praxis

and after that famous quote he started to deregulate wall st. and bankers opening the floodgates further to allow the crisis we are dealing with now! Great rhetoric? Yes? Great in practice? Yes, to a point! You still need people and government as watchdogs against monopolies and exploitation. In order to do that you need to make sure politicians can't be bought by these huge interests and that we the people hold them all accountable. No, I am not blaming Reagon for the economic crisis, so don't come at me like that. Our govt before and after him bear responsibility as well, but people unjustly act like Reagon was so great when he had a lot of blunders too. He was the great communicator in some ways, but nothing more than a figurehead in others. Rhetoric doesnt always equal good policy. If you think a 100% free market is going to fix this mess, then you need to study up on history! Government getting out of the way economically only made the situation alot worse a lot faster!

For all the xenophobic birthers out there. Here is an interesting article for you. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/29/AR2010012901790.html Obama is related to newly elected Sen. Brown from Mass. Obama is also related to the Bush's, Carter, Ford, Johnson, Truman, and James Madison! Now, based on the same faulty logic of all of the birthers use to try to rationalize their bigotry, that would also make all of these past presidents Muslim terrorist sympathizers as well who did not deserve to serve as President. The Bush's are African! I heard James Madisan was a member of a secret society of African Muslims Socialist Terrorists who plotted to take over this Christian nation through generations of cross-racial mixing. It will all be exposed in Sarah Palin's next book Da Obama Code (ghost written by Dan Brown and forward written by Glenn Beck!) PS I read about it online and the dead-stream liberal media refuses to cover it so it must be true!

Hoping, you get it, but you are not getting it. TheUnconstitutional Supreme Ct precedent that i am referring to is one of the main reasons why the corporate flow of money has been occuring in campaigns for decades. So, this new supreme court ruling only makes it worse. I never said the problem is with the Constitution. The Constitution is fine. The problem is all of these laws allowing loopholes in campaign financing are based off of an illegal Supreme Ct precedent. Denying the fact that unlimited money from organizations hurts our democracy means you are only fooling yourself by allowing the very CORPORATE MASS MEDIA money machine to be able to convince of that! Take net neutrality for example. Imagine if all knowledge and access to power was able to people who had internet access, but only the extremely wealthy could afford that access, and 95% of the ordinary citizens were left out. Is that democratic? Is that the American Dream? Is that what our founding father's wanted when they created the Constitution? I am sorry. Maybe I am just not explaining it very well, but I can not understand how any american you believes in what the Constitution can think this recent Supreme Ct ruling helps our democracy.

Hoping, I think you are missing the point. You keep talking about McCain-Feingold. I am talking about the fact that corporations should never have been considered individual people with individual rights in the first place which was a disasterous interpretation of a Supreme Ct ruling decades before Mccain-Feingold. That UNCONSTITUTIONAL court precedent is the only thing that allows this new UNCONSTITUTIONAL rulling to exist. The real issue is not corporations and other voices were being denied their first amendment rights or the ability to use money to voice their opinion, the real is is the corporations money to be able to drown out the voice of the people regardless of party affiliation. This ruling allows corporations now more then ever to bribe/threatten incumbents with sweet campaign contributions to stay quiet and not make pass policies that hurt them or threaten to spend even more $ to kick them out. If this method was not effective, then all of those PACs, 537s, lobbyists would be out of business. How can you talk about a union given Obama 60 million is bad, and think this ruling allowing organizations to spent unlimited funds is better? It's only worse! If you think there is a problem with that crap now, WATCH OUT BECAUSE YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET!

Wow, they really got you fooled! Answer me these questions, Do you really think corporations should be considered "legal persons" and deserve all the "legal rights" of a person including this "1st amendment right to free speech?" If so, then why are individuals like you and me are restricted to contributing just a couple of thousands of dollars, yet any corporation can now donate millions? That does not sound like equality of freedom of speech to me? Here is another telling fact: If corporations are really "legal persons" then how come those corporations are not allowed to vote?! "Hi, my name is Goldman Sachs, I am here to cast my vote! Here is my photo ID, let me sign my name and cast my ballot!" But, go ahead hoping, keep living in your Matrix provided Republican vs. Democrat dreamworld they have provided for you. Ignorance is Bliss! It is easier that way!

