So now it is even easier if you have an iPhone or iPod with internet to report people to the government. Just what we need right? The general public reporting on each other for every little thing they don't like that someone did. Guess we now have the secret police or everyone spying on everyone else like German in 1943.
Kids who don't have food is a myth the media and the hardcore left like people to believe. There is not a school in this country that doesn't give free lunches, and some breakfasts to kids who's families can't afford lunches. You can then throw in food stamps that are so easy to get, and there isn't anyone in this country who is starving unless their too lazy to take advantage of all the government programs, not to mention the huge numbers of private charities that help people like this. Not to mention that there are food pantries in every county of the US, for people to get food from. Some counties have more than one to serve people. There are dozens of churches that would be more than happy to buy food for families that can't afford to. Dozens of churches adopt multiple numbers of families in their local communities to help them, and make sure they are ok. Every church I have been a member of, and every church I have ever visited has done this. Most churches will even pay heating and cooling costs if a family needs that kind of help. Family gets kicked out of their home, some churches even have members with rental property that they offer to these types of families at no charge. There is definitely no lack of charity for people in the US. There are only people too proud to take it, or people too lazy to go get it.
Starving is definitely not a problem in the US unless your just plain too lazy, or too proud to get help. America doesn't have a clue what starving is, try any number of different places on the African continent and then get back to me.
Yes the exact thing, and because they didn't have the technology we have today, they weren't quite as effective at it as the US government has gotten. So yes, welcome to Germany 1943, or Russia anytime from Stalin on, or Italy 1943.
Yes it must be great to ignore the news reports about how Obama has gone on to seriously expand the reach of DHS. How Obama has had more warrant-less wiretaps in 2 years that Bush did in 4 years in office. So much for Obama's promise to stop warrant-less wiretaps. Obama could stop any of this anytime he wanted with one phone call to DHS, or a few press conferences. Instead he lets it go on and in fact encourages DHS to go even further. Who started the Fusion centers on his watch? Obama. Who has some some seriously over reaching executive orders with broad powers to monitor? Obama. Who said he would shut down Guantanamo but hasn't done it, and in fact continues the torture that everyone screamed about Bush doing? Obama.
So don't give me that crap the Obama is fine, and it was all the last Bush. He is just as bad if not worse than the last Bush. Our Presidents have been screwing the public and it hasn't mattered one bit which party they come from. Both sides of the isle love to do it.
People who have filed grievance reports against the TSA have ended up on the no fly lists as well. So this isn't alimited instances or unfortunately anything new.
Now imagine using this with database mining of driver's licensees and the huge number of public CCTV cameras that cities and governments have these days. They could not only track you on every camera they have, which Vegas casinos and others do, but they could combine it with database mining and instantly know everything about you, and every person you meet, and build up a huge network model of who associates whom. Throw in warrant-less wiretaps, and now they can use voice recognition and use that to see who you are talking to and add it to their database to mine. They could then add your voice pattern to their database and no matter what phone you used they would know it was you. Pretty soon you start to see that the government has some very powerful and widely based monitoring and tracking databases and information about potentially every one in the US. You know hard drive space and CPU cycles are so cheap these days. The state, local governments and law enforcement having 10,000 Terabyte storage capability and databases wouldn't surprise me one bit.
Now throw in the state Fusion centers that link up to each other and share information/data with local law enforce and federal law enforcement. You now have massive databases and data sharing that would be a snap to track and mine data on anyone the government and any level of law enforcement wanted. Not to mention they would probably say why not track everyone since we have the ability and it really doesn't cost us that much more in storage or CPU cycles. I suspect it isn't probably, but they what they do in reality. They justify it under the Patriot Act, and fighting terrorism. Meanwhile your privacy and civil liberties get destroyed in the process.
Hello Big Brother. You were only a few years late, but you are finally here.
The federal government already gets the public databases pulled it in to their databases. This is exactly why multiple Fusion centers were set up in almost every state, at least what they are willing to admit publicly from the middle of 2009. Who knows how many they actually have now. They are not part of the federal government, but rather setup by the state and local governments, even though they get federal DHS money to set these up. Since they are not federal agencies, they are not restricted by federal rules for data mining and privacy. They collect information from public sources and private databases (think credit reports, grocery stores, and others that sell their databases), link up with businesses, state and local police and then pass all this up to the federal level such as the FBI and Homeland Security. The FBI and DHS then send down terrorist watch lists, and lists of people that the Fusion centers and law enforcement should monitor in their areas. The stated idea was to allow more data sharing between local law enforcement and federal law enforcement along with the help of businesses. What in fact has happened is that the federal government has gotten around rules about what data they can collect by having it passed to them from another/third party, in this case the state Fusion centers. Technically they didn't mine the data, the states did and they just passed the information along to the federal government. So vast amounts of data is being collected already about the public and what is going on in the US, and most people have no clue at all that this is being done.
