There is no popcorn needed here. I see no drama, just a bunch of people ranting about the outcome of an election
I am just glad to see Bush on the way out. Way to be classy, McCain (seriously). The voter turnout makes me very excited about young people's interest in their country.
Population density. Urban areas tend to favor Democrats, as life has a liberal bias (HEYO). Her (Bachmann) district is historically Republican/Conservative.
I wonder if Michelle Bachman will call my house (again for the 23rweroifc;a3r98u332rd time) tomorrow.
Bachmann is a nutbag. It's sad that Minnesotans' are about to elect her again. Our collective intelligence and view around the country decreases every time she opens her mouth, or writes legislation on light bulbs.
I doubt any of these guys have actual concrete plans, they worry about getting elected, then they worry about trying to live up to all the BS they promised during the campaign.
Although I'm happy the political ads are over, I must say that the Coleman/Franken ads got so vicious that they became entertaining. Everything got twisted so much that it got ridiculous. I was waiting for a new ad to say "Al Franken, he likes punching babies in the face."
I agree with Obama on social issues but he scares the hell out of me from a fiscal standpoint. The whole tax the rich and give to the poor works for a while until the rich people start to take it personally and start laying people off becuase it improves their bottom line(see Germany). I hope he pulls the troops asap cuz our economy needs all the help it can get. Hopefully he'll come up with something better than their plan and prove me wrong. Oh yes and no more political ads and junk mail ftmfw. I had no line I voted in less than 15 minutes at Buck Hill.
Sounds like everyone (during an interview) with their resume in hand, trying to get a job. Not just politicians.
If that was referring to me, my comment was civil. I truly hope Obama does a good job because this country needs it. Just becuase I voted for someone else doesn't mean I will dismiss him before he even starts.
i read an interesting article comparing the new "civil service" programs obama wants to implement to the hitler youth. sounds shocking at first, but give 'em an armband and it comes pretty close. forced service for the government for all high school and college students? not a fan. add insult to injury that our tax dollars will be paying for it. we were stuck with this regardless of who won because mccain supported it to an extent too but i'm still hoping this never gets off the ground... -alexis, who is sick of taxes and govt meddling in general and voted libertarian :biggrin: *stolen from volokh.com* Obama's New "Corps" And Other Service Programs. Senator Barack Obama is proposing to remake American society in a way that the American public does not yet understand. In his July 2, 2008, speech calling Americans to national service, Obama departed from his prepared remarks to announce his support for a mysteriously named “civilian national security forceâ€: We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded. Many commentators were stumped. What is this “civilian national security force†that must be as well funded as the military? Is it merely our existing civilian national security force, the militia, or perhaps the FBI and the CIA? Or was Obama referring to some thuggish new paramilitary street organization? The answer to this mystery is not hidden. It is prominently displayed in Obama’s speeches and in the position papers on his website. Obama is referring, neither to the militia nor to a reincarnation of the Brownshirts, but rather to his unprecedented plans for universal community service for young people and for hugely increased funding for a myriad of voluntary service programs for the rest of us. Earlier posts dealt with mandatory service for middle and high school students, voluntary service for college students, and college “Serve-Study†laid out in Obama’s speeches and his “Plan for Universal Voluntary Citizen Service.†This post covers his other service programs. A. Green Job Corps, YouthBuild Program Although Obama’s education proposals would effectively reach over 90% of the 47 million middle, high, and college students in the country (perhaps leaving out only private secondary school children), what about the 2 million young people who are out of school and unemployed or in prison? To reach young prisoners and the young unemployed, Obama will add a new Green Job Corps, “an energy-focused youth jobs program,†and expand by six-fold the YouthBuild Program, which teaches housing construction to low-income youth. B. AmeriCorps VISTA, Experience Corps, Senior Corps What about the middle-aged and older Americans not covered by these programs for the young? Obama plans to enlist retirees in his civilian national security force “on a large scale†and to expand service programs for baby-boomers and the elderly: AmeriCorps VISTA, the Experience Corps, and other Senior Corps programs. C. Classroom Corps, Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, Veterans Corps, Homeland Security Corps, Peace Corps, Global Energy Corps Among other “transformative†community service proposals, Obama will more than triple the number of full-time AmeriCorps members to 250,000 and distribute these new members among five new “Corpsâ€: 1. a Classroom Corps for teachers and students; 2. a Health Corps to improve public health; 3. a Clean Energy Corps to conduct weatherization and renewable energy projects; 4. a Veterans Corps to assist veterans at institutions; and 5. a Homeland Security Corps to deal with emergencies. Not only will “Barack Obama . . . double the Peace Corps to 16,000 by its 50th anniversary in 2011 and push Congress to fully fund this expansion,†but he will create a "Global Energy Corps to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions overseas and promote low-carbon and affordable energy solutions in developing nations.