Artful Dodger: !!!!!!

If you were to do the math PROPERLY... then you'd understand that this statement is as accurate as the old idea the Earth is at the centre of the universe.

$1,000,000 234 years ago is not the same as $1,000,000 now. For things like inflation the actual value of something bought, sold or borrowed, has to adjusted to allow for time. The dollar today (same with any currency) just ain't worth what it was back in da old days.

I used an online inflation calculator and it came up .....

... If you bought something in 1940 for $1000 it would cost, due to inflation.... $15,572.21 in 2010...... a rate of inflation change of 1457.2%

http://www.coinnews.net/tools/cpi-inflation-calculator/

Tuesday: It does seem to have gotten worse since Obama got into office.

Artful Dodger: No people stated that it was a foolish policy, it was illegal, it was ill planned, Blair lied, Bush lied. That is not the same as wanting to fail, that is honest opinion.. Many people did not want to send our troops into a war that did not need to be.

As for waterboarding.... IT IS TORTURE. If you support torture by the USA then you cannot condone when other regime's do it. It is considered a crime by most if not all normal people and courts in the whole world.. it is considered a war crime by just about every court in the world.

Artful Dodger:

> Obama has borrowed 3.5 Trillion in just 19 months.

Enlighten me. How much of that was for the bailouts for the banks? And who came up with the bailouts in the first place?

Artful Dodger:

> That's what is meant by wanting him to fail. We want Obama's efforts to fundamentally
> change America to fail because we believe he is taking us in the WRONG direction.

I think that Obama's true failure is not in trying to change the US, but in failing to realize that the US is a country that cannot change. The American political, legal and economic systems have become such that the US can no longer see itself in a different way. The United States has an inertia to change, and Barack Obama fails to accept that. The US is very good at technical change (computers, cell phones, satellites, etc.) but it has become fossilized in its inability to change politically or socially.

Certain things point to the American failure to accept change. For example, the nuclear threat fo the Cold War and the thousands of soldiers killed in imperialist wars should have given Americans a distaste for war. Instead the US is more militarized than ever and the American government is constatnly trying to find enemies to justify the ever increasing militarization of the American economy. The situation is such that one of the main sustainers of the American economy is the congressional-industrial-military complex.

Another example of the American unwillingness to change is the bailouts to the banks. Rather than accept that the Capitalist system has some serious flaws and contradictions, the American government decided to intervene and save a failed financial system. In the past the cyclical collapse of the financial system pointed to the recurring crises in Capitalism. Rather than accept that there is a need for change in the economic system, the Us refuses change and decides to save banks in order to maintain the status quo.

Americans do not want to see that the current economic system is unsustainable. For a long time the largest companies in the World were American companies. General Motors used to be the biggest until it nearly collapsed. Now Toyota and Hyundai compete for the top spot in the automobile manufacturing sector. Exxon remains the biggest oil company in the World, but at its current rate of growth, Russian giant Gazprom will be the biggest energy company by 2020. The largest steel manufacturers in the world are now Arcelor Mittal (based in Luxembourg and India), Shanghai Baosteel (in China) and Posco (in South Korea). United States Steel Corp. is now ranked 11th in the World when 100 years ago it produced 60% of the World's steel and was the largest company in the world. At the current pace China will have the largest economy in the World by 2017.

Since light and heavy manufacturing have slowly shifted overseas, the US has sunk into a masive trade deficit that is eating away at the American economy. The response to this presented itself in banks taking more aggressive and more risky investment strategies that eventually led to the collapse of 2008. At the same time, the increasing militarization of the US has been used as a way to stimulate economic and technological development.

Maintaining the military system and the banks has come at a high price. Funds that were meant to provide for social services and "entitlements" were heavily diverted mostly to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. People have already forgotten George W. Bush going to congress to literally "beg" for more funds because the war effort in Iraq was constantly running out of money (or course, to the benefit of companies like Haliburton, who made hundreds of billions out of the War). Congress simply shifted funds that were "earmarked" for the pension system and reallocated them to the Pentagon. In doing so the War in Iraq was paid with the pensions of the Baby Boomer generation.

Alan Greenspan (former chair fo the Federal Reserve) warned that by 2017 the pension system could run out of funds. At the same time, as many of the poorer segments of American society retire, the stress on the healthcare system will increase.

