read somewhere, in veep debate this october
Paul Ryan will be holding the laser and Biden runs allover to catch the red dot
Printable View
read somewhere, in veep debate this october
Paul Ryan will be holding the laser and Biden runs allover to catch the red dot
Teddy - you too brutus! How can you be right of center. Right of center starts a very dangerous slippery slope ;)
On a serious note - I do think that when young all of us are lefties and with age we lean right. The true right to me is about - freedom & fiscal conservatism.
However the right in this country has been hijacked by Limbaugh, Coulter, Grover Norquist, Texas (the entire defense industry), and Catholic Church and stupid chicago friedmanian economics rooted in monetary policy that created stock bubble followed by housing bubble followed by commodities bubble.
Be careful my friend - especially since I know you so close - that right is not a friendly place for immigrants.
Q you are right in many ways, fiscal conservatism is the key that is definitely one area where Iam probably far right. In fact most Asian families have beliefs that we should never be spending beyond our means and saving for a rainy day. Some of the spending going on is way over the top and unsustainable reform is the need of the hour, taxes alone cannot help. Yes I do believe that taxes should be brought down or the Bush tax cuts should apply for all. Iam definitely left by a safe distance of all the individuals whom you mentioned, Iam definitely not a fan of some of the liberal left leaning channels.
It is only the extreme far right that is against every form of immigration in the republican presidential debates notably Jon Huntsman did highlight the problems and overboard scrutiny that H1B folks are going through and Mitt Romney has always openly said that he is pro legal immigration, so it really is at a individual level. HR 3012 has also been brought up by Jason Chafetz who is right leaning Republican.
Q
a talk show host can lean right or left, that won't hurt the country.
what if a president can not compromise and puts idelogy infront of nation, and there is no plan for future. It's just that the other guys is 'so' bad that you have no choice but deal with my stupidity another term :D
Teddy - you are right on that one. I am not against getting benefitted from the right side. If you look at the jewish vote in this country - they would love all the tax cuts - of late they are in love with republicans on middle east affairs and all the wars - however their hearts and minds are all on the left side including most of the billionairres (whether Soros or others). And I admire that since they don't forget their history and know who their true wellwishers are. So I think even Indian (and all larger immigrant) community should work with the right and make them work for us. But right has fundamentally become a place of narrow ideas, narrow identity and narrow interests. My 2 cents Teddy. Don't mean to argue with you at all!
Bieber, I assume you are talking about Obama. It's funny how two people can look at the same thing and arrive at different conclusion. In my opinion Obama has hardly implemented any leftist agenda - especially on the fiscal stimulus. And I think given the circumstances he has done a good (not great) job. If you think about it - he has twice the difficult job just because the color of his skin and thrice the difficult job because of the unprecedented economic collapse that threatened the modern world. Considering that he is doing really good. I hope and I am confident that his second term will quite different when he won't be running again for any office.
I think I have given more than my 2 cents on this topic. It's a fun and mature discussion but I too shall retire now!
[QUOTE=qesehmk;29271]LoL.
I am yet to find a republican who refuses to accept social security or medicare ;)
Bill Oreilly, although he claims to be an independant, he is a conservative though.
Q, there are a lot of left wingers too, george soros, bill maher etc, who have hijacked the left as well. The housing bubble was created by Barney frank and the left as they had the power in the congress and wanted every american to have a house
and barney created fannie and freddie to load unsafe mortgages
Q, u definitely are a leftie :), I think Q likes redistributing wealth, i can give u my bank account :)
Teddy, I used to like CNN before, but it has become a lot left leaning now.
Moreover the politicians are one and the same whether its left of right, we have to chose people who are capable and can find solutions
cbpds1 - I don't know what I am. I am quite a lefty and yet I do love Ron Paul and his libertarian views. Appreciate your views and personal note. We can take the discussion offline but not before saying that this is all a side discussion as far as this forum is concerned.
On this forum - we all stand for immigration and share and collaborate to bring clarity to GC process and make this journey easier.
Happy Indepdence Day again!
Ghostwriter, the response was to Q's question, please read carefully.
