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• Balancing the budget
  
• Research & Development Grants
  
• Education Loans/Grants
  
• Small business loans/Grants
  
• public financing of elections
  

Where are the sources? Try here.

It is impossible for the government to go bankrupt - they control the money supply.

Bzzt. That might be true if they controlled the money supply used by all the people they own money to. One of the (many) huge holes to your argument is that foreign countries and interests make up 23% of the debt owners. It's actually more than that if you break up some of the other categories and see that there are foreign investors in many of those.

Those folks won't accept 'funny money' that the government prints up if they think the dollar is unstable/worthless. They'll want it in real currency.

Wrong. Paying off the debt would only manage to transfer the debt burden from the debt holders, who hold the debt as an income-producing asset, to tax payers, who receive no financial benefit from paying the extra taxes.

You mean it would transfer the money that is currently being pumped outside the country (interest to foreign debt holders) back into the pockets of Americans who could then earn the interest themselves.

Keeping up with the idiot neo-con BS I see... Lots of BS.

Who spent us into the huge National Debt?

Reagan, Bush, and Bush II.
You can keep claiming Democrats are the big spenders, but the facts disagree entirely with you.

Look at the debt over the years. Pay attention to the years when it goes on an upward curve.

Reagan era: 1980-1988
Bush I era: 1988-1992
Clinton era: 1992-2000
Bush II era: 2000-->

Looking at the graph you see a huge upturn when Regan comes into office, and it keeps on going up at that steep angle until Clinton comes in, when it starts leveling off (and actually going down corrected for inflation). Then under Bush II it takes off for the sky at a higher rate than ever before. And this is with Bush II having both houses fully Republican. The neo-cons are spend crazy. They've had a lot of years to decrease big government, but all they have been doing is increasing it.

If you claim Democrats spent us into the huge debt, you are lying or stupid. Since you are a neo-con, I'll assume both.

I don't know who else is going to consume that energy, but considering that your country has a national debt of 8.5 trillion dollars http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/ I'm thinking that most Americans shouldn't have the wealth and products they currently have.

Just check the mirror if it's down :)

...a country with a long history of corporate problems and financial issues...

Ah yes, 'cause you'd never get government financial solvency issues or corporate problems in America, would you?

The International Space Station is a novel idea and I've always supported countries working together. After reading the Wikipedia entry on its costs, I have to question its utility versus the cost. The European Space Agency estimates it to be around 100 billion Euros which isn't cheap.

According the Wikipedia entry, NASA spends $5 billion annually on the ISS. I guess I hope to hear more news of discoveries from ISS and scientific advancements once it nears completion but I have not seen much in the news as of late. In fact, Hubble seems to be the best investment we've made next to the ISS. Is this just a proof of concept that we can work together with other nations on space exploration? What do we envision for the ISS in our future?

I know that this is an easy thing to complain about and I'm not the first to ask if it's really worth it. But can anyone tell me what $5 billion of our tax payer dollars has done for us? And why is it that construction grinds to a halt when only one of the member nations involved grounds its shuttles? Is this really an "international" space station? Also, doesn't this leave the United States eternally committed to developing this project? Will we ever be able to opt out of this even after its completion?

With the current administration in the United States, spending doesn't seem to worry them at all. And with the National Debt Clock ticking at around $8.5 trillion these days, I guess I should expect nothing more. Why is it that "small government conservatives" have the knack to make that clock jump by large percentages?

Most people don't understand the background. The U.S. government has been helping oil companies in secret since before 1950, and that has led to an expectation by rich oil investors that the U.S. government will lower the cost of doing business by getting the U.S. taxpayer to pay for security arrangements. The U.S. government secretly, or semi-secretly, breaks the law, kills people, including Arabs and Muslims, and and destroys the property of anyone who stands in the way of oil and other profits. Here is a short summary of the kinds of actions that have caused the U.S. government to be corrupted: History surrounding the U.S. wars with Iraq: Four short stories.

The U.S. government is in dire circumstances. Money is being taken from the people and given to the rich in enormous quantities. See the old article, U.S. Federal Deficit by Political Party. See how much things have gotten worse since then: National Debt. Oil and weapons investors profit: Cost of Iraq War.

See a short review of books and movies about conflict of interest: Unprecedented Corruption: A guide to conflict of interest in the U.S. government.

It's far worse than these short references say.

I don't think the bush admin or the right wing realize that the terrorists' goal is not to 'defeat us' but to spread confusion, fear, division, and dissarray.

Getting us to give up our rights is a victory for them.

but only the truly brave can dare to defend the rights of the people when borders are threatened, and stand by the conviction of the idea that it is the people that are more important, rather than the government

Excellent point. But the point can be taken further:

Countries, like companies, tend to talk toughest when they're in decline. The U.S. government has invaded 24 countries since the Second World War, killing people and destroying their property.