The problem with all of this is who the Fusion centers are putting on the terrorist watch list. They have put the ACLU on the watch list in Tennessee, Ron Paul supporters in Missouri, people who vote third party or support them, people who advocate for the Constitution, those who are over friendly, people who buy lots of jeans, owners of certain kinds of historical flags, and other crazy things that have come out. It just insane who the Fusion centers are putting on the terrorist watch list, and the insane criteria being used to put people on the terrorist watch list.
Actually shortly you won't have an option to avoid the TSA. No going by car won't help because they have bought vans with the full body scanners in them so they can scan cars & people without anyone knowing. You can't take a train, the TSA is already there. You won't be able to take a bus, because the TSA is already expanding to bus stations. The TSA has said they are going to be moving in to ports and such. So soon, you won't be able to even take a boat without running into the TSA. The TSA has starting putting a few people at the boarders as well, they have reported. The TSA just recently announced they want to have a presence at sporting events, and possibly even malls along with monitoring churches. The TSA has also said they will be moving in to the subway systems in cities to make sure they are protected.
So how exactly was it you suggest we avoid the TSA? It is or soon will be impossible to avoid them if you travel anywhere in the US. If they get their wish you won't even be able to avoid them even in your home town. It is probably more an issue of time, rather than if this stuff happens. Soon you can get the experience TSA experience everyday depending on where you go and how you get to work.
The TSA has not stopped one terrorist since they were created. You know who has stopped every terrorist? The passengers on the airplanes. So it it passengers - 2, TSA - 0. Seem to me like the passengers are doing far more to protect the public than the TSA. Maybe we need to do something to make it easier for passengers to deal with terrorists when they find them since they are doing a better job than the TSA. Spend money where it works, not on failed systems and failed government departments. Some have suggested letting every passenger carry a fire arm. While this is a funny suggestion, it might actually work better than the TSA. It does make a sort of perverse sort of sense, after all how many people could a terrorist shoot before everyone else on the plane shoots him dead. I don't think that is the best idea out there though. It is kind of funny to think about though.
There aren't just bad seeds in the TSA. The problem is systemic with the TSA. They have had serious problems listed in their last 3 yearly GAO reports. That is just the 3 I looked at and I didn't go further back. Problems of poor training still, problems of not following the advice of the "red teams" to help improve their security still. They are still failing "red team" test by huge percentages with some airports still having 100% failures still. They aren't following DHS policies like they are suppose to do. They have irregularities in their accounting and can't explain where some money went, and can't explain how much money they spent on other things. There is also the most recent report that questions their spending on new technology and issues of so much technology abandoned sitting in warehouses. The issue is the TSA isn't investigating and properly testing new technologies before they are purchased to see if they even work, let alone help security.
Every few days there is a report of how TSA staff didn't even follow their own rules and harassed a member of the public, or how they assaulted someone. The reports just keep piling up. This indicates a basic fundamental problem with the TSA. Normally you would suggest retraining to correct these type of problems, but we can't even do that since their training programs are a failure and not being done right according to the GAO.
Clearly the TSA is a failure and needs to disbanded. It was a nice idea that we tried but it is a utter and complete failure, and we shouldn't throw good money after bad with the TSA.
We are not functionally bankrupt. The United States of America is point blank in fact bankrupt. If you believe the GOA numbers you really need to look at the actual balance sheets for the country. Congress has been playing games for years mislabeling liabilities so they don't show up in the grand total reports. They have effectively been lying to the country. We are so totally in debt we are completely screwed if there aren't some major serious changes right away.
We are actually $202 Trillion in debt, not $14 Trillion as the GOA would have you believe. The US nation GDP is only $14 Trillion currently. So even if you believe the GAO we are 100% in debt. If you look at the actual numbers we are 1450% in debt. So anyway you slice it we are in big freaking trouble, and must have some very serious, hard changes to how much we spend. Spending has got to come down by a huge percentage. We spend more than the government gets in revenue every year. The rough amount we over spend every year is $800 Billion a year and growing. This is a GOA number so it is probably in fact higher. This can not be allowed to continue or you can kiss our economy goodbye and just get ready for the same riots and problems as Europe. This could, and probably would, give us a depression that would make the "Great Depression" look like a tiny dip in the economy that didn't last very long. There is no guarantee this won't happen anyway.
If we don't change something by 2019 then we are looking at 92 cents of every dollar revenue received by the government will be spent on entitlement programs and interest on the debt. By 2020 100% of every dollar of revenue received by the government will be spent on entitlements and interest on the debt. So you can see, there is a major problem here that must be addressed.
