Sarah Palin: Romney, Ryan Should Offer 'Mea Culpa' On Original TARP, Bailout Positions

Lets look at where this debt was created. First, two wars that where kept of the budget, and therefore officially off the debt during Bush's two terms. Obama put that cost in the budget officially. There was the Bush Tax Cuts that added approximately $1.5 trillion to the budget deficit. Medicare Part D that was unfunded in the budget, but still had to be paid for, and No Child Left Behind that was mandated yet unpaid for. Then there was the housing bubble and crash, effectively reducing government revenue and increase government cost. We bailed out the financial industry under TARP, again unfunded WITHOUT providing RULES and REGULATIONS that the money must be used to refinance mortgages. The Stimulus was the only thing that kept the country from going into a depression.



No matter how Obama tried to increase government revenue to reduce the debt, Regressive fought against it. Even when he proposed Regressive policies the fought against it. The Regressives are the major cause of government debt. They have increased the size of government every time they were in control, they in creased the debt every time they were in control. Regressive accused the Democrats of being a Tax and Spend Party. Well at least they pay for what they put in place. Regressives are the Party of Borrow and Spend. Let it be someone elses problem. As GWB said in the last year of his term, regarding the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, it will be someone else's problem.
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Bain Capital Takes Center Stage At Republican Convention

How was Bain Capital a small company? Romney and Bain started that company by hit investors in Bain & Company for $37 million. Small company, maybe if you consider that initially they had 10 employees. But how many companies start with $37 million, with the intent that they are going to buyout other companies through a technique called leveraged buyout. No Bain Capital was never a small company.



Bain Capital's major success was Staples, a company that actually survived after Bain left. The majority of companies that they touched went through bankruptcy and never were heard of again, yet Bain continued to make money. Why, because they stripped companies of their assets, to pay for their leveraged buyout. Bain was never a turn-a-round company, it was only set up to make investors money, not create jobs, or goods, or services.



Bain represents what was portrayed in the movie Wall Street. It was Gordon Gekko getting everything at the expense of others. It is not only the height of greed, but also the height of selfishness. That is the face of the Regressive Party. It is also the face of the Libertarian Party: Selfishness and Greed.
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Paul Ryan Address: Convention Speech Built On Demonstrably Misleading Assertions

It seems that Regressives can only tell lies and distort the truth. They are the party of Fear and Divisiveness. How could he blame Obama for the economy when at every turn the Regressives have fought against what he wanted. The Stimulus was half a billion dollar short of what the president wanted but he compromised. Healthcare was short of what he wanted but he compromised. The fiscal problem was not what he wanted, but he compromised. Ryan was the one that told his party to not go down the road of Simpson/Bowles because it would get Obama re-elected.



From day one, when Mitch McConnell said that their number one priority was that Obama would be a one term president, you knew that no matter what Obama did, like proposing Regressive ideas, that they would vote against it. Romney signed a letter to President Bush asking for the same changes to welfare that Obama is authorizing, at the request of several Regressive governors currently.
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Paul Ryan Address: Convention Speech Built On Demonstrably Misleading Assertions

There has never been a Regressive administration that every reduced a deficit in the history of their party. They have always grown government and then tried to blame the Democrats for it. Ryan himself voted for Bush's wars and their endless supplemental funding off budget without paying for them. He voted for the Bush tax cuts three times without paying for them. He voted for Medicare part D without funding it. He voted for No Child Left Behind without funding it.



Now we are supposed to believe that Romney/Ryan will reduce the deficit? I doubt that. I also doubt that Romney has a clue as to how to grow the economy. He only knows how to increase capital at the expense of workers and business. Lay them off and off-shore was his motto at Bain.