Dude probably is dead, many news outlets around the world reported his death and funeral in Dec 2001 after the tora bora battle. Either his Al Quada supporters are faking these audio threats to keep support for their movement or the CIA is for their own agenda. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,41576,00.html http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.html http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8120236576648647371#

In today's society, you will probably not be able to have an effective 3rd party candidate that can successfully branch off of either of the two parties. I think there are only a few exceptions in all of congress that could do that and that would be people like Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, or anybody who was always listed as Independent, Libertarian, etc...Very few! Like i was saying to Barbann, most of those 3rd party populist attempts will ultimately fail if they are even loosely tied to either of the two parties and that is why the teaparty group will ultimately fail. Once the lower level groups and individuals learn they have been hijacked and hoodwinked they will either be so frustrated they will fizzle out or they will get even more angry and finally create their own separate movement funded top to bottom independent from both parties. I hope this happens. I was hoping Ron Paul would do this, but he only allowed his movement to grow so far before falling in line with the Republicans after the nomination. all of the democrat supporters of Obama who are realizing Obama can't do everything he said he would are getting ******. Unless there is some drastic turnaround Obama will be a one-term president. Then I feel the republicans will ride the teaparty movement and sneak in a candidate of their choice, and once that candidate (maybe Palin) fails the teaparty as well, then we might finally get a true independent bi-partisan 3rd party president by 2018 if our country is not completely in shambles by then...lol That president would have to address the people and say we are going to make fundamental changes to restore this republic back to the constitutions original intent and any congressman or senator who votes against these fundamental changes must be thrown out at the next election. those fundamental changes would be things like the term limits i posted before etc...Then it is up to the american people to follow through with that promise. alright, I have spent alot of time on here posting while i am trying to finish grading my students' midterm exams and putting them in my gradebook. I am falling behind so I will not be posting again for a while. Nice having a good dialogue though. I want to hear other people's ideas for solutions to our problems!

I am a white male social studies teacher who lives and teaches in a very ethnic and racially diverse town where everybody gets along fine, so it's easy for me to identify racial/ethnic prejudice in people's words because of not just what they say but how they say it. i already addressed that in a long post in another thread on this site a couple of weeks ago. Quick example, Barack's middle name is meaningless, but when someone says "Barack HUSSEIN Obama" like many people type on this site are perfect examples of subtle ethnic/racial/religious prejudice. Race does not really exist. It is a man-made labeled fantasy based on skin color. Why not eye color. Those **** blue eyed races or brown races or green races! It's all nonesense. Moving on, Unions: My father was a union rep at his steel mill for several years and did a good job. I only am a part of my teacher unions because they rape me for 80% of their dues anyways in what is called "fair share" I hate alot of unions because most unions today (especially teacher unions) do not function like their original intent. The unions are only about the high end people that work for the unions and not for the people they are supposed to represent. The NEA sucks! They promote bs education reform agendas that fail schools repeatedly. More standardized testing is not the answer, but they promote it along with politicians because some of these educational officials high up in the union also have a hand in the private companies and organizations the create and grade these tests. It is a money making agenda for them not for the teachers and students. Politicians go for it because they sell it as getting back to basics but they don't prove much. My dad complained about working conditions etc and fought for better safety at his plant, but he also hated the fact he had to defend lazy workers who were screw ups and try to help save their jobs because they gave all workers a bad rep. same thing with the teacher unions defending all teachers blindly and that allows people to lump the good teachers in with the bad. etc.. all of these politicians want to blame teachers and the schools for kids not passing these standardized test, but everywhere i taught, the kids who would never pass were the one's who flat out didn't care about getting a formal education. THAT IS A PARENTING PROBLEM! Bush wanted to and now Obama wants to try and tie student test scores to teacher pay. if you do that, then teachers will be fighting over who gets to teacher all of the college prep and honors kids so they can get higher pay, and nobody will want to teacher the lower level kids. Nobody will want to teach in poorer performing schools because every teacher knows IT IS ALL ABOUT WHICH PARENTS INSTILL THE IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING AND THOSE WHO DO NOT! That is the biggest factor and teachers can not control that. Great teachers may be able to reach a few students to do that but not a whole school! My solution: Any parent who receives any type of welfare benefit such as section 8 housing, food stamps, social security, free and reduced lunch should have stipulations and incentives tied to their kid's performance. If the child is before school age, then the parent must go to mandatory workshops on how to read to your kids, proper nutrition, role-playing etc to prepare them for pre-k/kindergarten. If they don't participate consistently then they lose their benefits. Once their kids start school, depending on how much welfare benefits they are receiving, they will have to participate at the school instead of sitting at home doing nothing, mandatory homework with their kids, and/or take adult education classes to help them get a GED if the parents neve graduated. If we did that you would see a massive turnaround in poor schools throughout the US.

