The Brand New Respectful Presidential Campaign Thread

saluki · May 2008

Ahh Shokk---Just getting my pills and coffee--an outside outlet shorted out my house--and the electrician has been searching to find the source for hours---no sleep--NO CEILING FAN---hot flashes every few minutes--can't live without the ceiling fan---

But you know if you mention Soros my ears perk up. I'm just as livid about his use of Media Matters as a propaganda tool as Move on.org.

Anne Shirley- Since you have problems with the Pope during WWII; let me tell you Soros's behavior will leave you with your mouth hanging open not only for it being loathsome but, for his subsequent reflections on it.---------Chilling to the bone.

http://sweetness-light.com/archive/george-soros-on-helping-the-nazis-during-the-holocaust

There are no limits to this man's ambition and he has no scruples--and if you think Obama will not be beholding to him -you are very mistaken.

Here is an excerpt from an Ed Lasky article about some of Soros's meddling on the international scene.

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Soros has made billions of dollars operating in the murky world of offshore hedge funds. He is famously the man who "broke the Bank of England" by wagering a huge amount of money that Britain would be forced to devalue the pound. Britain weakened its currency; George Soros enlarged his fortune. The offshore nature of his hedge fund has many benefits for Soros. It is exempt from many American security regulations and its investors are invisible to the public. There have been rumors that Arab oil wealth has found an outlet in Soros' funds, since he takes a percentage off the top based on the assets of the fund, and a reportedly substantial percentage of the profits (money which eventually can make its way, cleaned, to America). It is not too much of a stretch to wonder if Arab oil has fueled the rise of Soros.

This situation should be a cause of concern. Soros is a major funder of the Democratic Party, activist groups that aid the Democrats (such as MoveOn.Org), and was a very early and generous backer of Barack Obama. This support could be crucial in the years ahead. Congress has recently been considering increasing the regulation and the transparency of hedge funds. Indeed, some attention has been focused on the role of hedge funds in American politics. The New York Times, for instance, ran an article earlier in the year ("Hedge Fund Chiefs, With Cash, Join Political Fray") that predictably, focused on hedge fund managers who seemed to support the GOP. Unsurprisingly, the article omitted any mention at all of George Soros, whose politics are more compatible with those powers-that-be who are running the New York Times (into the ground). Yet Soros has very important reasons to want influence in Washington. Not just to support his agenda, but also to ensure that he can continue to operate behind a veil of secrecy and avoid any increased scrutiny of his hedge funds.

Soros will not be sated merely by breaking the Bank of England, or exercising outsized influence in Congress, he is also hoping, according to the Times speculation, of having one of his chief allies appointed to head the World Bank - the aforementioned Mark Malloch Brown. After a stint at the United Nations marked by efforts to whitewash the Oil-for-Food scandal, he recently assumed the Vice-Chairmanship of Soros' hedge fund, The Quantum Fund. He is also a former World Bank official, but his career has not been marked by noticeable investment prowess. Instead, the post with the Soros investment vehicle seems a sinecure, a resting spot until a "better position" opens up.

Such generosity would not be a departure for Soros. He previously allowed Brown to live in a Soros-owned apartment while Brown worked at the UN, whitewashing the worst corruption scandal ever to tarnish the international body. He is, in a sense, a kept man.

How would Brown be useful to Soros as President of the World Bank? Soros is an international investor. He knows no borders and he has heavily invested in the developing world. David Horowitz wrote in "The Shadow Party" that Soros' investments in ostensible human rights organizations and political activist groups often have an investment rationale behind them.

Critics have long argued that his philanthropic spending is "merely a smoke screen for empire building" as the New Yorker's Connie Bruck wrote. Horowitz noted "the entanglement of his goals as philanthropist, politicians and profiteer became particularly acute in the chaos of post-Communist Russia". During the Clinton years, Soros had wide latitude for his business ventures in the Soviet Union. He and Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs exercised enough influence to persuade Russia to administer "shock therapy" to the Russian economy. The resulting chaos opened up investment opportunities for Soros.