If you look around, it is more than a few organizations in decline. We are experiencing a wholesale cultural breakdown.

It is also good to remember that Forbes Magazine is owned by Steve Forbes, and Steve Forbes is a socially backward man with the past you would expect of someone whose father was rich. Here is the second Google link to a search on "Steve Forbes": Steve Forbes' Skeleton Closet

Here is the first Google search result: Steve Forbes. Remember, he ran for president of the United States.

What is written in Forbes Magazine is valuable because it is an example of how rich people think. The only thing that matters to them is their own unbalanced ideas. When I say "rich people", I'm not talking about the condition of having a lot of money. I'm talking about the condition of being psychologically unbalanced by a lot of money.

This particular Forbes article is an example of the stream of consciousness of the kind of people who have almost no inner principles except that money is important, and of the kind of people who work for them and who have adopted their view of life.

The author of the article, Parmy Olson, is "an Assistant News Editor at Forbes.com", it says.

"That's false. Clinton's budgets produced 6 years of surplus, not just one. Look it up."

I did. Actually, all 8 Clinton years produced defecit. The debt increased. A lot. Here is just one of the references showing an ever-soaring debt line:

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/history.gif

"And no... the total national debt was lower when he left office than when he came in. Once again, look it up."

Is your calculator upside down. Let's check it out: In 1992, the national debt was about 3.5 trillion. In 2000, it was about 5.5 trillion. Last time I checked, that was an increase.

"Yes... he raised taxes in 1993. Rush Limbaugh and others predicted that this would plummet the US into a depression."

Rush was wrong, but Clinton's policies did bring along a recession at the end of his administration.

"Rush even bet the DNC $1 million that all five major economic indicators would be worse one year after the 1993 omnibus bill."

I think you are more concerned with Limbaugh's lame prognostication than you are with cold hard national debt figures.

"He raised the tax rates on those making more than $200,000."

So? Does this make it good for the government to be greedy?

"Patently and provably false."

"He came into office with the government 6 trillion in debt, he left with the government less than 5 trillion in debt. You have it exactly backwards."

What the hell? Are you MIRROR IMAGING the national debt trend charts????

"The GAO, which is independent of the White House, recorded a surplus for the final six Clinton budgets... Fiscal Years 1996 through 2001."

They did not. For every single year, they spent more than they took in.

"George Bush's government has spent like a drunken sailor and plunged this country nearly two extra trillion in debt since he took office."

That puts him on track with what Bill Clinton did in all his years in office. Only Bush is doing it faster. What does that make Clinton? A moderately inebriated sailor???

"Clinton was the best thing (fiscally) to happen to this government in your lifetime"

Carter and Ford increased the debt a lot less than Clinton did.

No. I am just aware of the facts that when you add trillions to the debt, it means that the debt is trillions higher.

"and you were too blinded by your hatred of all things not GOP to realize it."

I have no partisan bias. I readily realize that Bush spending policy is worse than Clinton's (even if Bush's tax policy is more fair and sane and has resulted in record high IRS revenues). What blind hatred is causing you to re-label yearly Clinton budget defefits as surpluses? Here's some more real-world data. Try not to mirror-image the GIF this time: http://www.adrich.com/Opn2004/Oct04.2.gif

I mean every household only owes about $400,000 in government debt which I'm sure is sustainable.

That number looked really wrong to me so I looked it up:
Debt = 8.4 trillion
Households = 110 million
Population = 295 million

So we owe $28,000 per person, and about $76,000 per household.

SMS Aleart From Department Of Homeland Security

The Terrorist group "The Coalition Of Creditor Nations" is invading the US in order to repo our stuff. Luckily the security systems in our airports will protect the security systems in our airports from those who financed them. Terror. Terror. Stay the course. Weapons of mass destruction.

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

$2000 per year for every man, woman and child is the going rate. And don't forget all those boxes coming back from Iraq...Iran...Iraq...which one was it?

Judging from the outside, HP's CEO before Carly, Lew Platt, was a terrible manager. But Carly was far worse.

While HP was under Carly, our company stopped buying HP products because we would discover large problems within the first few minutes of installation and use. If the disconnected-from-reality mood of HP's technical support was any guide, things were VERY weird at HP while Carly was there.

A lot of HP's ability to make a profit comes from selling inkjet ink for $8000 per gallon and from people who learned long ago that HP had the best products, but have not updated their understanding.

Carly's former job was at Lucent Technologies, another company on the way down. Lucent has gone from about 165,000 employees to 30,500 employees, and from $84 share price to $2.37.

Note that Lucent is another company with a female CEO, Patricia Russo.

Both Carly Fiorina and Patricia Russo are heavily involved with Bush league politics. They inhabit a parallel universe in which they are considered a success while their organizations are on the way down, just some have considered the the U.S. government a success as it has been on the way down since Bush was elected. Losers find each other.

