You can vote all you want it doesn't do any good,Their all for the rich and we can do nothing about it,All members of senate and the house should only have 8 years and then out.Sarah and O'Donnell might not be smart,I think they are,I think we need to get rid of the smart people that got in there because of their money. They sure keep us in a mess.

Serowbot wrote on 10/21/10 at 10:09:47:



You know, it's remarks like this that really irritate me. Well here is my take on it.

The president is no more than a figurehead with no real power. It has been that way for decades now. If you don't believe me, just look at the circumstances.

Every time the president tries to do something that he had promised to do during his campaign the people in congress veto it or change it so much that it no longer even resembles what he had tried to do in the first place. Once again he has no real power. If he were actually allowed to do the things he promised to do during his campaign you would see that this country would be a lot better off already.

So quit blaming the president for the mistakes made and place the blame where it really belongs, the money hungry, egotistical, self important morons in congress who won't let the president to the job he was elected to do.

Yonuh -

Fortunately, to me, we have a representative republic, not a single person dictatorship.

I think what you are favoring, without saying it, is the parliamentary system of gov't, such as in most European countries, notably the U.K.  There, the chief executive, the Prime Minister, is chosen by Parliament, typically a leader of the majority party in Parliament.

Hence, you have the executive branch and the legislative branch of the gov't on the same page, with the same agenda, as both are guaranteed to be from the same political party.  There are some exceptions, such as a coalition gov't, but not often.

We have the opposite, on purpose, called checks and balances.  Each of our 3, co-equal branches of gov't serves as a check and balance on the other two.

Parliamentary systems generally work OK, but lend themselves to wilder and wider swings in policy.  Look at the U.K.  After WW II, when the Liberals came to power, they nationalized the railroads and the coal industry, for two.

Years later, the Conservatives came to power, and privatized those two industries back to what they were before they were nationalized.

Regardless of whether you favor either situation, you have to agree that such wild and wide swings in national policy aren't good, and they produce more economic instability than anything else.  Look at the economic mess that Britain has been in for the last 40 years.  The greatest sea power in the world at one time now can't even afford a single, real aircraft carrier.  They have a couple of small ships that carry Sea Harriers, the jumjp jet fighters, but that's all they can put to sea.

Remember, the Nazi party came to power in a free election in Germany, and the politicical head of the party, one Adolf Hitler, then became the chief executive, called the Chancellor in Germany; same as the Prime Minister in England.  With no checks and balances on the total power of the gov't now lodged in one party, we all know what the outcome of that was.

For me, I'll take a little gridlock in Washington once in a while to preserve our system of checks and balances.

Rotella is better than tea anyday

an Armenian friend of mine made me a cup of Turkish coffee.
yep, good stuff.  you should be able to find it where ever you are.

I don't like these threads because so many of you are full of sh!t politically yet I like you motorcycally. Eat sh!t, die, get on a bike and ride

Lupo wrote on 10/21/10 at 23:30:34:


..motorcycally.. ha ha.. best comment yet.


If anyone cares to read my sad little story, here it is. I don't expect to change anyone's mind on politics. But I do think this is a good example of how people naturally adapt to the system.  I would not say government ruined my career, but it has definitely been a powerful force for mediocrity in my life.

Like most kids, that whole success thing, the America-carrot was dangled in front of my face. America is a free country, you can work hard, make a lot of money, live your dreams.. all that bullshit kids are told so they become hopeful and productive citizens. I was very excited at the prospect of being successful, and began working as soon as I could.  From about age 8 I mowed lawns and did other yardwork for the neighbors to make money, and man did it work! I was very happy to be able to buy a minibike when I was 9 or 10 years old. Incidentally, that is probably a reason I like motorbikes to this day; to me they represent efficacy.  

All throughout high school and college I kept a pretty good work ethic.. sacking groceries, cooking hamburgers, dishwashing, waiting tables, tending bar, landscaping, cashiering, office data entry, working a production line, farm work.. about 10 jobs in as many years.  Of course with these low paying jobs, taxes were trivial and I accepted them as reasonable. Just a cost of stability in society.  I never saw government as an impediment to my success.

After 7 years of wasting college credits and studying hard, my stupid ass finally graduated with an engineering degree, and I landed a job with a concrete construction firm.  At that point I was ready to go!  I had my education, a good work ethic, and a means of translating those qualities into success.  I knew the job would be difficult.. 60+ hours a week, harsh conditions, dangerous.. screw it, I was ready to make some money.

Then looking at my paychecks I knew what was up. Social security, Medicare, Federal income tax, state income tax.  The way the tax rates ramp up as you begin to make good money.. Christ!! Those motherf*ckers took half my money before I even saw it. Add to that property tax, sales tax, and all the other little nickel-and-dime taxes we pay.. the true tax bill was over 60%.  

Well, I'm not working to enrich the government by more than I enrich myself. I imagined, perhaps irrationally, all my tax money going to a single do-nothing bureaucrat who sat at a desk making more money than me, while I froze my butt off in the snow behind a surveying instrument. I know that the tax money was actually spread out over several bureaucrats, none of whom was really getting RICH off me, but still.  The injustice was too much for me to stand for very long.

"But John! You're getting all these serrrviceeees!"  Services. Yeah, about the time I was getting financially mugged, I could have USED some of those fantastic services, after some kids trashed all of my belongings and were caught.  In my experience, those in government are not the slightest bit interested in providing good service or justice.

So after a couple years of that construction job, I quit it and took a government job.  The pay isn't nearly as good, but the after-tax pay is far better for the amount of effort I expend.  Sometimes I decide to work hard enough so that my effort is roughly worth the amount of money I receive.  Other times I sit around and type messages on a forum about how my ambition was destroyed. I don't like it. It is a waste of life.  I may fight it again.  

Someday I may decide I have "gotten even" with the system (for life) and go back into the private sector.  But I will NEVER go back to the level of productivity I had at that first real job.  If I had been allowed to keep say, 75% of that salary, I'd have kept the job.  At age 40 I would now have the means to switch to something I really enjoy.  Maybe I'll get to that point in another 20 years.

Actually, Im starting to thnk that if a man isnt close enuff to look in the eye, theres no point in even TRYING to get them to see whats happening.

We Are SOO screwed & people still want to argue that thie guy is the answer. crap.. we are in for some seriously bad times. Greece is coming to our back yard.