financed by family money.  He had a solid record of picking losers; he thought the airplane was a fad.  He had a lackluster academic career.  Never held a ‘real’ job. His only talents were his personality and charisma.  

Yes, FDR inherited the beginnings of the Great Depression from Herbert Hoover in 1933,  but  Roosevelt’s repeated ‘try something’ efforts to fix it kept it going until World War II. 

Any of this starting to sound familiar?  We’ve been at this exact pivotal point before and we are blowing it again.  Elected another snake oil salesman.  Way to go.

and "red" was not a spelling error.   Strong arming anyone into producing anything for the government is  like pre and post WWII Soviet Union....you got it right when you said red and I'm not referring red state conservatives either.

Many (not all)  think you have all the answers, but when it turns to action you are ready to guilt and strong arm SOMEONE ELSE to do the work.

About "socialized" medicine.  What most of you may not know is that we already have socialized medicine.  That is what Medicade and Medicare is (which is financially driven by insurance companies for insurance companies tell the government what they will pay.  In essense, the insurance companies are setting the bar).  Most countries have some sort of socialized medicine.  Canada has what is referred to as single-pay medicine, which is soley funded by the government.  Those opposed to single-pay medicine here in the US are the ones stating that it does not work.  However, those who have it in Canada and Britain for the most part are not complaining.  Of course, you can't please everyone. 

For every $50,000 in income that you make about $10,000 of your tax dollars (equal to what is allocated for defense) is going toward healthcare.  Add that along with roughly the $10,000 dollars that most companies pay for your insurance, that's quite a chunk of change.  But you say, well the company is paying for it, not me.  But that is wrong as well, if the companies whom we work for did not have to provide medical insurance for us, there would be higher wages.

So, for someone like me, a healthy 40 something :o), who spends about $1000 dollars a year in preventative health maintenance, why am I paying $20,000, which I might add that for any catastrophic healthcare issue should occur, I would still be desitute from the financial responsibility of picking up where my insurance company falls short?  If this is not an argument for healthcare reform.....

Healthcare in the US is the hands of insurance companies, where I don't believe it should be.  So for those of you opposed to socialized or single-pay medicine, you are already paying for it, why not make it function better and pull it out of the hands of the fat-cat insurance companies?

Since the poster above seems to think he/she can put words in my mouth, I will tell you exactly what I said. 

I fully expect all posters to be respectful and not put down the President (current or past) or anyone else for that matter. I don't care if they're Liberal, Conservative, or polka dotted. 

On the forum, you will be respectful in posting or you won't be allowed to post.

Think you can handle that? If you can't, don't post. It's just that simple. 

how things will go with regards to Obama.  As evident by this board, I think it is very obvious that some people may hold back their "judgments" or concerns about Barrack Obama for the simple fact that any criticism aimed at the president thus far is construed as racism.  How dare we criticize what he does, his agenda, etc. because he is the first mixed race president. 

I also think that he will be judged less harshly because the liberal media will not cover things fairly.  They will continue to portray Barrack Obama as the savior/rock star. 

When this stimulus package fails to stimulate the economy and when our economy is still suffering at the end of his term, we will see how fairly he will be judged.  Until then, he is getting a free pass by the liberal media and people too eager to throw out the race card or people who are too afraid to criticize for fear of being called racist.

I can cite three sources right away that state that statistically this move is supported more than not by the Jews as well as major U.S. Jewish organizations. 

http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html

I think there are other tests because this seems to be sponsored by the VA I think, but it is still great to determine issues.  I scored only 22 percent with McCain, which I kind of figured anyway, but it helps me when so many people like to cloud the issues and confuse people, especially women. 

I used to see that in the union when I was just a medical record clerk (which was a union job) and then went to transcription (nonunion job) - when the administration was trying to break the union they would always stir the women up with issues that were sort of minor, or confusing, and sit back and watch everyone fighting about such petty things, and meanwhile emotions would get so high people did not even know the issues anymore. 

It was weird to watch, but they do the same thing where my partner works while they try continually to break the union - they use the women to do it - sad but true, and it almost works every time.