Political Opinions

Any state that keeps re-electing the likes of Ted Kennedy must have something very toxic in their water. It causes their brains to rot.

coalkirk wrote:Any state that keeps re-electing the likes of Ted Kennedy must have something very toxic in their water. It causes their brains to rot.

I almost forgot, in the interest of full disclosure to fellow board member Devil,seeing how i've not served in LE or Military service.
I'm what he and the Daily Kos Kids like to call a War Profiteer.
I have made a living as a skilled tradesman working for Defense contractors my whole career. As a teenager I profited from making Jet engine components, from there Kaman Aerospace and from 1985 I've been profiteering from conficts, incursions and undeclared wars in the Middle East ever since making marine and Submarine components. Interestingly, I've met a lot of veterans who appreciate the care I took/take in my work becuase it was their lives I care about and have never compromised knowing they were either going drop from the sky or sink to the depths and never return if I did.

There is certainly something to be said of "experience", hopefully used in an honorable manner. ... kinda like a newbie burning coal.

Ed.A wrote:

coalkirk wrote:Any state that keeps re-electing the likes of Ted Kennedy must have something very toxic in their water. It causes their brains to rot.

I almost forgot, in the interest of full disclosure to fellow board member Devil,seeing how i've not served in LE or Military service.
I'm what he and the Daily Kos Kids like to call a War Profiteer.
I have made a living as a skilled tradesman working for Defense contractors my whole career. As a teenager I profited from making Jet engine components, from there Kaman Aerospace and from 1985 I've been profiteering from conficts, incursions and undeclared wars in the Middle East ever since making marine and Submarine components. Interestingly, I've met a lot of veterans who appreciate the care I took/take in my work becuase it was their lives I care about and have never compromised knowing they were either going drop from the sky or sink to the depths and never return if I did.

Look Ed,
It was not my purpose to belittle anyone other than GW Bush & all the other administration HEROES who have never risked their own precious hides once, but have no qualms about sending our sons & daughters into harms way. (A place they have never been too!) To my way of thinking, I'm not going to pay alot of money for golf lessons to a man who holds himself out as the course pro, but has never even hit a golfball in his life!
I was not the one here who started name calling ... ie "Hypocrite", "Marxist", "Left Wing Fringe"...That was you my friend.
Again, our heroes....GW Bush (who's daddy got him out of serving in Vietnam & into the Nat'l Guard...... but he was to drunk to attend most of the meetings) & Dick Cheney (received seven deferments to keep him safe) are the real hypocrites in this very sad story.
Merry X-mass & Happy New Year!

I like Ron Paul, "hope for America" My opinion is that the next president is going to have to deal with a recession, public anger about Iraq, tensions in Iran, China, Korea, and tensions at home from the mortgage industry, banking industry, and wall street so whoever gets elected I feel sorry for them. The root cause of all these problems is the current administration to some extent but the blame will fall on who is in office after a year or two. It always does. My prediction is Clinton will get the vote and will raise taxes and ban semi-automatic guns and flap her jaw according to what the media wants to hear, then Jeb Bush will come in with some relief in 2012.

I'm a Ron Paul guy too. GWB showed the Democrats just what they could get away with. Between signing statements, and labelling people as unpatriotic if they didn't vote his way, I think the Dems will make George Bush look like George Washington if they get in.

I was a McCain supporter last time around but I am disappointed by his "We came to change Washington, and Washington changed us." Ron Paul rightly said "Washington didn't change me." I have seen videos of Ron Paul saying the same things in 1976 as he says today. Many candidates are on the right side of the issues NOW, but I prefer someone who was right the first time.

Romney is a used car salesman who would have been great as the replacement for Bob Barker.

Guilianni is just a toad. An all around unpleasant guy. Just his position on Kerick is enough to see what he'd be all about.

Huckabee and his "Fair Tax" are smoke and mirrors. He wants to outlaw smoking and fatty food. Yes, he may have gone from a deficit to a surplus in Arkansas, they don't call him "Tax Hike Mike" for nothing. I'd feel better if he did it by reducing the size of government rather than increasing taxes.

Ron Paul has said we need a strong President, "Strong enough to resist taking power a President shouldn't have." He's the only one with the record of not trying to steal your money.

I understand the President can't do a lot of things, so does Ron Paul. But if he were to get elected, it would be a signal to those rats in Congress that "We the People" were "mad as hell and not going to take it anymore!" We can work on extracting them later.

e.alleg wrote:Clinton will get the vote and will raise taxes and ban semi-automatic guns

Yea that worked real well last time around, only one that benefited from that was the gun dealers selling them at inflated prices. I don't think Hillary is going to get in simply because she's a woman or more to the point I don't think she has the needed ruthlessness that the job requires. I'd be afraid to put my security in her hands, until you see woman like Margaret Thatcher run for President I don't think you will see a woman president.