None of this even addresses the huge problem of the Baby Boomers, who begin retiring next year (Jan 1, 2011) and there is no money to support them all. An average of 10,000 Baby Boomers will retire every day for the next 19 years. We may not even make it 2019 to even have to worry about the other problems. The pressure the Baby Boomers are going to put on entitlement programs is going to be massive. If they insist on all the benefits they have been promised over the years it will crush the American economy. There is no possible way for the government to be able to afford all of that.
I would guess that hard core budget cuts of about 25%-40% across the board is about the only way we might, and that's a big might, climb our way out of this mess. Squabbling about Democrats or Republicans, and who sucks more, will do zero to solve these problems. If America doesn't come together to make major changes, we will all go down together. I suspect once we fail that it will be a domino/ripple effect and you will see every other economy in the world fail. The EU is already teetering on the edge of the collapse, with the entire EU being brought down by the countries that have already failed, with more failures expected. The German court votes after the new year if it is against their Constitution to bailout other countries. If they decide that it is, the EU will be in for some major trouble and it will get
Hitler absolutely did use the fire though to grab more power. I don't know why are you trying to imply that wasn't the case. Our government, both parties, has done the exact same thing with terrorism. They are using it as an excuse for the government to grab more power and become bigger.
Democrats voted for the exact same bill that did this as the Republicans. The Democrats have been more than happy to say the exact same things now that Obama is in the White House, that he needs these powers to fight terrorism. The two parties are two sides of the same coin.
Because if we don't do some serious cuts to government spending then we might as well hole up in our homes and await the coming destruction of America. We are seriously in debt and have to do something about it now, not later. The national debt isn't $14 Trillion as the GOA would like for you to believe. It is actually $202 Trillion because Congress has been playing games with what they label as liabilities. America is basically bankrupt. So we have to do something bring spending under control and get that debt down, rather than spending more and letting our economy implode. Remember the national GDP is only $14 Trillion. So please explain how we are suppose to pay down $202 Trillion debt when we already spend more than the government gets in taxes by a large amount? Not to mention the debt is larger than our GDP.
Most people forget he originally said he wouldn't run for President because he didn't have enough experience. He turned right around and started running for President about a year and half in to being a Senator. So much for truth and honesty.
If you think they deficit is only $14 Trillion then you really have bought in to the lies from Washington. Look at the actually balance sheets of the government and you will see we are actually $202 Trillion in debt. Congress has been playing games with what they label as liabilities and that is what has gotten us in this mess.
Yes the Democrats are such geniuses that they pass spending bills with no clue how to pay for them other than to simply borrow more. Yea the tax bill with more unemployment and enough ornaments that it should have been called the Christmas Tree bill instead. How did they think any of that was going to be paid for? They didn't care as long as they got their ornaments, and it looked like they were doing something for unemployment. What they actually did was make everything worse for the entire country, including those unemployed. Now we are even deeper in debt and closer to the debt ceiling.
If the tea party can make any kinds of real changes to the political system then it will be a good thing. We have had decades of the same old crap from both parties and look where we are now. So something different might actually work. Because insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. That is exactly what has been happening in the political system of the US. At least the tea party says they want smaller government which would actually be a great thing to have.
It could put both parties out of business and lead to a new 3rd party or multiple new parties. Just like the whigs got destroyed and replaced. Which I think would be a great thing. I think we should have 4-5 political parties in this country for people to choose from. The two party system has turned in to two sides of the same coin.
The issue is the declaration you sign when you go to vote in the primaries. If you sign it falsely, as in you don't believe what your signing, or you aren't representing yourself legally, then it is a crime. Not all states have this, but a fair number do.
Why should the parties get a say over how many can run for President. That is one of the most messed up things in this country. The two political parties get to decide who is in the presidential debates. Look at all the issues that came up when Ross Perot ran. He originally wasn't going to be allowed in any of the debates but they finally said oh your not suppose to be here but we will make an exception just this once. That is a clear indicator of how screwed up our political system is, that the two parties can keep everyone else out of the public debates. Personally I think it would be just fine if we had 5-10 people to choose from for President. It would make it a lot harder to game the system and harder for corporations to try and buy them all off like they do now. Corporations give huge donations to both parties to hedge their bets. It would be harder to do that with 5-10 people running.
They didn't throw themselves on their swords. They did what they wanted and hoped that the American public would not remember what they did come November. They thought well either America is too stupid to remember or we can lure them back to sleep so we can do whatever we want. They did exactly the same thing when they realized they were getting voted out. They made a mad dash to pass as much of their own stuff they wanted and screw what the public wants. Both political parties have the government seize as much power as they can get away with. This has made both parties so drunk on power they ignore the public completely and do what they want once in office.