The economy grows and wealth is created when Americans have jobs, not Chinese or Indians or anyone else. Deficits are reduce when more Americans are working and getting middle class wages and paying their fair share of taxes, not complaining or boasting that they paid taxes even those they were less than someone making $20K/yr would. Make it advantageous for American companies to employ American workers. Make it advantageous for American companies to export products rather than import them. Make it advantageous for American companies to become industry leaders in renewable energy, rechargeable batteries, sustainable farming, etc. These thing create jobs and wealth.
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'No Easy Day': Osama Bin Laden Book Author Defends Decision To Write

I have know many Navy Seals, and they have big egos: they have to to do the the training and carry out the operations that we never hear about. But real Patriots know how to keep that ego in check and not loose their bearings. If Owen is correct and Bin Laden did not have a weapon, and was already down when he, Owen, entered the room, why did Owen and another Seal fire rounds into Bin Laden? Why does Owen accuse the President of taking credit, when Obama has time and again praised the men that carried out that operation. He has been quoted on TV as saying that he only gave the go ahead for the operation.



Owen is one of those soldiers/sailors that feels he has a Right to be special. Yet he is only a cog in a larger machine, just as the rest of the members of Seals, Team Six, Delta Force, the Rangers, Marines Force Recon are. You do your job not for glory but for what you believe in. Owen just appears to want glory and to besmirch the President.
About Osama bin Laden
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Wal-Mart Suspends Seafood Supplier Over Work Conditions

The was a time in this country when companies were proud of their man-hour safety record. "Rick Antle, the company’s president and chief executive, said it employed 2,200 workers and that 33 citations over two decades was “pretty good.” Well that is 16.5 violations a decade or almost 1.4 per month. So what that means is that it is OK to have a violation or two every month of the year that puts workers, not MANAGEMENT in jeopardy of injury or death.



“This report, crafted by a union-funded, union-backed group, has little to do with solving real issues,” he said. “It simply repackages old data from up to more than 20 years ago in an attempt to make people believe they have uncovered something new.” Exactly! It is an ongoing issue that companies fail to rectify, and unions would put a stop to it if they were representing the employees. When you do not have a voice at the workplace, you can only continually point out the issues. The companies do not want to solve them because it would cost them money, PROFITS. Wal-Mart does not care about it's own workers: why would they really care about their supplier's workers issues, as long as Wal-Mart gets the price they demand for the goods they are being supplied?
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Medicaid Expansion: Some GOP States Want To Abandon Expansion In Wake Of Health Care Ruling

"The federal government always does this – they put something out there that looks good on the front end, but on the back end the states have to figure out how to pay for this," said Missouri House Majority Leader Tim Jones, a Republican. "In this current economic time, we're not going to consider going down that path."



Yet again, when economic times improve, when banks are held responsible for for their actions (JP Morgan), when the wealthy are held to the same standard as the middle class and the poor, we would not have a problem with the states funding this. But not funding this increases the costs to tax payers on the back end anyway as these people that do not have health insurance still use the system, as the most expensive end, the emergency room, can pay their bills and government covers that loss by reducing the tax burden that the hospitals pay or reimburses them for the service anyway through after the fact medicaid payments.



To reduce the total cost of health care we need to start at the beginning and get people to understand that most of what is advertised as food is bad for their health and have people, especially kids, get exercise and preventative health care.
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House GOP Discusses Reviving Earmarks

There should be no such thing as earmarks or pork barrel legislation or whatever you want to call it. No spending should be appropriated unless it is debated, given an opportunity to be read in its final version, and voted on. No bill should include amendments to legislation that has nothing to do with the bill being voted on. Governments, and people, survive by being able to compromise. Want to change or fix a law, vote on the amendment by itself. Have some guts, defend your position, make a persuasive (non-threatening) argument, and get people to your side. Or, decide that your position is not something you need to fall on your sword over and accept some changes.
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China Fake IDs: Homeland Security TSA Screenings May Not Catch Counterfeit Identification

It is a BS argument. Americans have been making fake IDs for years. But now that they are being made in China it has become a big deal. We do not need biometrics, chip tags, or any of this other stuff. We are allowing a small percentage, less than 1/10th of 1% of any crime to influence this national identity card stuff.



There is no voter fraud that has had any impact on any election, and has been documented over and over. Your chances of being injured, let alone be killed, in a terrorist attack is so small, you have a better chance of winning the lottery. DHS is an unnecessary bloated agency that has no track record of saving people's money nor in preventing any attacks.



