The Campaign for President - Countdown to 11/04

Everyone that brings out a listing of comparisons of taxes/tax cuts proposed by either Presidential candidate has slanted them toward their party affiliation and beliefs. They are usually full of inaccuaries which may or may not be deliberate, such as failing to mention a proposal by the opposition candidate.

And by the way, even if all the figures shown were accurate, they are proposals only. Congress has the say on budgets and taxes even if they are vetoed by the President. Current laws will prevail until Congress works out a budget that will please everyone, or make compromises - a word that Republicans seem to want to ignore.

Speaking of ignoring, both Republicans and Democrats are ignoring the massive National debt which has been amassed by the current administration in the past eight years. What do they plan to do about it? Our creditors will not carry us indefinitely.

Neither candidate has really addressed the war in Iraq, or the unrest in most of the areas of the middle East. Up until now, if there has been a comprehensive plan to conclude the war in Iraq, and avoid war in other middle eastern countries, it's been in the minds of the heads of the current administration, and no real plan has been suggested or made known. As far as we know, plans of the current administration, and plans of the two candidates have not been revealed if they in fact exist. So currently the whole of the United States is wallowing in the sea of indecision with the rudder on the ship of state broken, and no plans how to repair it. Our domestic policies have led us to the current financial crisis. What are their plans to solve that?

Putting it bluntly, we're in a mell of a hess.

The greatest problem a new President will have, in my opinion, is to work toward healing the idealistic division that currently exists ion this country. This is affecting everyone. Never before have Republicans and Democrats been so far apart in their philosophies of how this country should be run. At one time, as I mentioned above, compromise was not a four-letter word, but was a place where common ground, and give and take were the operative tools. No one should expect to get everything they desire, and need to learn to understand that. We should always be prepared to give up something we desire in favor of the best interests of ALL the people, but first we're going to have to learn what these interests are. They are so wildly opposite, it's going to take work to come to a consensus on that.

First, Let's find that common ground and work from there with nothing held back. Put everything on the table.

Idealistic? Of course it is, but worth a try, because so far, nothing else has worked.

National Problem or World Crisis?

For the past seven years or so, we have watched as the economy made a steady decline, but were reassured that there was no problem, and various benchmarks were cited, unemployment, rate of inflation, etc. Most of these reported were compiled by S.W.A.G, known as Scientific Wild-assed Guess. So much for formal studies and analyzing economic conditions. We have been assured by our leaders that everything was fine.
I don't know how many noticed, but several times in the past few years, the normal monthly reports on employment, GNP, and GDP were delayed or missing altogether. Just within the past few weeks, when our elected officials realized they had dug themselves a hole they couldn't get out of, have the global ramifications of this depression been acknowledged, and even now, we're not being told the whole truth.
There will likely, even now, be rebuttals to this post, but this time it's not a matter of whether the cup is half empty or half full. IT IS COMPLETELY EMPTY, yet still the diehard loyalists will not acknowledge that.
The root cause of this crisis is obvious; the steady rise of crude oil prices. These prices go through a network of brokers and speculators and are next to impossible to pin down, and with no paper trail to anyone or group in particular.
The appointed Monarchy in this country is hostile to any talk about alternate fuels, and they have dragged along their loyal sheep to agree with their every pronouncement.
Most of these alternate fuel sources and techniques have been dismissed with the standard line that they are not practical or cost effective, or too complicated - all code words for "we can't make the big bucks on them that we have on crude oil. How much higher does crude oil have to go before someone will discover that money can be made on those alternate fuel sources? The technology to produce them has been known and available for years, some even for centuries. Wind power, for example. During its long life, wind power has done nearly as much as crude oil, or the refined products thereof. It has powered ships; most of the earth was explored, conquered, and settled by wind power. Holland was recovered from the sea centuries before anything except physical labor and wind power were even thought of.
Wind and water power once turned the generators and turbines of the world to generate electricity.
Not until the second half of the 20th Century did the United States become totally electrified. Many rural areas were still in the dark. My grandparents did not have access to commercially generated electricity until the late 1950's - both sets of them. It wasn't a matter of affordability for them so much as it was a reluctance of power companies to go into rural areas where instant profits weren't available. Some solved this problem by establishing their own power networks and buying the electricity from the power companies to operate these grids. My grandfather, for one, solved his electrical problem by impounding a small creek on his farm, installing as generator connected to a water wheel same as once used in every grain mill throughout the country, strung wires, and brought electricity into his home. It was crude compared to what we have today, and the D.C. power he was able to generate had unique characteristics of its own. Steady lights depended on the water wheel turning the generator at a constant rate, and that wasn't always easy to accomplish, but he did have electricity!
I didn’t forget the obvious, the primary source of all life and energy/fuel on the earth. The sun! The possibilities of solar power will be discussed another time.
What I'm trying to say is that we are not putting forth the effort to improve and make use of these technologies that have been with us for so long. Are we lazy, or what? Where is that once admired Yankee ingenuity? Perhaps necessity will once again become the driving force to economic recovery and energy/fuel independence.

Which Way America?

Deregulate and privatize, the watch words of the Republican party. What have they deregulated and privatized that didn't turn to dust? How many states have tried privately run prisons? A few years ago this was to be the big thing. Are they still being used? Have they been as cost effective as they were advertised?
There's an old saying that "if it's not broken, don't fix it.".
Social Security and Medicare - two of the most successful government programs ever to come out of Washington.
A few years ago when Republicans wanted to "privatize" SS, they used the scare tactics they have become so adept at using. When objections are raised about issues such as these, they come out with all sorts of worst scenario outcomes, just as with "the great corporate welfare giveaway", which, I'm afraid won't do the job Washington is telling us, except for banks and corporations and their already overpaid CEO's. The majority of us want to know how it will affect Joe Six Pack.
I don't understand; why is it that the Blue Collar workers remain so loyal to the Republican Party, when they are getting the short end of the stick? They don't get the tax breaks, or have available the tax loopholes that the more affluent have. Stock Market? Many of them think that is where cattle are bought and sold.I don't mean to denigrate these Blue collar workers and laborers, because they are what is holding this country together. True, they are on the low end of the social and economic strata, but they are ever so necessary.
It is not their fault they are born poor. It's an accident of birth. Yes, we have all heard and read stories how someone through hard work and perseverance rose up to become a Captain of Industry, but those stores are the exception.
For me personally, I am just one generation from those Blue Collar laborers, and I know what it was like to grow up in that environment.. Materially, I am better off than my parents, as are most people of my generation. (depression/pre- WWII). The generation that followed mine likewise was in general better off than mine. But all that is changing. Economists are saying this won't be the case for the generation after that (my grandchildren).
What once seemed endless horizons in this country has now become a struggle just to survive. Have we reached the end of our time of greatness? Is it now time for us to take our place among those other former great nations?
What are the forces trying to bring this about, and are there forces trying to negate this?