Some people think that someone with no technical experience, and little respect for technical experience, can run a technical company. I think that belief is hogwash.

Ok, if demand for a commodity increases, it's price increases and more money is spent on that commodity reducing the supply of money in the economy for other commodities, the value of the money increases proportionately with every purchase. Whether costs in the production of a product go up or down is irrelevant, what matters is the demand for the product, if the costs increase the price beyond the demand, it won't sell, the value of the money is higher than the value of the product. The only way for the cost of everything in the economy to increase is if the money is worth less. i.e. there's more of it around because it's being printed/borrowed from thin air.

The inflation I mentioned is already in the system, it just has to work it's way through the economy to you.

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

The piper will have to be paid.

Senator John Edwards: George W. Bush is the "worst president of our lifetime".

The U.S. government is becoming involved in a culture of all war, all the time, and all surveillance, all the time.

Most people don't realize that former presidents have access to CIA and NSA data. So, if voters in the U.S. elect a president who has family and friends and business associates heavily invested in oil and weapons companies, that president will be able to use the data to spy on competitors. It's not so crude as that; it's much more sneaky, but that's the result.

The main purpose of the Iraq war was to arrange that the Iraq oil profits would go to Americans. Other purposes: 1) Saddam Hussein of Iraq was upsetting the planned artificial scarcity of oil, and oil companies wanted oil prices to go up. (Yes, there is real scarcity, too.) 2) The oil was being sold by Saddam Hussein for euros. If other countries began selling their oil for euros, the dollar, weakened by unprecedented debt, could crash. Instead, the value is going down slowly, making everything more expensive for people in the United States. The weakening of the dollar is equivalent to stealing the value of people's savings. 3) The U.S. government gives perhaps $5 billion each year to Israel; the money is used to kill Arabs. Saddam Hussein had made threatening statements about that, and Paul Wolfowitz arranged that the U.S. would pay for Israel's security, serving his culture against the best interests of his country. (They call it "doctrine" to give it a kind of religious importance.)

There's nothing "conservative" about Republicans. Some Republicans are responsible leaders, but others have formed a kind of crime syndicate to sell the U.S. government to whomever can use influence to make money. See U.S. Federal Deficit by Political Party.

U.S. Vice-president Cheney, whose friends and family and business associates are invested in oil and weapons, had a secret meeting with oil executives. A few months later, the price of gas rose enormously. Coincidence?

--
Taxpayer Karma: If you give money to kill people, expect your own quality of life to diminish.

Edwards: George W. Bush is the "worst president of our lifetime".

The U.S. government is becoming involved in a culture of all war, all the time, and all surveillance, all the time.

Most people don't realize that former presidents have access to CIA and NSA data. So, if voters in the U.S. elect a president who has family and friends and business associates heavily invested in oil and weapons companies, that president will be able to use the data to spy on competitors. It's not so crude as that; it's much more sneaky, but that's the result.

The main purpose of the Iraq war was to arrange that the Iraq oil profits would go to Americans. Other purposes: 1) Saddam Hussein of Iraq was upsetting the planned artificial scarcity of oil, and oil companies wanted oil prices to go up. (Yes, there is real scarcity, too.) 2) The oil was being sold by Saddam Hussein for euros. If other countries began selling their oil for euros, the dollar, weakened by unprecedented debt, could crash. Instead, the value is going down slowly, making everything more expensive for people in the United States. The weakening of the dollar is equivalent to stealing the value of people's savings. 3) The U.S. government gives perhaps $5 billion each year to Israel; the money is used to kill Arabs. Saddam Hussein had made threatening statements about that, and Paul Wolfowitz arranged that the U.S. would pay for Israel's security, serving his culture against the best interests of his country. (They call it "doctrine" to give it a kind of religious importance.)

There's nothing "conservative" about Republicans. Some Republicans are responsible leaders, but others have formed a kind of crime syndicate to sell the U.S. government to whomever can use influence to make money. See U.S. Federal Deficit by Political Party.

U.S. Vice-president Cheney, whose friends and family and business associates are invested in oil and weapons, had a secret meeting with oil executives. A few months later, the price of gas rose enormously. Coincidence?

--
Taxpayer Karma: If you give money to kill people, expect your own quality of life to diminish.

Helium-3 is a good reason to return to the moon .

It is theorized that there are over 1 million cubic tons,
with oil over $50 a barrel, and helium-3 then being worth
about 8 billion USD a ton, the total worth equalling 8,000 trillion USD .

It could smash the US deficit with 7,991 trillion USD to spare .

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

Also keep in mind most of the "other" moons have this as well .

Here are some photos of the reactor at the University of Wisconsin :

http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/iec/GeneralOpPics.htm

http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/iec/GeneralOpPicsII.htm

25 tons could power the US electrical needs for a year :

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/helium3_0006 30.html

I don't need to tell anyone that the US is the largest user of electricity on
the planet at present, and slated for massive growth .

