No, the Republican Party is losing because it's lost it's way.
It keeps moving to the middle, and trying to be more like the Democrats.
Unless the Republican party returns to smaller government, less government in people's lives. I think the Republican Party will die. And a new conservative/libertarian party will arise.
- Bombed Pakistan, a sovereign nation without permission to engage in hostilities in their territory. (Something even GWB didn't do.)
- No armor for troops, how did he vote on the bills to equip our armed forces?
- Corruption, gee, did anyone Obama appointed actually pay their taxes?
- Stem cell research bans. No ban on stem cell research. Just a ban on a questionable procedure using fetal stem cells. As their was the question of whether it is harming human life or not. You may not think so, but 50% of the nation does. And is it not better to err on the side of caution? Especially, since science non-fetal stem cell research is proving far more successful. Viable treatments have been made with non-fetal. Fetal stem cells have pretty much only resulted in tumors.
- No child left behind. Failure? Or just not as funded as it should be? I guess you prefer suckage schools burdened by unions where teachers don't even have to show up to class and can't be fired. Oh yes...that happens a LOT.
- Torture, hmm water boarding....some of our own military have endured such for training. So how about we just call it training. Oh wait, lives and threats have been saved by such actions. Like the Colonel who pointed a gun at a man's head and pull the trigger (but put the bullet in the wall). He spilled the beans and U.S. soldiers lives were saved. Oh, and we court- martialed him.
- Illegal wiretaps...wait, didn't the Obama administration say they're going to continue doing so? And was what Bush was doing really any worse than what Clinton did? Clinton accessed all the FBI files of rivals. Where as at least Bush was tapping those suspected of terrorist ties. Oh, notice CAIR has now had their ties found out. Bet those revelations stemmed from such wiretaps.
- "Free Speech" zones...what are those? Frankly, I've seldom seen any liberal cause not allowed to speak. Let alone not giving pandering media coverage. Try being a conservative. You're not allowed to express your views in schools, colleges, peaceful protests result in violent arrests and brutalities.
***
"The reason people tend to really like Obama is that he is intelligent, supports science & tech, and has actually accomplished things & shown himself an effective leader"
Really, he's made repeated gaffs. Uneducated gifts and foreign policy blunders. Supports tech an science...granted. Has actually accomplished WHAT?
He has spent his entire life being a policitian. He has accomplished very little other than to get himself elected.
***
"However, you do have to remember that the mess was caused by the deregulation (smells like corruption or at least unethical behaviour, but unfortunately that appears to be Washington politics) of the past 8 years."
No, the mess was far more caused by the following:
1. All of us spending more than we earn.
2. Increased socialization.
3. Fannie/Freddie pushing the mortgage loans into dangerous territory. And it was the Republicans (including President Bush) who repeatedly asked for oversight. But the Democrats always opposed. Any wonder that number 1 & 2 donation receipients were Senator Dodd, chair of the Senate Finance Committee (numero uno responsible person) and Senator Obama.
F/F forced private banks into dangerous territories. It was their only option to compete. When banks like Citigroup refused to grant such risky loans they were sued. Including by a lawyer with the last name Obama. Told they'd be cut off from banking loans if they didn't give the risky urban loans. So they did...as the government forced them.
Meanwhile we decry that AIG executives were getting bonuses but ignore that Fannie/Freddie execs were getting far more bonuses for far more fraud. All because they are so tied to the twits in Washington.
***
"What I've heard is that the Republican's approach to letting the "market" correct itself would actually have lead to a de
I love how the Democrats love to label Republicans as racists. Most of us are equalists.
Of course, the Democrats and media like to turn a blind-eye to racists in the Democrat Party (ie: Byrd). Or when someone like Clinton praises Sanger who was a self-proclaimed eugenist seeking to eliminate ("exterminate") the births of blacks.
Um, I'd wager that such rights were always toward citizens. And not to undeclared combatants. Which have traditionally fallen under the same auspices of spies.
Which traditionally meant they could be summarily executed on the spot by the military.
But people forget that...and frankly, I think it should have been kept solely under military law. Not civilian...
