Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Like I said, you sound like a Kerry voter, in that you recognize things are shades of gray, but that confused the republicans soooooooooooo much they just couldn't handle it so many voted in a moron who seemed like "a nice guy to have a beer with." Aye, aye, aye.
Okay, I understand what you're saying. And yes--I voted for Kerry. In Louisiana, we don't have the option of penciling in someone we truly like. I tried to convince myself I liked Kerry, though. It didn't work too well. While I already said that I acknowledge gray areas, I'm not so sure that's what Kerry was doing. I feel like he was just being a politician--refusing to say much of anything of substance for fear of pissing someone off. And his contradictions bothered me.
Of course that is true. I posted that link to establish that the dems didn't control both houses of congress until 2006 - a previous poster had said they'd had control for the past four years.
I am very much a liberal and of course the dems have inherited a colossal mess. Whoever gets elected (and it had better be a democrat) is going to have a GIANT mess to fix.
The Dems, at least in the past 30 years or so, have always followed a Repub who has drastically increased the National Debt. This scenario follows the same pattern, only it is much worse this time, and there is no guarantee that we can reverse the damage even if a Dem follows. If McCain is elected, GOD HELP US!
The Dems, at least in the past 30 years or so, have always followed a Repub who has drastically increased the National Debt. This scenario follows the same pattern, only it is much worse this time, and there is no guarantee that we can reverse the damage even if a Dem follows. If McCain is elected, GOD HELP US!
I just don't see how that can happen. I think people are REALLY sick of the way things are going. Now...if there's another rigged election, all bets are off.
I've been so down in the past 7 years. If Mccain gets in I will have to double my antidepressants
I just don't see how that can happen. I think people are REALLY sick of the way things are going. Now...if there's another rigged election, all bets are off.
I've been so down in the past 7 years. If Mccain gets in I will have to double my antidepressants
A telling post. When thwarted, conservatives buy guns, and liberals take mood-altering drugs.
A telling post. When thwarted, conservatives buy guns, and liberals take mood-altering drugs.
Is this a great country or what?
Ahem, I don't want to derail and I won't, but antidepressants regulate what wasn't right to start with (and plenty of conservatives are on them). They are not mood altering like alcohol, etc.
Yes, there is a definite difference between those on the left and right. However, I do think most of the time you are right in that liberals really don't get into guns.
Still, I haven't been myself for a long time and it's because the future looks dim for our country.
I'm an ultra-conservative so far to the right I make Bush look like Eugene Debs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gorgeet
why exactly do they hate us so much, and is it justified?
You're destructive to society, to the community, to the family and to the individual, and your belief system is a proven failure.
Quote:
Ok, I believe in 'welfare', which I believe is a 'hand up', rather than a 'hand-out'. It's only for 5 years, and Americans from time to time might need help from the government, and not just turn to the Salvation Army. Sometimes the medical bills can cripple your finances, sometimes you lose your job, so liberals want to help -
IS THAT SO WRONG?
In the first place, welfare has never been a hand-up, it has always been a hand out, and it has been destructive to communities and to the family.
Through the 1950s, blacks had higher marriage rates than whites and lower divorce rates than whites. If the Republican minority in Congress would have had its way in 1964, the Works Project Administration would have been re-created and blacks would have had jobs paying decent wages, learning skills and trades, and gaining even more valuable experience as supervisors and low level managers, strengthening the family and providing every reason to keep the family intact, and everyone, both blacks and whites would have benefited financially. Instead, you totally destroyed the black family with your hand-out programs that encouraged the break-up of the family and have caused pain and suffering for millions of people.
You threw away over $1 Trillion with your screwed up HUD housing formulas that allowed slum lords to charge $950 for a one-bedroom apartment that normally would have been $150 in a given market. After 40 years you can still drive through any slum or ghetto and see 60+ year old buildings with their original energy inefficient windows and lead based paint in spite of the fact that your big money give away allowed for a $5,000 per unit bi-annual grant program. Assuming a slum-lord drew the grant every two years until the Republicans cut if off in 1996, that's $75,000 per unit. I'm not at all convinced that the slum-lords used that money in any way to effect repairs and maintain the units.
