livendive

Racist crap from a newsmax guy, go figure. Didn't he also suggest Obama should be drug-tested and McCain had cooperated with his (POW) captors in exchange for hookers and blow? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

McCain's the one who brought up Reagan. Reagan's involvement with American's killed in Libya doesn't seem all that off-topic to me. You'll have to forgive me for not taking your account of the events at face value. It would take more than a post on dz.com, or even out of a political opponent's camp to make me believe what you're insinuating. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

So did Romney read that book at some point in the last 4 years? Or was he just lucky there wasn't someone as good as McCain in the field this time? Or (gasp!) does he actually not control everything? Which concise agenda was he working to with the 47% bit? I consider the whole "Business sucess = superior or more intelligent" concept you're trying to relate pretty silly and kind of sad. I know people who achieve what they want through lying, I don't respect them in the least. We all go after what we individually consider high priority. Some have longer term views than others, some try harder than others, and some have more inate ability than others, but none of this makes anyone particularly superior to anyone else except for the exact activity under discussion. I'll readily admit, Romney is a better businessman than me, and a better politician, but that's all I'm aware of. In this case, Romney got the RNC nomination because his competitors were even more out of touch with Americans than him, and there's a similar truism in the current race. If Romney were actually a good candidate, he'd have beaten McCain. If he beats Obama (and I think he will), it'll mostly be for the same reasons he beat Santorum, Bachmann, and Gingrich...he's not Obama. That, and his promise to cut taxes are pretty much the entirety of his 2-point platform. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I like that he brought up Ronald Reagan...the guy who ignored his own Secretary of Defense and got 241 Americans killed in Lebanon as a result, and didn't respond with any signficance, the year before his reelection. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Does anyone not remember this being discussed on September 12th? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I think the election is going to be very close, but I think it's also Romney's to lose at this point. I don't think either one of them will be particularly good for the US, and neither much worse than the other I think Obama at least wants the job for the right reasons, to promote his vision of an improved America. I think Romney's only vision is of himself putting a "US President, 2013-..." trophy on his mantle. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Absolutely, and while I'd like to protest with a "Who you calling old?!", the truth is I'm feeling too old these days to make it believable. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Fortunately for me... I've found another fun way to break up the monotony of studying. I find her and terrify her with tidbits of information about vulnerabilities. Like the other way, it's best done when she's just about to go to sleep and I still have hours of homework left to do. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Enjoy! Some of it felt a bit aggrandized, but the overall concept of risk management is pretty solid. Typical military approach of work toward and hope for a best case, but always be prepared for something less. And no, the Soviet Union and China did not take over the world in the late 80's, we're getting by fine without Star Wars, and second-hand smoke is still bad. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Seems legit (see attached). lol I'm back in school these days, and somewhat overwhelmed by the workload as compared to undergrad. I haven't had to do any detailed research on global warming yet, just a few hundred pages of reading, some lecture material, and light writing. That said, its a topic I will have to spend a quite a bit of time on in the next two years, including one dedicated 600 level course, and I'll be sure to NOT check in here for opinions on the matter. Global warming is like a microcosm of speakers corner, there a precious few who can discuss it with any level of reason, and a ridiculous number of people who seem to think volume is a legitimate substitute for knowledge. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Paul Wood must be the toughest man in the history of men. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

He didn't seem to think internal COMBUSTION engines involved fire or smoke, yet you're touting him as infallible? He would have also argued that hot air balloons were the best form of aviation, but oddly enough, technology has evolved since then. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Except that's how technology develops...get it functional, put it out there, see what works and what doesn't, and improve on it. Do you think computers would be where they are today if their development had occurred entirely in a vacuum? Or aviation, or, well, anything? Markets drive innovation. With no market, it'll either be tremendously stifled or completely non-existent. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

The same things were said about GWB at a minimum, that while he would only have 4 more years to screw things up, it would take at least a generation to get rid of all the retards that elected him. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Cool, thanks, I found a transcript. He does say that he'd sign the bill by the end of his first term, and "up to" (i.e. maximum), but still, it's certainly more direct than I'd expected. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