Both parties always blame the other..."If only we had all the majority!"
But the Dems had it in the 90's and reneged on most of their promises. The Republicans had it under Bush...and instead of seeing fiscal conservatism & reduced government we saw expansion. (And please, don't blame it on the religious right. Because most of whom I know were not asking for such crap either.)
Now the Democrats have a super-majority. Probably the only thing they'll do is take over private industry and work to eliminate the 2nd Amendment. Everything else will stay status quo...(ie: bigger government, less liberty).
I think I am changing my party affiliation to "Tea Party"
The media loves trashing the religious-right and blaming them for all the nation's woes.
But seldom does what's claim actually bear out in truth. Take California's proposition for homosexual marriages. That wasn't defeated by the religious-right. It was defeated by the black caucus. Who came out en masse to the nth degree to vote for Obama. And they handedly defeated the measure.
Good...because both sides are stupid on this issue. The real question is why the **** do we need a license from the government to get married in the first place.
The army - we police the world. When our Founding Fathers greatly cautioned having a standing army. They preferred we be an armed populace and a neutral nation. In fact, it would only cost us one year's military budget to arm the entire populace of able bodied Americans. This would make America safe from everything but strategic / mass weapons. So the only other investment we'd need be strategic, missile defense, radiological protections.
Police - I want a refund. I've had to dial 9-1-1 three times in my life. Zero response to any of my calls.
Fire Service - This is a good one, but frankly...we Americans pay more than enough local taxes to cover this one.
Schools - Poor performing schools that teach very little history or science. And focus most of their energy on instigating social woes. Let's not even get into higher education and all it's indoctrination. Nor the fact that in places like California an illegal alien can get aid to attend a state college but a resident cannot.
Healthcare (ideally) - Really, so that we can have 90 day waits for basic service? So we can bankrupt the nation? Or as pretty much all socialized medicine systems in the world do - apply cost/benefit systems so that elderly are not treated. Because their death is economically beneficial to the system.
Justice - We have a bulti-billion dollar legal system. It has very very little justice in it. Criminals, felons who are stopped with firearms are released - at least until they kill a Philly cop. Meanwhile, good decent folk constantly find themselves at the mercy of the court on minute technicalities. Such as the folks in Washington D.C. being ticketed for parking in their own driveways.
Social Services - You mean like the !@#$% I had renting one of my apartments. Who worked the system, neglected her child, didn't pay the $22/month of rent she owed me (the rest being paid by Section 8). Who got disability, child support, and welfare. And was a rude racist woman that bragged about taking advantage of the system.
Sorry, I grew up poor. As a child I thought the kids on welfare were rich. I wanted to be on welfare. In the 80's they always had the color TVs, cable, and ATARI's. Now they have 40" HDTVs, HD Cable, iPhones and Xbox 360's. Meanwhile, many of us who work have had to cut out cable and such luxuries.
How can helping my neighbour help me? - Well, the current administration is talking about greatly reducing the tax incentive for helping others. In fact, we had $10,000 in tax deductions but it doesn't wind up benefiting us.
***
What we do get from the government.... TRASH PICK-UP. I'll take a pass on the rest of government, thank you very much.
In fact, if you reduce the burden of government on the people. I believe most of the needs of society would be provided for, at least to those that will benefit. Sorry, a great many of the homeless are there because of their own doing. They repeatedly receive help and squander it.
I'd wager that 90% of the aid given is consumed by a small sliver of the populace, who are like leeches. Things such as welfare should be limited in time and scope. They also should help raise someone to the next level. Instead, most of our services are designed to encourage poor behavior. Get on welfare, start to work and they take away the help. Now you find yourself still just barely keeping your head above water, but working 40 hours to do so. It's easier to go back to not working and being at the same or better level.
It'd be much better to supplement work. You want welfare, get a job. Who cares what it is...it could be McDonalds or it could be unpaid volunteer position with a charity. Then give enough welfare aid to make a difference.
1) Flash Player, especially since Adobe's been working on it and stating that it's more so a policy issue. (Policy is what seems to be blocking Flash, TomTom, multi-tasking, and more.)