The problem lies with our dealings with China. Because we have allowed big corporations to run this country, we have lost our economic power, and consequently, our ability to pressure China to stop piracy of intellectual property, or counterfeiting goods. This is really a question of economics, not security.
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John McCain: GOP Primary Race Is Like 'Watching A Greek Tragedy'

I have no problem with the long running Regressive primary system, except for who runs the debates. The press are the wrong organizations to hold debates, and the debates should be about specific issues, with all candidates getting an opportunity to answer the same question. With a huge field like the Regressives had, the debate line-up should have been picked randomly with no more that 4 candidates at a time present, and held successively. The debates should have been limited to just a few questions, so that real policy answers could be given.



The fact that no winner will be decided on in the first few primary/caucuses, gives everyone the opportunity to vote for their real choice. Open primaries should be closed to ONLY party members. Dems and Independents should not have a say in who will be the Regressives candidate. Further, we are getting to see the true person and understand how they would lead or divide the country.



It has its flaws, and the money is another problem, but we now get to see how much Romney will say anything to get a vote, how much Sanitarium is like an Ayatollah, how much of a demagogue Gingrich is, and how much the rest of the party is full of lunies.
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New York City Teacher Ratings: Teacher Data Reports Publicly Released Amid Controversy

The New York City teacher ratings are pretty much worthless. Standardize testing does not show a students understanding of a subject. They show how well the teach taught the student to answer the multiple guess questions. Until we decide that learning is based on critical decision making, that answers, if wrong, have value if you understand what the student was trying to do, and when we place as much emphasis and money on poor neighborhood schools as we do on wealthy schools, then we will suffer from poor education.



We should not be taxing property in order to fund schools locally. Property taxes for schools should be collected at the state level and distributed evenly to all districts. We should have both standardized tests for quick results, and critical thinking tests to understand where students have problems. Finally, we should, and I know the unions don't like this, end tenure. You should be judged based on performance, only if that performance is based on critical testing as well as standardized test. The emphasis should be on standardized test!
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Wadah Khanfar: Iran Strike Would Be A 'Disaster' For Fragile Arab Spring

OK, I going to do it: The policies of Dubya of not engaging and challenging others has led to this point. Unfortunately Obama took the bait, mostly from pressure from the right about being "weak" on defense. We never should have disengaged with North Korea or Iran. Doing so has only allowed them to go further and faster in their nuke programs without a mechanism to control it. Maybe Iran was/is doing this for peaceful purposes. Maybe our constant threats have pushed them into the weaponization mode.



What people do not realize is that Iran does not have enough oil refineries to meet its needs for fuel. Iran import 40% of its refined oil. With no other energy capacity, they have to develop other resources. So, without the US being involved in Iran, for multiple reasons, we could not influence their decision. We could have supplied them with reactors and controlled the amount or uranium that they had at any given time. We could have influenced them to go with renewable energy sources, with American made equipement, like wind or solar.



What we chose to do with Iran was to remain hostile and not engage with them out of support for our military/industrial complex. We chose threats over assistance and advise. We allowed the Russians to supply the nuclear reactors, the same as Chernobyl. We chose a hostile path rather than one of influence. Sometimes being the "power behind the king" is more important than being the king.
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McCain And Graham Plan U.S. Help To Syria Rebels

Chicken Hawks are at it again. Syria, unlike Libya, has no organized opposition­. Further, although the Arab League has condemned Bashir Assad's regime and called for him to step down, they have not asked for help like they did in Libya. Further, Libya was an isolated country, with no outside assistance or influences­. This is not the case with Syria.



The Chicken Hawks should understand that they are also the ones that got us into Iraq unnecessar­ily, and they were the ones that wanted to go into Libya until Obama decided to provide assistance at the behest of the Arab League.



Unfortunat­ely, this situation needs to play out further before we get involved, just like Libya. The Arabs must do more for themselves­, before we unilateral­ly start sending weapons without an plan of how to disengage. They just want to keep the military/i­ndustrial complex funded.
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