fr1j0l3

carefull squid.. you're on to something....


the more you know...

DeRanger

I'll take a stab in the dark here... you're in the military, right?

L0GiCaL1

The problem with voting for Bush in 2004 is the simple fact that he does not value the common American the same way Kerry does. He is selling our jobs to foreign countries, making immigration law a joke and through his little petty "wars" on terror (that he had the capability to advert when he initially took office but declined quite a few offers from the Clinton administration for intelligence briefings that could have kept 9/11 from occuring at all and could have had Osama bin Laden in an American prision or a World Tribunal) has artificially driven the price of oil to a record high. As for the last one, think about how that effects EVERYONE. Every time since the advent of the automobile and oil fired furnaces that when the price of a barrel of crude oil crosses the $35US mark that the world goes into a reccession. With OPEC cutting oil production in April to an all time low and GWB hording the Strategic Oil Reserve, the price of oil is going to reach into the mid to high $50's per barrel. GWB is then going to open the reserve and remove dependancy on OPEC oil for a short time to gain personal profit calculated to be in the TRILLONS of dollars) Through his mismanagement of foreign policy and economics (kind of hard to believe a C average Harvard CPA can mismanage a checkbook but his wife balances that), the world economy faces a depression rivaling "The Great Depression". Expect "Black Monday" and stock markets around the world to collapse if the current path is kept.

Kerry might not be a great choice but every election is the same way. It is a matter of picking the lesser of 2 evils. If Kerry will take the best points of all his party mates and pick a good VP, he can cancel out the past 4 years of King George (he was appointed by the Supreme Court not elected by the electorial college). If he takes Wes Clarks economic policies and military plans for improvement while remaining cost effective and combines them with his obvious capability to appease foreign nationals, we could have an administration that economically rivals Jimmy Carter. There are alot of issues at stake here, and this he said she said crap is not what an election should be based on.

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Raven Shield Admin

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. - Douglas Adams

DeRanger

Phew... FINALLY!

Great points L.

L0GiCaL1

The same can be said about Kerry's lack of national security interest but if he picks a good running mate that can be cancelled... at this point the only way he can win the election is to pick someone that is strongly military-minded.

This makes me wish Colon Powell was a Democrat, and he would also be an excellent president, mainly because he doesn't want the job. (see the quote in my signature for further elaboration on that subject)

BTW before someone flames me for the 'petty little "wars" on terror' comment, I support our military in any action it pursues. I just do not support the justification on which it was sent. That is actually the reason I left the military. I couldn't take orders from a man that is only a egotisical meglomaniac in search of personal profit and power.

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Raven Shield Admin

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. - Douglas Adams

USN_Squid

I'm a vet....not in now, but what does that have to do with it? Your "phew, finally someone agrees with me" buddy Logical1 is ex-military. Honestly I expected more than a personal attack from you, but then again I don't know why I expected that.

Let me guess you're a dope smoking 19 year old college student?

...if not then I guess some stereotypes just don't apply do they?

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L0GiCaL1

I agree Squid, we might not all be on the same page politically but I've noticed a horrible trend of name calling, belittling and overwhelming lack of respect for other people in this forum lately. Just because someone has a different perspective on how the global and local policitcal environment is being handled does not mean that they have the right to drag each other through the mud. The same goes for political canidates. Slinging mud takes away from the greater purpose of what really needs to be said. I would definitely be more inclined to vote for someone that just totally ignored the other party, said what they had to say and went on about their business.

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Raven Shield Admin

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. - Douglas Adams

leejo

I agree with you Logical: the name calling should stop immediately and fully. That shouldn't happen at Tactical Gamer, where more grown-up behavior is the standard.

Wolfie

I thought I would make some comments...

I don't see how you can equate jobs moving overseas to Bush. This trend has been going on for some time now and we can not simply blame the politicians themselves for it. Have you ever looked at how much someone is making working on the line in Ford? Starting hourly wages for a factory worker are higher than alot of engineers make when they first start working at a company. If unions keep pushing for wage increases and force companies to keep producing even if there is no demand, then of course jobs are going to be lost as companies are going to go overseas to cut costs.