You sure he is smart? The way he has locked up every piece of paper about himself and his days in college makes me seriously wonder if in fact the guy was a total moron or a hardcore political radical that he doesn't want anyone to know about. I have never seen a President more secretive about his past than Obama. I was shocked that the mainstream media did so little digging in to his past and so little to vet him. They were too star struck believing the carefully created political message of "Change" they forgot to ask who was doing the changing and what exactly the change was suppose to be. He was suppose to ban lobbying by his staff or his staff being former lobbist, well he decided that didn't work for him and needed some exceptions to fill his White House with. So much for truth, honesty, open, transparent government that is going to bring real change. Nope same old same old as the last guy in the White House. Stop the warrantless wiretaps? Nope he has done more in 2 years than Bush did in 4 years. Protect the Constitutional rights of the public? Nope he let's the TSA do whatever they want and spend as much as they want without saying a word. He could have stopped them at any time, but he simply didn't care and didn't mind what they were doing to the public or with public money.
What was the exact experience he had in the political system? A freshman Senator who didn't even finish out his term, and started campaigning to be President a year and half in to being a senator. Obama said point blank he wouldn't run for President because he didn't think he had enough experience. Guess once they threw money at him, he quickly changed his mind. Suddenly he decided he was qualified to be President. Seems he had way less experience in the political system than Palin did. So yea pretty much a simple community organizer that was elected to be President, who came from one of the most politically corrupt cities in the country. Not to mention all the scandals with those around him who he tried to sweep under the rug and say they were no big deal and weren't a reflection on him.
The even funnier thing is people complain about Palin writing books. At least she wrote them. Obama didn't write his first book, that has come out and been proven. He lied to everyone saying he wrote it all on his own. That clearly makes the man a liar and a cheat. Many of the facts and time-lines in the book are clearly wrong because he didn't write it. Then he wrote another book, which was clearly not in the same style of writing and no where near as well written as the first book. So how is that any different from Palin? The fact is it isn't. Palin in fact is better because at least she wrote her books, and didn't try to claim someone else's work as entirely her own.
Yep the great uniter who complains about the Republicans and how they are bad for the country. That's really uniting the country.
Republican's didn't force anything down anyone's throat. Stop stooping to such inflaming rhetoric. The people voted the Democrats out in November because they didn't like where they were taking the country. So now you guys freak out and say everyone is against you so you have to play games to trick people? Give me a break.
All you are trying to do is divide the country and make it them against us. That does absolutely nothing to solve the problem. By this kind of talk you have made it clear you don't care what the Republicans do you will never work with them. Which is exactly what you are accusing the Republicans of, which makes the whole thing ironic and funny.
If you want to say it is ok to game the system because you have no chance of winning fairly then go ahead, but don't be surprised when the whole thing blows up in your face and pisses the voters off even more than they already are.
America is completely bankrupt just look at the actual balance sheets rather than believing the GAO. The Congress has been mislabling liabilities for years and distorting the actual level of the debt. The actual US debt is $202 Trillion.
Fighting like this will never solve the economic problems at all. You are just making yourself more a part of the problem than a part of the solution.
The actual funny think about all this is that it has a really good chance of blowing up in everyone's face. It also has a really good chance of encouraging people to do the exact same thing to Democrats so Obama won't be elected. Seems like this is just throwing a hand-grenade into the political system just to watch it melt down in every direction and every possible way. Hey if you want the country to implode at a time when the country is most vulnerable economically then go for it just don't complain when everything craters.
I would laugh my butt off if the Republican party pulled the same tricks to make sure Obama would loose the primary for the Democrats. Not that it matter because the Democrats definatelly don't listen to what the people want, not that the Republicans are particularly better.
Slashdot Mirror
Here are some more government apps for your iPhone.
Report bad drivers - DriveMeCrazy
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/drivemecrazy/id370309613?mt=8
Listen to the local police radio
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/911-police-radio-free/id375244010?mt=8
Find out if there are sex offenders around you
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/find-sex-offenders-free/id366554161?mt=8
Learn more about weird laws in your state.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/weird-laws-free/id320334306?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/weird-laws/id316067926?mt=8
It gets even better there are two iPhone apps to make it even easier to report tips to the proper government agency anytime you want.
PatriotApps
http://patriotapps.com/index.html
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/patriotapp/id390563133?mt=8
USA Search
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/usa-search/id389585696?mt=8
There is also an app for the TSA as well
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-tsa/id380200364?mt=8
So now it is even easier if you have an iPhone or iPod with internet to report people to the government. Just what we need right? The general public reporting on each other for every little thing they don't like that someone did. Guess we now have the secret police or everyone spying on everyone else like German in 1943.
