The war is being won. The push has worked.The main stream media doesn't report what the the soldiers have seen and what the man on the street in Iraq feels.

Bush had the same intelligence that the world had and believed that there were weapons of mass destruction. A lot of weapons were moved to Iran.

Yes it is a fact that Iraq at one point did possess weapons of mass distruction, actually supplied by USA and they did use them against the Kurdish population as well as against Iranians during the Iran-Iraq war. At that point though USA did not seem to mind too much, after all Iraq was the big ally during and after the Iran war... However it is a well documented fact that the Bush administration did indeed mislead the American public about the existence of those weapons before invading Iraq. The real reason for the invasion is that Saddam Hussein had turned from ally to liability and that threatened access to Iraqi oil. So the invasion happened and the regime of Saddam Hussein was removed. Maybe my brain works in mysterious ways, but this actually got me thinking. Whom exactly are in war with at this point ? The Iraqi government, the Iraqi people, who ? What is it exactly that we are "winning" in this "war". I firmly believe that the best action is to withdraw the troops sooner rather than later. The ridiculous amounts of money spent on this "war" could be spent in US and let the Iraqis get on with governing their own country. And I still insist the UN inspectors should have had the chance to finish their job before invading. The existence of the weapons of mass distruction could have been established then. And by the way, there are plenty of other countries around the world in possession of weapons of mass distructions. Should US then go ahead and invace all of them...

 

As far as the economy, during Bush's tenure we had the lowest unemployment numbers in the history of this country, look it up.

this is strictly speaking not entirely true. I actually did look it up and actually the unemployment rose during Nixon's presidency and those figures remained fairly high during the 80s. The unemployment figures started falling during the 2nd term of Clinton's presidency and have remained more or less on the same level during Bush's presidency. However 2008 is not over yet and reports of rising unemployment during 2008 has to be taken in to calculation.

 

The curren economic situation is NOT attributable to Bush. The relaxation of who got loans for houses was mandated by congress under CLINTON'S watch. If the rules were followed, 25% of your gross per month is the maximum mortgage payment you can have, 35 to 40% of your gross per month for all other bills, if that was followed the banking industry wouldn't be in the shape it is in.

The fact is that the American economy was in a better shape than ever during the Clinton years. Although Clinton actually can't take all of the credit for that, a lot of the credit belongs to the congress as well.

 

The tax cuts and continuation of the Bush tax cuts would have been a good thing. Did you guys realize that McCain wanted to increase the standard deduction on your taxes to $7000 per dependent? When I file my taxes I claim 7 dependents, (large family), and $49,000 right off the top looks a lot better to me than half of that. Doesn't that sound better to you too?

This again is something that would basically only have benefited the rich. Most people just don't make that kind of money. Promising $7000 tax cut per dependent to someone who makes 20 grand a year is just not happening... So all of the taxcuts in McCain campaing were directed to the big corporations and the wealthy. The middle class wouldn't have benefited anything at all and that is one of the reasons for why the package Obama was offering was so much more appealing to many more people.

 

The energy policies of both candidates were very similar except I think for off shore drilling. I will have to go back and look at that again.

initially McCain was really truly only talking about oil and nuclear power. Only towards the end did he include alternative energy, probably because he too was listening to Obama and realized what he was saying actually made sense. And Obama said it very well. With the levels of oil consumption in US today, you can never be self sufficient when it comes to oil. All domestic oil reserves combined will not meet demand, so the only prudent thing is to invest in alternative energy to lower the levels of oil consumption. Oh and I really loved what he had to say about the auto industy.

 

I firmly believe that more government is the worst thing possible. When you open things up to competition you get the best product at the best price.

On the contrary - government control is essential. If the market is not regulated, you do not get the best product for best price. Make no mistake about it, the only interest for big business is maximising profits. When not regulated and controlled, businesses get together and form price cartels to keep prices up. Workers rights are ignored as well as issues of safety of products (including food) and waste management. We have plenty of proof of all of this happening and without government control, we as consumers would be totally unprotected.