The current immmigration bill sets aside for 100 - 200 million new citizens .

Kulcinski adds that, if it sold for $4 billion a metric ton, helium-3 would still be a
good energy value: "That's the equivalent of paying $28 a barrel for oil."

It will be a cold day in hell before we see oil at $28 a barrel again .....

So adjust the math accordingly ...

It becomes more viable with every passing day .

If we can make solar mining robots for the moon to process the soil, and
then use a mass driver to fling a projectile canister into lunar orbit for pick up.
Then a lunar orbit robotic satellite mass driver to fire it into earth geo-sync orbit .

Then have either a new space station, shuttle, or satellite prep it for re-entry
into the ocean for pick up much like the apollo capsules .

The robotic equipment could be tested here on earth prior to deployment on the moon .

It might be possible to make robots that could build it all via remote control, but
most likely we would initially need ppl to go to the moon to build the mass driver
and support facilities .

Building some or all of the support facilities underground would protect it to some
degree versus leaving it exposed on the surface .

At some future point 3HE+3HE fusion will be achieved and it will have zero nuetron emissions
and thus be truly clean as per the following link .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fusion#Criter ia_and_candidates_for_terrestrial_reactions

Hope for the future ...

Ex-MislTech

No, actually They don't. Your country is screwed. Spend your money while you can it won't be worth the paper it's printed on in a few years. Look up "Argentina Economic Crisis" on wikipedia to see where the US will be by the end of Bush's presidency.

( M3 reports?
US National Debt?. ("The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $1.95 billion per day since September 30, 2005!")
BTW: Has Iran already started selling oil in Euro's? )

Typically these expenditures are popular (war here is the exception).

If you're trying to imply that the war in Iraq is the reason for our deficits, you need to add some facts to your thinking.

The cost of the Iraq war will be about 315 billion as of September 2006, which is in the future.

The current national deficit is on the order of 8.3 trillion.

Even if we had spent nothing on the Iraq war, that only gets you down to 8 trillion.

For all the coverage in the media, we are fighting this war with our pinky finger*. The bitching about the monetary costs of the war has its origin more in politics than reality. The real problems lie elsewhere, and are left as an exercise for the interested reader.

(*: Something the true enemies of America may wish to consider, lest they do something stupid that precipitates a popular and obviously necessary war.)

Other nations actually purchase that debt, in the form of U.S. Treasury bonds and notes. Those bonds have increasingly been snapped up not just by private investors but by foreign banks. Japanese investors hold the most U.S. debt, but China has been buying more than any other country in recent months.

The biggest trade deficit is with China, too, at $162 billion. Japan is next, at $75 billion.

If you want to reduce the federal debt, you can always make a contribution! Come on, if we all chip in it will be gone in no time. If we each make a $30,000 contribution then will at least have payed off our share of the debt. No big deal, right?

That's funny, because the overall federal deficit experienced a net increase under Clinton's watch, as this graph shows clearly.

It's amazing there are still people who think the US government was firmly in the black until the Great Satan Bush, from whom all evil springs, took office.

$3TRILLION a year Federal budget. $45TRILLION of committed US debt

Specifically, the Office of Management and Budget gives the outlay estimate at $2,472,205,000,000. The Debt Clock reads $8,351,239,051,664 as of this posting.

Why isn't this guy/gal modded up? Because the post cuts right into the heart of discussed book: Democrats fighting the superiorly organised Republican machine through net-roots? Whatever they do, it's going to be fighting the symptoms, not the causes, of everything that's not going right in the US of A. And that's the 2-party system that caters to money.

The whole political encouragement/empowerment system that's currently in place favors money, and the larger the sum the better. Money, and looking slightly better than the other side. Because both parties have become quagmired in the quest for money (money equates campaign funds, and hey, while you're at it, why not help yourself for your hard work?), compromising and sacrificing more and more on their path. Republicans for slimmer central government? Not really; cutting programs costs them elections. Democrats doing better in terms of social justice? Anyone taking a stand on fighting wars for oil? HA.

The thing that wins elections is campaign funds. Whatever either party promises, it will be what they think the majority wants to hear. The real difference is in terms of which company pledges to whom. Right now Republicans score better in terms of being blatant enough about giving tax-cuts and benefits to the campaign-financiers, with Democrats scrambling to save the 'ruins of their party'.

That it's a problem for America that there is a 2-party system with an entrenched political elite was recognised 150 years ago. Yet the system is still in place, acerbated by being more firmly entrenched in plutarchic politics than ever.

I don't want to hear how the 'good guys can win from the bad guys', I want to hear a way of breaking out of this mess. The current system is obviously not sustainable, while several countries seem to manage a lot better corruption-wise with a multi-party system. That, to me, is a lot more interesting than mere battle-tactics.