Kids who don't have food is a myth the media and the hardcore left like people to believe. There is not a school in this country that doesn't give free lunches, and some breakfasts to kids who's families can't afford lunches. You can then throw in food stamps that are so easy to get, and there isn't anyone in this country who is starving unless their too lazy to take advantage of all the government programs, not to mention the huge numbers of private charities that help people like this. Not to mention that there are food pantries in every county of the US, for people to get food from. Some counties have more than one to serve people. There are dozens of churches that would be more than happy to buy food for families that can't afford to. Dozens of churches adopt multiple numbers of families in their local communities to help them, and make sure they are ok. Every church I have been a member of, and every church I have ever visited has done this. Most churches will even pay heating and cooling costs if a family needs that kind of help. Family gets kicked out of their home, some churches even have members with rental property that they offer to these types of families at no charge. There is definitely no lack of charity for people in the US. There are only people too proud to take it, or people too lazy to go get it.
Starving is definitely not a problem in the US unless your just plain too lazy, or too proud to get help. America doesn't have a clue what starving is, try any number of different places on the African continent and then get back to me.
Yes the exact thing, and because they didn't have the technology we have today, they weren't quite as effective at it as the US government has gotten. So yes, welcome to Germany 1943, or Russia anytime from Stalin on, or Italy 1943.
Yes it must be great to ignore the news reports about how Obama has gone on to seriously expand the reach of DHS. How Obama has had more warrant-less wiretaps in 2 years that Bush did in 4 years in office. So much for Obama's promise to stop warrant-less wiretaps. Obama could stop any of this anytime he wanted with one phone call to DHS, or a few press conferences. Instead he lets it go on and in fact encourages DHS to go even further. Who started the Fusion centers on his watch? Obama. Who has some some seriously over reaching executive orders with broad powers to monitor? Obama. Who said he would shut down Guantanamo but hasn't done it, and in fact continues the torture that everyone screamed about Bush doing? Obama.
So don't give me that crap the Obama is fine, and it was all the last Bush. He is just as bad if not worse than the last Bush. Our Presidents have been screwing the public and it hasn't mattered one bit which party they come from. Both sides of the isle love to do it.
People who have filed grievance reports against the TSA have ended up on the no fly lists as well. So this isn't alimited instances or unfortunately anything new.
Now imagine using this with database mining of driver's licensees and the huge number of public CCTV cameras that cities and governments have these days. They could not only track you on every camera they have, which Vegas casinos and others do, but they could combine it with database mining and instantly know everything about you, and every person you meet, and build up a huge network model of who associates whom. Throw in warrant-less wiretaps, and now they can use voice recognition and use that to see who you are talking to and add it to their database to mine. They could then add your voice pattern to their database and no matter what phone you used they would know it was you. Pretty soon you start to see that the government has some very powerful and widely based monitoring and tracking databases and information about potentially every one in the US. You know hard drive space and CPU cycles are so cheap these days. The state, local governments and law enforcement having 10,000 Terabyte storage capability and databases wouldn't surprise me one bit.
Now throw in the state Fusion centers that link up to each other and share information/data with local law enforce and federal law enforcement. You now have massive databases and data sharing that would be a snap to track and mine data on anyone the government and any level of law enforcement wanted. Not to mention they would probably say why not track everyone since we have the ability and it really doesn't cost us that much more in storage or CPU cycles. I suspect it isn't probably, but they what they do in reality. They justify it under the Patriot Act, and fighting terrorism. Meanwhile your privacy and civil liberties get destroyed in the process.
Hello Big Brother. You were only a few years late, but you are finally here.
The federal government already gets the public databases pulled it in to their databases. This is exactly why multiple Fusion centers were set up in almost every state, at least what they are willing to admit publicly from the middle of 2009. Who knows how many they actually have now. They are not part of the federal government, but rather setup by the state and local governments, even though they get federal DHS money to set these up. Since they are not federal agencies, they are not restricted by federal rules for data mining and privacy. They collect information from public sources and private databases (think credit reports, grocery stores, and others that sell their databases), link up with businesses, state and local police and then pass all this up to the federal level such as the FBI and Homeland Security. The FBI and DHS then send down terrorist watch lists, and lists of people that the Fusion centers and law enforcement should monitor in their areas. The stated idea was to allow more data sharing between local law enforcement and federal law enforcement along with the help of businesses. What in fact has happened is that the federal government has gotten around rules about what data they can collect by having it passed to them from another/third party, in this case the state Fusion centers. Technically they didn't mine the data, the states did and they just passed the information along to the federal government. So vast amounts of data is being collected already about the public and what is going on in the US, and most people have no clue at all that this is being done.