His Open Society Institute, for example, has helped to bring down some dictatorships (so far, so good), but the resulting instability and chaos have proved to be chum for Soros, who has swooped in and invested in these lesser-developed nations at favorable terms. He has later reaped rewards as the political situation stabilizes and he is able to cash out his investments. He has reaped the wealth that would have otherwise gone to the citizens of these various nations. All the while, his vanity is satisfied by the praise that comes to him for promoting this dynamic.

Brown, an acolyte of Soros, would be well positioned to be promote a similar dynamic in a wide variety of nations around the world. As President of the World Bank, Brown could direct many billions of dollars in aid to various nations. A hypothetical: Soros invests in a Lesser-Developed nation (either by buying companies, shares of companies, currency, or bonds). The World Bank later announces a major initiative to shower this nation with aid dollars. This sparks asset values to rally in that nation, and Soros cashes out.

Or maybe Soros finds one of his companies or activist groups is suddenly the beneficiary of World Bank largesse. Perhaps, a substantial portion of the huge assets of the World Bank is turned over to Soros or his entitities to manage. The World Bank often requires nations to take dramatic actions in order to receive aid dollars. Often these actions have enormous and sudden financial ramifications (devalued currencies, or a spike in the value of that nation's sovereign debt as aid restores confidence in that nation's economy, for instance). These are precisely the type of sudden and large movements that hedge funds - particularly offshore ones - are ideally positioned to capitalize on.

Will Soros have advance knowledge that the Bank will take these actions? How likely would it be that an audit would ever uncover any acts of malfeasance? Brown, after all, has a great deal of experience ignoring corruption, and exonerating those who are caught in a web of corruption. He has learned his lessons well and will be positioned to put them to bad use.

The scenario outlined above is speculative. However, George Soros is a man of immense ambition. The size of his fortune and the magnitude of his hedge fund requires him to seek huge returns in order to keep up the growth rate of assets under his control. How better to accomplish this goal than to assume control of an international organization with many billions of that elixir that hedge fund manager's love: Other People's Money. The leverage that conceivably could accrue to Soros would be enormous.

A fanciful scenario? Imaginary? Speculative? Yes. But Soros is a speculator and people used to think that it was delusional than anyone could ever "break the Bank of England."

Ed Lasky is news editor of American Thinker.

saluki · May 2008

"Obama said...."we are going to have to eat less, not drive SUV's, and not keep our thermostat's at 72 degrees..........ahhh......excuse me.........I sure do hope Hillary jumps all over these comments.........what about the new SUV hybrids that are getting very good gas mileage.........thermostat's that are using a lot less energy.........and maybe we all need to eat less but to suggest that to a woman on steroid treatments.....uhhh...not............."

Shokk----Shades of Jimmy Carter in 1977

"All of us must learn to waste less energy. Simply by keeping our thermostats, for instance, at 65 degrees in the daytime and 55 degrees at night we could save half the current shortage of natural gas."

saluki · May 2008

There are always two sides to every story------epecially Jimmy Carter and the Middle East

------------------------

Jimmy Carter Can Only Blame Himself

By Paul Miller

"Jimmy Carter calling anyone else the worst president is like John Wayne Gacy calling a shoplifter a danger to society. The 39th President of the United States told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in a story that appeared in the newspaper's last Saturday,

"I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history."

Jimmy Carter conveniently hides the fact that he is directly responsible for much of the turmoil we see in the world today. Carter began directly meddling in Iranian Affairs after he took office in 1977. On New Years Eve of that year, President Carter toasted the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, at a state dinner in Tehran, calling him "an island of stability" in the troubled Middle East. What the president also knew, but chose to ignore, was that the Shah was in serious trouble and his trip to Iran created anger toward the United States amongst the Iranian people.

When Carter became President he created a special Office of Human Rights which sent a letter to the Shah of Iran as a "polite reminder" of the importance of political rights and freedom. In response the Shah released over 350 Islamic fundamentalist prisoners who would later play roles in the Islamic Revolution and Iran Hostage crisis. Carter also ordered the Central Intelligence Agency to stop paying religious Mullahs over 4 million dollars in bribes. This monetary support was agreed upon, so the Mullahs would tone down their anti-Shah and anti-Western rhetoric.