Respect and enforce the Constitution of the United States and the 8th, 9th and 10th Amendments. The individual states can create, implement, manage and control any social welfare program in a way that is bigger, better, more efficient, more cost effective and produce greater results than your one-size fits all national government programs that do nothing except waste tax-payer money.
In Kenton County, Kentucky, a single mother with 2 children and an income over $14,000 couldn't qualify for the WIC program, but in adjacent Boone County, a married woman with 2 children and an income of $36,000 did.
That's the kind of nonsense you have created. You totally ignore geography as though it has no impact on a state's economy. Not every state has a desert, or mountains, or a coastline or a major river. You ignore demographics like it doesn't matter if one state has an aging population, while another has mostly younger population, or a higher percentage of legal immigrants. You don't even have the common sense to understand that an income of $24,000/year in Ohio is not equivalent to an income of $24,000/year in California.
There's no way for a state to tailor the welfare benefits you foist on them to even come close to meeting the needs of people.
Quote:
I believe in protecting the environment, instead of letting corporations tear it up willy-nilly, so that future generations will have a functional planet -IS THAT SO WRONG?
Then protect the environment, what's stopping you? You don't need the government for that, you have your credit cards and pocket book. If a business is not acting in a socially acceptable manner, then you shun them, just like you would a co-worker, neighbor or some other obnoxious has been.
I'll bet you're a classic double-talking liberal, complete with Coca-Cola products in your home. Sure, it's perfectly okay to patronize and financially enrich and reward a corporation that has for it's entire existence routinely violated Federal Trade Commission regulations and discriminated against minorities in hiring, pay and promotions.
Quote:
I believe in spending our money on social programs to make heath care and higher education more widely available at a lower cost to American citizens, instead of spending trillions to invade another country for no reason - IS THAT SO WRONG?
Go ahead and ram your national health care program done people's throats without attempting to correct the existing underlying problems and see what happens. You can't possibly justify the existence of hospitals. A hospital is the least efficient means of providing health care.
The corollaries of Capitalist Theory are Diversification and Specialization, two things that would dramatically reduce health care costs. When a group of doctors in Ohio attempted to open a cardio-pulmonary center, the insurance and hospital lobbyists rushed to Columbus to ram legislation through to bar such specialty clinics. What was their complaint? Well, the new cardio-pulmonary center would be charging $15,000 less than the cheapest hospital in the area charges for open-heart surgery.
How could they charge so much less? Um, they diversified and specialized. They don't take out babies, they don't have a neo-natal care unit, they don't do psychiatry, geriatrics, pediatrics, sports medicine, orthopedics, diet and weight loss programs, oncology, internal medicine, dermatology, plastic surgery, speech therapy, neurology, urology, endocrinology, oral surgery, radiology, osteoporosis, nephrology, nuclear medicine, otolaryngology, podiatry, social work, opthalmology, infectious diseases or proctology.
All they do is open-heart surgery, and they don't need a behemoth of a building with a huge freaking parking garage and security guards and security systems and all the administrative and maintenance crap that goes with it.
So before you bankrupt the country, why don't you force hospitals to break up into specialty clinics, see how health care costs are impacted and then go from there, perhaps forcing "health insurance" companies into non-profit status, or do you think paying an "health insurance" company CEO a $42.5 Million bonus is a good thing?
Quote:
I believe that a citizen's privacy mush be protected, and that the government should not be allowed to spy on it's citizens without obtaining a court order to do so - IS THAT SO WRONG?
Then why did you create a government (with a massive budget) that was so big that no part of it has any idea what the other parts are doing? A smaller government is a more transparent government.
Quote:
I may diverge slightly on this topic - I believe that gay's should not be allowed to 'marry' in the traditional sense, but that they should be allowed to enter into formal agreements called 'civil unions' which allow them legal rights similar, but not identical to marriage rights when they die.
IS THAT SO WRONG?
They have 100% of those legal rights now. It's called a Will or Will & Last Testament. Additionally, there's Special Powers of Attorney, Limited Powers of Attorney and General Powers of Attorney. As it stands, they have more freedom in that regard than heterosexual couples. In nearly all states, the surviving spouse gets a percentage of the inheritance, and often children do also, so you can't will 100% of your estate to charity because the law prohibits it.