Q: I am yet to find a republican who refuses to accept social security or medicare
cbpds: Bill Oreilly does not take SS , although he claims to be an independant, he is a conservative though.
btw if u think Oeilly is what he is, why is his show the #1 cable news show since 12 years, care to analyze?
[QUOTE=GhostWriter;29285]Make sure your account is empty, redistribution might give you unexpected results otherwise !!.
Bill O'Reilly is as right wing as it gets. I find him extremely arrogant and closed minded. Always prefer a 1 star movie over O'Reilly Factor !!
I had to move all this American Left vs Right discussion to a new thread since this is quite different from Farid Zakaria discussion.
The same reason that 'Titanic' was the biggest grossing movie in 1997 when 'Seven Years in Tibet' came in 59th, Himesh Reshammiya sells more CDs than Ilayaraja, 0-time national award winner Shah Rukh Khan makes more money than 3 time winner Mammootty. Volume / Popularity does not equal Quality. Regardless of where on the political spectrum you lie, it should be self evident that O'Reilly is an obnoxious, arrogant and angry loud-mouth.
This is usually when the conservatives start calling me an elitist, btw.
PS:- My apologies to bieber. I walked away from a debate with him saying I didn't want to get dragged into a time consuming exercise, but I had to comment when I saw someone holding O'Reilly up as an epitome of journalistic discourse.Hopefully I can display better will power in the future.
To Q
I think we should move away from hot-button issues like politics and religion as these usually cause needless rifts between people who are otherwise working towards a common cause. I do however agree that this can be much more than an immigration forum.Movie reviews/cheap flight deals to India/concert shows etc come to mind and will be beneficial to a lot of people
Or should I start a thread on Basmati rice instead?!
gs1968 - I think you are right. Honestly I really like Farid (or is it Fareed?) and got carried away. And then this left vs right debate started which doesn't seem to end. And that's ok - as long as people respect each other and do NOT attack each other personally.
Regarding basmati rice - believe it or not few days back somebody (was it soggadu?) posted a question about Aata and to my surprise he actually received quite a few response!!!
I watched almost all the news shows one time or the other, I liked 60 minutes, oreilly and john batchelor radio show.
Oreilly may be brash or arrogant as it seems but the reason I like his show are:
1.he is an honest guy and states the facts....
2.If you see him make a mistake and point it out, he will correct it and state it the next day
3.He always gets the reactions from both the left and right columnists.
4.Obama has said that Oreilly was fair to him
5.he bashes all the fluffy folks who keep repeating talking points
6.He collars people who deflect the questions like Barney Frank.
btw Im no republican as you think
I did not like Bush or Mr O, but like Bill Clinton.
My apologies cbpds1, if I came across as aggressive. I did think you were a Republican, but I don't think of that as a negative. I have many Republican friends, including a cousin with whom I discuss politics every Friday. We still get along. He never forgets to end every debate with the reminder that he can vote and I cannot, so he wins all the time.
To address my opinion on O'Reilly, I first started to put up a list of youtube clips where he unfairly cuts his guests off, yells, at them, interrupts them when they are saying things he doesn't like, and generally doing the stuff he does, but then decided not to. Someone who has been broadcasting as long as he has will have plenty of good and bad days. We can cherry pick what we want here to help justify our opinion of him. That would be unfair to him. Let everyone else form their own opinion from an unbiased sample of his work. I haven't formed my opinion on O'Reilley lightly myself, and I guess that you haven't either.
To address the left vs. right debate I am a fiscal conservative myself. I don't like what unions have become, I think welfare should be used sparingly so as to not invite dependence on it, I believe in simplifying the tax code along with decreasing overall tax levels, I believe in limited government spending (although I think the government is obligated to invest in healthcare, education and infrastructure when the private sector will not), and I don't like bailouts. However, I never ever thought about leaning Republican / conservative in this country because of a) where they stand on social issues, and b) who runs/controls the conservative movement in this country these days (Koch Brothers, Karl Rove, Edelson and the like).
On social issues too, I went to school in North Carolina and know and like very many social conservatives. One of my best friends and study companion while I was there was from Texas and I had endless debates with him on guns and religion. I don't agree with the anti-choice and anti-gay rights crowd but I don't disrespect them for their views on that.