Richard S. wrote: I don't think Hillary is going to get in simply because she's a woman or more to the point I don't think she has the needed ruthlessness that the job requires.

I hope you're right about this. I'm not so sure. I won't vote for her that's for certain. I also know a lot of women and they planning on voting for her because she is a woman. If she wins, maybe I'll get a stoker and become a Girlie Man

Richard S. wrote:

e.alleg wrote:Clinton will get the vote and will raise taxes and ban semi-automatic guns

Yea that worked real well last time around, only one that benefited from that was the gun dealers selling them at inflated prices. I don't think Hillary is going to get in simply because she's a woman or more to the point I don't think she has the needed ruthlessness that the job requires. I'd be afraid to put my security in her hands, until you see woman like Margaret Thatcher run for President I don't think you will see a woman president.

Under-estimating Hillarys ruthlessness would be a big mistake. She's plenty ruthless. Just no principles or intergrity.

coalkirk wrote:Under-estimating Hillarys ruthlessness would be a big mistake. She's plenty ruthless. Just no principles or intergrity.

I agree

coalkirk wrote:
Under-estimating Hillarys ruthlessness would be a big mistake. She's plenty ruthless.

I'm not referring to her political ruthlessness, I don't think she has the guts to pull the trigger if she has too.

Richard S. wrote:I don't think she has the guts to pull the trigger if she has too.

Bill would probably pull it if the gun was pointing at her.

Fuel to the fire...
Ya know the thing I like to do the most when people are Bush Bashing is ask them who their State Rep and Senators are. 95% of them give me puzzled dumb looks with no answer, then I just walk away. Oh yeah...that's right, it IS all BUSH's fault. It is ALWAYS the President's fault. It can't be my Senator's fault (I don't know who he is...how can I blame him!). Don't the Dem's have the majority in Both the Senate and House today??? Still haven't seen much of a change...Isn't that what most Dems campaigned under..."It's time for a change"???

As for Ed A.'s comment about only military should vote and that would make him very happy.....I agree, we'd have a Republican President every time.

20 years Navy, Desert Shield/Storm, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom Vet. (Not looking for any respect, my respect goes to the men and women that served on land or over land, and all my fellow shipmates...I believe I had it easy out at sea).

Out of all these posts, I did not see anyone mention anything about how long we have had a military presence in the middle east especially the Persian Gulf. I will only speak of the years from 1984 until 2004 because those were the years I was in. I did read about the terrorist attacks throughout the years.
Today the public screams for troop pull out....???? For many years they should have been screaming "bring them all home and protect US not THEM"!!! Why wasn't the public complaining when we lost sailors on the USS Stark from 2 exocet missiles fired from an Iraqi Aircraft in the 80's. Why wasn't the public complaining when we lost sailors on the USS Roberts from an Iranian mine hit? Because those sailors were expendable while doing their jobs protecting the water ways for merchants and oil...while the U.S. was at "peace" (well, besides the "Cold War"). My favorite...Can ANYONE tell me what Clinton did in response to the USS Cole bombing??? Where were they and why were they there?? Hint...oil. Or even better yet...why did Clinton send the military into Somalia??? What did we benefit there? Why did we go to Somalia??? Hint...I don't know!!
We have been at war for a lot longer than most people want to believe. Especially those people that were and are at home in the good ol' US of A.
Does anyone remember how many bombs we dropped on Iraq from the END of Desert Storm in 1991 until...lets say 9/11/01? I know I don't have enough fingers and toes to count them. Oh that's right...we weren't at war with Iraq in the 90's. That all ended with Desert Storm.

In defense of my CinC...to fight for my CinC...here are my Rants

"We are in Iraq because Saddam Huessien alledgedly threatened daddy's life so little Georgy, afraid to fight his own battles (always the coward) has the US miltary do it."

....You have got to be kidding me!!!! What the heck does this statement even mean??? Do you have any idea why "Daddy" did not finish off SH himself in March of 91??? Might as well look at Clinton also, if he was half a man he would have went back in and finished off SH during his first term.

"1. Our Military"
"2. National Guard"

Devastated??? Since when?? Where have I been these past few years?? Can you base this military devastation on facts? Because if this is the case I better pack my bags and get ready to defend my country again. (I am Fleet Reserves until 2014 which pretty much means when our military is approaching "devastation" they will more than likely be calling me up...this could devastate my wallet because I can't fit into my uniforms anymore.)

"TORTURE"

oh NO!!!! Oh MY what should we do now!!! NOT "TORTURE". I guess the world is coming to an end when the U.S. starts condoning "TORTURE". The biggest problem we have in the U.S. with torture is the 24 hour news service. Now that is torture. Does this mean we can have CNN unplugged?

