Possible Presidential Pairings?
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Indy …my opinion from Canada. You are correct either/or they want out of Iraq as soon as possible without leaving a complete void and appear they left the Iraqi Government and people in a Civil War. With that in mind , the U.S. is moving more troops in to Afganastan to shore up the increase in Taliban activities. The Canadians are in Kandahar and being hit with increasing casualties and our European Allies ( Germany and France ) frankly are refusing to take up combat roles. Thus the U.S. as recently announced increase in troops to this area. With the Pakistan Government being led by Mr. 10% ( Benazir’s widower ) I don’t think we in the West can expect much from him unless of course he can take/skim 10% off for himself.
Something to think about…
Isn't this interesting that there have been several comments about Palin's appearance, like "But she is hot" and " Caribou Barbie". Would we have these same comments if she was a man? Would similiar comments about Obama on his race ever be tolerated? (Quite honestly, I like Obama. I gave "The Audacity of Hope" as Christmas gifts last year.) About a month before this announcement, Sarah Palin was interviewed by Maria Bartiromo on off-shore drilling. (Below is the video link.) This video just made me PUMPED. This is an intelligent woman discussing how her state can contribute a domestic (partial) solution to our oil problem with consideration to our environment. Let's get away from giving money to war lords and terrorists and instead make jobs for Americans and give money to Americans who own these natural resources! Oil and taxes are the main issues for me, which is why I like the McCain-Palin ticket. http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=836304396&play=1Oil and taxes?
Palin is for drilling in ANWR and Mccain is against it. McCain is quoted as saying that the reserves to be gotten in ANWR are "not that impactful." McCain respects yields to state's rights. if voters want drilling OK, if not OK as well. On taxes, neither candidate has the money to pay for their plan. Still. Mccain will use any savings in the budget to give cuts to the rich and to the oil companies. Obama will use any savings to give tax cuts to the middle class and working poor. Butttttttt. here's the rub. For most of us, there isn't much of difference tax wise, in the plans. At least not enough to be a deciding factor. That's not true for all of us but still, rather than blankly buying into one plan and not the other, better to see how they would affect you, and then decide. By the way LT, I'm speaking generally here. On another front McCain?palin are getting called on the noe debunked claims that she is an earmark fighting fiscal conservative. Taking in the most federal money per dollar sent to DC of any state in the country, $1.84/$1.00 debunks that claim and squarely makes Alaska a welfare state. Apparently, Palin has never met an earmark she didn't like. Plus the truth about the bridge to nowhere has come out. Of course the truth doesn't matter. One commentator put it well when he quoted mark Twain;" A lie can make it half way around the world before the truth has time to its shoes on." Hopefully, the campaign will return to issues and get off the personalities binge its been on for the past two weeks. As for the hot and caribou comments, my only suggestion if they offend you is to not watch SNL, Leno. Letterman, Colbert, Mahr, and Daily. Watching them and you will see that there is plenty of teasing on all sides. Alaskans even tease that she's hot. Haven't you seen the Coldest State Hottest Governor Tee shirts? LT you keep trying to make an issue out of a non issue.Taxes, one issue not being given much press is Obama is going to raise taxes on every individual tax payer in this country. Anybody know how? There is actually two answers. Flame away.
I said this before: The librarian glasses, coifed hair and past-the-knee skirts just do not equal sex symbol. However, if you call her "hot", it just discredits her.
Do you mean even more than how much Bush has buried us with the iraq war?Taxes, one issue not being given much press is Obama is going to raise taxes on every individual tax payer in this country. Anybody know how? There is actually two answers. Flame away.