I watch all the networks including fox everyday as part of my job. I have watched glenn beck since he was on CNN Headline News before his switch to fox. i actually watched his "special" yesterday from 5-6 on the his topic of stalin and mao. Beck is an opportunist! Glenn Beck and others like him give the "illusion" of being non-partisan when they really are not. For every 10 blames for Democrats he gives one blame for Republicans. His attempt at non-partisanship for populists sake is a facade! His special lastnight was anything but historically authentic. Yes, he throws in a few authentic facts that some other pundits don't talk about in history and that is what hooks masses of people like you in, then he slowly puts his arm around you in a sincere type way and leads you to his way and only way of thinking and viciously attacks anyone who questions him as brainwashed and misguided. Beck = SFMEDIC. The same loyal sheep blindly follow him because he sounds so sincere and honest and pours his heart into it because he cares so much, but question him once and you are banned and discredited! For example, lastnight Beck used the argument that all aspects of socialism are wrong because people like Stalin and Mao killed over 100 million people based on socialist ideals and therefoe beware of Universal healthcare and Obama etc.... Now, all of the sheep watch that and think that is the ultimate argument. But if he was really honest and objective he would point out that Free Market Capitalism throughout history has killed 100s of millions not just 100 million. Free Market Capitalisticand Christian ideals justified Manifest Desitny and the slaughter of countless millions of native americans and millions upon millions of africans during the african slave trade. the industrial revolution made virtual slaves of many poor immigrants that were seen as disposable just as millions and millions of poor asian boys and girls are exploited and killed over exploitive capitalistic greed! Beck's entire premise for his special was history taken out of context and one-sided. He even brought jewish "experts" to try to make Hitler out to be a Socialist which he wasnt. Also, our own companies secretly did business with hitler all in the name of free market capitialism. IBM actually sold Hitler a primative counting machine computer to keep track of all of his evil doing. Coca Cola secretly created Fanta soda to sell in Nazi Germany. Wall St banks like JP Morgan and Chase etc did business with Stalin. Greed is Greed! Corruption is Corruption! As for the teaparty movement. I already said most of them are well-intentioned, but many of them are NOT as smart as they think they are including you if you can't take the time to research who created the movement, who is paying for all of the exposure, and sponsoring events, and controlling things at the top. But go ahead, join your local chapter, make a difference locally, but don't say I did not warn you when you realize you have been had! As for Sara Palin, she offers absolutely no real-world solutions if you actually listen to her. all she says is glittering generalities and conservative talking points. She never once has offered any meaningful specific policy suggestions of her own. Every attempt at policy talk and she goes into talking points and policies that other republican politicians have come up with. In 2008, you had the oldest white male republican in history running for office against a young intelligent african american democrat riding high on change that people wanted from the Bush years. The only chance McCain had was to try to find the youngest woman or minority he could find in the republican ranks to challenge that! He came up with Palin at the last minute and she was really attractive and talked down to earth and that is all she has got! Her gender and looks was the only strategic reason why she picked her, she flopped horribly on everything other than her lipstick speech. She realized that she was used like barbie doll she is and went "rogue" lol trying to salvage the spotlight. She is like one of those Reality Show contestants that does not want to let her 15 minutes of fame up and so she is trying to parlay her "all american girl with all american looks" and poistion heself the the teaparty bandwagon. The republican party does need her but only temporarily. When the time is right they will minimalize her. The video thing can work for to keep an eye on the politicians on the compaign trail and on public matters, but that is not what i was referreing to. The bigwigs controlling, manipulating, and steering the movement behind the scenes above the average supportor and local organizers to frame arguments and push their hidden agenda is what i am talking about. Seriously, read up on past 3rd party and populist movements and you will see the same historical sabatoge. Don't say i did not warn you.

