I don't consider myself one party or another. To be honest I don't understand the point of a party really. It is like gang members in suits sticking with thier crew and are scolded for sideing with the other side, really. If politician would get in office and do what is good for the mass instead of what's good for thier pockets this country wouldn't be in this shape. I'm hopeing that with the next elections people make better choices in thier votes.
I really disagree with you on your points Life. I remember when Republicans were referred to as the silent majority. Democrats were the ranters and ravers. Fox News has gotten a lot of criticism in this thread, but remember Fox got so popular because of what was perceived as the other major news network having become the Clinton News Network. My original question was why do people like Obama? Noone has presented anything other than what was said to me at a party weeks ago. He's smart and he's not Bush. Not much of bell ringer on that one. It really is kind of ironic that his supporters on here have been in Mexico, Canada, and Sweden. Come to think of it, there is nothing ironic in that at all. Those of us who have to pay for this debacle are the ones who oppose Obama. Rawkus, I'm not sure when you arrived on our health care debate, but the major problems with Obamacare are the costs, the loss of freedom of choice, and the fact that our system will be so overloaded that noone will get health care. Instead of looking at the problem systematically and saying that we need to increase our supply of doctors first, our Caliph of Costs decides to just overload the system with even more people while doing nothing to increase the supply of physicians. He was so intent on socailizing health care he never really looked at what the system needed. Add to that the fact that we need jobs not health care right now and his priorities are clearly skewed. Read back through Jamie's post and the stats in that post. We can not afford Obama and his grandiose schemes of making us into France West. This isn't a Republican or Democrat issue, but one of survival of the United States of America. We have so many sucking off the system and so little putting into the system it will collapse in the not too distant future. What's Obama's answer? Oh, let's put more people on the social take and take more incentive away from those paying the bills. Obama's actions have been so detrimental to this country one has to ask what his motives really are. We need jobs and work in this country and he goes on "The View" so that he can get more face time and nothing positive happens. He loves being on prime time TV, but he has no solutions to our problems. He just makes speeches and wrings his hands and we, the people, continue to suffer.
*Just to be clear I don't support Obama... I do dislike him less than I disliked Bush, but Obama still has a few years yet to further piss me off... *I've said before I think this is NOT the time for a hugely expensive healthcare reforms, although I do agree that something needs to be done, and it's probably (slightly) better than nothing... but the timing sucks.. its the sort of thing you tackle during surpluses or at lease a lower deficit. Clinton missed his chance on that one... although I recall the Republicans were equally against "HillaryCare" when that was being considered... *Also keep in mind just because some of us are not full time in the US it doesn't mean that issues there won't affect us and our families or that we "wont pay for it". (US citizens have to pay taxes regardless of where in the world they are...) As to your other point.. if I recall my history, the Republican and Democratic parties have swapped ideologies several times throughout their existence with the most recent finding Republicans to be considered more conservative and the Democrats more "liberal"... of' course I'm speaking about recent history when I sight my own observations relating to which party seems to be more vocal and depending what part of the US you find yourself in one party or another might seem more predominant. As for FoxNews I used to watch it all the time.. I had the logo burned into the bottom of my screen for the first several years it was on the air, and I really didn't ever see too much of a slant in their coverage... around 2002-2003 or so that changed dramatically, so much so that I felt like I was being indoctrinated for something so I found myself looking for other news sources... when 9/11 happened I watched it live with Shepperd Smith starting when the first tower was on fire and reports that a "small plane" had struck it.. and then the second hit live and Smith said "this must be deliberate folks".... this back when FoxNews had my respect... since then however they have gone full tilt to the right and seems to be 90% opinion and only 10% news (with their slant).. that and the "Fox News Alerts" bells ringing every 30 seconds ran me off... I also get offended when someone insults my intelligence by telling me they're "fair and balanced" every 10 seconds when that's clearly not the case... they may have been for a short time but they have lost all credibility for me now on any issue that could even remotely be political.... (which is pretty much everything) Where do I get my news now? mostly online between the BBC, China Daily (yes, China daily.. so long as it doesn't involve China they seem to shoot pretty straight), whatever's on the Google news page, and once in a blue moon CNN, Al Jazeera, and even FoxNews.. (if I can stand it) I've learned though that "the news" is wrong or distorted about 95% of the time so I take it all with a proverbial "grain of salt" and try to get multiple views if its something that interests me...
