Your argument does not hold a drop of water.

• Senior moments on the trail: Mc attacks O ties to - Palestinian activist Mc helped to fund...sm
  • Nice try, but no cigar.... - sam
    • Your argument does not hold a drop of water. - These facts are for you....sm
      • Well pardon me for believing what the Center for.... - sam
  • McC camp speaking in forked tongues and - drowning in its own venom...sm
    • ma is tied to one radical after another. - Just keep denying.... like he does...pathetic.nm
      • Try reading up on a subject - before commenting on it...sm
      • Meant OBAMA is tied... pc problem. - Do you care what happens to Natl Security?nm

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everything except for American.  We need to unite and come together and we need to drop the extra titles.  That doesn't mean we should forget where we come from or our heritage.  It just means that when we lose focus on us all being Americans and just Americans....we start to categorize and stereotype and segregate ourselves.

Besides, I really don't want to be call an Indian-German-Scottish-Hungarian-American.  I'm an American and I'm proud of that.

in the pocket at what they will actually have to spend to buy us out of this mess.  We can't afford to spend our way out of this.  They are going to have a spend a lot more money realistically do create the jobs they are talking about.  Plus, all this money won't be going into the system right away.  To me this package is crap.

At least with major tax cuts businesses could work their way out without government controlling them.  I do not like the idea of our government controlling so much. 

//

Abortion: Just the Data
With High-Court Debate Brewing, New Report Shows Procedure's Numbers Down

For the complete Guttmacher report, visit http://www.agi-usa.org/sections/abortion.html , click on "An Overview of Abortions in the U.S."

For the CDC's complete report, visit http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/indss_2004.html , and click on "Abortion Surveillance -- United States 2001.

Or visit http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr52/nvsr52_23.pdf to download "Estimated Pregnancy Rates for the United States -- 1990-2000: An Update").

What orifice did you pull this out of?

I'm neither Democrat or Republican, I usually call myself independent.  I march to my own drum.  I would have liked to have seen 2 different candidates than what we had.  I would have liked to see a true Christ-like man, humble and honest in his/her campaign...i.e. the "Straight Talk Express" which McCain claimed to have and didn't.

I simply voted AGAINST the man who bragged that he had voted "with the president over 90% of the time, more than even his Republican colleagues."  We certainly need change.  I know I haven't fared so well under Bush.  All is not lost for those who think Obama is a monster if he in fact turns out to be what he's been accused of being. .  Remember Richard Nixon? 

Over the last few years, I think I know what it feels like to be a frog that's dropped into a pot of cold water, with the temperature rise of the water being so slow that the next thing he knows, he's DEAD.

I know I'm "there," but this "evolution" has been so subtle that I don't know exactly when it began and probably won't realize when it ends (if it ends).

For starters, this bill was apparently introduced on June 26, 2007, while Bush was still President.

The way it was being hyped, it seemed to be something that was designed to encourage public service in young people in exchange for financial assistance with college tuition, etc.  I thought it sounded like a good idea, something that might help to build character in young people and encourage and foster the kind of behavior we saw after 9/11, when Americans helped each other and showed the world what we're made of when it comes to helping each other.  To offer a young person financial help for college in exchange for some volunteer hours, I thought, was great.  Equally great, I thought, was the notion that this was voluntary and NOT mandatory.

Now, it's apparently for everyone, including seniors, which is still okay, I guess, if this is something that some seniors want to do.

However, one little sentence (shown below) is sending up a BIG RED FLAG into my little pea brain, copied below and bolded:

From:  http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1388/show

OpenCongress Summary:
The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act would dramatically increase funding for AmeriCorps and other volunteer programs, including those for seniors and veterans. It also establishes a goal of expanding from 75,000 government-supported volunteers to 250,000, and would increase education funding and establish a summer service program for students, paying $500 (which would be applied to college costs) to high-school and middle-school student who participate.

In its current form, the legislation does not include a mandate requiring service.

Quite frankly, I have jumped (like a frog) from link to link to link trying to research this, so I'm not sure what its "current form" is today.  It apparently was passed by the House and now by the Senate just a few days ago (see http://loungedaddy.us/?p=725).

Yesterday, at first, when I heard of Rick Wagoner, GM's "sacrificial lamb," basically being fired by Obama, I felt very uncomfortable with that.  After I thought about it more, though, I do agree that ANY company that accepts financial aid from Americans should be scrutinized, including, if necessary in this manner (even if Wagoner's firing, in my opinion, was merely symbolic and not substantive).  What sticks in my crawl is the fact that Wall Street crooks have been treated like kings while auto industry workers are being kicked more and more every day while they're down.

I was never comfortable with any of the bailouts, and that was the one thing that Obama voted for that earned him a spot on the "negative" column of my pros and cons list.