Wow.

What I don't understand is why there isn't more alarm in the USA about this situation. From my studies of economics I have come to understand that we don't really understand economics - for every economist that says the debt in the USA is a big problem, you can find another that will say it's not a problem at all. Conclusion - we don't know. However, as a biologist I do understand that graphs like this one generally indicate that a big change is about to happen:

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/history.gif

Except for the immense debt we are piling on at our levels of government (8.2 trillion national, not including social security or medicare, state and local bonds, etc OR interest!)

mostly what he expressed is opinion.. you may very well disagree.. but that certainly doens't make him a moron

You're making assumptions. It's not whether or not anyone dis/agrees that makes him a moron, it's the opinion(s) he posted.

Specificly, disagreeing with a moronic opinion is not mutually exclusive with the holder or purveyor of the opinion being a moron - a moron is a moron, independant of whether or not anyone agrees or disagrees with the moronic opinions expressed by said moron.

let's see how many pro-bush comments are modded up vs how many anti-bush comments are modded up.

Why would anyone in their right mind mod up a pro-Bush comment?

You are creating a completely spurious and hypothetical argument, here. Those that support the Regime are mostly too stoopid to figure out how to post - and those that have the requisite chimpanzee skills to work a keyboard are incapable of composing a coherent message of support.

Furthermore, any message of support for Dubya would de facto have to include a lot of lies (i.e. BULLSHIT), and since that's one thing that does function pretty well around here is the bullshit detectors, well, you're just shit outta luck, buddro.

Let me also point out to you that, in supporting the dumbasses in the Whitehouse, you are not "resisting the group-think", you're just demonstrating that you are of below-average intelligence.

good lord did he rape your mother or something?

Well, the perp is a Republican, so it was probably not the mother. Probably more like the little brother. It was Clinton liked the femmes, remember? That seemed to piss you guys off, for some reason...

calm down.

Hey, you're the one whose panting and sweating, whining and begging that the rest of us please quit talking about your little bitch Dubya and his bitch dom Cheney. Calm down yerself.

look i understand the typical ./er doesn't like bush

Do you really? I don't think you do, or you would understand that it's not about "like", it's about things like Patriotism and the Constitution. It's about America before it was taken over by a Fascist Regime. "Like" doesn't figure into it. It's about the Constutution, the Rule of Law, Freedom, Democracy, and (of course) Economics. And no, no one expects you to understand any of that, it's obvious to all that you're ... politically challenged, shall we say.

One day we'll have to sit down and talk about that "typical ./er" remark, too - I hear a lot from the fanatics on your team about "typical slashdotters" - they've never managed to demonstrate the alleged phenomenon to my satistfaction, note - but you're the first I've noticed raving about dot-slashers...

but would you all please stop talking like this?

Like what? Like Americans? Like people who care? Like people who know wtf they're talking about? Why? Do those things bother you so much? No wonder you support a regime that promises you it will make everything the same - make it all go away ...

Of couse, it may be that you're confusing /. with the voices in your head - if so, I can tell you in good confidence that you need to drink heavily. And take more drugs. It really does help.

or atleast stop acting like this is unique.

Actually, if you go back and check, you'll find that it is

Jesse Helms? Strom Thurmond? The Southern Manifesto? Yeah, real upstanding bunch.

All the people who reelected Reagan in 1984 would probably disagree with you. "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"

Are you better off than you were 25 years ago? To the tune of $8.2 Trillion better off? No, not in the slightest. I've got a quote you might recognize... "To continue this long trend [deficit spending] is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals... government is not the solution to our problem; Government is the problem." -- Ronald Reagan, 1981

Oh, you don't remember that? Let me refresh your memory with the #1 and #2 google search results.... Oops!! I guess hearing that Ronald Reagan uttered the words "Government is the problem" just isn't politically correct any more. You'll have to check the other results for ronald reagan 1981 inaugural address because #1 & #2 have simply edited that little bit out. Hmmm, I wonder how long it will be before results 1-30 don't mention the actual words spoken. But hey, now we're way off topic.

Mind you, I'm not arguing for the Democrats. I'm simply pointing to evidence of the truth contained in the article we're supposed to be discussing. Did you even think before you typed out your post? It sounds like you retrieved duckspeak directly from memory to me.

Ask yourself what the various levels of government have done to earn a quarter of the wealth spawned by Google.

Oh I know *raises hand* Spent 8.2 trillion dollars the united states government didn't have! almost half of that during the current administrations watch!

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

Yes a miserable failure. How can running a 500 billion dollar deficit be considered anything other than a failure? its really to bad that other people are going to have to clean up his mess... What happens when China finally decides to stop lending the US billions of dollars every year? Who is going to pay back the 8 TRILLION dollar debt the US already has? I wonder how much interest someone would have to pay each year on 8 trillion dollars.