The problem with all of this is who the Fusion centers are putting on the terrorist watch list. They have put the ACLU on the watch list in Tennessee, Ron Paul supporters in Missouri, people who vote third party or support them, people who advocate for the Constitution, those who are over friendly, people who buy lots of jeans, owners of certain kinds of historical flags, and other crazy things that have come out. It just insane who the Fusion centers are putting on the terrorist watch list, and the insane criteria being used to put people on the terrorist watch list.
http://www.dhs.gov/files/programs/gc_1156877184684.shtm
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2010/dec/22/aclu-bristles-over-terror-list/
http://publicintelligence.net/florida-fusion-center-monitored-bp-protests-ron-paul-events-code-pink/
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/23/fusion-centers-expand-criteria-identify-militia-members/
http://epic.org/privacy/fusion/
Actually shortly you won't have an option to avoid the TSA. No going by car won't help because they have bought vans with the full body scanners in them so they can scan cars & people without anyone knowing. You can't take a train, the TSA is already there. You won't be able to take a bus, because the TSA is already expanding to bus stations. The TSA has said they are going to be moving in to ports and such. So soon, you won't be able to even take a boat without running into the TSA. The TSA has starting putting a few people at the boarders as well, they have reported. The TSA just recently announced they want to have a presence at sporting events, and possibly even malls along with monitoring churches. The TSA has also said they will be moving in to the subway systems in cities to make sure they are protected.
So how exactly was it you suggest we avoid the TSA? It is or soon will be impossible to avoid them if you travel anywhere in the US. If they get their wish you won't even be able to avoid them even in your home town. It is probably more an issue of time, rather than if this stuff happens. Soon you can get the experience TSA experience everyday depending on where you go and how you get to work.
The TSA has not stopped one terrorist since they were created. You know who has stopped every terrorist? The passengers on the airplanes. So it it passengers - 2, TSA - 0. Seem to me like the passengers are doing far more to protect the public than the TSA. Maybe we need to do something to make it easier for passengers to deal with terrorists when they find them since they are doing a better job than the TSA. Spend money where it works, not on failed systems and failed government departments. Some have suggested letting every passenger carry a fire arm. While this is a funny suggestion, it might actually work better than the TSA. It does make a sort of perverse sort of sense, after all how many people could a terrorist shoot before everyone else on the plane shoots him dead. I don't think that is the best idea out there though. It is kind of funny to think about though.
There aren't just bad seeds in the TSA. The problem is systemic with the TSA. They have had serious problems listed in their last 3 yearly GAO reports. That is just the 3 I looked at and I didn't go further back. Problems of poor training still, problems of not following the advice of the "red teams" to help improve their security still. They are still failing "red team" test by huge percentages with some airports still having 100% failures still. They aren't following DHS policies like they are suppose to do. They have irregularities in their accounting and can't explain where some money went, and can't explain how much money they spent on other things. There is also the most recent report that questions their spending on new technology and issues of so much technology abandoned sitting in warehouses. The issue is the TSA isn't investigating and properly testing new technologies before they are purchased to see if they even work, let alone help security.
Every few days there is a report of how TSA staff didn't even follow their own rules and harassed a member of the public, or how they assaulted someone. The reports just keep piling up. This indicates a basic fundamental problem with the TSA. Normally you would suggest retraining to correct these type of problems, but we can't even do that since their training programs are a failure and not being done right according to the GAO.
Clearly the TSA is a failure and needs to disbanded. It was a nice idea that we tried but it is a utter and complete failure, and we shouldn't throw good money after bad with the TSA.
We are not functionally bankrupt. The United States of America is point blank in fact bankrupt. If you believe the GOA numbers you really need to look at the actual balance sheets for the country. Congress has been playing games for years mislabeling liabilities so they don't show up in the grand total reports. They have effectively been lying to the country. We are so totally in debt we are completely screwed if there aren't some major serious changes right away.
We are actually $202 Trillion in debt, not $14 Trillion as the GOA would have you believe. The US nation GDP is only $14 Trillion currently. So even if you believe the GAO we are 100% in debt. If you look at the actual numbers we are 1450% in debt. So anyway you slice it we are in big freaking trouble, and must have some very serious, hard changes to how much we spend. Spending has got to come down by a huge percentage. We spend more than the government gets in revenue every year. The rough amount we over spend every year is $800 Billion a year and growing. This is a GOA number so it is probably in fact higher. This can not be allowed to continue or you can kiss our economy goodbye and just get ready for the same riots and problems as Europe. This could, and probably would, give us a depression that would make the "Great Depression" look like a tiny dip in the economy that didn't last very long. There is no guarantee this won't happen anyway.