Barack Obama tried to rectify some of this economic problems, but he failed to realize how reluctant to change the American public is. Americans want to have it all: the biggest economy, the most powerful military, the highest standard of living, AND the lowest taxes. Therein lies the contradiction. You can have a big military by taking from the poor and reallocating money to the pursuit of military might. You can have a high standard of living with good pensions and good healthcare, but only by having a higher rate of taxation. You can have the largest economy in the world if the manufacturing sector is strong, but all manufacturing is now done overseas. Something has to give: either a smaller military, a lower standard of living, or higher taxes.

Barack Obama pretends to want to change things, but does nothing to change the nature of the system. That is why Barack Obama is failing and the public, unable to see what the true nature of the problem is, will simply hand both houses to Republicans, thus making sure that the US is politically, economically and socially stuck for several more years. Republicans behave as if everything is fine with this political and economic inertia. The question is, what will the US do when China becomes the largest economy in the World in 2017? That is only 7 years from now and the way things are looking it is quite likely that Sarah Palin will be in office by then!

Übergeek 바둑이: It doesn't matter what that money was for. What matters is the larger point. Reckless spending. And even while there is no money to pay for it, and the public at large is against it, Obama and his lemmings pass the huge (and unread) Health Care Bill (for which there will not be enough money to pay for the monster).

Übergeek 바둑이:

"failing to realize that the US is a country that cannot change."

Based on your assumptions and bias that America should change. The majority of Americans like the US and don't want fundamental changes to the country.

"Instead the US is more militarized than ever and the American government is constatnly trying to find enemies to justify the ever increasing militarization of the American economy. "

A mis-characterization. The US doesn't have to find enemies that don't exist. We live in a volatile world. The enemies are there. Look around.

"Rather than accept that the Capitalist system has some serious flaws and contradictions, the American government decided to intervene and save a failed financial system."

Nonsense. Capitalism is a successful system. The system didn't fail. The banks operated outside accepted rules in a capitalist system. The government violated another capitalist rule by intervening. The system would weed out the failures and the survivors would NOT make those same mistakes.

"Americans do not want to see that the current economic system is unsustainable."

It's sustained quite well for a long time. What has to happen is for the government to allow for big compainies to fail when their time is up. Nothing lasts forever.

Another serious problem in the US is Union thuggery. Many companies can no longer afford the huge payouts to union workers. Reasonable pay is one thing. But unions force companies to fail with their huge demands and unwillingness to budge in their demands. I've seen this sort of thing in huge businesses in Minnesota. The huge demands from the unions, topped off with huge taxes from the government.

"Maintaining the military system and the banks has come at a high price."

You have to have a strong military if your a country the size of the US and particularly because of our place in the world.

As for the governments involvement in the banks - a very bad idea. It's not the government's job and they should stay out of it.

"Funds that were meant to provide for social services and "entitlements" "

We need to decrease the social services and entitlements we provide at the federal level. We've created generations of lazy do-nothings as a result. Generational poverty is a product of entitlements.

The US system has proven over time to be a very effective system. The Progressives in this country have for years sought to make minor changes here and there and have succeeded in many ways. Bottom line: people need to get off their butts, work hard, find one or two jobs, do what you have to do, and quit relying on government handouts to get by. The government in the US wasn't created to babysit its citizens.

Artful Dodger: You really do have no understanding of economics do you!! The banks were working via rules that were relaxed by federal law because the financial market wanted it so... A Republican government made it that the financial system could break reasonable laws on risk n' profit.

Your country spends about 40-50% of it's GDP on military related costs.

"Many companies can no longer afford the huge payouts to union workers. Reasonable pay is one thing. But unions force companies to fail with their huge demands and unwillingness to budge in their demands"

The German economy is one of the strongest in Europe.. it has worker representation on the board and vote in the hiring and firing of management.

"don't want fundamental changes to the country. "

... and what if those changes are needed despite what you want?

The main cause I hear for the USA's decline as an industrial power is just one. Those directly effected by WWII (actual harm to the economy or infrastructure from bombs, etc) rebuilt. China.. it changed from a 'communist' country to a mixed economy. Same with the old Soviet block.

Seems a mixed economy is the best.