Now lets list the other failures... Well Lying to the American public and the world about their reasons to invade and occupy IRAQ, do you think anyone would have supported the reasons to go to war if bush says "I really don't like Saddam, and he has lots of oil so lets go get him".

Has anyone ever heard the phrase "Your doing a heck of a job brownie". Hell since 9/11 he hasn't even been able to capture Bin Laden but to hide his failure he "liberated" IRAQ.. to bad the Iraqi's don't see him as a liberator... I guess the thousand protestors in Pakistan just haven't come around yet either? I wonder how happy Americans would be if china bombed a US neighborhood to kill an enemy than said that the woman and children who were killed were an unfortunate necessity. What makes an American childs life worth more than a child in pakistan? and you wonder why they grow up wantring to blow America.

Heh, this is almost fun.

Nope, this is just your usual dictatorship FUD; keep the population poor, afraid and ignorant.

Poor:

An Analysis of the Presidents Who Are Responsible For Excessive Spending
Bush Borrowed More Than All Previous Presidents Combined, Group Says
Surplus? US Debt Pushes $6 Trillion
U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK (this is a very interesting one, in my humble opinion)

(hint: guess whose taxes are going to pay for that)

Afraid:

U.S. Department of Defense News About The War On Terrorism
The War On Terrorism
AMERICA'S WAR AGAINST TERRORISM

Ignorant:

Education Not a Bush Budget Priority, Representative Miller to Testify
Bush Budget Slashes Education, Other Domestic Programs
$2.5 Trillion Budget Plan Cuts Many Programs
Bush administration Cuts Public School Funding to Pay for New Private School Voucher Scheme

And you complain about China? I'm afraid you have the same problems in your country (assuming you're American).

That is not quite true. A lot of people are trying to get the word out. Problem is, that a lot of people are backing a traitor, know it, and are doing their best to keep other quiet on what is obviously their mistake. Think about how many people here who support bush would admit that they are supporting a traitor, a liar, an obstructor, financially inept, security inept, etc. etc.? This man makes Clinton look positively compitent as well as making McCartney look like a lover of freedoms.

Martin told the forum that the FCC will soon release a report that concludes that offering TV programming a la carte is economically feasible and in the best interest of consumers.

Aaaah, but you owe money,The estimated population of the United States is 297,723,317 so each citizen's share of this debt is $27,194.36.[www.brillig.com] dont make us go there and break your knees...lol

The federal debt is over $8 Trillion http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/. The deficit is the yearly increase.

But that's ok, at least the taxpayers aren't paying for it; we borrow $50 billion each month. Incidentally, happy eight-trillion-dollar-debt month!

Hell, if we sent $6BILLION of JPL engineers a month to Iraq instead of invading, Iraq would have a Moon base by now.

Yes yes, but first let's stop the hemorrhaging National Debt-- when I was a kid, we thought a $4 Trillion National Debt was BAD. It will hit $8 Trillion any day now.

The USA is Dying

It is official -- The UN is now confirming: The USA is dying

One more crippling bombshell crushed the already beleaguered American economy
when x-rates.com confirmed that the American Dollar has dropped yet again,
now down to .9 of a Euro. Coming on the heels of a recent Usenet survey which plainly states that The American Economy is in a recession, this news serves to
  reinforce what we've known all along. The USA is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last [samag.com] in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict the USA's future. The hand writing is on the wall: The USA faces a bleak future. In fact there won't
be any future at all for the USA because it is dying. Things are looking very bad for America. As many of us are already aware, the US continues to lose relevence. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

The IT industry is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core
developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time IT jobs to india only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: The American IT Industry is dying.

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

Microsoft Encarta states that there are 291,065,636 people in America. What is the US's national debt? Let's see. According to the The Debt clock the USA's National Debt is 6,465,271,811,559.14. Therefore each American
is $22,212.42. in debt. In fact, the USA's national debt has continued to
  increase an average of $992 million per day since September 30, 2002. Indeed,
it can clearly be seen the the US is going broke faster then the Soviet Union did

Due to the troubles of American Meddling, An Capitalist Gorvernment and so on,
South Vietnam was attacked was taken over by North Vietnam who sell another
a more compassionate government. Now Iraq is also dead, its corpse turned over
to feed the US media.

All major surveys show that the USA has steadily declined in the world economy.
America is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If
the USA is to survive at all it will be among a broken collection of warring
factions. America continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save
it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, the United States of America is dead.

Fact: The USA is dying

I personally was seriously turned off by the terms of service of the commercial "geocache.com"[1] (complete with the traditional "all your copyright are belong to us" provisions and "only premium subscribers can see this cache data" sections, and the proprietary fit (my potentially uninformed interpretation) they seem to have thrown about Their data being plotted for geocachers at Buxley's Maps site, but the sport itself is a huge amount of fun.