Um, didn't Bill Clinton have the opportunity to get OBL when he was in office? I wouldn't be putting the blame of OBL's actions solely on Bush.

The strategic oil reserve should not be used to keep oil/gas prices down. It is suppose to be a stockpile for when oil is unattainable, not to keep Joe Cool with his SUV happy. Speaking of which, if people truly cared enough about gas prices, then why doesn't everyone drive the most fuel efficient vehicles out there instead of SUVs/Trucks/etc?

I don't see how Bush can be blamed for the economy. He has only done 2 things that can effect the economy, tax cuts and increased government spending. Increasing the government spending means that the US government has to borrow money in order to pay for its budget. Since most of the borrowed money is domestic, in the long run this would help out (as people are buying bonds and will get a profit after the bonds mature...but increased government spending will have to be offset in the future by balancing budgets or once the economy improves, increased revenue to the government). Tax cuts return more money to the consumer which allows them to spend more money which increases demand (unless you truly believe that the government can spend money more efficiently than the average consumer...... ). Besides which, the economy was slowing down while Clinton was still President.

Is Kerry better than George Bush? How do we know? So far the only thing you can go by is his voting records in Congress and his statements to the media. And since he made the claim about "world leaders" backing him up, then turning around and trying to make it go away without backing up his claim, it is hard to see just how "better" Kerry is.

phyllis

AGREED!

Guys...lets grow up here a bit... don't take things so personal if someone doesn't agree with your views, this has become an ongoing trend ...and don't start personal attacks on each other...period, otherwise... the sandbox could easily find itself going the way of the "bunnyhole" and it's demise wasn't pretty.... If you can't keep things at an impersonal level...don't post...just fume to yourself.

L0GiCaL1

Bush has done nothing to quell this trend. He gave money to companies and entities in a position to stop such a thing without stipulation on the terms by which they can obtain the tax cuts and federal grants. They took the money and just added it to their profit margin instead of using it to produce more jobs in the US market because nothing told them they couldn't do that. I understand the issues with the union but most of the jobs moving overseas are not line production jobs inside of the union's sphere of influence. Also by trying to grant non-citzens the right to work in this country without paying ANY taxes what-so-ever reduces the amount of income the government has to support its citizens. Also, Bush's State of the Union address showed how much he really cares about current unemployment. He gave an inconsequencial amount of money to universities and technical schools for work force retraining but doesn't understand that people with PhD's can't get a job so what good is retraining into that field with a certification or a AA/AS? His "fix" for unemployment is that we should all train to be service providers and he gave us a whopping $15 per citizen to do just that. An economy that produces NOTHING is doomed to failure. He has not applied any effort at all to the benefit of the general American public. He is too worried about lining his own pockets and the pockets of his cronies.



And Clinton tried. He missed with a cruise missle by mere feet. The Bush administration was given fair warning and told the Clinton administration they didn't need any information from them because it was their show. The Clinton administration had evidence to prove that Al Queda was planning an attack on the continental US and Bush IGNORED them because he wouldn't have anything to do with a Democrat to save his own ass.



The Strategic Oil Reserve is used for exactly that. It is used to supplement the US during shortages of fuel (which inherently drive the cost up). You can't expect the airlines to operate at prices people can afford and still maintain their workforce. They have cut every cost and corner they can. The same goes for the automobile industry. If you look at the lines of a Ford factory you will see that one person does the job that 5 or 6 people used to do. The ones that are there might not deserve every penny they make (due to union pressure that drives up work-force cost) but they must do something or Ford would just find people in the US willing to work for less and without unions. That is always a possiblity. I, for one, would be more than willing to work for Ford on an assembly line for a fair wage.

On a side note, I agree with the economical car solution. The problem is the fact that people don't WANT economy. They want luxury. I sold Ford, Mercury, Lincoln and Mazda. People don't buy what they need.. they always buy what they want that they can possibly afford. The government needs to take a more stringent role on car emissions and fuel consumption. If you buy a luxury car, then you ought to pay luxury tax. Plain and simple.