"a band of blood-thirsty mercinaries"

...Really??? This one was funny. I keep picturing this big muscle-bound 3 inch blood dripping fang M-16 toting goon every time I read that statement. TREASON I tell ya....LOL

Close to being done here, I promise.

"Our economy (what business did the Bush family makes it's $$$$ in again, oh yes.....OIL"

OIL...here's another topic that cracks me up. I hate the oil prices I really do...that is why I started burning coal. However, let's all point our fingers at BUSH for the oil prices. Good lord. Heck why don't we blame all of our elected politicians while we're at it. It's all there fault. Ya know what...why don't ya meet me at the pumps and we can complain together about the gas prices as I fill my gas sucking SUV up. Oops, forgot the wife has it...I have the Ford F-250 today. That's right, I won't take the blame for the oil prices...not me...Mr. Consumer...with my SUV and F-250 supporting the "demand" side of "supply and demand" for more oil. Not me...It's all Bush's fault.
Economy and outsourcing...nope I won't take that blame either...my shirt is made in Pakistan...my jeans in China...my skivvies in Honduras...sneakers in Korea...and socks in Mexico. WHY???? Because I am Mr. Bargain shopper. Can't find American made clothes at the price I pay for my foriegn made clothes because the American company that I, Mr. Consumer Bargain Shopper, works for has to charge more for their product to offset the high wages paid to me, Mr Union Employee. Gosh darn it I need that high wage so I can buy my 50 inch plasma or LCD tv to replace my 25 inch CRT TV. Why??? I don't know...it's new and bigger I guess. If it wasn't for that darn Bush and those other darn politicians maybe there wouldn't be advertising that would make me want to replace my cheap still working TV for a bigger one made in some other country than the U.S.

There ya have it...if it wasn't for Bush my life would be perfect and the good ol' U.S. of A could now be called the good ol' United States of Utopia. Thank God the Prez can only do 2 terms, I'm ready to hear how much the other one is screwed up. I bet that the next one's family all made their money from OIL also!! I know one thing...whatever is wrong in my life will always be the President's fault.

Seriously now, I use to be for McCain (military reasons)... Ron Paul is more than likely going to get my vote (because I think he is best for making a change and his common sense pisses everyone off).
Rudy???? I want to puke everytime I hear him say..."I'm a 9/11 survivor..." Tell me he isn't taking advantage of this for his own political gain. The first NY Fireman, NY Policeman, EF Vet, or IF Vet that runs for President against Rudy gets MY vote. (that's a promise)
Billary...heard her say this following quote in a speech once...."If I knew then, what I know today, I never would have voted YES to invade Iraq" The idiot crowd went nuts with applause and screams of excitement...My OPINION...."If I knew yesterday, what I know today....I'd have the winning ticket to the power ball drawing"...(then I'd move close to Pottsville, buy my favorite beer, my own scissor dump truck and live real close to a breaker, ... what am I thinking??? I'd buy into my favorite beer brewery ....ah dreams )

Bush Bush Bush...Ya know what President Bush?...you have my full respect. You're my Commander in Chief. You may have made mistakes. That's okay with me. Because those mistakes couldn't have been all that bad because I know my Legislative Branch along with the Judicial Branch would have impeached your butt many times over. HOWEVER, if I could turn back the hands of time...because "If I knew then, what I know today...I'd vote for you again!!!" Reason...you have bigger NUTS than Clinton, Gore, and Kerry put together....LOL

Someone asked about George Bush's family ties to the nazi party. George's grandfather Prescott Bush owned several companies that did a lot of business with Hitler. The companies were siezed in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act. But does this make George Bush a Nazi sympathizer??? Hell, my grandmother was from Italy. She defended Mussolini. She always said he made the trains run on time and was a great leader until he got mixed up with that German gangster. That doesn't make me a fascist.

Some people are angry at this administration and drag up anything they can to make them look bad. I'm not saying I like the Bush's but calling him a nazi is a little overboard.

billw wrote:Someone asked about George Bush's family ties to the nazi party. George's grandfather Prescott Bush owned several companies that did a lot of business with Hitler. The companies were siezed in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act. But does this make George Bush a Nazi sympathizer??? Hell, my grandmother was from Italy. She defended Mussolini. She always said he made the trains run on time and was a great leader until he got mixed up with that German gangster. That doesn't make me a fascist.

Some people are angry at this administration and drag up anything they can to make them look bad. I'm not saying I like the Bush's but calling him a nazi is a little overboard.

When discussions decay to the point of name calling, you can bet the side calling the names is out of appropriate facts.