I freely admit that my thought processes have been severely hampered recently (especially after two hospitalizations in less than a month).  It's much more difficult for me to concentrate and to word-find at times.  I had hoped that Obama would be the "people's" President (as opposed to Bush being the "corporation's" President.

I used to think (and frequently wrote) that the Clintons and the Bushes were merely opposite sides of the same coin.  I still believe that; however, I'm starting to think that Obama's face is on that coin now.

To sum it up, on this day and at this time, all I can truly say with certainty is:

RIBBIT!!!!

Over the last few years, I think I know what it feels like to be a frog that's dropped into a pot of cold water, with the temperature rise of the water being so slow that the next thing he knows, he's DEAD.

I know I'm "there," but this "evolution" has been so subtle that I don't know exactly when it began and probably won't realize when it ends (if it ends).

For starters, this bill was apparently introduced on June 26, 2007, while Bush was still President.

The way it was being hyped, it seemed to be something that was designed to encourage public service in young people in exchange for financial assistance with college tuition, etc.  I thought it sounded like a good idea, something that might help to build character in young people and encourage and foster the kind of behavior we saw after 9/11, when Americans helped each other and showed the world what we're made of when it comes to helping each other.  To offer a young person financial help for college in exchange for some volunteer hours, I thought, was great.  Equally great, I thought, was the notion that this was voluntary and NOT mandatory.

Now, it's apparently for everyone, including seniors, which is still okay, I guess, if this is something that some seniors want to do.

However, one little sentence (shown below) is sending up a BIG RED FLAG into my little pea brain, copied below and bolded:

From:  http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1388/show

OpenCongress Summary:
The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act would dramatically increase funding for AmeriCorps and other volunteer programs, including those for seniors and veterans. It also establishes a goal of expanding from 75,000 government-supported volunteers to 250,000, and would increase education funding and establish a summer service program for students, paying $500 (which would be applied to college costs) to high-school and middle-school student who participate.

In its current form, the legislation does not include a mandate requiring service.

Quite frankly, I have jumped (like a frog) from link to link to link trying to research this, so I'm not sure what its "current form" is today.  It apparently was passed by the House and now by the Senate just a few days ago (see http://loungedaddy.us/?p=725).

Yesterday, at first, when I heard of Rick Wagoner, GM's "sacrificial lamb," basically being fired by Obama, I felt very uncomfortable with that.  After I thought about it more, though, I do agree that ANY company that accepts financial aid from Americans should be scrutinized, including, if necessary in this manner (even if Wagoner's firing, in my opinion, was merely symbolic and not substantive).  What sticks in my crawl is the fact that Wall Street crooks have been treated like kings while auto industry workers are being kicked more and more every day while they're down.

I was never comfortable with any of the bailouts, and that was the one thing that Obama voted for that earned him a spot on the "negative" column of my pros and cons list.

I freely admit that my thought processes have been severely hampered recently (especially after two hospitalizations in less than a month).  It's much more difficult for me to concentrate and to word-find at times.  I had hoped that Obama would be the "people's" President (as opposed to Bush being the "corporation's" President.

I used to think (and frequently wrote) that the Clintons and the Bushes were merely opposite sides of the same coin.  I still believe that; however, I'm starting to think that Obama's face has replaced Hillary's face on that coin now.

To sum it up, on this day and at this time, all I can truly say with certainty is:

RIBBIT!!!!

Over the last few years, I think I know what it feels like to be a frog that's dropped into a pot of cold water, with the temperature rise of the water being so slow that the next thing he knows, he's DEAD.

I know I'm "there," but this "evolution" has been so subtle that I don't know exactly when it began and probably won't realize when it ends (if it ends).

For starters, this bill was apparently introduced on June 26, 2007, while Bush was still President.

The way it was being hyped, it seemed to be something that was designed to encourage public service in young people in exchange for financial assistance with college tuition, etc.  I thought it sounded like a good idea, something that might help to build character in young people and encourage and foster the kind of behavior we saw after 9/11, when Americans helped each other and showed the world what we're made of when it comes to helping each other.  To offer a young person financial help for college in exchange for some volunteer hours, I thought, was great.  Equally great, I thought, was the notion that this was voluntary and NOT mandatory.

Now, it's apparently for everyone, including seniors, which is still okay, I guess, if this is something that some seniors want to do.

However, one little sentence (shown below) is sending up a BIG RED FLAG into my little pea brain, copied below and bolded:

From:  http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1388/show

OpenCongress Summary:
The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act would dramatically increase funding for AmeriCorps and other volunteer programs, including those for seniors and veterans. It also establishes a goal of expanding from 75,000 government-supported volunteers to 250,000, and would increase education funding and establish a summer service program for students, paying $500 (which would be applied to college costs) to high-school and middle-school student who participate.