You have proven my point to the T. He has ONLY done 2 things, neither of which has done a damned thing. He gave tax cuts to people who don't need them and increased his spending way out of proportion on things that do nothing for the way the lower to middle-class American lives. His educational policies are a good example of what he thinks will work. After this year, North Carolina schools will be forced to fire the WHOLE staff at 457 Title - 1 schools if they do not meet his "No Child Left Behind" educational policy. This is how he cuts educational spending. He forces schools to opt out of federal funding because they cannot meet criteria that is so bogus only 7% of the nations schools can pass it. I said PASS. It isn't like any of them can score perfectly. That requires 100% of your students to be at or above current grade level in reading and mathmatics. It is impossible to have 100% because so much of the scoring system is left to tests where a student might not excel but is capable of the work. He applies this economics as well. It is reminiscient of Herbert Hoover. Every man, woman and child should be able to walk out with nothing but the clothes on their back and pull themselves up by the boot-straps. The real world does not function that way. Have you ever been given a hand up? Did you qualify for any sort of federal aid or loans when you went to school? Of course. Everyone has.

As for increasing consumer spending via tax cuts, that has obviously not worked. Did you see the statistics from this past X-mas. Most of the retail sales were in high-end electronics like plasma TV's and digital cameras. Everything else was below norm. Why is that you ask? Because the only people spending money are the ones that have money to spend. He did not create EFFECTIVE tax cuts in the places where a majority of the public would have benefited. It is more of the same old Republican dogma of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Anything and everything that can be done to put a little more buck his pocket and power in his grasp is all he is concerned about.


I would take someone, anyday, that doesn't say one thing and do another. Of course that is not going to happen. So I pick the lesser of the evils and vote for Kerry unless somone better comes along. I am suprised that you did not mention my egotistical meglomaniac statement, so there must be some truth in it.

Kerry also is capable of seeing a bad course and changing his mind. GWB is not willing to admit that he is wrong and will argue with a brick wall that he has always been right. Kerry shows humanity while I see NONE in GWB. Sure Kerry is capable of making mistakes, but he is also willing to go back and correct his mistakes. GWB just leaves a trail of mistakes and doesn't even acknowlege they exist.

GWB is a liar and a thief. I would not be suprised if he stole the quarters that his wife left maquarading as the tooth fairy for his daughters and then blame his wife for not leaving any money. He is using Dick Cheney and Halliburton to forcibly control the oil market to his own personal gain. He is also using Halliburton to move American jobs overseas to cheap labor areas of the world under false pretense. You vote how you will. I will vote for who I consider the best canidate.

In case you were wondering, I'm neither Republican or Democrat. I'm just someone that is interested in seeing A WHOLE LOT of change in the way things are being run. I might still write in a vote for Gen. Clark. He, in my opinion was the best canidate out of the bunch. He just didn't have the money or the advice to make it thru the primaries. He and Colon Powell ought to get together and run this country right.

__________________

Raven Shield Admin

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. - Douglas Adams

Wolfie

Funny thing is though, Clinton did absolutely nothing for the economy while he was in office and yet he got credit for the economy being hot, when in fact, the hot economy was caused by factors like a hot stock market, soaring customer confidence, and increased demand worldwide.

Personally, the government can only really hurt the economy, they can not make the economy prosper (Take FDR and his "New Deal" for example, it did nothing to improve the economy).

Wolfie

Yet we are seeing signs that the economy are recovering. My company is hiring new workers and a recent poll of companies shows them looking to hiring new workers in the next quarter. However, the media is not presenting this to everyone because it is not as great as a story as showing people out of work.

The economy can not always be healthy, especially when most Americans fail to save money. Credit card debt is out of hand and people owe so much money that whenever times are lean, their situation is significantly worse than had they saved money during the good times. We blame our politicians for not "guaranteeing" us jobs yet we fail to make sure that we can survive during lean times. How many people here actually save 10 percent of their salary/paychecks?

Wolfie

Funny thing is, Kerry is a liar also. Didn't he claimed to be approached by world leaders telling him to beat GWB? Didn't he attend a protest and "supposedly" threw his war medals as a symbol yet those same medals surprisingly turned up later on the campaign trail? So wouldn't you be looking towards a different candidate than Bush and Kerry?

_Ender_

Thats why you vote for the lesser of 2 evils.. Its not the right way to vote, but as long as Bush is gone, who cares?