Pep, that is the 13 trillion dollar question! What would have happened and how painful would it really have been if Bush/Obama did nothing and let the dominos fall where they may? If you look at the first Great Depression and several examples of other countries that have collapsed financially in the 20th Century we can get a possible glimpse as to what may have happened without the bailout. It seems like it takes about 10-15 years to really recover (Russia). Russia lost control over most of its international territories (former soviet states) and lost other strategic advantages. What would have happened to the US interests in Iraq and Afghanistan? Would we still have had the ability and means and willpower to continue to fight and finish these wars or would we have left? how would this change the global balance of power the US has over most of the rest of the world? Maybe we lose our status as a global superpower and China and/or Russia takes that role and we take decades to try to regain that status? what about the war on terror? What most people fail to realize that Bin Laden and Al Quada don't care about our freedoms, they only wanted to get the US influence out of their region, and they felt the only way to strategically do that was to force into a war stalemate, drain us of our resources until we got frustrated and left or financially collapsed as a result of spending every last dollar on stubbornly continuing to try and win a war at all costs. We collapse and move out of the middle east and they won! Now, the bailouts of banks and the auto industry is NOT socialism. The proper economic term is Corporate Welfare. If it were socialist, our government would have taken complete control over and absorbed all assets. Not the american ideal but that would have been more productive than Corporate Welfare which the government makes the tax payer absorb all of the risks and losses, but allows the private business to keep all of the profits. Now Obama has the task of trying to find a way to force these banks and corporations to give back what they should, and regulate their business practices. That is why it is so important to break them up so we no longer have any corporation or bank that is "too big to fail" because "too big to fail" is code word for garaunteed corporate welfare and government bailouts no matter what risks they take! So, i think the HIDDEN reason why both bush and obama did not let the system fail is because they were not concerned about saving the country or the american people, but they were saving the United Corporations and Banks of America. The republic known as the USA only exists as an idea in the minds of the people anymore. Multinational/Transnational banks and corporations run the country and most of the world via the Fed, IMF, World bank, etc.. Corporations were given the status of personhood with legal rights. The ACTIVIST CONSERVATIVE JUDGES OF THE SUPREME COURT 2 days ago gave corporations (under the false argument of their first amendment rights) UNLIMIMITED POWER TO PURCHASE EVERY POLITICIAN AND EVERY ELECTION! THIS IS IT IN A NUTSHELL!

I am only going to respond to the few things here that are relevant to moving this conversation forward. 1. I honor and respect your father 2. No, people on this site do not come out and literally say those exact comments about the iraqi people, but that is what they mean. It reeks of it. I've witnessed enough subtle bigotry in my life to read between the lines. 3. The "teabagger" movement is not a real populist movement. Yes, there are thousands of well-meanng citizens who are caught up in it and have joined, but the creators and corporate sponsors in charge of it can all be traced back to the Republican party and Fox news. The republican party to strategically get back in power knew they had to find away to go after Obama indirectly once true fiscal conservatives/populists were up in arms after Bush's bailout in Oct 2008. Notice how the Republican party distanced itself from Bush asap and neve bring him up anymore? So, they strategically took advantage of that anger and hijacked it for their own purposes. Notice how Palin is strategically trying to align herself with it as much as possible by distancing herself from McCain, blaming him for the election failure, yet she knows she can not survive as a politician without the republican party. The republican party wants fiscal conservatives and populists to believe in the "illusion" that the teabagger movement is completely authentic and grassroots, but it really is not. You know how the democrats were mesmerized by Obama's speeches and promises of taking back America and Republicans said they were all brainwashed sheep believing in a false prophet that only says things people want to hear? Well, that is what the teabagger movement's real agenda is for the republican party. Palin is trying to strategically position herself into that position and her fox news gig now will give her alot of face-time to try to harness and polish that facade. If the true fiscal conservatives and populists wanted a more authentic candidate to wrap themselves around, then why not contininue the underground support for ron paul? just a thought. PS. I wish the movement was real, but any real movement will always try to be hijacked by people in power. it does not matter what philosophy or party. That is why all third parties in history were either aggressively attacked and destroyed by the two dominant parties that felt threatened by them or slowly accepted the 3rd party ideology on a limited basis to appease the movement. The republican party is using the teabagger movement as a form of appeasement, because the republican party has not been fiscally conservative in over 20yrs and now is trying to handle that backlash.