The Shah ran a secular government and established excellent relations with the West, which included the recognition of the state of Israel. He also believed in the equality of woman which he expressed publicly in a Barbara Walters interview. These reasons were the heart and soul of the disdain the Mullahs had for him. The Shah was by no means perfect. His secret police force, SAVAK, was infamous for their torture methods. Ironically the fact the Shah ran his government as a dictatorship played a very limited role in his demise.

Facing an Islamic revolution, the Shah appealed to Carter for help. On November 4, 1978 U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski called the Shah and said the United States would "back him to the hilt." This would never be the case. Brzezinski insisted to Carter that the U.S. must encourage the Shah to "brutally suppress the revolution". State Department officials believed Carter should reach out to the Revolutionaries in order to smooth the transition to a new government. This was a deciding moment in world history. Carter decided not to take either recommendation and to this very day, the world is suffering the consequences of his indecisiveness.

Weeks before Grand Ayatollah Khomeni came to power. The Shah fled the country for Egypt. However, when it became known the severity of the cancer he was suffering, Carter chose the humanitarian route and permitted him entrance into the U.S. for medical treatment. "He went around the room, and most of us said, 'Let him in.'" recalls Vice President Walter Mondale. "'If the Iranians take our employees in our embassy hostage, then what would be your advice?' And the room just fell dead. No one had an answer to that. Turns out, we never did."

When the Grand Ayatollah took power in February of 1979, the Shah held over 3,000 political prisoners, most of them spies or informants for the neighboring Soviet Union. The Ayatollah did not release them as the world expected. He deemed them "godless Communists" and placed them up against walls alongside more than 20,000 pro-Western Iranians and murdered them all by firing squads. Women were sent back into servitude. Citizens were arrested for owning satellite dishes and viewing Western programs. And, of course, American diplomats were taken hostage.

Carter's indecisiveness and incompetence became obvious to the rest of the World. The Soviet Union took great advantage of having Carter in the Oval Office. The Communist country invaded eastern neighbor Afghanistan, beginning an attempted power grab aimed at eventual Soviet takeovers in Iran and Pakistan. Carter's response to the invasion of Afghanistan was the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Olympic games held in Moscow. Need I say anymore?

History tells us that the Afghanistan fighters (Mujahideen) held their own against the Soviet invasion. Muslim extremists, including Osama Bin Laden, became warriors with great experience in strategic planning and sabotage. More importantly they now had confidence after defeating a Superpower. Sound familiar?

Also resulting from Carter's abandonment of the Shah was the Iran-Iraq war, which would have never occurred if the Shah remained in power. Over a half million people died during that war, including thousands of Iranians from Sadam Hussein chemical weapons. Hussein continued building his military to avoid future land attacks, which would become the cornerstone for his 1990 invasion of Kuwait. This of course became Desert Storm.

The aftermath of Jimmy Carter's Iran policy debacle is still present today. The lives lost, as a result of his incompetence in dealing with Iran before, during and after the Islamic Revolution is far greater than the current turmoil in Iraq. Considering the support insurgents groups in Iraq as well as terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah get from Iran, Carter's mistakes as President are still costing lives all over the Middle East.

Maybe it's an Iranian supplied artillery shell used by Hezbollah to attack Israel. Or an Iraqi insurgent trained by Iran to make bombs. We must not forget the seemingly endless supply of suicide bombers in Osama Bin Laden's, Al Qeada network. The fact is that these murderers and countless others like them exist today, not because George Bush made mistakes in Iraq, but because Jimmy Carter failed in Iran as well as turning U.S. foreign policy into a doormat for anyone to step on.

President Carter, if you want to place blame, just look in the mirror."