Although they don't yet have as many cache sites in their database as the "geocache.com" site, Navicache does have worldwide coverage and a much friendlier attitude (more of a "you are providing the cache data, it belongs to YOU" kind of attitude, and more like a "gift shop" business model than geocache.com's "tollbooth" one).

As far as equipment: A "Garmin Etrex Legend" (eventually to be replaced with something else - the Garmin's okay but I want one that I can more easily 'hack' to make it operate my own maps, etc.) and a laptop running Slackware with GPSDrive - the waypoint database of which is loaded with the entire Navicache.com set plus the USGS GNIS data for reference.

[1]They're not doing anything ILLEGAL or anything. It's just that I almost get the feeling that they feel they "own" the whole sport and the rights to it. They have every right to their "tollbooth-style" business model - it just feels like the wrong attitude to me when the sport is really maintained by the enthusiasts themselves, so I don't use them personally.

It should be obvious that the US can take care of itself financialy better than anyone.

Yeah, just about as well as some dipshit who thinks a credit card is free money.

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

It Ain't Gettin' Paid Back. EVER.

The idea is to loot the treasury while they can, and then move on to greener pastures elsewhere. 70 years on copyright? Who cares? Once the economy implodes, the USA will crumble like the CCCP did in the early 1990s. The debt will disappear because the USgov disappeared. Oil will be largely unavailable, the sauburbs will implode, and North America will become just another impoverished shit hole backwater, while the Steel Wheels of Corporate capitalism crush the life out of some other up and coming part of the planet. Remember: YOU VOTED FOR IT.

Sure: 70 years on copyright? Fuck - make it a 1000. It's not going to matter. And for that matter - up the national debt. I want to see the USA in the hole for $10 quadrillion bucks.

As it is, if the USgov paid back its debt at the rate of $1,000,000 a day (HA!)it'll take over 21,000 years to pay it back. So who cares? Blow that out by a factor of 10,000x. IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

Stick a Fork In America, kids. She's done.

RS

The DJIA is just the average stock price of 30 big US companies. It tells you nothing about the US economy.

This is far more germaine:

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

The national deficit is at around 7 trillion dollars. Nasa's budget this year - 16 billion dollars. Even with the increases scheduled in NASAs budget it doesn't get above 20 billion in this decade. Even at 20 billion a year it take roughly 350 years to pay off the deficit, and that's if it stopped growing NOW.

The education system in America needs repair no doubt about it. I don't agree that we no longer attract bright students from abroad. I would say that a degree from a U.S. institution is still highly valued. Carnigie Mellon and MIT remain some of the best schools in the world for engineering and computer science.

If immigration was stopped and all illegal aliens were sent back to their respective countries there would be a massive shortage in the labor force. In my area a vast majority of the construction force is made up of illegal aliens.

Yeah the country has some problems, it always had problems and always will. That's no reason to stop space exploration, or scientific research, or any number of other things

I didn't have time to translate the entire article to English, due to a problem called work.

Here is my opinion about U.S. government corruption. It is a review of 35 books from respected publishers and 3 movies: Unprecedented Corruption: A guide to conflict of interest in the U.S. government.

My understanding is that the U.S. government is extremely corrupt, but most U.S. citizens just don't want to know. They've been told for so long that theirs is the best country in the world that they have difficulty believing otherwise.

The U.S. government hides its corruption. For example, see this article: History surrounding the U.S. war with Iraq: Four short stories.

The present terrorism was caused by U.S. government support for violence against Arabs and others in the Middle East. Not surprisingly, there were people there who decided to fight violence with more violence. I think that violence is caused by mental illness, but it is easy to understand that Arabs don't like to be killed, and that some of them would decide to do to the U.S. what the U.S. government was doing to them.

I would be very interested to know how you view the information at this web site: U.S. Debt Clock. Do you say, "Oh, well, that's not real corruption. They are just stealing money?" Has the $7 trillion dollars borrowed made you richer? If it hasn't, where did the money go? It is a fact that people who were already rich got most of the money.

The U.S. government is stealing money from its own people and killing people in other countries. Can that somehow be considered moral?

See the Downing Street Memo. The U.S. government lied to the American people to justify its violence. Congressman like John Conyers are unhappy about that, even if you aren't.

The U.S. and British governments have a long history of destructive involvement in the mideast. Those who don't know that don't have the means to understand what is happening today.

Good comment about culture.

I'm an American, and my impression is that, in general, Brazilians seem to have healthier family lives than Americans.

The person who wrote the grandparent comment said, "One town I was in the ratio of women to men was 8:1!" This is just a cultural misunderstanding. The single Brazilian women thought he was exotic, and they were interested in meeting him. Only that. In most towns, the most interesting things to do are social. It just seemed like there were more women in the town than men because the single women were more interested in meeting him. His popularity was connected to the interest that Brazilian women have in marrying.