In its current form, the legislation does not include a mandate requiring service.

Quite frankly, I have jumped (like a frog) from link to link to link trying to research this, so I'm not sure what its "current form" is today.  It apparently was passed by the House and now by the Senate just a few days ago (see http://loungedaddy.us/?p=725).

Yesterday, at first, when I heard of Rick Wagoner, GM's "sacrificial lamb," basically being fired by Obama, I felt very uncomfortable with that.  After I thought about it more, though, I do agree that ANY company that accepts financial aid from Americans should be scrutinized, including, if necessary in this manner (even if Wagoner's firing, in my opinion, was merely symbolic and not substantive).  What sticks in my crawl is the fact that Wall Street crooks have been treated like kings while auto industry workers are being kicked more and more every day while they're down.

I was never comfortable with any of the bailouts, and that was the one thing that Obama voted for that earned him a spot on the "negative" column of my pros and cons list.

I freely admit that my thought processes have been severely hampered recently (especially after two hospitalizations in less than a month).  It's much more difficult for me to concentrate and to word-find at times.  I had hoped that Obama would be the "people's" President (as opposed to Bush being the "corporation's" President.

I used to think (and frequently wrote) that the Clintons and the Bushes were merely opposite sides of the same coin.  I still believe that; however, I'm starting to think that Obama's face has replaced Hillary's face on that coin now.

If I'm misinformed or otherwise wrong in anything I've written in this post regarding the links I included or statements, please tell me.  Seriously.  I don't want to argue or fight or name-call.  I just want to discuss because I'm beginning to feel almost as vulnerable and distrustful of Obama's presidency as I eventually became under Bush's.

I know discussions get heated on this board sometimes, but I'm not trying to be argumentative.  I'm much, much too tired for that. 

To sum it up, on this day and at this time, all I can truly say with certainty is:

RIBBIT!!!!

Over the last few years, I think I know what it feels like to be a frog that's dropped into a pot of cold water, with the temperature rise of the water being so slow that the next thing he knows, he's DEAD.

I know I'm "there," but this "evolution" has been so subtle that I don't know exactly when it began and probably won't realize when it ends (if it ends).

For starters, this bill was apparently introduced on June 26, 2007, while Bush was still President.

The way it was being hyped, it seemed to be something that was designed to encourage public service in young people in exchange for financial assistance with college tuition, etc.  I thought it sounded like a good idea, something that might help to build character in young people and encourage and foster the kind of behavior we saw after 9/11, when Americans helped each other and showed the world what we're made of when it comes to helping each other.  To offer a young person financial help for college in exchange for some volunteer hours, I thought, was great.  Equally great, I thought, was the notion that this was voluntary and NOT mandatory.

Now, it's apparently for everyone, including seniors, which is still okay, I guess, if this is something that some seniors want to do.

However, one little sentence (shown below) is sending up a BIG RED FLAG into my little pea brain, copied below and bolded:

From:  http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1388/show

OpenCongress Summary:
The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act would dramatically increase funding for AmeriCorps and other volunteer programs, including those for seniors and veterans. It also establishes a goal of expanding from 75,000 government-supported volunteers to 250,000, and would increase education funding and establish a summer service program for students, paying $500 (which would be applied to college costs) to high-school and middle-school student who participate.

In its current form, the legislation does not include a mandate requiring service.

Quite frankly, I have jumped (like a frog) from link to link to link trying to research this, so I'm not sure what its "current form" is today.  It apparently was passed by the House and now by the Senate just a few days ago (see http://loungedaddy.us/?p=725).

Yesterday, at first, when I heard of Rick Wagoner, GM's "sacrificial lamb," basically being fired by Obama, I felt very uncomfortable with that.  After I thought about it more, though, I do agree that ANY company that accepts financial aid from Americans should be scrutinized, including, if necessary in this manner (even if Wagoner's firing, in my opinion, was merely symbolic and not substantive).  What sticks in my crawl is the fact that Wall Street crooks have been treated like kings while auto industry workers are being kicked more and more every day while they're down.

I was never comfortable with any of the bailouts, and that was the one thing that Obama voted for that earned him a spot on the "negative" column of my pros and cons list.

I freely admit that my thought processes have been severely hampered recently (especially after two hospitalizations in less than a month).  It's much more difficult for me to concentrate and to word-find at times.  I had hoped that Obama would be the "people's" President (as opposed to Bush being the "corporation's" President.

I used to think (and frequently wrote) that the Clintons and the Bushes were merely opposite sides of the same coin.  I still believe that; however, I'm starting to think that Obama's face has replaced Hillary's face on that coin now.