2) Set WiFi alert time. I mean seriously, you drive through downtown and you can't even use your iPhone thanks to all the wifi alerts. That said, you'd still like to know if wifi is available when you're lounging around somewhere. Let us be able to set the following: a) Alert after 30 seconds of availability (this would eliminate the alerts popping up while driving), b) alert met to open/unlocked networks or ALL networks.
3) File transfer (let me be able to easily move files I want available locally on my iphone). And let me move files from other iTunes manually. Enable disk use (wireless and USB), USB a must and wireless a plus.
4) Dump iTunes. Seriously, talk about specification creep. When a music player now manages movies, television, that's one thing. But when it's your application manager and synchronization tool as well. Apple really needs to launch a new tool, call iLife or what not. Where iTunes would just be one category. I mean, I really hate having to go under music to find my TV shows and apps and such. LAME!!!
I remember applying for a job at Circuit City while attending college for computer science.
The application essentially boiled down to "Would you lie to make a sale to the customer. And would you hard sale push the service plans."
As I endeavor to lead an honest life, most of my answers to their veiled questions were no. But I don't need to. I used to wander the aisles of CompUSA and Circuit City and sell goods for them. Because I was pretty much always more knowledgeable than the salespeople.
But I believe the above philosophy is in part why Circuit City went under. When you build a foundation on lies, you're not going to have good customer loyalty in the long run. And the only thing you're going to have is price-stalkers.
Please show me a single corporation more greedy than the U.S. government.
The U.S. government receives trillions of dollars and accomplishes far less for it's money intake than pretty much any business in the scene.
People talk about Enron and MCI Worldcom scandals. Our government loses the equivalent of an Enron everyday. And people argue that more government is the solution?
They had an open box laptop I was interested in. One of the pretty red ones, for my wife.
It was an open box, missing battery and accessories, etc, etc. They had it priced for about $100-$150 less than I'd seen it selling for. (Not much of a deal.)
I made them an offer on it, a fair offer. They flat out told me prices weren't negotiable. WTF
You're going to be non-existent after this weekend. And you're not negotiating.
1) The cost/benefit ratio was based on a battery price several hundred dollars more than they're currently paying. And GM claims they are making advancements that will lower the cost in the future.
2) The study compared the 7 mile electric only mode of some proposed plug-in hybrids. However, GM criticized the study for not taking into account the need to recharge every 7 miles.
I know for myself, that 7 miles doesn't do me much good. Even going to the grocery store doesn't would eat up a lot of that range.
True, and that's a ends justifies means arguments. Many understandings about physiology were derived from brutal experiments conducted by the Nazi's on Jewish slaves.
In fact, there were probably a number of Germans who benefited from such discoveries. Does such justify the torture and scientific experimentation done to the Jews?
"Current science is only about pissing matches with ideologists especially those that are majority Christian"
Really, they're sure proving right on the stem cell issue. I think it's the ideologists who want discovery at any cost who are losing the argument. And refusing to face their failure.
Slashdot Mirror
No, the Republican Party is losing because it's lost it's way.
It keeps moving to the middle, and trying to be more like the Democrats.
Unless the Republican party returns to smaller government, less government in people's lives. I think the Republican Party will die. And a new conservative/libertarian party will arise.
Obama represents a far better choice...REALLY?
Let's see...
- Bombed Pakistan, a sovereign nation without permission to engage in hostilities in their territory. (Something even GWB didn't do.)
- No armor for troops, how did he vote on the bills to equip our armed forces?
- Corruption, gee, did anyone Obama appointed actually pay their taxes?
- Stem cell research bans. No ban on stem cell research. Just a ban on a questionable procedure using fetal stem cells. As their was the question of whether it is harming human life or not. You may not think so, but 50% of the nation does. And is it not better to err on the side of caution? Especially, since science non-fetal stem cell research is proving far more successful. Viable treatments have been made with non-fetal. Fetal stem cells have pretty much only resulted in tumors.
- No child left behind. Failure? Or just not as funded as it should be? I guess you prefer suckage schools burdened by unions where teachers don't even have to show up to class and can't be fired. Oh yes...that happens a LOT.
