OT-Are you voting Republican?

[RossValoryRocks]

Hey Stu, wasn't this for all intents and purposes the start of government dependence and the infant stages of welfare as we know it today?

Dan...If I may be so bold as to interject...FDR did his fair share of damage, 30 years before LBJ got within pissing distance of the oval orafice...

Absolutely right, both of you, however FDR never intended his "New Deal" to become a hand out factory either. He wanted to pull the nation out of the Great Depression and HELP people get on their feet (which I have no problem with) not sponge off of the government.

However some politicians saw this as an excellent way to make certain population beholden to them, and give them more political power.

Power corrupts as well all know...and once you give up control it's a slippery slope and soon the politicians control your life.

[Saint John]

Both of you fuckers are far more educated with the history of this country than I am...as is that fuckrod TNC. I appreciate the history lessons, guys...I really mean that.

[Lula]

As usual, squirt1 enlightens us with a coherent, structured, and grammatically correct post.

Thank you for proving my point and validating the statistics without the need to cite further references. You did my job for me!

Let's face it...The best and brightest are no longer in the Republican party and certainly not in the Democratic party.

where are they? here? lol

[Tito]

Less government = less corruption.

LBJ and FDR are two of the worst Presidents, in my opinion, because of their big government programs. Throw Woodrow Wilson in there too.

Calbear, as much as I dislike Truman, his use of the atomic bomb is NOT a negative.

[7 Wishes]

Bush has increased the size of the Federal Government more than any President in the 20th or 21st centuries.

[Tito]

Bush has increased the size of the Federal Government more than any President in the 20th or 21st centuries.

Believe me, he's on the Top 5, if not Top 3 worst Presidents list too.

[7 Wishes]

Well, Herbert Hoover gets that spot.

LBJ pulls in at a close second.

W and Carter probably tie for the bronze.

[Tito]

Well, Herbert Hoover gets that spot.

LBJ pulls in at a close second.

W and Carter probably tie for the bronze.

"Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again."

There were a few worse than him.

[BobbyinTN]

Liberal all the way. Republicans seem lost in time and I think they've disabled their emotion chip.

[conversationpc]

Bush has increased the size of the Federal Government more than any President in the 20th or 21st centuries.

We know.

[RossValoryRocks]

Bush has increased the size of the Federal Government more than any President in the 20th or 21st centuries.

He sure did...one of the MANY MANY things I do not like about the President...

[RossValoryRocks]

Liberal all the way. Republicans seem lost in time and I think they've disabled their emotion chip.

If by Republicans you mean conservatives, you are way off base.

Here is the difference between Conservatives and Liberals...conservatives do not act solely on the basis of emotions...while liberals act on emotion (if it feels good do it kind of thing) regardless of if the emotion is good or bad.

[strangegrey]

Hey Stu, wasn't this for all intents and purposes the start of government dependence and the infant stages of welfare as we know it today?

Dan...If I may be so bold as to interject...FDR did his fair share of damage, 30 years before LBJ got within pissing distance of the oval orafice...

Absolutely right, both of you, however FDR never intended his "New Deal" to become a hand out factory either. He wanted to pull the nation out of the Great Depression and HELP people get on their feet (which I have no problem with) not sponge off of the government.

However some politicians saw this as an excellent way to make certain population beholden to them, and give them more political power.

Power corrupts as well all know...and once you give up control it's a slippery slope and soon the politicians control your life.

Good clarification Stu. I would submit, that while FDR's intent might not have been to start the hand out gravy train, the effect was still there....and that's just as bad, when you're making policy from the oval orafice. In government, people have to consider the ramifications of policy before enacting it. In this case, perhaps FDR couldn't see past the great depression, with regards to the new deal. But regardless, the social programs that came out of it paved the way for LBJ, Carter and others to destroy the work ethic of people in this country.

[strangegrey]

Bush has increased the size of the Federal Government more than any President in the 20th or 21st centuries.

7w, I thought you were a liberal? From your perspective, that's a bad thing? I don't get it. It's ok for Clinton, Carter and LBJ to bloat out the government, but not Bush?

[7 Wishes]

7w, I thought you were a liberal? From your perspective, that's a bad thing? I don't get it. It's ok for Clinton, Carter and LBJ to bloat out the government, but not Bush?

Clinton reduced the ranks of the Federal Government by 25% during his eight years in office - after it hit record highs under Bush Sr. (who was a very good President) and Reagan.

[Ehwmatt]

Look its simple

Well over three quarters of university professors in the humanities, economics, and social sciences fields are left of center.
A neutral thinking student goes to class wanting to learn and get good grades and gets bombarded with those theories

Now, he/she might have some conservative viewpoints, but because all the underpinning theory she has been taught is statist/socialist in nature, he/she therefore cant coherently defend or justify to himself what common sense tells them is true.