Check out this article if you need a citation source.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-11/u-s-is-bankrupt-and-we-don-t-even-know-commentary-by-laurence-kotlikoff.html
If we don't change something by 2019 then we are looking at 92 cents of every dollar revenue received by the government will be spent on entitlement programs and interest on the debt. By 2020 100% of every dollar of revenue received by the government will be spent on entitlements and interest on the debt. So you can see, there is a major problem here that must be addressed.
Check out these articles if you need citation sources.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-silent-entitlements-monster-social-security-medicare-and-interest-on-the-debt-will-gobble-up-every-single-tax-dollar-by-2020
http://www.gao.gov/financial/fy2009/09frusg.pdf
None of this even addresses the huge problem of the Baby Boomers, who begin retiring next year (Jan 1, 2011) and there is no money to support them all. An average of 10,000 Baby Boomers will retire every day for the next 19 years. We may not even make it 2019 to even have to worry about the other problems. The pressure the Baby Boomers are going to put on entitlement programs is going to be massive. If they insist on all the benefits they have been promised over the years it will crush the American economy. There is no possible way for the government to be able to afford all of that.
I would guess that hard core budget cuts of about 25%-40% across the board is about the only way we might, and that's a big might, climb our way out of this mess. Squabbling about Democrats or Republicans, and who sucks more, will do zero to solve these problems. If America doesn't come together to make major changes, we will all go down together. I suspect once we fail that it will be a domino/ripple effect and you will see every other economy in the world fail. The EU is already teetering on the edge of the collapse, with the entire EU being brought down by the countries that have already failed, with more failures expected. The German court votes after the new year if it is against their Constitution to bailout other countries. If they decide that it is, the EU will be in for some major trouble and it will get
Obama isn't a Republican. He is a extreme leftist who still answers to corporations, just like every other President in the last decade or so.
Hitler absolutely did use the fire though to grab more power. I don't know why are you trying to imply that wasn't the case. Our government, both parties, has done the exact same thing with terrorism. They are using it as an excuse for the government to grab more power and become bigger.
Democrats voted for the exact same bill that did this as the Republicans. The Democrats have been more than happy to say the exact same things now that Obama is in the White House, that he needs these powers to fight terrorism. The two parties are two sides of the same coin.
Because if we don't do some serious cuts to government spending then we might as well hole up in our homes and await the coming destruction of America. We are seriously in debt and have to do something about it now, not later. The national debt isn't $14 Trillion as the GOA would like for you to believe. It is actually $202 Trillion because Congress has been playing games with what they label as liabilities. America is basically bankrupt. So we have to do something bring spending under control and get that debt down, rather than spending more and letting our economy implode. Remember the national GDP is only $14 Trillion. So please explain how we are suppose to pay down $202 Trillion debt when we already spend more than the government gets in taxes by a large amount? Not to mention the debt is larger than our GDP.
Here is one of the many citations if you can't find it out on your own.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-11/u-s-is-bankrupt-and-we-don-t-even-know-commentary-by-laurence-kotlikoff.html
Most people forget he originally said he wouldn't run for President because he didn't have enough experience. He turned right around and started running for President about a year and half in to being a Senator. So much for truth and honesty.
If you think they deficit is only $14 Trillion then you really have bought in to the lies from Washington. Look at the actually balance sheets of the government and you will see we are actually $202 Trillion in debt. Congress has been playing games with what they label as liabilities and that is what has gotten us in this mess.
Yes the Democrats are such geniuses that they pass spending bills with no clue how to pay for them other than to simply borrow more. Yea the tax bill with more unemployment and enough ornaments that it should have been called the Christmas Tree bill instead. How did they think any of that was going to be paid for? They didn't care as long as they got their ornaments, and it looked like they were doing something for unemployment. What they actually did was make everything worse for the entire country, including those unemployed. Now we are even deeper in debt and closer to the debt ceiling.
Someone want to tell me exactly how we are suppose to pay off $202 Trillion in debt when our GDP is only $14 Trillion? We are bankrupt people even if you don't want to believe it.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-11/u-s-is-bankrupt-and-we-don-t-even-know-commentary-by-laurence-kotlikoff.html
If the tea party can make any kinds of real changes to the political system then it will be a good thing. We have had decades of the same old crap from both parties and look where we are now. So something different might actually work. Because insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. That is exactly what has been happening in the political system of the US. At least the tea party says they want smaller government which would actually be a great thing to have.
It could put both parties out of business and lead to a new 3rd party or multiple new parties. Just like the whigs got destroyed and replaced. Which I think would be a great thing. I think we should have 4-5 political parties in this country for people to choose from. The two party system has turned in to two sides of the same coin.
The issue is the declaration you sign when you go to vote in the primaries. If you sign it falsely, as in you don't believe what your signing, or you aren't representing yourself legally, then it is a crime. Not all states have this, but a fair number do.
