Most people who are awake, rational and honest know that the level of debt the United States holds is unsustainable. They also know that all the foolish talk of "fair share" won't fix the problem and seizing ever penny from the 1% won't make a dent.
Oh, and neither can "savings" from war in Iraq make a dent. That money was borrowed, too, but all the "progressives" want to view that as extra money to spend on more programs.
Amazing how seldom this debt problem is addressed in political debates. No one wants to deal with the truth. Apparently the politicians know that the average citizen can't handle the truth...correction, he/she doesn't care.
This is the new Democratic Party. This is Barack Obama's party leader. This should help those who are confused about opposition to the president.
Opposition to Ms. Schultz, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama is not based on racism or sexism. Anyone who understands human nature and the threat these folks pose to individuality and liberty, would oppose them.
Voting for the modern, moderate Republicans is just an effort to slow down the train.
Right now, every person in the US "contributes" PAYS 6.2% of his income to the federal government in payroll taxes. That amount is "matched" by employers, giving the federal government 13.4% of the pay of every working man, woman and youth. For most people, this amounts to far more than they are able to say in an IRA or 401k plan.
Let's say that a worker is able to work hard, earn some money and sacrifice to save money on his own. Should he do that successfully and end up with enough money to live on in his old age, the federal government is now planning to "means test" Social Security. That means that although this individual has "paid" hundreds of thousands of dollars into the system, he will be entitled to little or nothing from the federal government in his retirement.
Somehow, in today's America, this is "fair." This makes sense?
Reagan was not Jesus. Republicans, knock off the idol worship and cult of personality madness, please. Let the discussion be about principles, policies and the law.
"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." . . . You must do the thing you think you cannot do." - Eleanor Roosevelt
This interview from Ron Paul shows the man is, if nothing else, amazingly consistent. Note the style of the interview. It's serious, direct and rapid fire. Paul stays with it. He was much sharper.
Today he isn't as sharp but still makes a lot of sense. It's almost amusing to hear him warn about the deficit in 1988, when you consider today's deficit. We still have not learned.
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On another Ron Paul note, Ta-Nehisi Coates skewers Paul with his article "No One Else to Lie To." Coates goes after Ron Paul over the 90's Ron Paul newsletters, rightly pointing out how troubling the issue really is. By not dealing with the issue properly, Paul either comes across as mercenary (bigot for hire), dishonest or detached from reality. By denying the ugliness of the issue, Paul's followers do themselves no favors.
Coates also posts up a video of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan that starts out and even gives a nod to Paul's challenging the Federal Reserve. Eventually that video goes into Farrakhan mode, where it has you shaking your head and nodding alternately thus making you dizzy.
It's easy for the left and protectors of the status quo to focus on the newsletter issue rather than the hard truth of what Ron Paul is saying. Opponents of libertarian principles use marginalization as their main weapon.
NBC asks Romney to remove news material from his latest campaign ad. The ad shows footage of anchor Tom Brokaw discussing Newt Gingrich's ethics violations. Of course NBC slammed Gingrich at the time. Gingrich had opposed Bill Clinton and NBC, like the other network news outlets, were constantly on the attack.
Clare Fischer Dead; Grammy-Winning Composer Dies At 83. It was on Prince's "Under the Cherry Moon" soundtrack that I first became acquainted with Fischer. I later came to hear many other of his beautiful arrangements.
This is a great quote from W.E.B. Dubois along with my thoughts on anti-intellectualism.
I sit with Shakespeare, and he winces not. Across the color line I move arm and arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls. From out of the caves of evening that swing between the strong-limbed Earth and the tracery of stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what soul I will, and they come all graciously with no scorn nor condescension. So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the veil. Is this the life you grudge us, O knightly America? Is this the life you long to change into the dull red hideousness of Georgia? Are you so afraid lest peering from this high Pisgah, between Philistine and Amalekite, we sight the Promised Land? - W.E.B. Dubois
These eloquent, stirring words were written by a man who was one step away from being a slave. These words came from a man who was fighting for access to basic education for black people. His words reflected a hope that black people could even pursue and achieve loftier intellectual goals, that they could enjoy knowledge for knowledge's sake. move beyond being viewed as chattel by bigots and as a "problem" by the larger society.
Somehow things have devolved.
The average person in America today would stare blankly at anyone who wrote or spoke this way. We are an anti-intellectual society.
Sadly, too many black people would say such a person was acting or talking "white." You cannot force many to learn, even though their ancestors people died for the right.
I tweeted throughout the debate but thought I'd do a mini-recap.
Mitt Romney proved that he could fight and took it to Newt Gingrich.
Gingrich, at times, appeared extremely uncomfortable. He seemed to concede the fight at one point. He couldn't do his usual punch and run. Even Wolf Blitzer pushed back, which I knew some reporter would eventually.
I would applaud Blitzers performance had he not wasted time on idiocy like: "What kind of first lady will your wife make?" Geesh. We're only $15 trillion in debt and not even ten thousand Mitt Romney's could pay off that debt.
Rick Santorum had some moments, his best being when he said Gingrich's past should be left alone as should Romney's money.
Ron Paul was Ron Paul. He stuck to his issues and continued to put forward principles that should be recognized and accepted by Republicans. Any party that claims to represent smaller government must listen to Rep. Paul.
So we move on. There are times I just don't know what will come out of all of this. At times i think Obama will waltz back into a second term, carried by people who are ignorant along with those who are more interested in their party affiliation or their ethnicity than they are what is happening in the country.
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