Paul Miller is a writer, consultant and activist, and a former advisor to the Illinois Republican Party. You can read his opinions at http://www.pauliespoint.blogspot.com/

shokk · May 2008

Susie I could not agree with you more........when my oldest was born her doctor told me to keep the thermostat at 65 degrees at night.......she would have less colds and a less stuffy nose..........cover up with warm blankets..........now my daughters say I am cheap......I say I'm frugal.......I keep my ac on in the summer at 78 degrees with ceiling fans on high........I like the air circulation.......there are some days that can get really hot and I may turn it down to 75 degrees but that is rare.......I live exactly 2.5 miles from where I work......I am .5 mile from the high school and 1 mile from my towns "downtown" where all the stores are located.......I do drive a SUV but it is a smaller one with a 6 cylinder engine.......while my oldest is away and her car is at home......a small Toyota I have been driving it.........believe it or not (I know my Democrat friends think this is going to be bs) I actually recycle........yes I will admit it to my Conservative friends......I don't believe in Global Warming or Global Change.......well I believe that it happens but I don't believe that mankind has anything to do with it.......but I am concern about waste......we do have too much trash........I do believe that trying to achieve a smaller "footprint" in the world would be to every bodies advantage.........jmo.........Shokk..........(Susie sounds like I hit a nerve when I mention Soros).....I have something to say about him in the Republican thread.

shokk · May 2008

Oh jeez......when I say that Carter's name.......I just knew......Susie is your electricity back on?.......is there smoke coming from your fingertips.....ha.......don't care for Carter......actually can't stand him........the first house I bought in 1980 while Carter was still president.......900 sq foot home at 14.5% interest and now my home at 2300 sq ft at 6.5% fixed and my house payment today is half of what it was in 1980..........also remember gas lines.........inflation was completely out of control.........Reagan tried his best to get an energy package out of the Democrat controlled congress at the time warning that if we did not start building new refineries, nuclear power plants that this situation was going to happen.......you can't be producing 40% less energy then in 1978 and consuming 50% more energy then in 1978...........the math does not add up........Shokk

saluki · May 2008

"is there smoke coming from your fingertips.....ha.......don't care for Carter"

Yep electricity finally back on $400 dollars later. Yep--smoke coming out my fingertips, nose, ears---Get that way whenever I hear Carter or Soros's name.--------Going to animal planet to unwind............Keep forgetting to take my blood pressure meds!!!!

Anonymous · May 2008

Michelle Obama is off limits....declares Obama. Why? Bill Clinton hasn't been off limits. He has been condemned for making "racial" comments.

"For the first time IN MY ADULT LIFETIME I am proud of my country." How else can you dissect that sentence?

Listen to why Americans are proud of this country.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmWEaqxkGtU&feature=bz303

Paulette531 · May 2008

Like I said in the other thread, if Obama thinks his wife is not going to be talked about, he is a fool! Not only her, but his kids and her family will be talked about and he cannot stop it. How silly, it comes with having a public persona...personally I don't care for the woman and I will say it, it is what it is.

SheriH · May 2008

Ok,I don't post here much, but I live in Kentucky and it's kind of funny how the democratic candidates are really campaigning here. I live in a fairly small town, no more than 30,000 people and guess who was here today, less than 2 miles from my school? Yes, Bill Clinton made an appearance at a private residence here. Lots of people from my school went to see him, many not because they support him or his wife, but mainly because of the excitement of having a former president so close. I also heard Obama was going to be in Harrodsburg, which is a sister town, probably even smaller than Danville. Yeah for small towns! I won't be able to vote tomorrow since I am a registered Republican, but it should be interesting.

Anonymous · May 2008

Wherever Obama was today I forgot how many thousands of people were there. I have never seen sooooo many people. He definitely draws a crowd...that scares me!

Jaybird627 · May 2008

Still lovin' Hillary!!! You GO grrrl!!!

I swear I'd give her a million dollars if I had it just so she could buy everyone off and win this frickin' democratic nomination!

CherrylH · May 2008

I'm with you, Jaybird. Let's have a drink in celebration of Hillary's gutsy attitude!!!

