ot Election 2008

I cant believe that Americans are so uninformed. People are more interested in who wins on American Idol than who wins the election.

Election in the media seems to be all about who is media saavy and which candidate is most appealing and most charismatic and the likeablity factor.

How bout the issues????

How about getting out of Iraq?
How about more funding of our schools to educate our kids?
How about better health care??

Dont these issues bother you, Who are you voting for and why???

Thu. Jan 17, 11:54am

I am uninformed. Please help. Is there a reputable place that I can look up the candidates and their platforms?

I know that I need to read the newspaper, but I run around all day.. an excuse I know.

Please help

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 11:58 AM

as an american, i feel I am to the point it doesn't matter who you vote for, everyone's hands are tried by somebody, including the president. It's easier to be entertained by singers than it is to vote and be disappointed again.

Those are important issues, but in the end, they cannot be resolved. Everyone's opinion varies and you can't please everyone. So, even if a president tries to change those issues, others will complain about it. There's no winning.

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 12:01 PM

Ditto 12:01. That's why I don't even bother registering to vote.

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 12:09 PM

It is discouraging, but giving up is not an answer. I think a revolution of some sort is inevitible for change to occur. If you have grandchildren, you want the world to be a better place for them. I have hope and I am committed to keeping my eyes and ears open, to make the best choices I can. It's the only thing I can do (and a little American Idol never hurt anyone....you have to enjoy life and you have to have some entertainment, but still learn what's out there).

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 12:36 PM

12:01 checking back

I'm not giving up, but I live in MN where Jesse Ventura was voted in as governor because he was someone fresh, with "take no shit and get tough" policies to help people like me who work our asses off just to get by. And then as soon as he got elected he turned out to be a dead beat!

Making the best choices for me and my children works for me, but it sure won't change anything that the government controls. Even our local police have their hands tied when it comes to arresting people committing crimes. It's not up to the president or one person to change--EVERY sector of government needs to be accountable and step up to the plate and git r done! It's not rocket science!

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 1:12 PM

from my perspective, I'm pretty pleased with the current state of affairs in the US and even globally. Things are getting better all over the place. If they are not for you, that is your fault, not the governments.

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 1:16 PM

Right- its my fault that there in not peace in the middle east.

selll it somewhere else. W is an idiot who made the rest of us look like idiots.

When I go to Europe I tell people I am Canadian just so I dont have to deal with the BS

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 3:06 PM

1:16pm your a typical american!!!! I mean TYPICAL

everything is good in your world. Thats right 60 to 70% of people in US are fat and overweight, we watch an average of 3 hrs of TV (ex MTV, ESPN) a day, our government is corupt and out of control do you know we have millitary bases setup in over 130countries in the world, we are ruling the world by force. The reason we are in Iraq, I believe his name is Alan Greenspan the former US Feds Reserve Chief said we are there because of the OIL, Americans are not well respected anymore, we cant compete with CHINA AND INDIA and we cant even win in basetball in the olympics anymore!!!!!
Its not my fault the world is this way, we need to pay attention more and make sure we get the right leaders to run our country and get involved to make this place a better place to live in.

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 3:21 PM

We can't compete with China and India?
Then why are they sneaking over our borders and not the other way around.
We're not "respected" now? Um...when were we? We've been the laughingstock of the world for decades, but you're just paying attention now because it suits your politics.

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 3:26 PM

ignore 1:16--clearly they have rose colored glasses on.

i believe the reason we're in Iraq is because W had a hard on for Sadam since Sadam threatened his daddy years ago when we should have been kicking ass in Afganastan and looking for Bin Laden.

It's not just america that screwed up. I love it here and continue to live here. But China and India have their own problems. While America continues to line the pockets of other countries through NAFTA, the workers in those contries aren't seeing the payoff. Child Labor and Child Trafficing is at the highest rate ever recorded.

Here's one thing I would like to see change:

In Germany, the cleaner you keep your property, the less property tax you pay. In America, I pay high property taxes to have my house looking nice and the bumb next store to me who doesn't mow his lawn pays less because his house is worth less--that's because the dumb ass doesn't do anything with it!