You can tell you are an Obama fan, you even duck questions with similar flair. One of Obama’s big talking points is how he understands the common man, he will stand up for the middle class. What he doesn’t say is how letting Bush’s tax cuts (OMG he did something good??!!) will increase taxes across the board. He also is very quiet on the fact that raising corporate taxes is just a indirect tax hike on the middle class. You see, corporations will just respond to a tax hike the same way as they always have, they will cut expenses (jobs) and raise prices. A tax hike on corporate America will just get passed along, all the while the democrat masses will smile say “thank you, may I have another”. XOM payed more in federal taxes in 2006 than the bottom 50% (# of people) of individual filers. THEY PAID AS MUCH TAX AS HALF OF THIS COUNTRY!! But they should pay more. Even though they have an 8% ROE. They should pay more. Do you think XOM is going to let their ROE go down to 7 or 6% or are they going to cut jobs and/or raise taxes? Think about it.
[quote=lady_trader]
I said this before: The librarian glasses, coifed hair and past-the-knee skirts just do not equal sex symbol. However, if you call her "hot", it just discredits her.
[/quote] On this very thread posters called Palin a GILF and asked if Mccain was "Hittin it" yet you said nothing. Yet, post the politcal take on such sexist comments and you're all over it. Ok for posters to say she's the Governor I'd Like to F**k, but not Ok to talk about such thinking as a wedge issue in the election? On this very thread posters have posted info calling Obama a racist and Muslim who will side with Muslims. Yet you said nothing. Tell me, in your view, what's worse, Palin being called hot, or Obama being called a Muslim racist? Just so you know, these types of comments discredit the source not the target. So Palin is not being discredited.[quote=babbling looney]
On taxes, neither candidate has the money to pay for their plan. Still. Mccain will use any savings in the budget to give cuts to the rich and to the oil companies. Obama will use any savings to give tax cuts to the middle class and working poor. I swear to God, there is no way that you can possibly be a financial advisor expressing thoughts like these. Have you zero concept of economics? I suggest you read some Milton Friedman (Free to Chose) or Friedrich Hayek (Road to Serfdom). Do you just repeat the Democrat talking points or do you ever think about what you are saying, especially in light of what you are supposed to be doing for a living?[/quote] Ah, these aren't thoughts, these are facts taken form each campaign. But leave it to you to take a benign recounting of each candidate's tax position and turn it into a personal attack.Primo, that's an old tired argument. Show me a time in history where increasing corp tax has lead to the job loss and the inflation that you speak of? On an intellectual level I agree with you. However, on mainstreet it just doesn't translate to the bottom line. If the governmet came to you and said we have money to give away, we can give it directly to you, or we can give it to corporations that will cut prices, who would you rather we give it to? There is only one correct answer to that question and we both know that. Think about this: IF XOM has to produce X to acheive it's profit goals and it takes Y employees to acheive that goal, are they going to cut those employees? Nope. XOM is not going to cut anything that will adversly affect the bottom line. They will find other ways to close the gap. Employees won't get cut unless demand slackens causing a production cut or technology advances allowing personel cuts. Again, show me I'm wrong? Those who can, do, those who can't teach. There is a reason Economics teachers teach. By the way, Greenspan has come out against Mccain's economic plan, including his tax package. Mccain, early in his primary campaign said one of his weakest areas was on the economy and that he was going to read Greenspan's book, The Age Of Turbulence as part of his education. According to the AP, he needs to reread it. Lastly, I'm in McCains camp, mostly, on the tax isssue, just not my deciding issue. And again, most here will do at least as well under Obama as McCain.You can tell you are an Obama fan, you even duck questions with similar flair. One of Obama’s big talking points is how he understands the common man, he will stand up for the middle class. What he doesn’t say is how letting Bush’s tax cuts (OMG he did something good??!!) will increase taxes across the board. He also is very quiet on the fact that raising corporate taxes is just a indirect tax hike on the middle class. You see, corporations will just respond to a tax hike the same way as they always have, they will cut expenses (jobs) and raise prices. A tax hike on corporate America will just get passed along, all the while the democrat masses will smile say “thank you, may I have another”. XOM payed more in federal taxes in 2006 than the bottom 50% (# of people) of individual filers. THEY PAID AS MUCH TAX AS HALF OF THIS COUNTRY!! But they should pay more. Even though they have an 8% ROE. They should pay more. Do you think XOM is going to let their ROE go down to 7 or 6% or are they going to cut jobs and/or raise taxes? Think about it.