I agree. I know the deregulation happened way before, but i dont have time to write a textbook on this site. Sorry. I did not say Bush was the arch deregulator, but republicans do champion it though in theory and push for it as much as possible, not always, but moreso than the dems because that is a basic tenent of their ideology!

haha...i don't have time to write a book on here tonight but there are some simple fundamental changes that should happen but probably won't because of the powerful lobbyists and two-party machines. There are things you can do pep, and they are fundamental as well. Search for truth even if it means looking at sources you normally don't agree with and critiquing yourself. I never claim to have all of the answers or know everything or claim to be right all the time. I make a point to always remind my students to question me! Participate in dialogue with other people like me on sites like this with an open mind. I honestly don't come on here to read a bunch of dinar posts or to pick fights with people. The main reason why i post or respond to people's posts on hear is for psuedo "field research" to start a dialogue and see how people respond. i want to see how complete strangers around the US think about different issues. I do this on conservative-leaning sites like this as well as liberal-leaning sites. I sometimes use these posts as examples in classroom discussion (surprise!) on various issues such as foreign policy, but i mainly use in for my unit on mass media and the internet. As for basic fundamental changes to try to fix the our government and economy, they are pretty basic and common sense: 1. Every bank, wall st firm, or company that we "saved" that was deemed "too big to fail" should be broken up like the unregulated, out of control monopolies that many of them really are, and every high level ceo, exectutives, and board members fired and have to re-apply for their jobs. Their current contracts/bonus become null and void. Every bonus is used to pay back the bailout. If they are re-hired, they will receive a very low standard pay with high-level peformance incentives to regain their lost pay as long as they behave ethically and perform well in the future. Part of the broken up organizations will be temporarily controlled by the government and they interview qualified unemployed individuals to fill those positions. Those companies would be slowlly be given back their autonomy as new companies, but would have stipulations to use a portion of their profits for so many years to help pay off the bailout and pay down the national deficit in return for the initial bailout and early subsidies to get themselves up and running. 2. Tighter bank regulations on what types of investing certain banks should be able to be involved in and define and classify those banks so the average person can know what level of risk each type of bank is involved in. Ban Derivatives trading and all high-risks side-trading on wall st and the banks! This is one of the biggest hidden problems to our system that few people know about that is the real reason for the near collapse and possibly one in the future! Corporations are no-longer and should never have been considered "legal individuals with individual rights" 3. Tighten lending on housing and auto loans, but put stricter usury laws in effect to ban extreme high interest predatory lending and credit card abuse. Reinstate Glass-Steagall 4. End free trade agreements like NAFTA, CAFTA, and others that encourage US corporations to close factories here and open them up in Latin America and East Asia for exploitive cheap labor at the expense of US workers. Give tax breaks and incentives for "MANUFACTURING" industries to stay or come back to the US. One of the biggest mistakes was to turn our economy from an industrial/manufacturing economy to a "service" economy. We don't produce everything, and now China does! 5. To slowly lessen our risk/reliability of China loans, and our Dependence on OIL, we need to SERIOUSLY SACRIFICE BY CHANGING OUR LIFESTYLE LIKE WE DID DURING WWII. We need to seriously close down outdated foreign military bases and our footprint around the world in strategic ways. We need to redirect some of our regularly scheduled domestic projects and focus them on INFRASTRUCTURE! Our electric grids, rail, air, roads, waterways are really outdated and need modernized to compete and stay competitive in the 21st century economy. Bush failed on this great opportunity after 9/11 when everyone was united. Instead of pulling us together and asking us to sacrifice and rise to the occassion, he told us to go shopping...lol We need another "put a man on the moon in 10 years" patriotic challenge to our scientists to develop and mass produce economically and commercially efficient transportation and energy. ( you mean to tell me we haven't been able to find a way to mass produce anything better than the combustion engine to power cars in over 100yrs...lol) I grew up in a steel-town that once was once thriving decades ago. My father worked in that mill for 30 plus years and he would get laid off a lot during my childhood and we struggled and sacrificed alot to make it through. My town never really recovered. it is sad. Offer incentives like i mentioned above to new energy and manufacturing companies related to the infrastructure movement to take those vacant spots. Politically. Create a completely bi-partisan and independent party movement to bring back the Republic to the people instead of the two-party corporate machines 1. New Amendment legislation must be introduced in every local, county, state, and federal levels and any politician that refuses to vote yes to them gets voted out the next election: No one can hold a specific public office for more than 8 years in their lifetime. if the president is limited 8 years max (10 in rare circumstances), then so should every other elected position in the US such as mayors, senators, representatives. Their will no longer be any lifetime benefits of your SERVICE to our country, so no more career politicians living fat off of the government 2. ELIMINATE THE 2 PARTY SYSTEM OF POLITICS AND EVERYTHING THAT COMES WITH IT! Or at the very least, ease 3rd party requirements that make it virtually impossible for 3rd party candidates to enter a race and join in debates. We have the technology and means to do away with the archaic Electoral College system and have a straight up direct democracy vote the way it should be. 3. Reverse the Supreme CT ruling that Corporations are "individuals with rights" and therefore can donate unlimited resources to any and all candidates. Every election on a local, state, and national level should be publically funded through public media outlets. Each candidate is given equal time in public debates, can post speeches and ideas online and receive equal tv time ONLY on public tv and radio outlets. This allows for elminates the "candidate with the most corporate campaign money wins" system we have now. I have more ideas, but i have some things to take care of, so i will post again later. I appreciate the honest dialogue though!