That's a good place to start!

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 3:37 PM

lol- i too would like to tax the lazy!:)

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 3:44 PM

bump

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 4:02 PM

3:37 checking in

I'm absolutely serious about it. I keep my home interior and exterior beautiful. Our cars meet all immitions (sp?) testing and we maintain them. Yet we're paying more taxes for a small house than the beer gut that lives next door!

here's another great change: fix the immigration system (i get heated on this!). Stop letting people come into our country to live without paying taxes. Guess what, I have to pay taxes why should someone who hasn't paid into SS, Medicare, Federal tax, and state tax their whole lives not have to be taxed higher to catch up?

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 4:07 PM

I want to legalize them so that they can pay taxes and they can be protected by the police and not afraid of them

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 4:13 PM

in my state even when immigrants are legalized, they still don't pay taxes for 7 years, then have all rights to the welfare system. I get frustrated paying 33% of my paycheck to taxes only to see others not having to pay as a nice welcome bonus. grrr

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 4:19 PM

welfare makes no sense to me. My sister-in-law has a job and is about to have a baby, her man wants her to quit her job and just collect as soon as the baby is born. What the?!?
I belive in disablity SS- if you CANNOT work we should help you out, but if you can and you are too lazy...
Or if you are working but cant make ends meet then you should also have a path to getting help- but come on- right now we are awarding laziness.

I hate laziness!!!

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 4:22 PM

3:37 (again)

i agree!

my sister is completely able to work, but terribly lazy. She has a job working two nights a week at the local pull tab booth and collects unemployment, state health insurance, state dental, food stamps, and sits on her fat ass all day while I bust my ass to stay afloat and provide a trip to the movies once a month for my children.

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 4:28 PM

I wonder where the OP lives. I'm an American and I've heard plenty of talk among Americans about the very issues the OP cited.

I don't believe it's the government's job to control what people eat or how much TV they watch or whether we win the Olympic medal for basketball. I'm an American; I watch almost no TV and while I'm overweight, I know exactly where the accountability for that lies. The government can't be blamed for everything; nor can it be responsible for everything. Abdicating responsibility to the government seems, to me, a big risk. We're already a nation of people who tend to whine rather than work (and I"m not talking about welfare).

As for oil, Greenspan, property taxes, the current President, etc., I have my strong opinions but I'm not stupid enough to believe that I'm infallibly right or that everyone in the world wears a black or white hat. There are a lot of people with opinions, but not very many people who understand the difference between an opinion or viewpoint and the truth. Opinions are cheap; the truth is very difficult to unravel; and it's a good idea to have enough modesty to recognize that we don't know it all. Most people would rather call other people stupid and make up childish nicknames for those they dislike than actually calmly discuss and consider different points of view on the issues, and many people would rather lay blame than try to understand all the facets of a problem. It's hard for me to have an intelligent conversation with someone who believes everything is simple and the answer is obvious, because I find very little is that simple or obvious. So I find myself trying to see varying points of view, and someone being able to say "I'm right!" louder than the next guy doesn't give me anything to consider or to try to understand. This is why I rarely discuss my politics with anyone; it's also why I don't declare my alignment with some party or other so I can vote in the primaries.

My father taught me all this (by which I mean how to discuss issues, consider multiple points of view, and recognize that problems are often complex and have no perfect answers), and now he listens exclusively to a single news station and has the whole world figured out--and it's impossible to talk to him any more because unless I agree with him, I'm wrong, and it's all as obvious to him as an elephant playing the National Anthem on a tuba.