If I'm misinformed or otherwise wrong in anything I've written in this post regarding the links I included or statements, please tell me.  Seriously.  I don't want to argue or fight or name-call.  I just want to discuss because I'm beginning to feel almost as vulnerable and distrustful of Obama's presidency as I eventually became under Bush's.  I know discussions get heated on this board sometimes, but I'm not trying to be argumentative.  I'm much, much too tired for that. 

To sum it up, on this day and at this time, all I can truly say with certainty is:

RIBBIT!!!!

by talking down to people.  The point I gathered from the the Bloomberg article seems to state what many have said and that is that with all the spending the government has done and will continue to do, the government could have paid off almost all mortgages and settled what was touted as the root cause of all the problems, the subprime mess. 

Bailouts don't work, handouts don't work, the free market does. 

With one mistake after another, rookie Obama's decisions and policies demonstrate one thing only and that is his stimulus package is political payback instead of finding genuine solutions.  The vagueness of his campaign speechmaking was the work of a hollow wordsmith after all. 

They're saying they'll have to raise taxes when the extended benefits run out.  This doesn't make sense to me.  If while they are receiving extended benefits they are creating jobs with the other aspects of the stimulus, wouldn't the total bill for unemployment go down? 

I could just as easily say that if you believe in the sanctity of life so much, why are you willing to torture and kill others.

That argument won't work because most people who are pro-choice do not believe that life begins at conception.

we discover that KBR (a subsidiary of Cheney's Halliburton) knowingly exposed United States soldiers to toxic materials in Iraq. 

Please watch this video.  It's only three minutes long, and it's heartbreaking.  Don't our troops deserve better from a commander-in-chief that claims to care about them?

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/CBS_KBR_knew_dangers_of_toxic_1223.html

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/background/numbers/revenue.cfm

FY 2007

Total tax revenues for FY 2007 are composed of:

1.     Individual income tax                  45%. 

Included in individual income tax category are capital gains taxes, which make up between 4% and 7% of individual income tax revenues and between 2% and 3% of total tax revenues within this category.

2.     Payroll taxes                               35%

Social insurance (Social Security).  Funds used to pay for Federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance, Unemployment Insurance, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Medicare/Medicaid, State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)

Supplemental Security Income (SSI).   Individual's share of this is 17.5%.  

3.     Corporate Income Tax                 15%

4.     Excise Tax                                    3%. 

Essentially a consumer tax on alcohol, cigarettes and gas. 

5.     "Other"                                          2%

So, individuals' share of total tax revenues amounts to approximately 65.5%, employers 17.5% and corporations 15% plus the mysterious "other" of 2%.    

If you go to the above link and scroll down about halfway, you will find a nifty little chart that shows how much the share corporations paid into total tax revenues has diminshed since 1950.  For example, an early 50s spike on the graph show corporations' share to be approximately 30+%...TWICE AS MUCH AS IT IS NOW.   

A couple of other points of interest: 

http://www.sba.gov/ADVO/laws/statement07_0309.html

"…tax compliance costs employers with less than 20 employees a total of $1304 per employee as compared to employers with 500 or more employees which incur $780 per employee to comply with Federal taxes.(6) Put another way, small entities pay 40% more for tax compliance than employers with 500 or more employees.

http://www.cbpp.org/8-9-05bud.htm

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities – How Robust was 2001-2007 Economic Expansion?  Figures 1 and 2 will indicate the following information:

Based on the 7 economic indicators, Bush years turned in below average growth percentages in every single indicator except for one….CORPORATE PROFITS.  The biggest losers….employment (JOBS) and wages and salaries (PAYCHECKS).   To make this dry economic data a little bit spicier, 2 comparisons have been shown…Bush years against Post WWII averages and Bush years as compared to the 90s decade.  I have run averages on the trough and peak growth comparison data depicted in Figure 2 to come up with the following overall percentages.  Pay special attention to the last 3 items. 

1.     Gross Domestic Product (GDP) down 31% from Post WWII average and down 12.85% from the 90s

2.     Consumption down 23.45% from Post WWII average and down 6.25% from the 90s   

3.     Non-residential fixed investment down 40% from Post WWII average and down 58% from the 90s 

4.     Net worth down 16.25% from Post WWII average and down 20.1% from the 90s 

5.     Wages and salaries (PAYCHECKS) down a whopping 55.6% from Post WWII average and down an impressive 40.55% from the 90s

6.     Employment (JOBS) down an amazing 68.65% from Post WWII average and down an impressive 46.65% from the 90s

7.     Corporate profits up 200% above post WWII average and up 126% from the 90s.    

From where I sit, there is clearly something wrong with this picture.  I will be voting for the candidate who shares this view and plans to restore a more balanced, equitable and FAIR distribution of wealth.  This is not about shifting bucks from one person to another.  This is about corporations whose butts are being bailed out right and left by us Joe Shmoes shouldering more fiscal responsibility toward their shareholders AND toward John Q. Public.