†Barack Obama is proposing so many new “Corps†that he runs out of distinctive names for them. Note that his new Global Energy Corps is not to be confused with his new Clean Energy Corps and his new Green Job Corps. D. Social Investment Fund Network, Social Entrepreneurship Agency for Nonprofits, Corporation for National and Community Service But Obama is far from finished: Barack Obama will create a Social Investment Fund Network, . . . a government-supported nonprofit corporation, similar to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, that will use federal seed money to leverage private sector funding to improve local innovation, test the impact of new ideas and expand successful programs to scale. He promises us that this new corporation will not be just a single entity, but it will involve “a network of funds.†That’s not all; he’s going to create a “Social Entrepreneurship Agency for Nonprofitsâ€: Barack Obama will a create an agency within the Corporation for National and Community Service dedicated to building the capacity and effectiveness of the nonprofit sector. Note the tone of these proposals: none of this false modesty about proposing these new agencies and Corps to Congress and working for their passage. His Plan simply declares: “Barack Obama will create†this; “Barack Obama will create†that. *** All these programs are just the ones listed on the service pages of his campaign website. This list doesn’t include his most expensive program: health care. All these add up to the biggest expansion of the US government since FDR. If Obama gets most of what he wants, he will make libertarians look more fondly on the relatively modest proposals of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.
Wonderful, this is just what we need to implement. Let me be the first to say that I'll be willing to pay for this. Actually, no. It saddens me that I'll have to fund this half baked abortion. There is so much fail in those proposals that it's not even funny. Teaching housing construction in the current economy? A "Homeland Security Corps" for emergencies? I thought that was what current EMS/PD/FD was for, with the Nat Guard and FEMA to step in if needed. Last thing I want to deal with on an MCI is a bunch of bumbling charliefoxes getting in my way. The next four years can't be over with too soon if this is what we're going to be looking at. The fun part is that with the economy in a recession we're going to get to have tax hikes to pay for this crap, because we all know that's how you snap the economy out of a funk. :roll:
Hmmmm, I can think of a way to free up some tax dollars. It may even save the lives of some brave young men and women...
no now we will have less means to live within - i do fine on this front but i fear for people like the woman i heard on the radio "i won't have to worry about putting gas in my car or paying my mortgage"
Not to mention the increased taxes are going to be put into expanding the government, not going towards the debt.
just at least remember that those men and women chose to be there and knew the risk, they wanted to risk their lives doing whatever the Command in Chief wanted them to do i agree we spend a lot of money doing it though
i would like to take a second to laugh at this comment... alright, golden. you DO realize McCain planned to raise taxes to the peak of the payment threshold (its an economic bell curve) and then use government spending to draw the economy out of a recession... right? Being the good sheep you are, you should have known this :laugh: from an economic standpoint, there are two sides to this... 1. raise taxes to the entire public and force government spending (McCain) 2. raise specific taxes and redistribute money to the middle classes and let them spend (Obama) now, with that said, McCain's plan would've resulted in a faster pull out of the recession, but it would be a short term result. Obama, is more or less a remake of Clinton's plans where you will put the power to pull out of the recession in the people's hands. the second, is slower, but has a far more lasting effect (unless you get another bush in office). Unfortunately, i have done nothing about talk about this crap for the past few months every Wednesday at 6pm. If you want to keep talking about this stuff, be my guest, but i urge you to actually read more and understand more about it. Both systems will work, but they will yield different results and take different paths.
First, have you read Obama's remarks on this plan or any documentation released by his campaign? The text you copied looks to come from a blog post on a libertarian website. Of course they want to oppose any more government programs. Read his actual text here. He is proposing a voluntary community service program that would be in exchange for $4k payment for college students. He has also proposed increasing AmeriCorp and the Peace Corps dramatically. Not only do these volunteer programs benefit American communities, they build an attitude of inclusion and develop a bond of respect between the volunteers and those whom they are helping. Again, let me reiterate, these are all voluntary programs, with limited pay and stipends. This is directed at Shorten and Alexis, do either of you have experience with the Peace Corps and/or AmeriCorps? From what I have seen (my brother joined the Peace Corps this past summer), both programs are quite well run, but offer very little pay. They are certainly both programs that offer great life experiences, but not something that those looking for an easy job volunteer for. My brother is stationed in an area of Camaroon that does not even have electricity, teaching health care to the local population. It's simply not a job for "lazy Americans."