So basically he has been, like Rousseau years ago suggested, has been conditioned through education to think a certain "correct way" way. Rosseau called it being forced to be free. It is in fact being educated away from your common senses.

This is indeed a huge part of the problem. Academia is infested with radicals. It's not hyperbole, it's not imagination, it's very provable, unlike proving press biases which are much more difficult to conclusively do whether you're trying to prove MSNBC is a bunch of Marxists or Fox is purely conservative. Plus, younger people as a whole tend to be more liberal.

As far as this election goes, we are faced with two choices:

1. A centrist Democrat
2. A far-left leaning candidate with no experience, a lot of scary plans (foreign policy, nationalized everything, rape of the corporation, murky Constitutional views), and a love affair with collectivism.

As a pure conservative with perhaps a tinge of libertarianism (I don't care what people do, but I do think some things are not to be trumpeted around publicly in front of impressionable young kids and such), neither of these candidates do much for me. But McCain will not hurt me much. Obama, on the other hand, will. And I loathe the prospect of him becoming president. McCain gets my vote because I could not forgive myself if I voted for a third party and somehow Obama wins the election. BTW, that prospect is dimming fast with Obama all of a sudden running a laughable campaign and the polls are shifting to reflect it. Today, he told a Purdue University roundtable that he would like to eliminate all nuclear weapons from the world. Sigh.

BTW, people getting into rows about which "party" is more educated only reflects your own stupidity. Debate the issues and quit with the bullshit generalizations and ad hominems. That's what is killing our country, more than Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, George W Bush, Obama, or McCain ever did/will.

[Ehwmatt]

And here is a little guy I wrote today after reading about Obama's latest brilliant "hope of change:"

If Barack Obama’s rapidly sinking poll numbers are any indication, he’s just months away from joining the dubious company of Michael Dukakis, John Kerry and George McGovern in the graveyard of woeful Democratic presidential candidates. Flip after flop, a perceived air of arrogance, a thin set of skin, and questions about his resumé have all helped quell “Obamamania” in the weeks after Obama became the presumptive Democratic nominee. In a roundtable discussion at Purdue University, Obama once again displayed a stunning naiveté in his pledge to purge the world of nuclear weapons.

“As long as nuclear weapons exist, we’ll retain a strong deterrent,” Obama said. “But we will make the goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons a central element in our nuclear policy.”

Sure, on the face of it, that doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. In fact, it might even sound downright appealing to some. Politicians make careers on lofty, unfulfilled promises. Few may believe Obama could actually purge nuclear weapons from the modern world when intractable, unstable countries like the Islamic Republic of Iran, Syria, and many others openly trumpet their nuclear ambitions and developments. His promise is downright Utopian in that light and isn’t so threatening.

But, the innocence ends there. The chilling reality is that things get a lot more frightening when we parse this latest highfalutin promise in a highfalutin campaign with Obama’s foreign policy stance. This is a Carterian candidate who believes soft diplomacy can melt the steel hearts of the ayatollahs. This is a candidate who has explicitly pledged that he would meet with the ruthless dictators of overt enemies of the West, like Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with nary a precondition. This is a candidate who “just wants to talk.” And, scarily enough, somewhere in his heart, he really believes that we can change the minds of men and countries like Ahmadinejad and Iran.

Now, Obama believes that a renewed U.S. commitment to nonproliferation treaties would somehow put pressure on bellicose, nations that are in the process of going nuclear. One can envision Obama sitting down with Ahmadinejad and the ayatollahs, getting beaten so bad that post-Kruschev JFK would blush, and somehow coming away believing that these men are good for their word. All of this begs two questions: Does Obama really believe he can purge the world of nukes in four, or even eight years? Would he be naïve enough to disarm us on the good faith that our enemies would follow suit? That might be a reach, but it would be perilous to find out.

[S2M]

Obama's problem - plain and simple. He won the Democratic nomination due to skin color, and now he has to seem presidential.....that is, promise, and say presidential things. Parade his kids on TV, to show he has the 'typical american family'...blah, blah, blah....

Just once I'd like for a candidate to run on a platform of the 'non-promise', and say that he/she will do the best that they can. No lies, no deception just to get in....only to reneg on any and all campaign promises...

TOO many(in fact....ALL) candidates use up ALL their TV ads attacking the other candidate, instead of concentrating on all the stuff they did, or will do.....

That's why I won't vote anymore. Coupled with the fact that GHWB stole the last TWO, and my vote didn't count....so fuck 'em.

[Rick]

Obama's problem - plain and simple. He won the Democratic nomination due to skin color, and now he has to seem presidential.....that is, promise, and say presidential things. Parade his kids on TV, to show he has the 'typical american family'...blah, blah, blah....