- Torture, hmm water boarding....some of our own military have endured such for training. So how about we just call it training. Oh wait, lives and threats have been saved by such actions. Like the Colonel who pointed a gun at a man's head and pull the trigger (but put the bullet in the wall). He spilled the beans and U.S. soldiers lives were saved. Oh, and we court- martialed him.
- Illegal wiretaps...wait, didn't the Obama administration say they're going to continue doing so? And was what Bush was doing really any worse than what Clinton did? Clinton accessed all the FBI files of rivals. Where as at least Bush was tapping those suspected of terrorist ties. Oh, notice CAIR has now had their ties found out. Bet those revelations stemmed from such wiretaps.
- "Free Speech" zones...what are those? Frankly, I've seldom seen any liberal cause not allowed to speak. Let alone not giving pandering media coverage. Try being a conservative. You're not allowed to express your views in schools, colleges, peaceful protests result in violent arrests and brutalities.
***
"The reason people tend to really like Obama is that he is intelligent, supports science & tech, and has actually accomplished things & shown himself an effective leader"
Really, he's made repeated gaffs. Uneducated gifts and foreign policy blunders. Supports tech an science...granted. Has actually accomplished WHAT?
He has spent his entire life being a policitian. He has accomplished very little other than to get himself elected.
***
"However, you do have to remember that the mess was caused by the deregulation (smells like corruption or at least unethical behaviour, but unfortunately that appears to be Washington politics) of the past 8 years."
No, the mess was far more caused by the following:
1. All of us spending more than we earn.
2. Increased socialization.
3. Fannie/Freddie pushing the mortgage loans into dangerous territory. And it was the Republicans (including President Bush) who repeatedly asked for oversight. But the Democrats always opposed. Any wonder that number 1 & 2 donation receipients were Senator Dodd, chair of the Senate Finance Committee (numero uno responsible person) and Senator Obama.
F/F forced private banks into dangerous territories. It was their only option to compete. When banks like Citigroup refused to grant such risky loans they were sued. Including by a lawyer with the last name Obama. Told they'd be cut off from banking loans if they didn't give the risky urban loans. So they did...as the government forced them.
Meanwhile we decry that AIG executives were getting bonuses but ignore that Fannie/Freddie execs were getting far more bonuses for far more fraud. All because they are so tied to the twits in Washington.
***
"What I've heard is that the Republican's approach to letting the "market" correct itself would actually have lead to a de
I love how the Democrats love to label Republicans as racists. Most of us are equalists.
Of course, the Democrats and media like to turn a blind-eye to racists in the Democrat Party (ie: Byrd). Or when someone like Clinton praises Sanger who was a self-proclaimed eugenist seeking to eliminate ("exterminate") the births of blacks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEja-1emRic&feature=player_embedded
Actually, go look at the income tax returns. Republicans usually give much more money to the poor than Democrats.
Democrats don't have a problem blowing people up. See Vietnam and Yugoslavia.
Um, I'd wager that such rights were always toward citizens. And not to undeclared combatants. Which have traditionally fallen under the same auspices of spies.
Which traditionally meant they could be summarily executed on the spot by the military.
But people forget that...and frankly, I think it should have been kept solely under military law. Not civilian...
At least Lieberman had the balls to run as an independent.
And Lieberman didn't leave his party. In fact, he just had his party stab him in the back. And he still caucuses with them.
Arlen Specter is nothing like Lieberman. (If only Lieberman could talk without boring you to death.)
Agreed....
Both parties always blame the other..."If only we had all the majority!"
But the Dems had it in the 90's and reneged on most of their promises. The Republicans had it under Bush...and instead of seeing fiscal conservatism & reduced government we saw expansion. (And please, don't blame it on the religious right. Because most of whom I know were not asking for such crap either.)
Now the Democrats have a super-majority. Probably the only thing they'll do is take over private industry and work to eliminate the 2nd Amendment. Everything else will stay status quo...(ie: bigger government, less liberty).
I think I am changing my party affiliation to "Tea Party"
The media loves trashing the religious-right and blaming them for all the nation's woes.