twinimini: Im not a supporter of Obama at all. But I can say that ANYTHING (even nutcase G W) would be better than the risk of having Palin become the new President... She scares me, literally... ("The less of two evils"?) I also wonder how come the elections seems to be limited to two sides...? Back home there are numerous parties that you can vote for, but I have never heard of anything else than "Republicans and Democrats" when it comes to US elections. Could someone enlighten me about this? PM would be fine as it doesnt really stay within the lines of this topic... Health Care: It shouldnt have to be expensive at all. Many countries have a great health care system, run by the government and funded with taxes. I have a feeling Obama is trying to reinvent the wheel... I think there will always be people that "continue to suffer", regardless whose the boss. When Republicans run the country, "the others" suffer - When Democrats run it, "the others" suffer... This was my entire point with "Divided States of America"... Its very fascinating, as a foreigner, to observe this phenomenon... How come the country doesnt unite? I think for many of us foreigners, we welcomed Obama, just because G W tumbled and fumbled around the world like a drunk elephant in a china-shop. I do however have a feeling that G W was only the puppet - no one so stupid should be able to be president and control one of the most powerful armies in the world... Madness, The "problem" with Obama is that we would have to give him 8 years until we can compared them on a more fair basis... Its not like he got the agenda served on a silver-platter after Bush`s rampage. I think the world drew a big sigh of relief when he won, mostly thanks to Bush`s "world politics", that were everything but smooth, the invasion of Iraq being the icing on the cake... @Life: You guys have to pay taxes even when you live outside the country?? Wow, I had no idea.
I found this article interesting... & Rawkus, its just a 2 party system in the US.. there are other parties but they don't have the financial or public backing to ever have a real chance at winning a national election. The "independent" ticket is often on the ballot but generally just takes votes away from the Democratic candidate, so they can affect the outcomes, but they don't have a serious chance of winning.
Rawkus, whenever a third party has risen it has ended up hurting one or the other of the candidates. That is exactly how Bill Clinton got elected. Ross Perot took millions of votes away from George H.W. Bush and that put Clinton in the White House. Other times in our history the same thing has happened going all the way back to Teddy Roosevelt and even before. A third party here is quite often the victim of extraordinary media bias. For example much of the media has branded the Tea Party as a bunch of racist nut cases which would be like branding all Democrats as communists and all Republicans as religious zealots. I'll give you a couple of fine examples of media distortion which fits right in with your avatar. The NY Times showed a picture of two drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and said in the article that in spite of the BP disaster drilling continues in the Gulf. The drilling rigs were drilling the relief wells to stop the flow from the blown well. Second example, the Times (gotta love a paper that seems to feel that they should only print news they can totally distort) says that the oil industry is so heavily subsidized that BP saves $225,000 a day in taxes by drilling in the Gulf. What they don't say in the article is that BP spends $1,000,000 a day drilling and that is the same tax deduction that any business would get for a business expense. Life's comment about taxes is correct. All US citizens are taxed on their worldwide income. They can exempt part of it as earned income when it is earned overseas. Your comments about Palin are interesting. What do you fear about her?
twinimini and Life: Thanks for the explanation regarding the two party system. had no idea and have always been curious, thanks twinimini: Palin scares me in many ways... Id hate to see a religious fanatic(regardless what type of religion...) be in control of one of the most powerful nations in the world... Her comments make me laugh, but also makes me feel very uncomfortable. Too many "swaying" opinions, yikes... She just seems confused. I think the Republicans(well, obviously) would have done better with "someone else"... That must be McCain's biggest mistake. When even other republicans and conservatives speak out against Palin, then that clearly rings a bell in most peoples heads. I have to thank you and others for answering in a decent way to my questions Tried a political forum, but as soon as people saw "Sweden" on my user info, I was called "commie", "traitor(!!)" etc. Quite entertaining, especially since Sweden is NOT a "communist country" and also getting slayed before I even wrote a singe post So thank you for answering in a decent manner, even though(I hope not) some questions can be very sensitive
Rawkus most of the people on this forum are pretty laid back and accepting. We may disagree about politics, religion, or even if the world is flat, but we all enjoy bbp.....that is booze, boobs, and partying. That always brings out the friendship in others no matter what their views on various subjects.
I agree twinimini I don't agree with alot of people's opinion on alot of things. I don't care what your politcal choices are as long as you are a good person and respect the fact that everyone has a right to opinion. I love a good open debate that stays civil.