Pep, I don't have any lingering pain man from war, and I am not living in the past about my war experience either. I am proud of my time in service, and I am glad that I was personally able to help some Iraqi people and see some great historical/biblical sites during my tour. I don't hate Bush for going to war for oil or whatever other "tangible" strategies he had for going in. I do hate Bush for lying to me and the rest of the US population, and the world trashing the Consititution in the process. I teach Problems of Democracy and Economics to high school seniors. I have a master's degree in community psychology and do a ton of volunteer work for various non-profits. I have a very good understanding of group behavior, group think, and how political and corporate interests and how ONLY 5 CORPORATE CONGLOMERATES CONTROL VIRTUALLY ALL MAJOR MASS MEDIA OUTLETS. Too many people on here and on other sites and in my everyday travels have fallen victim to one of the oldest and yet most effective psychological con games in human history: "Divide and Conquer" While they always had a divide between so called "liberals" vs "conservatives" "democrats" vs. "republicans" in our two-party system, the mass media propaganda machine is even more potent today because of the deregulation of mass media markets as well as the loss of objective journalistic integrity in favor of opinionated journalistic egomaniacs posing as "unbiased" They make it so convenient to be told only what you want to hear instead of objective facts and stories in favor of biased stories that ignore the opposing side and dismiss it as not important or just completely ignore it. Their is no real "investigative" journalism because that costs time and money. Very little to no foreign news bureaus. So now, if you are a conservative, you can turn on fox news and they can preach to the choir and never see objective truth, and just point the finger at anyone who disagrees with over-generalized and poorly defined words such as "socialist" The liberals can ignore all of the conservatives and only watch MSNBC and their ego-maniac "journalists" can spit out their biased views and preach to their choir, and call the fox news watches over-generalized terms as well. Both sides watch their viewpoints being repeated every day slowly "indocternating" both sides to be blind loyal puppets repeating the same catch-phrases, buzz words, and soundbites and ANYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH THEM IS A BLIND SHEEP DRINKING THE KOOL-AID AND SHOULD BE MOCKED! I was just trying to point out that both political parties created foreign and economic policies that have led us up to this 13 trillion dollar deficit, runaway bank and wall st fraud. If you do any google search for a bar graph on the federal deficit and match it up with major foreign policies/wars and drastic economic policies from all presidents since WWII you will see a pattern. The deficit grows exponentially at different points based on bad policies and their are trade offs. Plus, if you understand how economics works, then there is always a delay between when a new economic policy is enacted until its effects show up. Politicians from both sides have sometimes wrongfully given credit and/or blame for it. For instance, it is wrong for democrats to praise Clinton for the economy in the 90s because he was just riding the wave of the internet boom and the tech stock bubble. He also deserves blame for repealing the Glass-Steagall ACT and signing NAFTA which led to massive outsourcing of jobs overseas (but what conservatives won't admit is that both the repeal of Glass Steagall and NAFTA were deregulated free market policiy moves that failed, yet now they are claiming regulation is bad...ROFL) GWBush took office when a natural recession was happening due to the tech bubble burst which wasn't his fault, but he made it worse by cutting taxes and extending those tax cuts while engaging in two wars at the same time (NO PRESIDENT IN HISTORY BEFORE HIM EVER CUT TAXES DURING WAR) AND THAT IS WHY OUR NATIONAL DEFICIT SKYROCKETED TO MASSIVE PROPORTIONS AFTER CLINTON CREATED A BUDGET SURPLUS THAT WOULD SLOWLY PAY DOWN OUR DEBT! PEOPLE ON HERE ALSO FORGET THE FAMOUS QUOTE FROM CHENEY THAT "DEFICITS DON'T MATTER!" So, for political purposes and to mask the problems, Alan Greenspan replaced the tech bubble with another bubble (housing) lowered interest rates, got the bush administration to lower lending standards, knew this was dangerous yet did NOTHING until it hit the fan! He passed a 700bn dollar bail out just to delay the crisis from fully exploding until the next president took office. So if Bush was driving a car that was speeding towards the edge of a cliff (economic crash) he just hands Obama the steering wheel right before the car goes over the cliff and bails out saying "good luck sucker" So Obama had very little choice: either slam on the breaks let the car go over the cliff and hope we survive (extremely risky) or speed up (add more stimulus) and try to jump over the cliff and land safely then later head to the shop for repairs. He went how the momentum was taking him. Obama was an idiot for trying to pass health care before dealing with regulating wall st, banks, and getting people jobs first and that mistake is costing him and us dearly!