But seldom does what's claim actually bear out in truth. Take California's proposition for homosexual marriages. That wasn't defeated by the religious-right. It was defeated by the black caucus. Who came out en masse to the nth degree to vote for Obama. And they handedly defeated the measure.
Good...because both sides are stupid on this issue. The real question is why the **** do we need a license from the government to get married in the first place.
The army - we police the world. When our Founding Fathers greatly cautioned having a standing army. They preferred we be an armed populace and a neutral nation. In fact, it would only cost us one year's military budget to arm the entire populace of able bodied Americans. This would make America safe from everything but strategic / mass weapons. So the only other investment we'd need be strategic, missile defense, radiological protections.
Police - I want a refund. I've had to dial 9-1-1 three times in my life. Zero response to any of my calls.
Fire Service - This is a good one, but frankly...we Americans pay more than enough local taxes to cover this one.
Schools - Poor performing schools that teach very little history or science. And focus most of their energy on instigating social woes. Let's not even get into higher education and all it's indoctrination. Nor the fact that in places like California an illegal alien can get aid to attend a state college but a resident cannot.
Healthcare (ideally) - Really, so that we can have 90 day waits for basic service? So we can bankrupt the nation? Or as pretty much all socialized medicine systems in the world do - apply cost/benefit systems so that elderly are not treated. Because their death is economically beneficial to the system.
Justice - We have a bulti-billion dollar legal system. It has very very little justice in it. Criminals, felons who are stopped with firearms are released - at least until they kill a Philly cop. Meanwhile, good decent folk constantly find themselves at the mercy of the court on minute technicalities. Such as the folks in Washington D.C. being ticketed for parking in their own driveways.
Social Services - You mean like the !@#$% I had renting one of my apartments. Who worked the system, neglected her child, didn't pay the $22/month of rent she owed me (the rest being paid by Section 8). Who got disability, child support, and welfare. And was a rude racist woman that bragged about taking advantage of the system.
Sorry, I grew up poor. As a child I thought the kids on welfare were rich. I wanted to be on welfare. In the 80's they always had the color TVs, cable, and ATARI's. Now they have 40" HDTVs, HD Cable, iPhones and Xbox 360's. Meanwhile, many of us who work have had to cut out cable and such luxuries.
How can helping my neighbour help me? - Well, the current administration is talking about greatly reducing the tax incentive for helping others. In fact, we had $10,000 in tax deductions but it doesn't wind up benefiting us.
***
What we do get from the government.... TRASH PICK-UP. I'll take a pass on the rest of government, thank you very much.
In fact, if you reduce the burden of government on the people. I believe most of the needs of society would be provided for, at least to those that will benefit. Sorry, a great many of the homeless are there because of their own doing. They repeatedly receive help and squander it.
I'd wager that 90% of the aid given is consumed by a small sliver of the populace, who are like leeches. Things such as welfare should be limited in time and scope. They also should help raise someone to the next level. Instead, most of our services are designed to encourage poor behavior. Get on welfare, start to work and they take away the help. Now you find yourself still just barely keeping your head above water, but working 40 hours to do so. It's easier to go back to not working and being at the same or better level.
It'd be much better to supplement work. You want welfare, get a job. Who cares what it is...it could be McDonalds or it could be unpaid volunteer position with a charity. Then give enough welfare aid to make a difference.
May actually start to make George W. look good...
Additional Features:
1) Flash Player, especially since Adobe's been working on it and stating that it's more so a policy issue. (Policy is what seems to be blocking Flash, TomTom, multi-tasking, and more.)
2) Set WiFi alert time. I mean seriously, you drive through downtown and you can't even use your iPhone thanks to all the wifi alerts. That said, you'd still like to know if wifi is available when you're lounging around somewhere. Let us be able to set the following: a) Alert after 30 seconds of availability (this would eliminate the alerts popping up while driving), b) alert met to open/unlocked networks or ALL networks.
3) File transfer (let me be able to easily move files I want available locally on my iphone). And let me move files from other iTunes manually. Enable disk use (wireless and USB), USB a must and wireless a plus.
