61. Thanks Dave. Not a word in your response about health care. Your non-response is an excellent reflection of the republican strategy. Don't deal with the real issues.

Your party's tactic is to engage in a "culture war" where we are supposed to be more concerned about, "The View" and "lipstick" and phony concern about the feelings of Sarah Palin.

Hey, republicans, are we better off now than we were seven years ago?

Captain Negative at 7:25PM on Sep 15th 2008

62. As we all know, Captain Negative is a man of the people. Well, as I move through my community I notice the campaign signs.

Guess what's missing from the signs? The word, "Republican." Apparently none of the candidates is proud to be affiliated with the Grand
Old Hypocrites Party.

Can't say that I blame them.

Captain Negative at 7:28PM on Sep 15th 2008

63. "So in other words, nothing could have prevented what we are seeing right now. It was already going to happen regardless."

**************

That's a complete cop-out. Let's run for election on a promise to do something and then when we get in office we won't do anything because it won't do any good anyway.

Face it, Botts. Your party is no better than mine when they get in office. Your last guy sat by while jobs beat a fast path out of the country. You conveniently ignore that. And despite what you say that's a significant part of the current problem.

Your party's solution. Implement a series of regulations which may hurt more than they help and "bring jobs back home" which, as you yourself pointed out has nothing to do with bringing back existing jobs. It banks on more of the same "pie-in-the-sky" speculation that resulted in the tech bubble.

The only positive is that the chances of either of those things actually occurring is slim to none, based on past performance.

bob at 7:49PM on Sep 15th 2008

64. "That's a complete cop-out. Let's run for election on a promise to do something and then when we get in office we won't do anything because it won't do any good anyway."

Do you think that results can be shown in 20 months economically speaking? As far as the economy is concerned, this was going to happen. Nothing could have stopped what was started. It is what it is.

"Face it, Botts. Your party is no better than mine when they get in office. Your last guy sat by while jobs beat a fast path out of the country. You conveniently ignore that. And despite what you say that's a significant part of the current problem."

Well bob, it's not my party. I'm not a Democrat. I didn't have a last guy in office. I wasn't a Clinton guy, but I must say, Democrats do Govern a hect of a lot better.

"Your party's solution. Implement a series of regulations which may hurt more than they help and "bring jobs back home" which, as you yourself pointed out has nothing to do with bringing back existing jobs. It banks on more of the same "pie-in-the-sky" speculation that resulted in the tech bubble."

Well, it's not my party. But what I will say, is that Regulation always is a necessity especially in Banking. Has to be. It works, and prevents the things that you are seeing. You hung up on "may not work". But I'd rather have "may not work" versus "will not work".

"The only positive is that the chances of either of those things actually occurring is slim to none, based on past performance."

I'll take slim any day of the week. And Obama has the education, intellect and forethought to make sound decisions. I can't wait to see him put it to use.

Botts at 7:58PM on Sep 15th 2008

65. "And Obama has the education, intellect and forethought to make sound decisions."

***************

You know who had a similar education, intellect and political drive?

Richard Nixon.

If that's Obama's strongest hand (and since virtually every discussion seems to eventually wind down to that in lieu of him having much in the way of relevant experience), I'm not sure I'd be confident in his ability to make sound decisions.

bob at 9:06PM on Sep 15th 2008

66. Hi Botts! The 7 years you cite is actually more like
28.Well known bigbiz puppet Ron "Wellll" Reagan
started this mess.

In his 8 years as the "I hate government" in-chief,
America went from being the world's largest creditor
nation to the world's largest debtor nation.

He grew gov't to the largest size ever,and spent
(in real dollars)more than every president before
him combined.Oh,and he was an un-indicted co-conspirator as well.

BOB JOHNSON at 10:31PM on Sep 15th 2008

67. Bob Johnson,

How's it goin?

Reagan put it in action. And he screwed up our economy so bad in his first year, that he even raised taxes in his first term. George Sr. Raised taxes in his only term, and Clinton raised taxes in both his terms.

It took 16 years to stabilize what Reagan did in his first term.

What was fixed and stabilized was thrown out the window with Bush 43.

What I just love, is the Republicans that want to blame Democrats for it!

Botts at 10:57PM on Sep 15th 2008

68. They are great at deflecting blame aren't they?

BOB JOHNSON at 12:20AM on Sep 16th 2008

69. Why not look at who preceeded Reagan and then you might get why he had to raise taxes. The military build-up that eventually brought down the USSR, SDI,all the things you bitch about now that taxes are the solution for instead of cutting taxes on people and corporations and cutting spending on social programs that go nowhere. GHWB missed a second term because he made a deal with the dem controlled congress that no taxes would be raised and right after his "No new taxes" pledge, Congess raised them anyway. Then Bill gets in, hits the good times unless you include all the corruption in his administration and the bimbo addiction, he got out of office just as we hit the dot com bust, went into a recession and then had 9-11. Pick and chose all you want, but 9-11 changed everything. I really don't care where the hijackers came from. I do know what they did and that there were a lot of supporters in lots of Arab nations. We went to Afghanistan and quieted that down then did Iraq. Too bad if you like Saddam, we killed his ass and lots of wanna be terrorists in Iraq. Ask Bob Woodward about the effectiveness of our eliminating terrorists.