your snappy one-liners are lame bro!

Your response demonstrates your complete lack of understanding of the reality and pain of war, so I am willing to bet you have lived a pretty comfortable life. And this statement- all I read on these dinar sites is people ******* in moaning because of the "lazy, backwards, slow iraqi people" in an arrogant, whiney tone like "why can't these dark-skinned muslims make me rich and rv already! is abhorrent and very telling. You obviously can't read posts right if you think i believe that myself about the iraqi people. I was making a point that plenty of posters on this site and others have that opinion of the iraqi people AND THOSE PEOPLE WHO SAY THAT ABOUT THE IRAQI PEOPLE IS ABHORRENT AND VERY TELLING ABOUT THEIR RACISTS, BIGOTED, SELFISH, AND GREEDY BEHAVIOR THAT I COMMENTED ON! You ask very basic questions that have obvious common sense answers, yet you seem to continue to be confused and lack some common sense. I am not just bitter about risking my life for an illegal war, but as a US CITIIZEN ANGRY THAT THE CONSTITUTION HAS BEEN TRAMPLED ON AN ALMOST EVERY POSTER ON HERE WAS ASLEEP WHEN PAST PRESIDENTS WERE DOING THIS BUT ACT LIKE AMERICA WAS GREAT UNTIL A YEAR AGO...ROFL!!! NOW, ALL THESE FAKE TEABAGGER PSEUDO POPULISTS WATCH A FEW EPISODES OF GLENN BECK AND FOLLOW PRISONPLANET.COM CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND THINK THEY ARE ENLIGHTENED...ROFL All and all I can see you are very angry about having to participate in a war you did not agree with. I can understand that to a point, however as you said you signed a contract. You knew in advance of signing that contract you might have to someday go to war. You were there because you chose to be. So are you now saying that because of your service, and inspite of seeing the misery of the Iraqi people first hand, you have a special entitlement to exploit them but the rest of us are greedy? Again, you fail at basic reading comprehension. You just repeated the same thing i already said and act confused..lol I said I signed a contract and knew the risks, and thats why I sucked it up and went despite my opposition. Duh! Yes, i chose to be there! Duh! I never once exploited any iraqi or other human being while over there. I actually gave alot of my own money, food, water, and other supplies to poor iraqis every chance I could. So, the fact that I own dinars DOES NOT make me greedy or exploitive. THE OWNS WHO ARE EXPLOITING THE IRAQI PEOPLE WERE THE BUSH ADMIN, CONGRESS, THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX WHO WERE ITCHING TO GO TO WAR WITHOUT ANY TRUE THREAT! THE OTHER EXPLOITERS ARE THE PATHETIC PUNKS ON HERE NEVER TOOK ANY REAL RISK IN THE WHOLE WAR, YET THEY BOUGHT DINARS OFF OF ALI OR SOME BANK AFTER SOME CONTRACTOR BUDDY TOLD THEM ABOUT IT AND ARE ****** BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT INSTANT MILLIONAIRES A FEW MONTHS AFTER BUYING DINARS YET STILL HAVE AN OBVIOUS HATRED FOR DARK-SKINNED MUSLIMS! OF COURSE NOT ALL MUSLIMS ARE DARK-SKINNED, BUT THAT DOESNT STOP THE BIGOTS ON HERE FROM THINKING THAT! And get off that lame argument that "the iraqi people are better off now that we got rid of Saddam" so that justifies Bush lying to US and causing over a million deaths so far and over a trillion in dollars in war spending! Based on this ridiculous justification you try to present then why don't we just invade EVERY country that right now has a leader that treats their people badly?! Any takers? NOPE! We don't because it doesn't benefit us too! WHY DIDN'T WE TAKE SADDAM OUT WHEN HE GASSED HIS OWN PEOPLE AND THE IRANIANS? OH THAT'S RIGHT, WE HELPED HIM GET THEM AND USE THEM AND LOOKED THE OTHER WAY BECAUSE WE WERE BENEFITTING FROM HIS ACTIONS THEN! NO PROTESTS FROM US BECAUSE OF THE OLD "THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS MY FRIEND PHILOSOPHY" Barb, I think you are a good person, just really naive!