The Republic of Nicaragua vs. The United States of America[109] was a case heard in 1986 by the International Court of Justice which ruled in Nicaragua's favor, and found that the United States had violated international law. The court stated that the United States had been involved in the "unlawful use of force", specifically that it was "in breach of its obligation under customary international law not to use force against another state" by direct acts of U.S. personnel and by the supporting Contra guerrillas in their war against the Nicaraguan government and by mining Nicaragua's harbors. The ICJ ordered the U.S. to pay reparations. The US was not imputable for possible human rights violations done by the Contras. The case led to considerable debate concerning the issue of the extent to which state support of terrorists implicates the state itself.[117] A consensus among scholars of international law had not been reached by the mid-2000s.[117]

U.S. foreign policy critic Noam Chomsky argued that the U.S. was legally found guilty of international terrorism based on this verdict, which condemned the United States federal government for "unlawful use of force".[118][119]

The World Court considered their case, accepted it, and presented a long judgment, several hundred pages of careful legal and factual analysis that condemned the United States for what it called "unlawful use of force" — which is the judicial way of saying "international terrorism" — ordered the United States to terminate the crime and to pay substantial reparations, many billions of dollars, to the victim.
—Noam Chomsky, interview on Pakistan Television[120]

The essence of this view of U.S. actions in Nicaruaga was supported by Oscar Schachter: "When a government provides weapons, technical advice, transportation, aid and encouragement to terrorists on a substantial scale it is not unreasonable to conclude that the armed attack is imputable to that government."

Following the rise to power of the left-wing Sandinista government in Nicaragua, the Ronald Reagan administration ordered the CIA to organize and train the Contras, a right wing guerrilla group. On December 1, 1981, President Reagan signed an initial, one-paragraph "Finding" authorizing the CIA's paramilitary war against Nicaragua.[

Photo code:

Hey libs, first one of you to besmirch Marcus is a racist bigot!  His ideas are fair game, he is not.

Artful Dodger: whatever happened to "I had a dream"?

BTW, Black Mafia = Sharpton, Jackson, and the Obama Administration.

 America’s “Black Mob” makes everything about skin color to “get paid” and gain political power.



Black kids were doing extremely well in the D.C. school voucher program. Obama killed the program to appease the teachers’ union.


A most shameful agenda item of the Black Civil Rights Mafia is to convince another generation of black Americans they are victims of a racist America. Their purpose is to recruit them into their ranks and voting Democrat.

Beck and the Tea Party patriots are far greater stewards of MLK’s dream than the “sold out”  Black Mob.

Due to tremendous rejection of Obama’s policies, reelection is not looking good for Democrats in November. Rushing to the aid of the Democrats, the Black Mob and the liberal media have launched a “Hate America and White Tea Partiers” campaign. Their hope is to fire up misinformed blacks and brain-dead white libs to run to the polls in November.

Bernice: It's not politically profitable so the black liberals and the white liberals perpetuate racism and a victim mentality so they can keep power.  They are all about votes.  That's why liberals pretend to care about Hispanics.  They don't.  They want their votes.  They would court pedophiles if they could get enough votes from it.  Rule of law means nothing to them if there are votes involved.

Artful Dodger: I think you can say that about lib POLITICIANS, but I doubt your average LIB voter is fond of pedophiles. Let's be realistic

This Lloyd Marcus being a conservative black American singer... Making a good living being the token black guy in a room/hall of all white folk. Is he getting paid as much as Palin??

(V): So is he not a "good" black man if he isn't a democrat? Please.

rod03801: Nope.. didn't say that. I said he seems to have jumped on the Tea Party bandwagon, and as is making a good living out of it. Don't forget to buy his book!!

(V): Of course he COULDN'T truly believe and feel what he is saying? He must be just doing it to make some money? Interesting. Libs NEVER do THAT of course.

rod03801: I am speaking of liberal politicians and of course I'm using hyperbole.   I don't really mean it for them either.  But I do mean that they will do whatever it takes to court the vote.  (Republicans do this on some level as well).   It's all about power.  What right to illegal aliens have to be in America?  None really.  But the left makes it about civil rights etc.  That's how they play it.  Clinton characterized the Arizona law as a human rights violation.  She doesn't really mean that because she knows better.   The Arizona law mirrors an existing Federal law.  It's all a ploy by Clinton and Obama (his adminstration has filed suit) to gain the Hispanic vote.  Blacks are paid off in entitlements for their votes.  And people like Sharpton keep the myth of racism alive.  I don't mean to say there exists no racism theses days.  But it's not the 50's or the 60's any longer.  So what was Sharpton doing marching arm in arm with those other black civil rights dinosaurs singing we shall overcome?  It's all about keeping racism alive (keeping alive the idea that this is still a racist country etc).  It's propaganda.  And generations of blacks will grow up hating an enemy that doesn't exist.

rod03801: I didn't say that.

