Obma is a great speaker, He motivates, all in all not a lot to dislike. I believe he will be President... someday.
If he learns to just draw a line in the sand. Take a position, vote on something that he believes in rather than see which way the wind is going to blow.
If he quits preaching & comes to terms that there are quite a few of us uneducated, redneck wannabes that can balance a checkbook, and do stick to our guns and bibles albeit for a different reason that he states, and starts doing, he'll be POTUS.
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We are not primarily on earth to see through one another, but to see one another through
Some people are like slinkies: not really good for anything... but you can't help laughing when you push them down the stairs
I tend to agree with you Paul. I don't think he'll make it though as long as he believes the government is a solution. I can see him as Ted Kennedy's replacement, much easier than I can see him as President. As I've said before, we need to send people to Washington who see it as a civic duty, not a career.
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John
Ontario 32 - Aria
Free, is the heart, that lives not, in fear.
Full, is the spirit, that thinks not, of falling.
True, is the soul, that hesitates not, to give.
Alive, is the one, that believes, in love. JCP
Exactly PB... Why do you think janitors and security personnel at the Seattle VA hospital get better health care then the Vets at the Tax payer expense? They are ALL federal employee unions... Who has the money to lobby congrees? The Unions... My problem is that they are federal and in my spouses case State unions using TAX payer dollars for a service to us Tax payers......
Correct, I deal with these unions on a daily basis. Even if you have a gov't contract and you aren't unionized, the wages and benefits are set by either Davis Bacon or the SCA (Service Contract Act) - you look at the federal Wage Determinations for the area you are in and that tells you what to pay, what $$ for benefits, etc - not cheap. If you have a union, the bargaining starts at those levels and goes up from there.
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s/v Paloma, Bristol 29.9, #141
Slipped in Bahia Marina, easy access to Corpus Christi Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
6 days from now, Congress is scheduled to adjourn to return home to run for re-election. The leadership has said they will not postpone the adjournment. That means that they plan in the next 6 days, to come up with a bailout solution for a problem that was years in the making and a result of their own desire to create the subprime market for people to buy houses who otherwise couldn't afford to.
6 days to solve something that has been evident for at least the past year.
As Harry Reid put it so eloquently, "We don't know what to do", yet, now, they are going to solve it in 6 days.
The markets and most "experts" have given Paulson and Berneke high marks for what they have done so far. Which is mainly to prevent a meltdown and allow time to come up with the best possible solution. Yet, Congress is only willing to allow 6 days to come up with one.
Now, maybe they can come up with a workable solution in that time frame, and the sooner they do, the better. But it seems to this observor that a proper and fitting solution to the current situation is a bit more important than running for re-election.
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John
Ontario 32 - Aria
Free, is the heart, that lives not, in fear.
Full, is the spirit, that thinks not, of falling.
True, is the soul, that hesitates not, to give.
Alive, is the one, that believes, in love. JCP
Despite the near universal claim in the MSM and from Obama surrogates that race is the only factor if Obama loses (and yes, race will be an issue for some), a survey by AP and Yahoo News in conjunction with Stanford University doesn't find race to be the main factor.
Quote:
Race is not the biggest factor driving Democrats and independents away from Obama. Doubts about his competency loom even larger, the poll indicates. More than a quarter of all Democrats expressed doubt that Obama can bring about the change they want, and they are likely to vote against him because of that.
Three in 10 of those Democrats who don't trust Obama's change-making credentials say they plan to vote for McCain.
Still, the effects of whites' racial views are apparent in the polling.
Statistical models derived from the poll suggest that Obama's support would be as much as 6 percentage points higher if there were no white racial prejudice.
But in an election without precedent, it's hard to know if such models take into account all the possible factors at play.
The last two paragraphs and particularly the last one, show there is really no statistical way to factor in race. In other words, at this point, it is merely a perception.
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John
Ontario 32 - Aria
Free, is the heart, that lives not, in fear.
Full, is the spirit, that thinks not, of falling.
True, is the soul, that hesitates not, to give.
Alive, is the one, that believes, in love. JCP
Going to be interesting to see how much Congress tacks on to Bush's request for spending authorization for the bailout. Which highlights another glaring problem with Congress, attaching pet projects, quid pro quo's, and earmarks on to more necessary appropriation bills.