I think both of these ideas suck. You think McCains plan won't work in the long-run but Obama's is just as bad. As I mentioned earlier see Germany. Do you honestly think the rich people will tolerate having the crap taxed out of them? They will start laying people off and raising prices to improve their bottom line. Couple this with inflation you are going to have some huge problems. If we keep bailing out companies we will see some extremely nasty inflation once the value of our dollar is driven straight into the ground. This has been tried before and does NOT work. We need to have the government stop tampering with things and have a truly free market or we will never get out of this recession. My outlook is pretty negative but I see no reason to be optimistic about any of these dimwits we put in Washington. That being said Obama hasn't screwed anything up yet so we'll wait and see. We are simply talking policy here.
I don't know about Alexis, but I've got plenty of experience working with AmeriCorps volunteers. I was active with the Northfield Union of Youth growing up, and AmeriCorps was very involved with that. I support the program, and have nothing against it at all. I read the proposal on Obamas page, and I don't think that Alexis's article was that far off. Once again, I have no problem with AmeriCorps. My problem is with the fact that he's enlarging and interjecting a government organization into more and more aspects of daily life and turning it from a volunteer organization to mandatory service. Not to mention the money needed to organize, train and support these people properly coming out of our pockets. That's one of my biggest issues with Obama. He wants to expand and enlarge things and we foot the bill.
Better to expand and enlarge our military organizations than our charitable organizations? Somehow I doubt he'll spend hundreds of billions of dollars expanding Americorps.
If we were sending AmeriCorps to fight overseas then I bet we'd be spending that kind of money on them too. Different jobs, different needs.
Of course. I personally would rather see our government use my money for something like AmeriCorps than wars. I don't want that to turn into any kind of debate about our current war on terror. My concern is over the financial position deficit spending hundreds of billions of dollars has put us in. Seems government is always taking our money and spending on one thing or another. I just think we'll be a lot better off if it's little bits of money on helpful things than enormous, gigantic, mind-boggling amounts of money on something I don't think is as helpful. But again, I really don't want to start a debate on the "good-ness" or necessity of the war.
In a perfect world, we wouldn't need the military and we could put that money into other programs. However, thanks to human nature I don't see that happening anytime soon, so I'd rather we be carrying the biggest stick on the block and making sure our troops are the best equipped and best supported in the world. The spending on the military is equaled if not exceeded by plenty of other useless programs, but everyone gets fixated on military spending, even if it's a fraction of our actual outlay.
Military is a pretty stinking big chunk - I don't think there's any denying that. I'm also for us carrying a big stick. I'd just rather not spend so damned much to swing it. I'm ALL for R&D for weapons tech and training and keeping us safe. The programs that REALLY p*** me off, though, are the corporate hand-outs. Like the govt. giving Nabisco $$ to start ad programs in under-privileged countries. Wtf? Seriously. That money could be better spent helping people. That said, though. I also am not a fan of making our money easily available to people being lazy. I don't think that's the intention of Democrat's though, even though it sometimes ends up that way.
hes got his cake, now i need to see him eat it too. this dude better step up because if he doesnt there will be alot of anarchists after him within the next 4 years. i didnt the barakobama page because slow slow slow dsl at work here but i can guess that the words written on that page are very bias and speak nothing more than the words that have been imbedded within our brains with absolutely no meaning "hope" and "change" im tired of him talking. i need to see a well thought out mature action plan to foreshadow his idea of "he will take america to the top!!" mumbo jumbo BS get your ish organized Obama because for now you are our leader. until then although i did not vote for him i will no longer bash.
But the language in Obama's proposal is voluntary. Where are you finding the language indicating that it will be mandatory? We can certainly argue about the use of funds, as that is a very typical disagreement between Democrats and Republicans. However, I believe it's been hashed out so many times that I can't really say much of anything useful here, other then that I believe the amount of money going into this type of program would benefit America greatly and be worth every penny. This is true. The problem is that there will always be people that try to game the system. White, black, rich, or poor, people will always try to cheat the system. A premium should be put on making sure the system (whatever it is) works and doesn't just throw money away. This is not a Democrat or Republican problem, this is a large government problem.