 

I also do not believe it is the government's job to ensure that everybody has a roof over their heads, nor is it declared in the constitution, bill of rights, declaration of independence that you have to have health care

This is where you and I have a fundamental difference... Just because it's not written in the constitution, you then don't care if people have no other choice but to sleep on the streets... or healthcare. You know when the constitution was written, it was a very different world than the one we live in now. I would like to believe that we've come a bit further than that. Not everybody gets into trouble through a fault of their own and as I said before, if you get benefits, why not request community service in return.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry to hear your wife is ill Bob. Wishing her speedy recovery.
 
About those chemical weapons - I did read up on that and you are right. They did produce them themselves. My apologies for the misinformation. And I know what Hussein did. I do agree he was of the worst kind. However US did support him initially and then did a 180 degree turn on that. I am not blaming this on any particular president or government, this was long term thing. When you look at it like that though... Shouldn't you then consider invading countries like eg Zimbabwe... Mugabe isn't any better, (I don't see that happening though - no oil in Zimbabwe, although I did see a report from last year of a discovery)... So I do believe that what Hussein did to his people in Iraq was not the real reason for the invasion.
 
On the tax cuts... (hypothetically as I actually don't live in US - but as a general discussion). I earn about $30,000  a year. I have 3 dependants. $7000 tax cut from what?  I don't even pay that much tax on an income of 30 grand anyway.  Would they then exempt me from paying any tax... So if you are in an income  bracket where you can deduct $7000 per dependant, great, I'm not getting a check on the difference, so I wouldn't really benefit that much from it. The tax rules here in Cyprus work a bit differently than in US. Actually here in Cyprus, if you make less than $25,000, you don't pay any tax, which is something I agree on totally. (maybe a point for next presidential elections ) So in reality I earn just a bit too much to be exempted from tax and just a bit too much to be entitled to "free" healthcare. On my income I pay roughly 10% in tax, pension funds etc (which are obligatory for everyone. Pension funds etc you have to pay even if you earn less than 25,000).
 
So here's my take on the health care issue on personal level. I have a medical insurance through my job and my kids are now covered by their dad's medical at his job. However my oldest is gonna be 18 in another year and half and can no longer be included in a parent's medical. On an income of 30 grand I can not afford private health insurance for him. That's just too expensive. But as it goes, he is also a Finnish citizen and planning to study in Finland and there he is entitled to free health care, so pheeewwwwwww...  So on a personal level, I do worry about these issues and I work very hard to provide for myself and my family. Often up 14-15 hours a day. If I can not afford to provide health and dental care to my children, damn right I'm expecting the government to step in to make sure I can. I don't only pay taxes, but I am a productive member of my community and that is the way I am raising my 3 kids to be as well. But I guess we can agree on one thing though... On the issue of health care I guess we will never agree on...so I guess we can leave that behind.
 
And I don't agree entirely with the statement that taxing one's income takes away the incentive to better oneself. It is true that there are people who abuse the welfare system, but on a whole people are honest and hardworking and try to better themselves even when they pay tax, people like ourselves... And to be honest. If you make over  $100,000, with a tax rate of roughly 30%, you are still left with more than twice as much than what I make before tax. As Wicker said, I don't feel much pain ... lol  And on the subject of taxes, we actually don't pay taxes only on our income. There are a lot of "hidden" taxes that we don't even think about,such as VAT.
 
What needs to be done, which is what Obama said he would do, is to check every government agency and government program and eliminate those than don't work and work with those that do work. Curbing government spending is one of the big issues here. There is not enough money coming in to cover all the expenses of the government and it's agencies, therefore there is a need to collect taxes etc. Because agencies like FBI, CIA, NASA etc are all paid from the taxpayers' pocket. So there is a need for the government to have an income and with your taxes you also pay for your protection from terrorists among other things, not just healthcare. How exactly would the government pay for all of these things if taxes were abolished altogether. True, we all complain about those taxes, but we do get something in return.
 
Oh and by the way, Bob - are you naked yet ?

 

 

 

 

The first thing I would cut would be the huge "retirement"salary each president gets when his term is over...plus the ongoing expense of guards when the ex's appear in public. Also to cut wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy back on the so~called "golden parachutes" the CEO's etc get even when the company is going under.

If we as individuals were to utilize the same money management system our Federal gov. does we'd all be in Chapter 13 Bankruptcy court. Something has to give somewhere..