Just once I'd like for a candidate to run on a platform of the 'non-promise', and say that he/she will do the best that they can. No lies, no deception just to get in....only to reneg on any and all campaign promises...

TOO many(in fact....ALL) candidates use up ALL their TV ads attacking the other candidate, instead of concentrating on all the stuff they did, or will do.....

That's why I won't vote anymore. Coupled with the fact that GHWB stole the last TWO, and my vote didn't count....so fuck 'em.

You sound an awful lot like Neal.

[squirt1]

TNC- You are correct the yellowcake was from c 1991. What is its half life 2,000 yrs? Plus ,we knew it was there and the Russians wanted the oil and would trade the technology . Saddam wanted what his arch enemy Iran was working on and still is with the help of the Russians.I remember a few yrs back watching the 55 semi convoy of Russians heading for Syria. It got buried in the Bekka Valley and you can bet the Israili's are still watching it ,but it has probably deteriated. Our soldiers at the time said on TV that whoever removed the stuff knew what they were doing.

[squirt1]

Ross Valory Rocks politically with his insight ! What he said .

[7 Wishes]

Stu is very intelligent and well-read, even though I disagree with him for the most part.

[squirt1]

Hey Matt- When my daughter wrote her papers about 10 yrs ago in college she wrote them as to what she thought her teachers believed. Got all A's !!!! As few a 5 yrs ago I had a U C professor tell me that she had an account under SS with her name on it. I told her no real account existed and that it all went into the general fund under Lyndon Johnson and IOU's is what we have now. I think they tried to cover up the cost of the Vietnam war. I believe to this day it is still in the general fund.

[Voyager]

Here is the difference between Conservatives and Liberals...conservatives do not act solely on the basis of emotions...while liberals act on emotion (if it feels good do it kind of thing) regardless of if the emotion is good or bad.

Hahaha. That's the best line of bullshit that I've heard all month. Thanks for the laugh. You just described your hero George Bush to a t. He felt like kicking Sadam's ass, so he did it. His decision was based solely on emotion instead of relying on sound intelligence or evidence.

[Voyager]

As far as this election goes, we are faced with two choices:

1. A centrist Democrat
2. A far-left leaning candidate with no experience, a lot of scary plans (foreign policy, nationalized everything, rape of the corporation, murky Constitutional views), and a love affair with collectivism.

Take my advice and vote for the centrist Democrat instead of McCain.

[Ehwmatt]

1. A centrist Democrat
2. A far-left leaning candidate with no experience, a lot of scary plans (foreign policy, nationalized everything, rape of the corporation, murky Constitutional views), and a love affair with collectivism.

Take my advice and vote for the centrist Democrat instead of McCain.

Touche, touche

[Ehwmatt]

Hey Matt- When my daughter wrote her papers about 10 yrs ago in college she wrote them as to what she thought her teachers believed. Got all A's !!!! As few a 5 yrs ago I had a U C professor tell me that she had an account under SS with her name on it. I told her no real account existed and that it all went into the general fund under Lyndon Johnson and IOU's is what we have now. I think they tried to cover up the cost of the Vietnam war. I believe to this day it is still in the general fund.

I'm not sure I'm reading you right on the UC Professor part, can you reiterate? But yes, your daughter was probably wise to write her papers the way she did. I was a Political Science major at a liberal arts college (I haven't graduated yet, but I'm done with my major) and I did my best to avoid any classes where the work I'd have to produce would have to reflect my ideology. Sad that I had to sacrifice stuff I was interested in in the interest of maintaining my GPA. The only class I got a B+ within my major was American Conservatism, which was taught by a guy with a poster of Marx in his office and a chest-length beard. What can you do. Oh well, I'm law school bound in fall 09, so I guess it worked out in the end.

[7 Wishes]

You're right. There is a huge conspiracy involving educators, universities, Zapruder's grandson, and Barbara Boxer. Our aim is to take over the world, but we're going to start by giving Republicans undeserved poor grades in political science classes. This helped us cover up Clinton's murder of dozens of his political adversaries in the 1970's, as well as Foster.

You poor conservatives ain't seen nothin' yet.

[RedWingFan]

You're right. There is a huge conspiracy involving educators, universities, Zapruder's grandson, and Barbara Boxer. Our aim is to take over the world, but we're going to start by giving Republicans undeserved poor grades in political science classes. This helped us cover up Clinton's murder of dozens of his political adversaries in the 1970's, as well as Foster.

You poor conservatives ain't seen nothin' yet.

Don't mix myth with mirth. Teachers unions are in the back pocket of the Democratic party.

[7 Wishes]

Very true. But every teacher in America combined makes less than Exxon's profit margin in 2007, and they didn't have enough power to prevent Bush's unanimously disastrous Every Child Left Behind Act.