Cherryl

Blundin2005 · May 2008

I came by this talk about news coverage in the US and thought that you might like to see it too. The talk was presented on the web site TED by Alisa Miller.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/248

Jaybird627 · May 2008

Oh, I never watch the local/network news. I have Direct TV and prefer to watch the news from the BBC or from Canada - they're not biased in their reporting! (or if they are it's not slanted towards the United States)

This piece was funny but sad.....

anneshirley · May 2008

Actually, there are many sides to a story, usually far more than two. To blame Jimmy Carter or the Democrats for the high price of gas and heating oil is perhaps the silliest side I've heard in a very long time. And I wouldn't blame the Republicans either. Gasoline prices in America have been subsidized for decades--Americans are the ones to blame (all of them). We have not been paying the true price of oil--and still are not doing so. We can expect prices to go higher, not lower.

I'd suggest that polluting the planet is not going to get us anything beyond a short-term solution, which is what this country has been doing for years. opting for short-term solutions. Building more oil refineries, as Reagan may or may not have suggested, is certainly not the answer. (I wonder if there's anyone else here who believes he was the absolutely worse president we've had aside, of course, from George Bush Junior, with daddy in close persuit.) I don't have children and wonder sometimes why I should be conscerned about our planet (and I am) when so many people with children and grandchildren aren't the least bit concerned. Do people in this country actually believe that global warming is just going to go away?

When Katrina hit, my husband and I were livng in Italy and watching on European TV the lines of SUV's leaving New Orleans. As we asked ourselves, and as so many in Europe asked, why would anyone need an SUV in New Orleans, or in most of the places in this country, other than some remote outback in Montana--sorry, I forgot, to get the kids to school on a snowy day--the excuse of a friend living in Westfield, New Jersey. Europeans buy small, gas efficient cars because they take their responsibilities to the planet (and others) seriously. Most Europeans try to conserve on energy rather than running every applicance at once, or having huge refrigerators and freezers, or running AC 24 x 7. Of course, it's inconvenient not to run the washing machine at the same time as the vacuum cleaner, but I promise it will be far more inconvienient when the next ice age arrives in your children's or grandchildren's time, or when some of our southern states no longer have enough clean drinking water, or any of the other environmental diseasters occur that are now in the offing because we won't stop misusing the planet's resources.

I would like to see Hillary get the nomination (for the sake of gender fairness) but I seriously doubt that any of the three candidates will change anything. And none of them tell the truth, Hillary included. If there's one thing Americans don't like, it's truth, and anyone who tells them the truth doesn't get elected, and if by some strange chance he (maybe she) does get elected, he'll be out the next go-around if he dares to suggest that we can't continue living as we have been, recklessly, or that we are not owed the good life just because we're Americans. Truth is not welcome anywhere in this country, whether the red or blue states. And I hate to admit it--but I will. Even if Hillary becomes the nominee and gets elected in November, her changes, like Obama's and McCain's, will be superficial. Americans don't want change; they just want to buy more things they can sell the following year in a garage sale. We are an extraordinarily wasteful nation, and when things go bad we look to blame someone else.

So now everyone can hate me! I told the truth.

Anonymous · May 2008

Anne, I take issue with what you said. We NEED to drill for oil. It's not a quick fix. However, I believe if other countries see us drilling they'll think twice about how much they're charging for oil. We can do all of it. Ethanol is not enough. It's causing problems. Wind and solar and nuclear plants isn't enough. We can puruse all options, including oil.

When my dd and her family travel here they drive an SUV. It's hardly big enough with two kids, a dog and things they have to bring. Or, they could leave the kids, dog and things at home. My dd has been driving a '92 Honda Civic..she bought it new. It's extremely small with two doors. Yes, we may be very spoiled in this country. But I don't see the rich Al Gore et doing with less. Don't ask me to do with less.

When I was growing up we didn't have air conditioning. Only the rich did. It wasn't pleasant, and we're not going to turn our air off now. We are too used to it, and would probably become physically ill without it.