What I do disrespect, are the people at the forefront of the conservative movement these days. The only one that acts in accordance to his ideology is Ron Paul, and he is the only one that I respect. I do not like the fact that Fox News is now unabashedly a propaganda machine. I do not like that Karl Rowe spouts out lies (not exaggerations) with no shame in public, and that every move he has ever made focuses on making it tougher for the poor and easier for the rich. I don't like that the Koch Brothers are fiscal conservatives except when it comes to subsidies for chemical industry. I do not like that the conservative spokespersons are extremely unpleasant and laughably ignorant people like Palin & Coulter, and that their talkshows are led by despicable characters like Beck & Limbaugh. I don't like that they insist that regulations are killing the oil and gas industry when in fact, regulations are the only thing that makes the industry give any focus at all to safety and the environment (I know, I've worked in and for the industry for about 15 years now). I hate that they are climate change deniers when the argument has been settled. I hate that they are trying to win this election cycle by disenfranchising millions of folks in swing states (Did you know that in Ohio, where Republicans control the state legislature, they have moved resources around thereby decreased / eliminating early voting in Democrat leaning districts while expanded early voting hours/days in Republican leaning districts?).
I don't hate Republicans, I just hate the individuals that are leading them, funding them, and informing them.
Rant over.
I'm sorry, had to delete my posts on this issue coz they were posted in work hours. since I am working on a federal govt contract, my boss thought its not a very bright idea..
If i were to accept the Democratic party's accusation that the Republicans cater only to the rich, it would want me to vote Republican even more strongly coz thats what i came to this country for.. To become rich.. I am not sure what the Democratic Party's message is for most of us.. Most of us are amongst the top 20% income earners in the u.s... We came here as 20 something years olds, worked hard and have earned this position.. We did not have a safety net or unemployment benefits.. So if the President says that I did not earn this, I am not sure who did..
Sure, we're not millionaires (i dont know about the Gurus (Q, Teddy, Spec,veni et.al)) but if you look at the "revised" definition for "rich" (those making >250k), we can hit that mark in our lifetime.. Would you think its fair for being taxed a little extra for your success? We all are making a lot of sacrifices in our careers coz we are not U.S. citizens.. When i see citizens simply collecting welfare checks or young lads lining up for the Occupy movement and blame veryone else for their problems, it makes me cringe...these are not the people who made this country great.. Its the can-doers, risk takers who toiled and built this country with their blood, sweat and tears... These Occupy idiots need to see the documentary about the Golden Gate Bridge, how it was built and how people went through the hardships but came through with hardwork.. And we are gonna tax that spirit and the hardwork? It incentivizes Govt. dependence and punishes the individual... And if you ask any Dem what would a "fair" tax % be, there is never an answer coz the limit on spending is a moving target as well..
Another false propoganda is Republicans are "anti-immigrants".. Just a few pointers on that.. Amnesty to illegals was first granted under Reagen.. Bush 43 championed the immigration reform much more vehemently than what Obama did... hr 3012 was introduced by a Republican.. It was under W that the first and second African-American Secretaries of State took office..both "Indian American" Governers are Republicans.. sen. Rubio from Florida is a Tea Party backed Cuban American.. The recent GOP candidate from Tx for the Senate (i believe his name is Cruz) is Hispanic and backed by the Tea Party..i'm sure there are many more examples of Tea party backed immigrants/minorities..The Dems had a super majority and could have passed immigration reform very easily had they really care for the immigrants.. But we all know what happened..
Rove, Limbaugh, koch, coulter, beck don't care about any party.. They re just out tere to make money..its true they have a lot of clout in the party but so do a lot of not so genuine characters on the left.. The entire NBC network, most CNN anchors, Chris Matthews, Maddow, maher, soros, jon stewart, some Hollywood crazies, New York social butterflies?. There are people on both sides whose job is to exaggerate and make money.. For themselves and their masters..but such is the case with media, the more outrageous it is, the more it sells.. How else can te Kardashians or Jersey Shore crew make their millions? As regards Palin, She'z dumb but the Veep or Al Franken or Harry Reid or Pelosi aint much brighter either..
