Anytime one party…either Dem or Rep we end up with power hunger idiots.

We need to vote outside the mainstream parties but Americans are too afraid to do because they dont want the other side to get a foothold.

Therefore, we allow ourselves to be used and abuse by the two party system.

As far as your rant, left media is just as powerful as right. I see it everyday. It all depends on what you are looking for.

Censorship rules!

Libertarians, what do you think of this?

If you are for personal liberty and minimal government then perhaps you’ll agree with at least some of the following:

When one party to allowed to gain overwhelming power to the extent that the opposing party (or parties) cannot act as an effective check and balance, the only question is when, not if, tyranny will result. A couple of new forces have helped to solidify the power of the Republicans — linking arms with the Christian Reich (I’m sure you must feel great about having your hard-earned tax dollars given to faith-based organizations, with minimal oversight) and consolidation of our nation’s media, ensuring that the mainstream news media essentially speaks with one voice and serves as the megaphone for the “conservatives” who maintain their stranglehold on power.

The swing to the right, I would submit, began when Ronald Reagan took office in January, 1981. In many respects, Bill Clinton did not represent a significant departure from Reagan or Bush I. He supported NAFTA. Sanctions and bombing of Iraq continued under his watch. It has been estimated that nearly 500,000 children perished of the Iraq because of the sanctions alone.

Our nation’s history is replete with many shameful actions, and it is difficult to identify any extended period of time when our country did not have blood on its hands. The proverbial pendulum has typically swung in one direction or another, but until recently, the self-correcting mechanisms included in the Constitution by our far-sighted Founding Fathers has eventually prevented these swings from continuing irreversibly in one direction or another. I’m not sure if that is the case this time.

To be continued…

You are right! I read that before. Exactly of tax wasted. Dem or Rep. I dont care…it is WRONG!

Right wingers are still not against human rights? How about Vietnam? Left wing war. Invasion into Cuba…left wing plan. Abortion…left winger that came about do to Nazi Germany.

This can go on and on both ways. Hell, the representatives in La. are all left wingers yet all the money they received to keep up the levees and distribute to the poor in La. were wasted on God only knows what. Probably to line their pockets in some kickback scheme. One of them is up on federeal charges now for deals with some African business.

They found thousands of dollar in his freezer. He even had a special convoy go to his house during or just after the Hurricane for some special reason. Those resources could have been used to help people he did not help before Katrina.

The blame goes both ways. Who knows more about what is going on in the neighborhood but locals? Why blame and rely ALWAYS on the federal gov’t whether Dem in office or Rep.?

Like I said before, it is not a left wing, right wing thing. It is giving blind power to power hunger politicians and voting blindly to a political party instead of the candidate…what has they done for me lately. What handout?

Come on curmudgeon! I will read your link when I get a chance.

I am not a right winger or left winger. I am an American who is tired of seeing America split apart by politics. There are Dems in my are I adore and Reps and Independents. On policy that helps America grow and does not infringe on rights.

I am for unlimited personal liberty and minimal gov’t.

Jamie makes sense!

Example 1: The person who cuts my hair is originally from Cuba. She came over on one of the lottery flights back in the day. She agreed with Moore that everybody has health care in Cuba. But she said the conditions of the hospitals are terrible and their technologies are far behind the U.S and Europe.

Example 2: Canada ….everybody thinks the health care system is so great there. Its not….Health care consultants from Canada will tell you that drugs may be cheap, but if you want to visit a doctor or have a surgery then you may have to wait for weeks to months. Thats why so many people are losing jobs, getting addicted to drugs and losing their houses because they have serious injuries they need fixed, but can’t work due to the pain. So they lose their jobs and source of income and eventually their house. So all the people saying our health care system in the US is so bad….what are they thinking. Their is no easy solution to the heath care issues in the US. Its not as easy as giving everybody universal health care.
Universal health care is not free in Europe. Its paid for by taxes….many taxes

But I do have a heart….I would like to see someway that everybody could have health care, but I don’t think the solution should involve the government. I would also like to see cheaper drugs.

The anwer may not be as simple as you suggest.

Even though the United States has a high rate of obesity, the United States ranked 42nd of 222 countries in the world in the study regarding longevity. You cite the high obesity rate in the U.S., but does the aforementioned data mean that for countries ranked #43 through #222 (180 countries), their obesity rates and lack of exercise is even worse than the United States? It would stand to reason that there are other factors that affect longevity besides diet and exercise. Access to quality health care might well be a significant factor, as mentioned in the Associated Press article.

Smoking, to the extent that it may adversely impact longevity, appears to be more prevalent in Europe than in the United States. The prevalence of smoking for men is 35% (U.S.) versus 46% (Europe), respectively and for women the prevalence is 22% (U.S.) versus 26% (Europe). The data regarding smoking was provided by the World Health Organization, 2000.