There is much we can do to conserve..one thing..the new light bulbs. Recycling. Not flushing the toilet everytime it's used. Etc., etc., etc.

Don't talk about our SUVs. As badly as I feel for Ted Kennedy a strecth limo picked him up from the hospital to take him back to Cap Cod. Is that a good example?

We need to drill now. And I think many Americans (even some Green) are desparate for this to happen. I believe I heard China is drilling 75 miles off the Florida coast. WTH!

I'm darned angry with the dems. Is this a political ploy? Our country is suffering badly. Trucking companies are going out of business. American Airlines is now, or soon going to, charging $15 for your FIRST piece of luggage. And then the other airlines will follow suit.

Every part of our economy is being affected! I'm damned mad!

Shirley

Anonymous · May 2008

How can he even begin to think that his wife is off limits? Wasn't Hillary fair game when Bill was in the White House? Betty Ford? Nancy Reagan? What about Mrs McCain? Aren't the Dems calling for her to release her personal financial status? She is the heiress to the Anheuser-Busch fortune and they file separate returns. Yet, the Dems won't back down from Mrs. McCain. Why should anyone back off Mrs. Obama?

At least we know Mrs McCain is patriotic: her beer cans are red, white and blue!

spar2 · May 2008

I thought that was amusing when Obama said lay off my wife. No way, not when people and kids look up to the presidents wife as an icon. Also, I think more people are going green than known. I know we use the new light bulbs, we compost, we recycle, we also started raising our own vegatables, we save a lot of errands to pile up so we only drive to town once a week. I also think we need to drill for oil in the united states.

Anonymous · May 2008

In a way, he's right. Let's just point out his mistakes and gaffes!!! Highlighting and italics are mine!

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Barack Obama: Gaffe Machine

By Michelle Malkin

All it takes is one gaffe to taint a Republican for life. The political establishment never let Dan Quayle live down his fateful misspelling of "potatoe." The New York Times distorted and misreported the first President Bush's questions about new scanner technology at a grocers' convention to brand him permanently as out of touch.

But what about Barack Obama? The guy's a perpetual gaffe machine. Let us count the ways, large and small, that his tongue has betrayed him throughout the campaign:

-- Last May, he claimed that tornadoes in Kansas killed a whopping 10,000 people: "In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died -- an entire town destroyed." The actual death toll: 12.

-- Earlier this month in Oregon, he redrew the map of the United States: "Over the last 15 months, we've traveled to every corner of the United States. I've now been in 57 states? I think one left to go."

-- Last week, in front of a roaring Sioux Falls, S.D., audience, Obama exulted: "Thank you, Sioux City. ... I said it wrong. I've been in Iowa for too long. I'm sorry."

-- Explaining last week why he was trailing Hillary Clinton in Kentucky, Obama again botched basic geography: "Sen. Clinton, I think, is much better known, coming from a nearby state of Arkansas. So it's not surprising that she would have an advantage in some of those states in the middle." On what map is Arkansas closer to Kentucky than Illinois?

-- Obama has as much trouble with numbers as he has with maps. Last March, on the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march in Selma, Ala., he claimed his parents united as a direct result of the civil rights movement:

"There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Ala., because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born."

Obama was born in 1961. The Selma march took place in 1965. His spokesman, Bill Burton, later explained that Obama was "speaking metaphorically about the civil rights movement as a whole."

-- Earlier this month in Cape Girardeau, Mo., Obama showed off his knowledge of the war in Afghanistan by homing in on a lack of translators: "We only have a certain number of them, and if they are all in Iraq, then it's harder for us to use them in Afghanistan." The real reason it's "harder for us to use them" in Afghanistan: Iraqis speak Arabic or Kurdish. The Afghanis speak Pashto, Farsi or other non-Arabic languages.

-- Over the weekend in Oregon, Obama pleaded ignorance of the decades-old, multi-billion-dollar massive Hanford nuclear waste cleanup:

"Here's something that you will rarely hear from a politician, and that is that I'm not familiar with the Hanford, uuuuhh, site, so I don't know exactly what's going on there. (Applause.) Now, having said that, I promise you I'll learn about it by the time I leave here on the ride back to the airport."