Why should the parties get a say over how many can run for President. That is one of the most messed up things in this country. The two political parties get to decide who is in the presidential debates. Look at all the issues that came up when Ross Perot ran. He originally wasn't going to be allowed in any of the debates but they finally said oh your not suppose to be here but we will make an exception just this once. That is a clear indicator of how screwed up our political system is, that the two parties can keep everyone else out of the public debates. Personally I think it would be just fine if we had 5-10 people to choose from for President. It would make it a lot harder to game the system and harder for corporations to try and buy them all off like they do now. Corporations give huge donations to both parties to hedge their bets. It would be harder to do that with 5-10 people running.
They didn't throw themselves on their swords. They did what they wanted and hoped that the American public would not remember what they did come November. They thought well either America is too stupid to remember or we can lure them back to sleep so we can do whatever we want. They did exactly the same thing when they realized they were getting voted out. They made a mad dash to pass as much of their own stuff they wanted and screw what the public wants. Both political parties have the government seize as much power as they can get away with. This has made both parties so drunk on power they ignore the public completely and do what they want once in office.
You sure he is smart? The way he has locked up every piece of paper about himself and his days in college makes me seriously wonder if in fact the guy was a total moron or a hardcore political radical that he doesn't want anyone to know about. I have never seen a President more secretive about his past than Obama. I was shocked that the mainstream media did so little digging in to his past and so little to vet him. They were too star struck believing the carefully created political message of "Change" they forgot to ask who was doing the changing and what exactly the change was suppose to be. He was suppose to ban lobbying by his staff or his staff being former lobbist, well he decided that didn't work for him and needed some exceptions to fill his White House with. So much for truth, honesty, open, transparent government that is going to bring real change. Nope same old same old as the last guy in the White House. Stop the warrantless wiretaps? Nope he has done more in 2 years than Bush did in 4 years. Protect the Constitutional rights of the public? Nope he let's the TSA do whatever they want and spend as much as they want without saying a word. He could have stopped them at any time, but he simply didn't care and didn't mind what they were doing to the public or with public money.
What was the exact experience he had in the political system? A freshman Senator who didn't even finish out his term, and started campaigning to be President a year and half in to being a senator. Obama said point blank he wouldn't run for President because he didn't think he had enough experience. Guess once they threw money at him, he quickly changed his mind. Suddenly he decided he was qualified to be President. Seems he had way less experience in the political system than Palin did. So yea pretty much a simple community organizer that was elected to be President, who came from one of the most politically corrupt cities in the country. Not to mention all the scandals with those around him who he tried to sweep under the rug and say they were no big deal and weren't a reflection on him.
The even funnier thing is people complain about Palin writing books. At least she wrote them. Obama didn't write his first book, that has come out and been proven. He lied to everyone saying he wrote it all on his own. That clearly makes the man a liar and a cheat. Many of the facts and time-lines in the book are clearly wrong because he didn't write it. Then he wrote another book, which was clearly not in the same style of writing and no where near as well written as the first book. So how is that any different from Palin? The fact is it isn't. Palin in fact is better because at least she wrote her books, and didn't try to claim someone else's work as entirely her own.
Yep the great uniter who complains about the Republicans and how they are bad for the country. That's really uniting the country.
Republican's didn't force anything down anyone's throat. Stop stooping to such inflaming rhetoric. The people voted the Democrats out in November because they didn't like where they were taking the country. So now you guys freak out and say everyone is against you so you have to play games to trick people? Give me a break.
All you are trying to do is divide the country and make it them against us. That does absolutely nothing to solve the problem. By this kind of talk you have made it clear you don't care what the Republicans do you will never work with them. Which is exactly what you are accusing the Republicans of, which makes the whole thing ironic and funny.
If you want to say it is ok to game the system because you have no chance of winning fairly then go ahead, but don't be surprised when the whole thing blows up in your face and pisses the voters off even more than they already are.
America is completely bankrupt just look at the actual balance sheets rather than believing the GAO. The Congress has been mislabling liabilities for years and distorting the actual level of the debt. The actual US debt is $202 Trillion.
Fighting like this will never solve the economic problems at all. You are just making yourself more a part of the problem than a part of the solution.
The actual funny think about all this is that it has a really good chance of blowing up in everyone's face. It also has a really good chance of encouraging people to do the exact same thing to Democrats so Obama won't be elected. Seems like this is just throwing a hand-grenade into the political system just to watch it melt down in every direction and every possible way. Hey if you want the country to implode at a time when the country is most vulnerable economically then go for it just don't complain when everything craters.
I would laugh my butt off if the Republican party pulled the same tricks to make sure Obama would loose the primary for the Democrats. Not that it matter because the Democrats definatelly don't listen to what the people want, not that the Republicans are particularly better.