BG-
How do you feel about Biden’s ties to the credit card industry? He really went to bat for common folk in the bankruptcy legislation he spearheaded on behalf of the credit card companies. (I smell an AD on this, but he may prove he can implode on his own without having to highlight it). How about his ties to lobbyists and trial lawyers in asbestos cases?
Obama really showed us he is for “CHANGE” with this inspired pick. Bill Clinton told us he “hit it out of the park” with the Biden pick. He just didn’t say it was for Hillary in 2012.
Hard to trust Obama’s pick on the VEEP when he chooses a bafoon insider that has done nothing outside of Washington his whole career for the “heartbeat away” “change” batting circle.
At least Caribou Barbie is an outsider who has a diverse resume, with some reformist, “change” attributes and accomplishments.
[quote=BondGuy]
Yes he has... you forgot to add that he also said it requires budget cuts. (Read- reform, trimming back government).
What did Greenie say about Obama's tax plan? Do you know? Lets take this with the grain of salt, as the man sleeps with Obama NBC cheerleader, Andrea Mitchell. And by the way, Bernanke, Bush, Paulson are not 100% responsible for this financial mess we are in. You don't think Greenspan and Clinton have any blood on their hands for this mess?
BG, nice that you ducked letting the Bush tax cuts expire. That will raise taxes on the middle class. Period. Secondly, using the XOM example, lets say the government raises their taxes by 1MMM. Do you honestly believe they are just going to pay it? Or will they cut expenses and/or raise prices? We live in a consumer society. Raising taxes on the wealthy just gets passed along to the less wealthy through higher prices on goods and services. There is no argument there. At the end of the day, the top 2% of earners in this country account for 22% of taxable income and carry 39% of the tax burden. Plus with the economy in the toilet as Obama states on a daily basis, is raising taxes really the best solution? I thought he was about change, and new ideas, making things better. Until he says something that is different from the Leftist playbook, I think he is just another socialist who gives a hell of a speech.
1976-1979, Carter. From what I can see, Obama is running for Carter's second term, both in economics and foreign policy terms. Not that I'm very concerned at this point, as I see it this discussion is academic, as the McCain lead will only be getting larger from here on out and the landslide happens in November.Show me a time in history where increasing corp tax has lead to the job loss and the inflation that you speak of?
Honestly, I had to look up what the heck a GILF was. Ice said the "hitting it" comment, but did defend her in this post.
As for Ferris's comments; I am on auto-ignore. In addition, I noticed the Muslim posters took care of that issue. Ice's comments that he believed that Obama was racist, was something I partly agree with, (and I like Obama and own both his books). Obama is too classy of a guy, and he would not say anything racist, or comment on Palin's daughter. However, why the long-term relationship with Rev. Wright? In addition, there was an article that came out where Rev. Wright was a guest speaker at Maya Angelou's birthday party and Rev. Wright walked on stage and 1,000 mostly black audiance members gave him a standing ovation. Rev. Wright is a wacko! Yet, if he wasn't on a political stage and had to disown Wright, he would still be a personal associate of Obama's.