"he COULDN'T truly believe and feel what he is saying?"

I never said that either. Perhaps you have not watched some of the spoof movies I have.

(V): Perhaps

sounds a bit like on here sometimes ROFLMBO

rod03801:MLKing was a Republican.

rod03801: Sometimes a movement will take on someone to try and show they are nice guys. It is often called a token character. Such was a popular concept when it came to films/tv even though the politics of the time were still predujiced against that character.

(V): There is prejudice everywhere. In every political party. Prejudice against any possible classification/group.

I guess I just get sick of either side sounding like the other side has exclusively done it.

rod03801: I get what you mean.. to say a side is squeaky clean is rubbish. We in the UK saw as much during the Expenses scandal when Conservative and Labour MP's were extorting money from the UK taxpayers through lax rules.

BBC Director General Mark Thompson has admitted the corporation was guilty of a 'massive' Left-wing bias in the past. The TV chief also admitted there had been a 'struggle' to achieve impartiality and that staff were ' mystified' by the early years of Margaret Thatcher's government.

But he claimed there was now 'much less overt tribalism' among the current crop of young journalists, and said in recent times the corporation was a 'broader church'.

He claimed there was now an 'honourable tradition of journalists from the right' working for the corporation.

.........Speaking of the time when he joined the BBC, Mr Thompson told the magazine: 'In the BBC I joined 30 years ago [as a production trainee, in 1979] there was, in much of current affairs, in terms of people's personal politics, which were quite vocal, a massive bias to the Left.

'The organisation did struggle then with impartiality. And journalistically, staff were quite mystified by the early years of Thatcher.

'Now it is a completely different generation.
*********************************************************

Good to see the raw report rather than some right wing extortion.

Democrats asking voters to forget their record
Rick Moran
First, Democrats started running away from Obama. Then they started running against their own Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Now, they're running away from their record.

The candidate was outraged - just outraged - at the country's sorry fiscal state.

"We have managed to acquire $13 trillion of debt on our balance sheet," he fumed to a roomful of voters. "In my view, we have nothing to show for it."

And that was a Democrat, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, who voted "yes" on the stimulus, the health-care overhaul, increased education funding and other costly bills Congress approved under his party's control.

Faced with a potential wipeout in November's midterm elections, candidates such as Bennet are embracing budget cuts with the enthusiasm of Reagan Republicans.

Artful Dodger: I guess your blog sources really are desperate to make try and make out the current US administration has on it's own run up so much debt. They must be pretty desperate in order to lie so much!!

thank god I live in one of Gods own countries...the other being New Zealand ROFL....

When liberals have no argument, they resort to calling names.

Against Obama? You're a racist.
Make fun of Obama? You're a racist.
Against illegal's coming into this country and want it stopped? You're a racist.
Want illegals deported? You're a racist.
Think entitlements perpetuate the cycle of poverty and want to see some major changes to welfare? You're a racist.
Think marriage should only be defined between a man and a woman? You're a homophobe.
Think abortion is wrong because you consider it taking the life of an innocent human being? You're an oppressor of women.

and on it goes. To those morons I say, bite me.

Artful Dodger: "moron" isn't name calling? HMMM?

rod03801: In this case no. It's descriptive.

Cynthia Tucker: Voter Anger Is About Racism - 'Fear of a White Minority'

Are you sick and tired of being called a racist because you don't agree with Barack Obama's policies?

If
you are, you shouldn't read any further, for Cynthia Tucker this
weekend claimed the voter anger that threatens the Democrat majorities
in the House and the Senate is all a function of racism

43 percent of white Americans vote for Obama in November 2008

Obama had a 78 percent favorability rating in January 2009 according to Gallup

It's NOT his color, its his policies.

Curiously, I Googled it to see what I'd find. lol. I'm in GOOD company!

"Bill O'reilly is nothing more than a pathetic homophobic racist pig,"
"Jon Voight is a homophobic, racist pig ..."