There is also the matter of several foreign countries having higher rates of obesity than the United States, but also greater longevity. Perhaps you can explain this disparity. Among the countries with higher obesity rates, but greater longevity: Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Greece, and Malta. Check out the following article on MSNBC for details regarding obesity rates: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7197750/

For info regarding longevity, you can find the relevant data at http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat2007_1mortality.pdf

Your comments?

Surely you jest when you make statements (Post #104) such as “How are right wingers against human rights? That is just ridiculous.” One of the newest stories on TP details funding (i.e., tax dollars) supposedly dedicated to help Hurricane Katrina victims being used to build luxury condominium projects far inland, where there was only minimal damage. If Repukes were truly in support of human rights, we wouldn’t have soldiers returning to Iraq for fourth terms of duty; voter disenfranchisement by using caging lists would be ancient, not recent history; this country would refuse to trade with countries that use slave labor and sweatshops forcing young children to work long hours in unsafe conditions; children born in our country would have at least an equal chance of seeing their first birthday as children in Cuba; and this country would not be sacrificing its national treasure and the precious lives of its young people to invade and occupy a country that posed no credible threat to this nation’s safety, brutalizing and killing many tens of thousands of its citizens, including children. And this is a very abbreviated list.

Most certainly, if Repukes are for human rights, I would hate to see what would occur if they were against them.

Perhaps you’d care to provide us with some sourced information regarding the humanitarian work that the Reich Wingers has conducted?

I will respond later to other parts of your Post #104, since TP won’t print some of my longer responses.

For a recent and truly eye-opening account of Republican waste, please check out the following article located on the website for the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank — http://www.cato.org/pubs/tbb/tbb-0508-24.pdf

Once you’ve read that article, you should be aiming both barrels at the Reich Wingers in Washington, D.C.

Then why is it that people in France, Germany and Italy smoke and drink a lot more than we do but live longer. And, what on earth makes you think lack of healthcare isn’t one of the reasons Americans are so stressed? Nobody in any other industrialized society on earth worries that a health problem will cause bankruptcy. Only our citizens have that fear.

And, so what if there’s a black market. That’s an issue for law enforcement. We’re talking about regulated markets here, the kinds in which corporations operate. Remember, Nike moved its manufacturing offshore to lower its labor costs and the cost of their goods has gone up, not down, so Nike’s overhead has little to do with the price of their product. If Nike has to pay a tariff on shoes made in China, it’s profit will decrease to a point where it’s an even tradeoff, so why not bring manufacturing home. Then, you get the added benefit that more people in your own American community can buy the shoes because they’re working. It’s the Henry Ford principle.

Yes, but if you increase the taxes on a corporation and they cannot raise prices because of the market then they fire people to keep the company afloat.

No, a corporation is an individual with some of the rights of an individual under our law currently. And, the corporation does NOT necessarily pass a tax on to its customers. Prices are set by the market.

Yes. The way we did it for the first 210 years of our country: tariffs. The idea was that assuming you can manufacture a pair of shoes here for $1.00 a piece, If you want to manufacture them in China for .10 ea, fine, but you’ll have to pay 90 cents a pair to bring them in.

Now, you’re going to say this increased cost automatically gets passed on to the consumer, but that’s not true. Prices are set by the market. What happens is that the corporation makes less profit. Again, if what you think is true, Nike shoes would have dramatically dropped in price when they off-shored manufacturing.

Next, it is still a communist country. Lets not forget that. They killed a man for making a mistake with a little less so than our own FDA would or has.

Why not work hard and give your money to those that don’t? Take all your money and put it in a huge bowl for those that need it to put their hands into and take.

Hey, open your house to those that need it too. I am sure you have a extra bedroom not being used.

Why not? Because you choose not too.

Also, curmudgeon. The EU is mentioned a few segments back.

We spend more because we eat unhealthy and live in a high tax bracket country!

And you are right about the Republicans. So right! They spent too much and too often. Hence, the dimes worth a differrence between each party.

Blindly following leaders …better watch your parking meters.

China has minimal respect for human rights or human life, which means that most Reich Wingers would feel right at home there. Some of its worst excesses are those of capitalism run amok. Why do you not include EU countries among your recommendations?

With regard to healthcare, why is it that the United States spends 15.4% of its gross domestic product on healthcare while all of the Scandinavian countries spend less than 10% of their GDP. Why are their governments outperforming our private sector megacorporations?

Since the Repukes took over control of the country, beginning in the January, 1981, haven’t they had plenty of time to apply their own unique brand of “fiscal discipline” to reigning in governmental waste?

Surely, they must have fixed the problem long ago. Why are you still complaining? Have the Repukes not done the job?