You obviously read my posts and "imagine" I said things i did not say...lol Just a few posts above I said "Obama inherited a huge mess and made it worse with his policies" Bbbbut, you can't see through your bitterness to acknowledge that...lol Hey hoping..."Pot calling the kettle ......................."

Actually, YES! YES I DID and STILL DO! Go back and read my past posts on here and i trace back the US's foreign policy problems back to WWII and the Military Industrial Complex. EVERY PRESIDENT SINCE WWII HAS A HAND IN THE MESS!

Again, some of you guys seem to think i am defending obama just because i don't go along with your blame obama for everything cop out. I will repeat: I AM NOT DEFENDING OBAMA'S POLICIES! Some of you are so biased, you can't see anything objectively because you are always looking in one direction only!

1. I joined in the late 90s so your assumptions about me are way off...lol Your question about about my views of the war being illegal is not relevant. i signed a contract, they told me to go to war, so i did. i did not agree with the war, I thought it was possiblly illegal at the time,(later proved to be illegal) but i signed a contract, so I did my time. 2. I hold dinars because i bought them when i was over there. I simply know how politicians work and figured since they will probably use their power to exploit iraq's resources and economy for their gain and they are using troops like me to risk our lives to do it, then i deserve my cut, so i bought more before i came back to the states. The greedy people on here I am talking about are the armchair "chickenhawk" toughguys on here who rant and rave about being a patriotic american waving the flag but were too pu**y to volunteer to fight for their country, yet they are trying to get rich quick off of me and my brothers blood, sweat, and tears as well as the Iraqi people! yet, all I read on these dinar sites is people ******* in moaning because of the "lazy, backwards, slow iraqi people" in an arrogant, whiney tone like "why can't these dark-skinned muslims make me rich and rv already!" If you didn't serve in iraq in any compacity then you are one too! You know nothing of what it is like if you were not over there an experienced it yourself! People here are so self-centered and have no context for what the Iraqi people are going through. I would gladly give up the possibility for an rv or to be rich if it would bring back all dead americans and iraqi civilians for this unjust war!

It has been proven many months ago! You just refuse to look at it and accept it. The hospital in Hawaii he was born at produced his birth certificate, put out copies of it to the press, and it HAS been authenticated! A non-white person is president and he is not who you voted for! Accept reality and move on! Since you are too lazy to do a simple google search here you go: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-07-27-obama-hawaii_N.htm http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthcertificate.asp http://www.kitv.com/politics/17860890/detail.html http://www.wowowow.com/post/attention-conspiracy-theorists-obama-birth-certificate-verified-134598

you obviously prefer foggy glasses and earmuffs...lol

Wow, you really have a warped and diluted memory of Bush dodging questions, refusing to answer senior white-house press reporters, STAGING FAKE MEDIA INTERVIEWS, STAGED AND SCRIPTED PROPAGANDA INTERVIEWS WITH SOLDIERS, as well as dodging shoes...lol Next thing you are going rant about Obama refusing to go on faux news when Bush refused to go on the majority of networks EXCEPT faux news. Bush would stay and take some questions but if it wasn't a planted/predetermined question that he had a scripted response too or a softball question from a friend he would make jokes with, he would fumble and make up words and avoid answering the question making him to look like he deserved to be in the Special Olympics.

While Republicans and fake populist "teabaggers" are celebrating the MASS. defeat of the democrats like they just won the superbowl, the Supreme Court just took away more power and freedom away from citizens than Obamacare could ever possibly do, but I don't hear teabaggers and fake populists and blind republican sheep on here even mentioning it!

Even if McCain was elected this debt sealing wouldv'e been raised as well. The wheels were already set in motion before the election. Anybody who understands simple exponential math would understand that instead of using it as a cheap political rant. The economic system is in shambles because of both parties' greed tied to large corporate and banking special interest.