Instead of engaging on the issues, this is so typical of the liberal left. I know why they don't engage on the issues: They have no case. That's why we rarely see that sort of engagement here. Most liberals who post here NEVER make a case for any liberal position. I'd love to see a rational defense of Obama's spending or of the enormous health care bill. Not even those who voted for that monster will defend it publicly. hmmmm, now what does that tell you?

Artful Dodger: cool, the "viewer mail" portion of the program

How many Democrats are running ads saying they voted for ObamaCare

Here's what Politico is reporting:

A handful of House Democrats are making health care reform an election year issue - by running against it.

At least five of the 34 House Democrats who voted against their party's health care reform bill are highlighting their "no" votes in ads back home. By contrast, party officials in Washington can't identify a single House member who's running an ad boasting of a "yes" vote - despite the fact that 219 House Democrats voted in favor of final passage in March.

One Democratic strategist said it would be "political malfeasance" to run such an ad now.

According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday, the GOP leads the Democrats by 7 points on the "generic ballot" question, 52 percent to 45 percent. That 7-point advantage is up from a 3-point margin last month.

The generic ballot question asks respondents if they would vote for a Democrat or Republican in their congressional district, without naming any specific candidates.

"The survey indicates that independents and voters who dislike both parties are starting to break toward the GOP," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "In a year when anger at incumbents is a dominant political force, the key to the election lies among those who aren't rooting for either side."

According to the poll, the two parties are equally unpopular. Forty-nine percent of all Americans have an unfavorable view of the Democrats, with the same percentage feeling the same way about the Republicans. Just over one in five questioned dislike both parties.

Back in April, Americans who dislike both parties appeared to mildly favor the GOP on the generic ballot, by a 43-to-39 percent margin, with a large number saying at the time that they would pick a minor-party candidate or stay at home.

"Now, a lot of those voters appear to be bolting to the GOP," Holland said. "Republicans now have a whopping 38-point advantage on the generic ballot among voters who dislike both parties."

White House panicking over elections
Rick Moran
Politico's Jim VandeHei on Face the Nation:

With many polls indicating the Republicans may win back control of the House of Representatives (and possibly the Senate as well) in the upcoming mid-term elections, Jim VandeHei, the executive editor of Politico, told CBS' "Face the Nation" that the Obama administration is in a horrible position.

"Does the White House understand this?" asked guest host Harry Smith. "Do you feel any sense of panic or concern" on the part of the administration?

"They get it. There's panic. There's concern," VandeHei said. "The reality for this administration stinks, politically and practically, when it comes to the economy. You're not going to be able to change that 9.6-percent unemployment figure. You can't get anything from Congress in the next couple of months."

CBS Congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes said the Democrats are distancing themselves from President Obama.

"Not only are they running away from President Obama, they're running away from being Democrats in some cases. In some races you actually see the Democratic candidates not really mentioning that they're a Democrat in their campaign ads," Cordes said.

How's that Iranian outreach working out Barry?
Rick Moran
The Iranian government is paying a bounty to the Taliban in Afghanistan for each dead American.

MSNBC reports:

Iran is paying Taliban fighters $1,000 for each U.S. soldier they kill in Afghanistan, according to a report in a British newspaper.

The Sunday Times described how a man it said was a "Taliban treasurer" had gone to collect $18,000 from an Iranian firm in Kabul, a reward it said was for an attack in July which killed several Afghan government troops and destroyed an American armored vehicle.

The treasurer left with the cash hidden in a sack of flour, the newspaper said, and then gave it to Taliban fighters in the province of Wardak. In the past six months, the treasurer claimed to have collected more than $77,000 from the company.

The Sunday Times said its investigation had found that at least five Kabul-based Iranian companies were secretly passing funds to the Taliban.

The newspaper's correspondent, Miles Amoore, said he met and interviewed the treasurer, who he said had been an illiterate farmer who was taught to read and write, plus basic accountancy, by the Taliban last winter.

"We don't care who we get money from," the treasurer was quoted as saying. He described the relationship with Iran as a "marriage of convenience." Iran is a predominantly Shiite country, while the Taliban is dominated by Sunni Muslims.

"Iran will never stop funding us because Americans are dangerous for them as well. I think the hatred is the same from both us and Iran. The money we get is not dirty. It is for jihad," the treasurer told Amoore.

Gee...just think how bad it would have been if our fearless leader hadn't groveled at the mullah's feet, begging them to like us?

Caution: NOT for the faint of heart (that only applies to liberals)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBrWEOJo3s4&feature=player_embedded