I have made up my mind.. I wont get my GC this calendar year fo'sure..if Dems win in Nov., i'll ask my boss to move me on the fed. Contract fulltime as thats the best place to be in.. If Romney wins, i'll move to a more "country club" account..
Can anyone supporting the left please give me a few good reasons why I should vote Dem?
Apart from the reasons I give above (that they are being led, informed and funded by lying, scheming, despicable folk)?
Here are a few reasons.
1) When you become a citizen, do you plan to bring your parents to the country on a green card? The Affordable Health Care Act promises that they will have affordable insurance that doesn't disqualify any pre-existing conditions. While I wish your parents the best of health, it is likely that they will come here with some pre-existing condition (most likely, for Indians, hypertension or diabetes). Today, the maximum insurance coverage they will have is $100K (if they're over 65) and that costs an arm and a leg and does not cover anything to do with diabetes and hypertension (I'll invite the doctors here to comment further, but I have been told that since my father has hypertension, any issues with the heart or circulation isn't covered). Since your parents wouldn't have paid taxes in the US for 10 years, they will not qualify for Medicare. Since you would have sponsored them, they will not qualify for Medicaid. The Affordable Health Care Act promises at the very least to cover pre-existing conditions, and possibly bring down costs and increase coverage if the insurance exchanges work as they should. If Romney wins, he will repeal the affordable care act.
2) If the Republicans win (and potentially even if they don't) the Keystone pipeline will be built to bring in crude from the oil sands in Canada to the U.S. That will bring in billions of additional tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere much sooner than we will be able to even have a plan to deal with it. The alternative, of course is that the Chinese will built a pipeline to get it over the Rockies into British Columbia, but that will be more expensive to build (so more unlikely to get built), time consuming and will increase the $/barrell production costs (the additional electricity required to pump it over the Rockies) that it may not happen. Thanks to the recession and the spread between crude oil and gas prices, we have finally started to decrease CO2 emissions in this country, the Keystone pipeline would expand it significantly. Yes, your gasoline would be cheaper, but so many other things would be more expensive. And with Bangladesh being amongst the most susceptible to rising sea level, we'll have a refugee crisis at our borders of gigantic proportions. Yes this is a scenario that will affect us only in the long term, but it's certainly not far-fetched.
3) Surely you agree that an economic recovery is better for you personally. You need to reflect on whether tackling the deficit & tax cuts for corporations are likely to trigger a recovery or an investment in infrastructure. You've probably heard the argument that Europe and the U.K focused on the former since 2009 whereas China and the U.S. focused on the latter and that China and the U.S. are currently better off. That argument is simplistic but accurate. There are economists on both sides of the argument. Figure out for yourself which you believe in. I recommend Paul Krugman's writing on the subject. My argument is that if the economy recovers, I have more job security and get paid more, compared to what I'd save on taxes if the taxes are dropped and the economy doesn't recover.
Pedro
No need for sorry brother :)
I just read you suggested Paul Krugman, that's the path to Europe
We need to differentiate between U.K. / Europe economic policy in the last 30 years vs. U.K. / Europe response to this recession. Yes, Krugman recommends improving the safety net the way they have over the last 30 years, but he recommends stimulus to get out of the recession which they have not focused on sufficiently these last 4.
I may have to uninstall Firefox and IE as my will power is letting me down here. :)
I knew you would bring up Healthcare.. but there is a reason why majority of people opposed this legislation and it was rammed down the throats by passing it in the middle of the night.. But anyways its upheld by the Supreme Court and is the law of the land, for now.. so lets respect it..
The reason why it was unpopular is:
1. Common sense tells me.. if the Healthcare Act really was that good, they wouldn't have to rush through passing it..they would have advertised it like crazy coz it is a land mark legislation..
Its like if you cook a good Biryani, you will invite people to smell it, look at it, sample it and enjoy it.. But you are making Kauwa-Biryani and selling it as Chicken Biryani, you wouldn't even lift the lid and allow the users to peep inside the vessel..it will be hush hush and parcels packed in the middle of the night..
2. It brings up taxes (0.9% across the board and 3.8% for high income earners) for Medicare for everyone when there are serious doubts about the sustainablity of the program for people of our generation..
