Delta*RandyShugart*

So are you saying that only the poor should be allowed to run for political office? and by poor, i mean those who were born into below poverty levels?
Because you have basically alienated every other income class and threw in your 2 cents about those who served in the military or who's parents did, or grandparents and great grandparents for that matter.....

And I guess in your eyes McCain doesn't deserve the right to run because he served his country, stayed on course during a bombing run which he knew would end up in him getting shot down, was a POW in the Hanoi Hilton for nearly 5 and a half years and spent a year or more in solitary confinement after he was offered to be freed, but rejected the idea because it didn't include the other US POW's.

But its OK for a loud mouthed woman who is still riding on the scandal ridden coat tails of her former president husband to run, and only hindering the Democratic party by staying in a race that she has no chance of winning (she's the ralph nader of the dem. party) and its OK for Obama because he's black and you automatically think that he grew up in a poverty stricken environment.

Or thats at least how I interpreted your statement.

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leejo

Is this a bad time to mention that my parents just closed on a $2M house in Sea Pines, Hilton Head that sits behind Harbor Town Links' 7th green and also overlooks the 8th t-box and 3rd fairway? Since they don't plan to move there for several years, yours truly will be cold chilling there frequently. Whee!!!

Now I'm off to get some pec implants and to get bronzed.

Razcsak

First, is the a loud-mouthed woman, or is she a woman who happens to have a loud mouth? Just being very nitpicky with semantics.

Second, if this was the Presidential race, I would entirely agree that she should drop out. However, registrations for the Democratic party are up pretty much across the United States. A close, exciting race both prepares the candidates for the Presidential race and lets some of the **** that would normally be thrown around then get aired and passed over now. I don't see how competing in the primaries is hurting the party, though I do agree that her chances of winning are slim.

Well, I suppose that explains why higher taxes for the rich aren't to your taste...

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Delta*RandyShugart*

She would have a better chance of being shot by a sniper than winning the primary...

Did you listen to her speech after winning the W.Va Primary? I ended up putting the TV on mute, and the switching because the way she talked (i swear she was trying to mimic a W.Va drawl and what she talked about has been said so many times by her, and made no sense...she could only help her party by dropping out, and then going into hiding or just endorse Obama and get those who would vote for her to vote for him....

Thats me just thinking logically, but then again what do i know (i was going to put in something about how i have no college loans to pay back or my parents taxes where they live and where they plan to retire are way to high due to the public school tax which should be analyzed every year instead of just proposing budgets that are over inflated, but i don't want this topic to just be about $$$, because then it wouldn't be politics right?)

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AMosely

Not at all, because in today's America that isn't even really considered rich (absolutely no offense to you or your parents, of course).

If you want to see rich, look at Mrs. McCain's tax returns, if you can!

Delta*RandyShugart*

I'd like to see Oprah's tax returns....remember she endorsed Obama....

McCain's wife Cindy is the Daughter of James Hensley who is the founder of Hensley & Co., one of the largest Anheuser-Busch distributors in the nation. So, yes she does have money, however she is an active philanthropist and serves on the boards of several charitable organizations. To provide emergency care to disaster-struck or war-torn third-world areas, she founded and ran the American Voluntary Medical Team from 1988 to 1995, which organized trips for medical personnel.

*excerpts taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_McCain

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Rob

THe fact that Democrat primaries numbers have been up doesn't necessarily mean that there are more democrats than before the primaries. Many registered Democrats will swithch back to Republican after Hillary gets the nomination ( just kidding lol). But seriously, many will switch back to Republican, and many may not vote if there candidate does not get nominated to the General Elections.

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BF2142:|TG-Irr|Robb_the2nd
Cod 4:|TG|Rob

Hambergler

If you say this over and over again it will start sounding like reality.

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leejo

How so?

Kerostasis

Nice elitism Raz. Last year my tax return was in the 10% bracket, and higher taxes for the rich aren't to my taste either.

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leejo

None taken.