Actually, I do have to credit your comment about the taxation not being so different between candidates, to me going out and seeing his revised numbers. Here they are: http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/11/news/economy/candidates_taxproposals_tpc/index.htm?postversion=2008061111 I am not sure this year if I fall into the $410 worse under Obama or the $1591 worse under Obama. I drive a Saturn, carpool, clip coupons and just spent 2 days this weekend doing my own landscaping, so I do think it is significant. In addition, neither my husband nor I come from money, so the "marginal taxation rates" have always seemed unfair to me. There is a statistic out there that 70% of all lottery winners will be bankrupt in 2 years. So, on a grand scale, would giving more money to people who make less money really work? Now, there are definately people out there who do not make money because of circumstances like illness, etc, but realistically there are a lot of people who just do not put value in working hard.McCain could quite possibly be a worse public speaker than Bush:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/did-mccain-economy-gaffe-prompt/story.aspx?guid=%7BAB97BD36%2D9F9C%2D4239%2DABC9%2D6B9E89D5C194%7D&dist=hplatest Bush just makes up words and looks like a deer caught in the headlights. McCain has actually been saying non-factual things. If money can be made on Bush-isms, maybe it's a time for McCain-isms. Besides saying today the economy was fundamentally strong, he said Palin sold the AK jet on Ebay...for a profit! Not only was it not sold on Ebay, there was no profit. Someone needs to keep this guy on the speeches written for him...do not let him ad lib. FTR, I am still undecided.McCain wants to lower taxes for corporations and the rich thus letting the benefit of those cuts trickle down to everyone else. Pretty much it? Yep, that's it. Yet, eight years of tax cuts for the rich and tax breaks for corporations hasn't worked. So, four more years will turn the trick? Is that it? We need four more years of the same? And you get pissed at me when I call you gullible?
Sonny - if you work for a wire the working poor may include your sales assistant. If that assistant is the a single parent sole wage earner only drawing the wage the company pays him/her. But you already know this right? And if not him/her, then the receptionist or wire room operator. These are people you work with who don't make $300K a year like you. Some don't make one tenth of that. Yet, they do pay taxes. They are the working poor. Thanks for the econ 101. It really has cleared this up for me. Do something for me? Tell me why it hasn't worked for the past eight years? Tell me why inflation is higher under Bush than it was under Clinton? With all that tax savings getting passed on to the consumer shouldn't prices be lower or have increased at a lower rate? See, sonny here's the way I see it: You've been feeding on the same bullshit for so long you don't even know it's bullshit anymore. Sure, in the text book model taxes get passed along the supply chain. Except that's not the way it works on main street. The tax savings don't even make into the pricing model. Those savings get pocketed. How else to explain record earnings and higher inflation under Bush. Yeah, the corporations have made out, and the rich need a truck to bank all the dough, but everyone else? Everyone else is getting screwed. Primo - I gotta tell you using XOM as an example of good corporate stewardship, Priceless! I need you to do something for me as well. Take a ride to the other side of town. You know, the side of town where people make a living using their hands and earn money by the hour. Tell them that with all the money being passed down to them by the rich that they really need to stop whining about higher prices. They, like me, obviously don't get it. Well, go straighten them out. Let me know how that works out for you. And tell me, if the pass down theory is what our economy needs, why did we just hand out checks to the middle class and working poor to stimulate the economy? Ice - good clarification! I'm ordering my GILF Tee Shirt in XXL as I'm as sure it will shrink as I am that it will be OK with LT Rug - I don't like Biden but barbie is an extremist. Of course she does have all that Foreign policy experience what with Russia being only two hundred miles from her state. yeah, that works. And trying to pin today's mess on Clinton. yeah that works too, for the repub cool-aid drinkers. grey - So wrong I don't know what to say. grey do you remember anything having to do with oil back in the 70's that could have caused an economic problem? LT - what Muslims answered?[quote=BondGuy]McCain wants to lower taxes for corporations and the rich thus letting the benefit of those cuts trickle down to everyone else. Pretty much it? Yep, that’s it. Yet, eight years of tax cuts for the rich and tax breaks for corporations hasn’t worked. So, four more years will turn the trick? Is that it? We need four more years of the same? And you get pissed at me when I call you gullible?[/quote]
that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes
to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go
something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that’s what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the
arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you
are all such good customers, he said, 'I’m going to reduce the cost of
your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than
before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once
outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
'I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'
'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!'
‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man. ‘Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!’
‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!’
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn’t
show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But
when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important.
They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls,
journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The
people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax
reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they
just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking
overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics, University of Georgia
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.