We have the Dems proclaiming, No saving Wall St, without saving Main St. Sounds good, scores lots of points, but they don't mean it. If they really want to save Main St, then they are free to do so. All they have to do is pass the legislation to do so. It doesn't have to be part of the "bailout". In fact, it shouldn't be part of the bailout. Though both are parts of the overall problem, they are seperate isusses and should be treated as such.
They don't want to do that though. Why? Because then they can't pin it on Bush. By piggybacking it, they gain political cover for the expenditures, while gaining political points for their concern. In other words, more partisanship, at a time when we need to be working together.
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John
Ontario 32 - Aria
Free, is the heart, that lives not, in fear.
Full, is the spirit, that thinks not, of falling.
True, is the soul, that hesitates not, to give.
Alive, is the one, that believes, in love. JCP
Free, is the heart, that lives not, in fear.
Full, is the spirit, that thinks not, of falling.
True, is the soul, that hesitates not, to give.
Alive, is the one, that believes, in love. JCP
Free, is the heart, that lives not, in fear.
Full, is the spirit, that thinks not, of falling.
True, is the soul, that hesitates not, to give.
Alive, is the one, that believes, in love. JCP
I wouldn't put to much hope in Gen X. I represent the tail end. Born in 73, a year some what infamous for having the lowest live births since pre WW2. Which is why even as we're hitting are thirties and forties, we keep being out voted by the baby boomers. Those fellas aren't known for they're willingness to suffer.
You currently seeing them hit the snooze button on the economic alarm clock, again. To put into perpective, the dot com bubble followed by Enron was the economic equivilent of black hawk down. Much like our foibles in Somolia, before the dust even settled from the bubble burst they were lowering the interest rate trying harder to avoid trouble then to deal with it.
The current crisis is being handled like Iraq. Only a few are being asked to pay now. Most of the money involved is going to be borrowed from our competiters and left for Gens X and Y to pay back, with interest of course. The general public isn't going to have to take in they're family who lost they're homes. We may have to come up with a little more money to put down, at least for a couple years anyway, but we're not going back to the lay-a-way plans are grand parents used.
A good call on our leaders would have been to raise the gas tax after 9-11. This would have paid for the war and cut demand for oil, thus cutting the funding for the terrorists. But you can't expect American to suffer for much of anything these days. From my expeirence after the 04 hurricane season in Florida, most people think going a few days with out electricity is the equivilent of living threw the holocaust.
Add in that Gen X and Y have largly lost touch with reality, and the prospect of things chaging for the better get pretty dim. On the environment, the opinion of most of my peers is that mother nature is a loving and wonderful provider. This comes of course from a generation that thanks to modern engineering has never had to suffer through wide spred multi year crop losses and the resulting meager times. Drouts and flood are largly contained or abated by complex water works.
On finances, maket manipulation and government bailouts have hidden the real cost of buy today-pay next year business models. These days you can run up tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt and not be expected to pay anything for a year or more.
Laws require hospitals to treat every body who walks, stubbles or is dragged through the door so no one has to see what a life of bad habit and poor chooses looks like. Social Security has eliminated the poor house that used to make us aware of the need to bend a little now and then to build and keep a heathy community around us.
It may change but I wouldn't hold your breath
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I wouldn't put to much hope in Gen X. I represent the tail end. Born in 73, a year some what infamous for having the lowest live births since pre WW2. Which is why even as we're hitting are thirties and forties, we keep being out voted by the baby boomers. Those fellas aren't known for they're willingness to suffer.
I don't agree with everything you said, but all-in-all that was a good post.
I think that our generation has mostly been defined not by what it is, but by what it isn't - boomers. Now that boomers are getting old and won't be running things anymore our politics will again be defined by boomers, this time by AARP and all the rest. In the end Gen X won't be a generation that will have the strength and resources to put a man on Mars, or builds great monuments to humanity. Instead we are going to be the generation who takes care of old people. There are going to be lots of old people to take care of, it's already happening. I believe we have always been a generation of "damage control experts", in a way.
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What are you pretending not to know ?