While Congress certainly has a significant amount of responsibility for our budgets in theory, I'm hesitant to give them much credit or blame. In part, that's just because I do not remember a respectable House in my adult life. I've seen kindergarteners with more maturity that that bunch of cry-babies and drama queens (regardless of party). But also, Presidents submit a proposal and Congress generally gets pretty close to it. They cut a little here, add some pork there, but my perception is that it generally matches the proposal, at least on the big parts. The government shutdown in '96 was significant, but this most recent threat was more bluster than anything else. The House knows they can't get what they want past the Senate and the Oval office, so they do their damndest to ensure the other side doesn't get anything either. Boehner isn't as bad as Pelosi was, but he's either unwilling or not allowed to find common ground and sell it to the other R's. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I would like to see a quote of him making this "promise". I'm gonna need a better quote on that too. When I look at said report, Exhibit 6.4, it appears 2012 premiums for family coverage are $2,370 higher than they were in 2009, and only $801 of that cost is paid by the employee. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Nope. In capitalist systems there are market alternatives which leverage lower costs of materials and labor to provide better prices. For example, for minor problems you might pay a nurse $25 for 15 minutes of his time and leave with a prescription. The astute reader will note that's not possible - only doctors are allowed to write prescriptions. This is because we don't have capitalist health care - we have corporatist health care, where the doctor's union (aka the AMA) has gotten laws passed so that only those who've cleared its high bar to entry (pre-med, med-school, internship, and residency) can practice medicine with the resulting cost of entry and scarcity producing high prices. This. Sometimes I know exactly what I need, and if it's simply a prescription, I have enough doctor friends to get a piece of paper on the cheap/free. But not everyone has that option, so even if they know they just need a Z-Pack, or Probenacid, or a couple day supply of hydrocodone, they have to incur the wrath of the medical industry, with accountants and receptionists and nurses and building overhead and insurance and a prorated portion of the non-payers and all sorts of other costs. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

It's still misleading. Your statement makes it sound like Obama is somehow spending less then Bush did, which is not true. Over all the Gov under the Obama Admin is continuing the over trillion dollar a year deficit that Bush started in his last year in office. Bush's last deficit was $1.413T. The CBO's estimate for 2012 is $1.1T. I'm certainly no math whiz, but to my uneducated eyes, that looks like a $313B difference, or about 22%. Throw in another 7% for inflation and you've got a 29% improvement in real dollars, without regard to GDP. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Putting the deficit in context to GDP isn't exactly some of invention of mine. It's a rather common practice by the CBO. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

He inherited a deficit of 10.1% of GDP, and this year looks to be coming in around 7.3% of GDP, I think that sounds kinda like improvement. Is there room for more? Abso-freaking-lutely, but I don't think theres a lot of traction in the argument that he's making the same mistake as his predecessor. Reducing the deficit by any amount is good, we just want to see more of it. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

As did Bush Jr, Bush Sr, Carter, Hoover, and Harding...not exactly a solid correlation with great Presidential skills or economic savvy. In your opinion. I think he could have been better or worse. He's been remarkably better than his immediate predecessor and I think he's done better than McCain would have. I don't think Obama will be great in the next four years either, but I think he'll do better than Romney would. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

It sounds like a pretty good place, you know the whole "common ground", "good for all", "take responsibility for our own futures" thing. And what are you suggesting he missed out on by not attending such celebrations with his father? Neither did I, yet I still served, and celebrate them today, and it's pretty clear that Obama has put in a significant amount of effort over the last couple of decades to help his community, his state, and his country. Whether or not it's the kind of help you personally want is irrelevant. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I didn't have time to watch the video, but the text portion at that link all looked commendable. Which part of what he said didn't you like (and I do mean what he said, not what you would like to believe he meant). Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Sure, it's a vote for "I don't care enough to vote for any of these people". Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)