4) Dump iTunes. Seriously, talk about specification creep. When a music player now manages movies, television, that's one thing. But when it's your application manager and synchronization tool as well. Apple really needs to launch a new tool, call iLife or what not. Where iTunes would just be one category. I mean, I really hate having to go under music to find my TV shows and apps and such. LAME!!!
5) Ability to print basic text would be nice.
***
Namely, just about every lawyer in existence...
I remember applying for a job at Circuit City while attending college for computer science.
The application essentially boiled down to "Would you lie to make a sale to the customer. And would you hard sale push the service plans."
As I endeavor to lead an honest life, most of my answers to their veiled questions were no. But I don't need to. I used to wander the aisles of CompUSA and Circuit City and sell goods for them. Because I was pretty much always more knowledgeable than the salespeople.
But I believe the above philosophy is in part why Circuit City went under. When you build a foundation on lies, you're not going to have good customer loyalty in the long run. And the only thing you're going to have is price-stalkers.
SONY sucks...
You should have realized that 10 yrs ago. I've boycotted SONY since 1992. One of the smartest things I ever did.
Everyone that I know who has bought SONY CD products always have numerous early failures. The CD players skip, the disc spins backwards. POS
Of course SONY's hurting these days. So I'm happy.
Please show me a single corporation more greedy than the U.S. government.
The U.S. government receives trillions of dollars and accomplishes far less for it's money intake than pretty much any business in the scene.
People talk about Enron and MCI Worldcom scandals. Our government loses the equivalent of an Enron everyday. And people argue that more government is the solution?
They had an open box laptop I was interested in. One of the pretty red ones, for my wife.
It was an open box, missing battery and accessories, etc, etc. They had it priced for about $100-$150 less than I'd seen it selling for. (Not much of a deal.)
I made them an offer on it, a fair offer. They flat out told me prices weren't negotiable. WTF
You're going to be non-existent after this weekend. And you're not negotiating.
GM stated the following criticism of the study:
1) The cost/benefit ratio was based on a battery price several hundred dollars more than they're currently paying. And GM claims they are making advancements that will lower the cost in the future.
2) The study compared the 7 mile electric only mode of some proposed plug-in hybrids. However, GM criticized the study for not taking into account the need to recharge every 7 miles.
I know for myself, that 7 miles doesn't do me much good. Even going to the grocery store doesn't would eat up a lot of that range.
More thoughts with better quotes here...
http://gm-volt.com/2009/03/04/gm-vp-jon-lauckner-blasts-carnegie-mellon-phev-study-and-says-volt-cells-several-hundreds-less-than-1000-per-kwh/
Everybody knows...people don't kill people. Maps kill people!
True, and that's a ends justifies means arguments. Many understandings about physiology were derived from brutal experiments conducted by the Nazi's on Jewish slaves.
In fact, there were probably a number of Germans who benefited from such discoveries. Does such justify the torture and scientific experimentation done to the Jews?
Learn how to drive a car before driving an 18-wheeler.
Learn how to work with adult stem cells before (and if there is even a need) to work on fetal stem cells.
a) But did they do so AFTER the people were dead or while they were still alive? (Excluding Nazi's)
b) Did they kill people merely in order to have test subjects?
I do not think they were cutting up people for disease research while still alive, nor killing them for the sole purpose of doing so.
Maybe scientists need to stop being so arrogant and err on the side of caution and sanctity of life.
Especially, if there is no real reason present necessitating doing otherwise.
Retraction....misread your post.
Yes, science has somehow lost the beauty of discovery and become ideological and political.
Atheism != Science
Science is distinct from both Atheism and Religion. It is a tool, both may use...or both may ignore. And both do a lot of both!
"Current science is only about pissing matches with ideologists especially those that are majority Christian"
Really, they're sure proving right on the stem cell issue. I think it's the ideologists who want discovery at any cost who are losing the argument. And refusing to face their failure.
Another adult stem cell success? What...no need to use fetal stem cells?
Who'd have thought such a thing???
http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2008-10-30-troll.jpg
And I'd rather be a troll...if that means BOTH disagreeing with the mass of sheep and being right!