3. About the issue of parents and pre-existing conditions, sure it eliminates coverage limits but there are no guidelines on premium calculation. And if the premiums exceed 10k per year (which is quite likely for 65+ individuals with any of the pre-existing conditions), guess what you pay a 40% excise tax on the plan (the limits are 10.2k for individuals and 27.5k for families)..
So no.. It won't be any cheaper with the new healthcare.. It is like instead of having a credit card with 100k limit and 20% APR, now you have a credit card with no limit credit line but 40% APR..
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient...dable_Care_Act)
And while it provides healthcare to individuals with pre-existing conditions through the High-Risk Insurance Pools, for an individual to be eligible he/she must be uninsured for more than 6 months.. Now you wouldn't let parents with pre-existing to be uninsured, would you?
http://www.aad.org/member-tools-and-...nsurance-pools
In a lot of ways, the healthcare exchanges will be like the Ration Card stores that we have in India.. sure it would give access to the service for those who cannot afford it. But, if you have ever been to a ration card store and walked away with a happy experience regarding availability or quality of the product/service, you are in a minority. And with regards to the healthcare for our near and dear ones, I wouldn't want to compromise on it.
I'll get back on the other 2 points in lunch hour.. :)
Atleast Oreilly doesnt swoon to Obama like the mainstream media does, they bow to him even if they dont agree to him, job security
Paul Krugman is the equivalent scam thats u pointed on the right.
If you want to move towards socialism, then u shd head to Europe,
The reason we are successful here is bcos of capitalism and not socialism, I do not believe in giving money for lazy people who dont just get off their ass and find work.
I understand we have to give money to poor or needy, no prob with that, do u know there is 100 million people in US who are dependant on welfare funds from the fed, (not SS or medicare)
Obama talked abt honest govt , but he is a proven liar in chief, did u see how he rammed his fellow dems to pass healthcare.
What abt fast and furious, what abt crony capitalism, the very essence of political corrupition in India(pay back donors with fed projects)
he has done nothing to the economy, the private sector wud have been much improved except for dodd frank(too much regulations than needed)
Obama is just pandering to people for votes, he pandered to gay folks with DADT, trying to get women votes with contraceptives, getting latino vote by giving amnesty without doing immig reform, large new Health care taxes in Obamacare.
He just want to redistribute wealth , this was not what America is based on, Is this the hope and Change u voted for?
hey Pedro,
Your defense is not strong, you are deflecting by pointing to right wingers when there are much more left wing lunatics, they are the fringe, they are present in both left and right.
The points that u mentioned below is the main points that Obama is running on, so you might as well vote for Mitt Romney :)
". I don't like what unions have become, I think welfare should be used sparingly so as to not invite dependence on it, I believe in simplifying the tax code along with decreasing overall tax levels, I believe in limited government spending (although I think the government is obligated to invest in healthcare, education and infrastructure when the private sector will not), and I don't like bailouts."
I am fine with dem or rep as long as they treat every class equally, its not a crime to be rich, they earned it.
I dont like folks who promote welfare for ppl who are lazy, give more to the needy instead.
O is just pandering by giving goodies to all sections of voters to get votes, nothing more abt hope and change.
he is same as any other politician.
You say republicans disenfranchised the voters, what about the thousands of voter fraud that the Dems commit, what abt the black panther party threatening ppl not to vote and Holder took no action against them?
[QUOTE=Pedro Gonzales;29295]My apologies cbpds1, if I came across as aggressive. I did think you were a Republican, but I don't think of that as a negative. I have many Republican friends, including a cousin with whom I discuss politics every Friday. We still get along. He never forgets to end every debate with the reminder that he can vote and I cannot, so he wins all the time.
'Equivalent'? He's won the Nobel prize, and probably has more degrees than Coulter, Palin, Beck and Limbaugh put together.
Arguably, there's no pure capitalistic society in the world anymore. The U.S. and Europe are all partially socialistic. All I want is a stronger safety net.
I don't need the hard sell on this. As I said, I am a fiscal conservative. I don't think we ought to incentivize indolence. It's a downside to voting Democratic, today but one I can live with until the Republican party moves a bit to the left. Eventually (perhaps as soon as after this election?) the extreme right will be routed out of the Republican party, and they will move to the center (only slightly to the right of where the Democratic party is today).