Now all I hear is Obama's vaunted intelligence put up against Palin who is a VP candidate, not president, but then Obama gets to go on with his supposed superiority and gets to avoid McCain. Fine. Now there's a meltdown of financial institutions and its chicken little all over again. All this is just government sponsored greed because the govt. is going to bail out FNME and FRMC instead of letting them go broke. Maybe going broke would cut down on ALL the greed going around. Yeah, those heartless bastards lending money with zero down, and creative mortgages just so po folk could own a house. Hello? What happened to minimum income and 20% down? Screw it, the govt, said loan and loan they did. Those houses didn't go anywhere, they are still there but for some arcane reason, I guess losing some money isn't preferable to losing all of it. If they had used Hollywood accounting, they would still be solvent!

Now there will be gnashing odf teeth and cries of "burn the witches" coming out of DC, meaning that stupid overreaction and unnecessary legislation and regulation will flow like honey from the promised land. The Dems will claim they had nothing to do with it (although they did) and the Reps will do the same (but they're guilty too).
I'm so tired of all this bickering when it is congress that really screws up things and yet we still elect the same bastards to office, so who is stupid? I hear bitches about Obama getting called a muslim, christians called names, Romney had to endure his mormanism and we all know the Jews are behind it all don't we? Obama is white/black but you can't mention the excessive melanin he possesses but insult whites all you want. It's nice to call yourself an independent, that way you win no matter which way the cards fall, just like atheists who don't believe in god, but damn those that do. maybe its time for a crash, I'll damn well assure you that this constant bitching will stop and then maybe we can get back on course for what this country stands for, not liberal dreaming. One thing you better remember though is that you better not cut the military like it has been done in the past when its a choice of soldiers or social programs. The military has healthcare, join up and get it. I'm tired of coming to these blogs, seeing someone make a point and then the insults and gotcha's start coming. Fine w/me, I can do either so I don't care. It sucks, sucks, sucks and I'm tired of it all.

Dedmanrisn at 1:08AM on Sep 16th 2008

70. "What I just love, is the Republicans that want to blame Democrats for it!"

***********

What I love is Democrats claiming they've had no hand in it whatsoever. They've been hogtied, patiently waiting for Obama to descend from heaven to smite the evil Republicans with his intellect.

bob at 7:37AM on Sep 16th 2008

71. Dear concerned citizens of America and Mass Media of the U.S.A.

As a concerned registered independent voter, forensic psychiatrist, disabled American I made my decision to vote after taking into consideration following joint tickets attributes and characteristics.

1. Has the ticket shown adequate calmness, coolness, and connectedness's under pressure to lead our nation [Presidential Temperament]?

2. Has the ticket shown sustained sound "Judgment and Caliber"?

3. Has the ticket shown adequate understanding of depth and degree to address the crucial challenges in their their purpose, policies, and positions [ Honesty, integrity and sincerity]?

4. Has the ticket sufficient "understanding and knowledge" of inside Washington workings [Experience]"?

5. Has the ticket reservoir resilience, wisdom, and vigor to address the present and future f our beloved "Great-grand Nation"?

6. Has the ticket enough joint foreign policy experience and exposure based on " Values, Virtues, Vastness, and " [American moral soul]"?

7. Has their campaign talk, slogans, ads, plans, and programs based on facts and are they free of fear, fiction, frivolous labels, unfair attacks, negativity, and impulsively? [No "imminent danger to national
security and safety"].

8. Has the ticket genuinely kept on message of country first and politics last and avoided copying [Message change"]?

9.Has the ticket message stayed away from Culture divide and war[ Disaster prevention ]?

10. Has the ticket resisted being surrounded, supported and surrogate's by divisiveness, distortion's, and destructive characters, [ Real patriotism VS shiftiness and shameless parrot-ism]?

I have personally and professionally concluded that OBAMA-BIDEN ticket will lift and inspire our greatgrand nation back to its greatness within and restore our global standing with the use of maximum, firm
international diplomacy and minimal force if and when indicated {" Peace thru Strenght "}.


Yours sincerely,

COL. A.M.Khajawall [Ret] MD.
Forensic psychiatrist, Disabled American Veteran and Iraq
Freedom team. Grass roots California leader per Senator McCain's mailings.

PS: I am real and check my records and prove me wrong. It is typical of McCain-Palin and his surrogates.

Ali Khajawall at 11:12AM on Sep 17th 2008