I assume on that ride, a staffer reminded him that he's voted on at least one defense authorization bill that addressed the "costs, schedules, and technical issues" dealing with the nation's most contaminated nuclear waste site.

-- Last March, the Chicago Tribune reported this little-noticed nugget about a fake autobiographical detail in Obama's "Dreams from My Father":

"Then, there's the copy of Life magazine that Obama presents as his racial awakening at age 9. In it, he wrote, was an article and two accompanying photographs of an African-American man physically and mentally scarred by his efforts to lighten his skin. In fact, the Life article and the photographs don't exist, say the magazine's own historians."

-- And in perhaps the most seriously troubling set of gaffes of them all, Obama told a Portland crowd over the weekend that Iran doesn't "pose a serious threat to us" -- cluelessly arguing that "tiny countries" with small defense budgets can't do us harm -- and then promptly flip-flopped the next day, claiming, "I've made it clear for years that the threat from Iran is grave."

Barack Obama -- promoted by the Left and the media as an all-knowing, articulate, transcendent Messiah -- is a walking, talking gaffe machine. How many more passes does he get? How many more can we afford?

Anonymous · May 2008

Rocktobermom, I know this isn't supposed to be funny. Forgive me, but I had to laugh. I've heard some of this, but when put all together it's unbelievable.

What is it about this man that people are go nuts over? I can't stand his wife. And I hate when she says "we" as if she was running for prez with him.

I'll be so glad when this election is done and over with.

Shirley

Anonymous · May 2008

Shirley, and just why aren't these stupidities remarked on ... remember the overplay that Quayle got or Pres Ford for being a clutz?

junie · May 2008

AnneShirley--I don't hate you!! Your post was right on. Europe has long been ahead of the save the planet theme than the US. It has been years ago on a trip through Europe that I encountered hotels that asked that we help save energy by not requesting full towel service each day...I thought that was great! We hung up towels to dry out and re-use but I did want fresh wash clothes each day. It has only been in recent years that hotels in the US have adopted this policy.

We had a local recycling center that was great. We rinsed and bagged and sorted, and once a week made a trip and felt good that we were doing our part and helping......well, damn, other folks DIDN'T and kept putting all the wrong crap in the wrong bins--and, center had to close because they couldn't afford all the secondary resorting of trash for what truly was recyclable. So--sad, but now, all our trash goes to wherever the local landfill is. I hate that!

Small town living--wow! I'd like to live in a place with 20,000 population that Bill C would visit! Doubt he could find our little community of about 500 year-round. Nearest town is about a half hour drive and has maybe 4,000 population. But, we can go an hour drive in any direction and hit civilization!

We got rid of our SUV for lots of the reasons talked about here...but, know what--we NEED one where we live, so our next car will for sure be a gas-guzzling, 4-wheel drive mean machine...

We are shaped by our perspectives of past presidents by what was happening in our lives at the time...

...I was a teen when JFK was elected. He was the last president that I supported 100%--and I couldn't even vote...I've always wondered if he'd lived, would our US world be better off today?

...Carter...never had any heartburn with him--best thing he ever did was give the federal employees a decent cost of living raise just before he left office. Think it was 7% At the time it truly meant sinking or treading water for me. He was the only president who did not bash the federal employee...think last time I even cared to check, it would take like a 23% pay hike to bring federal pay levels up to parity with similar jobs in the private sector...doesn't matter, as a retiree, I could not cash in on that cow if that ever happened...

...Reagan...mercy! Personally, I couldn't get past a movie star running this country. More personally, my DH was one of the air traffic controllers who went on strike...Reagan was ready to reinstate them all, but Meese talked him out of it...BAD decision...

...Clinton...wasn't impressed with his antics, but sure did like the interest I was earning on my savings and money market account...

Guess I just don't much give a hoot anymore who's gong to get the nomination for the dems--may perk up some when a running mate is announced...

thanks for letting me spout off!!!

junie · May 2008