My thoughts on tax policy are much more informed by times when I've been flat broke than by my father's success. FWIW, my mother's father was a farmer, hardly rich. My father's father attended 1 year of college before dropping out to join the Army to support his wife and young son. He wound up becoming a 1st sgt in the airborne infantry and I learned that remnants of his regiment were destroyed one day when the town they were holding during the bulge got rolled up on by a bunch of panzers.

He wound up running, then owning, a farm implement store in Laurinburg, NC. Again, no fast track to wealth there. However he saved well and invested extremely well and died wealthy, but still living in the tiny house where my father and his brother grew up.

My father is rich by any standard other than the astronomical levels set by a very few. However, I have never enjoyed many benefits of his wealth, since I was out of the house LONG before he started making good money. I was the kid with the freezer in my bedroom in the dinky apartment where we lived during law school. Dad worked two jobs and attended law school at the same time. I qualified for free lunches at my public school, but of course my parents paid for the lunches anyway because that didn't want to accept public assistance. My parents did pay for college and I certainly appreciate the advantage of not having to repay a loan, but I have never received a dime of other assistance from my parents since I was 17. Checks for $100 at Christmas and a trip to SF with my bride on our honeymoon being the only exceptions.

What I remember most about my father growning up is how he was always gone. This man has worked 60+ hour weeks for the last 30 years.

So today, as I mentioned in another thread, or maybe this one, I live in Houston and every Sunday afternoon at 3:30 I leave my wife and my daughter and my son and drive to IAH to catch a flight to Newark. I live in a hotel 4 nights a week. I get home around 10pm Thursday night, so I see my children 2.5 days a week. Last night I was up 'till 2:30 working. The night before I was up 'till 2 working. This is a typical week for me and will be for the foreseeable future. Hopefully we can wrap up this project and I can move on to a nice gig in Monterrey or Palm Beach but probably I'll be in a hotel room outside Chicago, or outside Tampa, or in Irving TX or whatnot.

So this is my life of privilege.

I make a good living, and I am proud to be able to support my wife staying home with our children, because they all get so much out of that. But my heart aches to be with them ALL THE TIME.

So imagine how much I enjoy being lectured about privilege and kindness and helping others when I already likely pay 10s of thousands of $s more in taxes than many of you and likely give thousands more to charity than many of you who sleep in your own bed and see your children every night.

I bust my ASS and I don't do it for the greater good, I do it for my wife and for my daughter and for my son. For all I know I will fall over dead of some dread disease in 3 years and leave my children only vague memories and enough money stashed away to provide for them and their mother. So how about y'all let me tick that task off my to-do list before you start helping yourself to the money I EARN.

That's why I enjoy it when 26-year olds who frankly don't have a clue yet lecture me about how the world works.

Hambergler

What I'm hearing here is that government regulation that inhibits the insurance companies from making money is troublesome. And you believe that the market will regulate itself if left alone. Is that close? And with regards to tort reform. I am assuming you feel that the awards are highly exaggerated?

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Kerostasis

I'm picking up a hint of disdain for corporate profit in that suggestion.

Insurance companies do not provide my with insurance because they like me. They provide me with insurance because they think they can make money while doing so. If they can do so easily and cheaply, then I as Joe Customer can reap the rewards of that service easily and cheaply. If the government inhibits them from making money, they will be inhibited from providing me a cheap, efficient service.

Government regulations do have an important role to play in business -- they should protect us from outright scams, or businesses that don't actually provide the service that I pay them for. However, that is a very limited role, and government should not be in the business of telling corporations how much money they can make or which services they can provide.

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Switchcraft

Why is that arrogance? And are the choices people make with their bodies now something we should be making fun of? The only arrogance I see is that you think a private citizen you're willing to be so distastefully crude about has chosen not to let you snoop through her tax returns. Boo hoo, AMosely. You'd do well to remember your contempt toward her privacy issues the next time you make another random complaint about privacy issues in other contexts.

Switchcraft

I feel the rewards are often completely inconsistant with each other, and jackpot justice serves nobody but the lawyers getting a cut of the profits. I also think that cases that award massive amounts of money witch no objective basis in reality do nothing but add costs to the items the rest of us buy every day. If the law is inconsistant then it is meaningless. We should have a tort reform thread.