Besides, I thought the real issue of homosexual marriage was "health insurance" coverage.
I'm heterosexual and I have the same problem. Why can't I put my room-mate on my policy? Why can't I put my live-in girlfriend on my policy? Why can't I put my sister and two nephews on my policy? What freaking difference does it make? Why do I have to pay $180/per month as a single insured while a married couple with 3 young children pays only $30 more per month. In plain English I'm paying $90 per person, but a married couple with 3 children pays $42 per person. In an average situation, how do five people use less health care than one person?
"Health insurance" is not insurance because it is not based on actuarial science. So again, what difference does it make if my sister and nephews don't live with me? I'm paying for the damn insurance, I should be able to insure anyone I want.
Your over-reliance on the government as the "be all, end all" is misguided. When Katrina, Wilma and Rita happened, who was there first? The community and the family, except you stripped the community of any power or authority and left them unable to react. Just keep that in mind the next time an earthquake or tornado rips through your area and you're standing around waiting for your giant government bureaucracy to act and the benefits to kick in.
I'm an ultra-conservative so far to the right I make Bush look like Eugene Debs.
YOU ACT AS IF THAT IS SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF.
You're destructive to society, to the community, to the family and to the individual, and your belief system is a proven failure.
YOU SOUND JUST LIKE YOUR BUDDY, RUSH 'BOIL-ON-BUTT' LIMBAUGH!
In the first place, welfare has never been a hand-up, it has always been a hand out, and it has been destructive to communities and to the family.
THERE ARE MORE WHITES ON WELFARE THAN BLACKS
Through the 1950s, blacks had higher marriage rates than whites and lower divorce rates than whites. If the Republican minority in Congress would have had its way in 1964, the Works Project Administration would have been re-created and blacks would have had jobs paying decent wages, learning skills and trades, and gaining even more valuable experience as supervisors and low level managers, strengthening the family and providing every reason to keep the family intact, and everyone, both blacks and whites would have benefited financially. Instead, you totally destroyed the black family with your hand-out programs that encouraged the break-up of the family and have caused pain and suffering for millions of people.
THOSE WERE REPUBLICANS ALONG WITH DEMOCRATS THAT ENACTED THE SECTION 8 PROGRAM
You threw away over $1 Trillion with your screwed up HUD housing formulas that allowed slum lords to charge $950 for a one-bedroom apartment that normally would have been $150 in a given market. After 40 years you can still drive through any slum or ghetto and see 60+ year old buildings with their original energy inefficient windows and lead based paint in spite of the fact that your big money give away allowed for a $5,000 per unit bi-annual grant program. Assuming a slum-lord drew the grant every two years until the Republicans cut if off in 1996, that's $75,000 per unit. I'm not at all convinced that the slum-lords used that money in any way to effect repairs and maintain the units.
Respect and enforce the Constitution of the United States and the 8th, 9th and 10th Amendments. The individual states can create, implement, manage and control any social welfare program in a way that is bigger, better, more efficient, more cost effective and produce greater results than your one-size fits all national government programs that do nothing except waste tax-payer money.
In Kenton County, Kentucky, a single mother with 2 children and an income over $14,000 couldn't qualify for the WIC program, but in adjacent Boone County, a married woman with 2 children and an income of $36,000 did.
That's the kind of nonsense you have created. You totally ignore geography as though it has no impact on a state's economy. Not every state has a desert, or mountains, or a coastline or a major river. You ignore demographics like it doesn't matter if one state has an aging population, while another has mostly younger population, or a higher percentage of legal immigrants. You don't even have the common sense to understand that an income of $24,000/year in Ohio is not equivalent to an income of $24,000/year in California.
There's no way for a state to tailor the welfare benefits you foist on them to even come close to meeting the needs of people.
Then protect the environment, what's stopping you? You don't need the government for that, you have your credit cards and pocket book. If a business is not acting in a socially acceptable manner, then you shun them, just like you would a co-worker, neighbor or some other obnoxious has been.