Ignoring your rant against Obama, which is so far off keel that I do not think I need to counter....
Another area where I have some personal knowledge. Wall Street, (where i've spent the last 7 years) like the Oil and Gas Industry (where I spent the previous 7 years) will never self-regulate. These are smart, generally ethical, but incredibly ambitious people in a system that rewards people for taking risks with little to no personal downside (opportunity cost, which they will point to, is not real downside). Dodd-Frank tries to tackle it but ineffectively. Dodd-Frank's problem is that it focuses on many costly non-issues while not addressing vital segments of the industry that require regulation. In 2005, I was sold on the '99 repeal of Glass Steagall by Gramm Leach Bliley. Yet, in my time in a top investment bank, many of the contradictions of the common banking model started to come to light. I had decided for myself before 2008 that common investors (through retail bank accounts or pension fund / mutual fund investments) weren't sufficiently rewarded for the profits their funds enabled the investment bankers to make. I didn't expect the bail out so I thought common investors would fit the bill whenever losses mounted, although partners (stock holders eventually as more of these banks IPOed) would a hit too. As it turned out, the buck stopped with the taxpayer. Cbs, if you're with a hedge fund, as many of my friends are, nothing I can tell you will seem to justify the regulations you are starting to face, and that's the only reason I can see for you to be against it. For everyone else, the fact is, this regulation replaces the board supervision and investor manager prudence that have been found wanting.
Much has been written on the topic by experts, who have put far more thought on it than I have, so don't just believe that Krugman is shit because O'Reilly says so. Read his work and figure out for himself. Or read any of the other neutral economists.
Surely you know better than to spout that lie. Surely you know that Romney is quoting him out of context there. Surely you know that Obama was referring to the infrastructure in place to help businesses succeed. If you buy that crap from Fox news, I think you're beyond hope.
EDIT:- The above possibly comes across as a personal attack. If so, I apologize. I'll leave it to Q or the other mods to delete if they see fit.
Except, on the left the fringe are not on TV every day spouting their BS. On the left, the fringe do not get talk shows on TV and radio. Lawrence O'Donnell, Rachel Maddow, Jon Stewart (who is a comedian, btw, not a newshound) are not in the same league as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly.
And yet, I can't stand Romney and what he stands for (actually, no one knows what Romney stands for). I would vote Democrat (if I could vote) despite their stance on some of these issues.
No argument here either. But we don't have an Idealist like Ron Paul on the other side. We have Romney and Ryan, also politicians.
Never heard of the Black Panther threats, so I think it must be some obscure issue that Fox is talking up. From what i've read (in the WSJ, Time and the Economist), there is no evidence for any voter fraud. The 1000s that you allege have no basis - just complaints by Republicans. In any case, I have no issue with voter ID requirements. As long as you're making it equally difficult for everyone it's difficult to argue against. My issue was with selectively disenfranchising voters in Democratic districts in Ohio compared to Republican districts. That is unethical, and i'm surprised not illegal.
Being an employee of a major bank in New York and currently working in Washington, I can tell you that problem isn't Wall Street.. Its the K street.. I see everyday, how the lobbyists work and get favorable legislation in their favor..My golf buddy is a lawyer in Rudy Giulianni's law firm in Washington and if you hear some of the stories about how public policy is toyed with, it will blow your mind..
Plus I see everyday about the Govt. waste across Federal Agencies and scumbags who wouldn't survive a job at McDs, stick in Govt. for years, doing nothing.. collecting 100k+ and lifetime pensions.. it just makes you sick... And when you realize the tax you pay, makes these mo-fos rich and bolster their safety nets.. you do imitate the crew on Monday Night Football and say.. "Come on , Man"
There aren't any saints in any party.. its just pick your poison and pick your sector.. Big Oil/ Insurance for the Reds.. Unions/Green Energy thugs/Big Govt. Contractors for the Blues.. Finance Companies/ Banks.. we pay everyone, it works both ways..
Pedro,
The majority of the people like voter id laws
http://washingtonexaminer.com/eric-h...9#.UCvTzqDrSSp
The voter id law applies to the whole state and republican governors are doing it, why dont the dem governors do the same !!