I've read other comments to this Slashdot story, and I feel uncomfortable with the implication in some of them that the Brazilian culture is less developed. I feel uncomfortable with the idea that the Brazilian government is more corrupt than the U.S. government.

I write a column about culture, called "Duas Culturas", for a small Brazilian newspaper. The column compares Brazilian and U.S. culture. It's a new column and I will soon try to sell it to other newspapers, so most of the articles are not online. However, one of them is below, slightly modified for online reading.

Here is a translation to English of the first paragraph:

"My Brazilian friends talk a lot about corruption in the Brazilian government and violence in Brazilian society. The things that they say seem reasonable. However, the way that they speak frequently implies that corruption and violence are much worse in Brazil than in other countries. In truth, corruption and violence are very serious problems in the U.S., also."

Duas Culturas
Two Cultures

"Um americano compartilha pensamentos e opiniões sobre o Brasil e os EUA"

Meus amigos brasileiros falam bastante sobre corrupção no governo brasileiro e violência na sociedade brasileira. As coisas que eles dizem parecem razoáveis. Porém, o modo que eles falam freqüentemente insinua que corrupão e violência são muito piores no Brasil do que em outros países. Na verdade, corrupção e violência são problemas muito sérios nos Estados Unidos também.

Desde que o presidente George Bush foi eleito, o governo norte-americano tem pedido dinheiro emprestado a uma velocidade sem precedente. Os EUA devem hoje mais dinheiro do que qualquer outro governo na história do mundo. No momento, os EUA devem mais de US$ 7 trilhões. O dinheiro vai para os ricos; as pessoas da classe média ficam mais pobres. (Na internet: U.S. Debt Clock ). O empréstimo é a razão porque o valor do dólar está se desvalorizando rapidamente.

Há uma discussão sobre violência na sociedade e prisões brasileiras demonstrada no excelente filme brasileiro "Ônibus 174". Para comparação, se você sabe inglês e tem acesso à internet, você pode assistir um documentário norte-americano mostrado na televisão de lá, chamado The New Asylums . O documentário discute o fato de que o governo americano põe as pessoas mentalmente doentes em prisões. De todos os países no mundo, os EUA têm a porcentagem mais alta de seus cidadãos em prisões. Você pode comparar a superpopulação e tortura em prisões brasileiras com o tratamento extremamente agressivo em prisões norte-americanas. Houve também muitas histórias sobre o governo norte-americano torturando prisioneiros no Iraque e em Guantánamo, Cuba. Qual governo tortura mais? O governo dos EUA matou estimadas 3,000,000 de pessoas desde o fim da Segunda Guerra Mundial. Qual governo mata mais?

Dê sua opinião: Michael Jennings, Caixa Postal 122, Campos do Jordão, SP 12460-000. duasculturas AT gmail DOT com. ©2005. Duas Culturas e Two Cultures são marcas de serviço.

There are many people in the U.S. who say they are pro-Republican when they are actually just pro-anger or are "religious" in an extremist obsessive-thinking manner. Anyone who is logical enough to be a computer programmer is likely to notice their lack of logic.

There are many good Republicans. But the Re-money-cans are 100% corrupt. They are helping George W. Bush sell the U.S. government to whomever has the money: Unprecedented Corruption: A guide to conflict of interest in the U.S. government.

Background information: History surrounding the U.S. war with Iraq: Four short stories. The U.S. government declared war on Arabs long before there was Arab terrorism against the U.S.: New York Governor Pataki's statements are equivalent to a declaration of war.

The U.S. government is bankrupt. The value of the U.S. dollar is dropping fast because the Bush administration is rapidly borrowing money. Who is doing the borrowing? These people: U.S. Federal Deficit by Political Party. If you are a U.S. citizen, you owe $26,289.01, even if you are only 1 year old.

As Republican John McCain has said many times, campaign finance has corrupted the U.S. government.

I disagree with Senator McCain about Bolton, but at least McCain does not lie about the facts: "We all know that Mr. Bolton is perhaps not the world's most beloved manager, nor one to keep his temper entirely under wraps." McCain is a true Republican.

In my opinion it is worse than you say.

Here are reviews of 35 books and 3 movies that discuss how bad it really is: Unprecedented Corruption: A guide to conflict of interest in the U.S. government.

Background information: History surrounding the U.S. war with Iraq: Four short stories. The U.S. government declared war on Arabs long before there was Arab terrorism against the U.S.: New York Governor Pataki's statements are equivalent to a declaration of war.

The U.S. government is bankrupt. The value of the U.S. dollar is dropping fast because the Bush administration is rapidly borrowing money. Who is doing the borrowing? These people: U.S. Federal Deficit by Political Party. If you are a U.S. citizen, you owe: $26,289.01, even if you are only 1 year old.