I'll bet you're a classic double-talking liberal, complete with Coca-Cola products in your home. Sure, it's perfectly okay to patronize and financially enrich and reward a corporation that has for it's entire existence routinely violated Federal Trade Commission regulations and discriminated against minorities in hiring, pay and promotions.
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT I DRINK - ARE ULTRA-CONSERVATIVES ALSO PSYCHIC?
Go ahead and ram your national health care program done people's throats without attempting to correct the existing underlying problems and see what happens. You can't possibly justify the existence of hospitals. A hospital is the least efficient means of providing health care.
NO, BUT CONSERVATIVE BUSH RAMMED HIS CORPORATE WELFARE MEDICARE PLAN DOWN OUR THROATS, DIDN'T HE?
The corollaries of Capitalist Theory are Diversification and Specialization, two things that would dramatically reduce health care costs. When a group of doctors in Ohio attempted to open a cardio-pulmonary center, the insurance and hospital lobbyists rushed to Columbus to ram legislation through to bar such specialty clinics. What was their complaint? Well, the new cardio-pulmonary center would be charging $15,000 less than the cheapest hospital in the area charges for open-heart surgery.
How could they charge so much less? Um, they diversified and specialized. They don't take out babies, they don't have a neo-natal care unit, they don't do psychiatry, geriatrics, pediatrics, sports medicine, orthopedics, diet and weight loss programs, oncology, internal medicine, dermatology, plastic surgery, speech therapy, neurology, urology, endocrinology, oral surgery, radiology, osteoporosis, nephrology, nuclear medicine, otolaryngology, podiatry, social work, opthalmology, infectious diseases or proctology.
All they do is open-heart surgery, and they don't need a behemoth of a building with a huge freaking parking garage and security guards and security systems and all the administrative and maintenance crap that goes with it.
So before you bankrupt the country, (BUSH HAS ALREADY DONE THAT - THANKS CONSERVATIVES!) why don't you force hospitals to break up into specialty clinics, see how health care costs are impacted and then go from there, perhaps forcing "health insurance" companies into non-profit status, or do you think paying an "health insurance" company CEO a $42.5 Million bonus is a good thing?
Then why did you create a government (with a massive budget) that was so big that no part of it has any idea what the other parts are doing? A smaller government is a more transparent government.
They have 100% of those legal rights now. It's called a Will or Will & Last Testament. Additionally, there's Special Powers of Attorney, Limited Powers of Attorney and General Powers of Attorney. As it stands, they have more freedom in that regard than heterosexual couples. In nearly all states, the surviving spouse gets a percentage of the inheritance, and often children do also, so you can't will 100% of your estate to charity because the law prohibits it.
Besides, I thought the real issue of homosexual marriage was "health insurance" coverage.
I'm heterosexual and I have the same problem. Why can't I put my room-mate on my policy? Why can't I put my live-in girlfriend on my policy? Why can't I put my sister and two nephews on my policy? What freaking difference does it make? Why do I have to pay $180/per month as a single insured while a married couple with 3 young children pays only $30 more per month. In plain English I'm paying $90 per person, but a married couple with 3 children pays $42 per person. In an average situation, how do five people use less health care than one person?
"Health insurance" is not insurance because it is not based on actuarial science. So again, what difference does it make if my sister and nephews don't live with me? I'm paying for the damn insurance, I should be able to insure anyone I want.
Your over-reliance on the government as the "be all, end all" is misguided. When Katrina, Wilma and Rita happened, who was there first (NOT BUSH - THAT'S FOR SURE!) ? The community and the family, except you stripped the community of any power or authority and left them unable to react. Just keep that in mind the next time an earthquake or tornado rips through your area and you're standing around waiting for your giant government bureaucracy to act and the benefits to kick in.
HEY 'ULTRA-CONSERVATIVE', READ MY REPLIES ABOVE - DON'T WORRY, IF DISASTER HITS, I SURE WON'T BE WAITING FOR THE 'COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVES' TO HELP - THEIR IDEA OF 'COMPASSION' IS A SHOTGUN BLAST TO THE FACE!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