The more I discuss with u, it seems u are emotionally a lefty but practically a centrist, takes time to change :)
this is all i got to say:
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...n-foil-hat.jpg
Pedro,
Regarding your point about the Keystone Pipeline and CO2 emissions... I don't get the correlation.. Even if the Keystone Pipeline does not go through, the US will use gas from other sources..they crude will have to be refined and it will generate CO2 exhausts, anyways.. I don't see where the "additional" billions of tons would come from.. The crude refinement may not happen in the US but i dont think it matters where the Co2 exhausts come from. If you are talking about additional energy expenditure of pumping it over the Rockies, then help me understand how that is less efficient than shipping it from the world's most volatile waters.
Regards to problem with Bangladesh and the world's rising Oceans.. Understand this that the demands for energy are going to rise no matter what the environmentalists say.. India and China.. A third of the world's population is about to breakthrough towards development and they need energy.. Do you think that Indians who face a mega shortage of energy and have to basic necessaities would listen to the environmentalists sitting in A/c cabins lecturing them about rising waters?? What are they supposed to do?? Live in dark and Cook on woodfires so that the liberals can protect some purple assed crab's environment? Why dont we do this.. Since all the Dems worry so much about the rising levels of waters in Bangladesh, they stop using A/C or any other "luxury materialistic energy hogging pleasures".. How about that?
Funny how you talked about only the correlation of co2 and rising waters when Co2 is not even the largest GHG and a bulk of the CO2 on the planet has nothing to do with Energy..Most of the sources are natural..
The real reason for opposition to Keystone pipeline is it would have helped solve the energy crisis at home.. So the Al Gores of the world who have invested billions in "clean energy" of the Solyndra kind would have been seen running around with wind turbines up theirs..See all this care for environment is just a disguised and pathetic way to fill their pockets..
ChampU - the debate we are having is not whether personally for YOU whether democrats or republicans make sense. Sure republican policies are good for high income / high net worth people. So if you are one of those then good for you.
The debate we are having is - is it good for the country and society. Just go back in the history and look at FDR and what he did. Why ? Just go back and look at what Lyndon Johnson did. All those things would be considered absolutely socialistic in nature. However, a lot of those things (social security, infrastructure, big projects, internet, defense research, equal opportunity, fairness in employment and so on and so forth) are things that really gave USA the competitive edge sicne WWII.
Progressive taxation is universally accepted by economists. The simple reason behind progrssive taxation is the law of diminishing returns on an individuals amassed wealth for the society as a whole. Estate and inheritance taxes exist for the same reason. Wealth is killed when accumulated. Wealth lies in products and services creation and consumption. When accumulated, one is only accumulating future claims and creating a gurantee for his ability to consume at a future date without doing anything then.
Republicans being antiimiigrant - I would stand by that. The amnesty is driven more by business lobbying rather than republicans love for immigrants. Dems on the other hand oppose immigration for fear of losing jobs rather than fundamentally being hateful of other cultures. Thats a crucial difference.
One simple reason why anybody should vote Dem this time around is because republicans will destroy American fabric. They have become a party with narrow ideas, narrow identity and narrow interests. Dems are slight better in practice and a lot better in theory.But I do grant that they are nearly same.
bieber - yes. Agree. But abortion rights, gay rights, guns and wars is where dems agenda has not been pushed much.
bieber - Europe's problems are not out of Austrian economics. They primarily stem from having a monetary union without a political union which is then prohibiting them to make right choices. What you quote "path to Europe" is a clever propoganda from those who are financially motivated for more stimulus. We should be careful in catching these kind of terms on the fly and recycling them. Sorry - don't mean to be rude.
cbpds1 - i think swooning or not to obama is not a qualification or disqualification. That shouldn't matter. When I check the list of things you said above - its hard to argue since all of them are opinions at best and baseless accusations picked from right at worst. Instead if you write your analysis your words and your logic, it would be a better way to have a dialogue.
This is quite easy. First I appreciate and thank you for saying what you said. However, ... you yourself know that this website and forum is a collective effort. I am not going to name everybody .. but you all know the names who are heavy contributors here. So I rest my case on this one :)