I research (BTW, candidate comparisons are available all over the web--I've always liked the objective way the League of Women Voters lays it out, but they don't do it for the primaries. You might try some of the ones suggested here to get started:
http://au.answers.yahoo.com/answers2/frontend.php/question?qid=20071129102531AAfaP46 )

As for who I'm voting for, OP, that's only my business. If I knew you well and knew you could discuss it reasonably, I might consider telling you. But I don't see the point in putting it out on a forum like this, where most people are capable of little more than foaming at the mouth and aiming insults or slurs. Since your post began with two of those and proceeded arrogantly on the assumption that you and only you had it figured out--and yet you offered no answers of your own to the question of voting--I think maybe not. :^ )

I will vote. I will vote responsibly. I won't expect miracles from my vote, but it does amaze me that every four to eight years in this country we elect a new leader and nobody dies. It was somewhat better before the sound bite and the election night coverage, I suspect, but it's still amazing to me that this process continues to work. By work, I don't mean a specific candidate wins; I mean people vote, the electoral college convenes, the president is elected, the government is calmly handed over to a new leader, and things carry on. More than 200 years and only one civil war (two if you count the 1960s). No unchecked dictators, no bloody coups. Two assassinations--bad, yes, but in some nations assassination is much more frequent and much less shock-inducing. Only two presidents deemed worthy of impeachment; only one impeached. Frankly, it's as miraculous and impressive an experiement as it was 200 years ago.

(I acknowledge that the United States is not the only country with such a record; but this is the only one of which I have any personal knowledge of any depth).

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 8:07 PM

Ahem...4 assassinated presidents...but otherwise an excellent addition to this thread.

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 8:38 PM

this is the greatest country on earth and this whole business about the world hating us is nonsense. The socialist, leftist media of the world says that repeatedly and markets that view aggressively.

The reality is that in the last couple years you have seen England, france and Germany elect very pro US leaders. The real leader they despise is Vladimir Putin.

The world is getting more interconnected, and that is a great thing. We trade with each other and invest in each other. That is a path to peace.

Most people in the press are simply critics who don't actually do anything. America is full of leaders and people willing to step up.

Real leaders do, not complain about things.

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 8:54 PM

8:54, you obviously need to get a passport and use it.

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 9:38 PM

8:54 - You are right on!!

9:38 - please use your passport and take a long trip out of the US.

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 11:37 PM

US is being hurt by its foreign policy in the middle easr (stating the obvious) the ever powerful jewish lobby AIPAC had Barak Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, John McCain among others at its annual conference. US support of the zionist regime in Israel and how Israel occupies territories in Palestine pretty much at will and how US supports Israel is a real big issue. You can just be the policeman of the world and try to exert your power and your will on people all over the world.

Friday, January 18, 2008, 6:59 AM

8:07--where did anyone in this thread say it was the government's job to control what we eat, watch, or how much we weigh? i must have missed that part....

Friday, January 18, 2008, 9:09 AM

8:07

"but it does amaze me that every four to eight years in this country we elect a new leader and nobody dies."

what about all the young men and women that have been killed in Bush's war for oil? I lost two friends that way.

Friday, January 18, 2008, 9:34 AM

8:07 is not quite accurate. if she honestly believes people don't die because we elect presidents, then she's the one who needs a passport.

here's a running total:

Iraq War:

There have been 4,210 coalition deaths -- 3,904 Americans, two Australians, 174 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, one Czech, seven Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 33 Italians, one Kazakh, one Korean, three Latvian, 22 Poles, three Romanians, five Salvadoran, four Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians -- in the war in Iraq as of January 17, 2008, according to a CNN count. (Graphical breakdown of casualties). The list below is the names of the soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors and Coast Guardsmen whose deaths have been reported by their country's governments. The list also includes seven employees of the U.S. Defense Department. At least 28,938 U.S. troops have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon. View casualties in the war in Afghanistan and examine U.S. war casualties dating back to the Revolutionary War.

check out the link for their names.

"

Link

Friday, January 18, 2008, 9:42 AM

last time I checked we won the war in Iraq and are now close to finally winning the peace. Only a fool would argue that this is not a good thing. Now was the cost high?- yes in monetary terms and in our society among people many of us know. But if you actually know soldiers, they are mostly very supportive of the war effort.

Most people who don't do anything with their lives are unfamiliar with concepts like risk, uncertainty and vision. Leaders deal in that realm. Bush does, and that most people who don't do anything criticize him is not surprising. People who take risks and lead get criticized. It is part of the deal.

Friday, January 18, 2008, 9:48 AM

who said they didn't support the war?

Friday, January 18, 2008, 10:01 AM

948am its people like you who support bush and think since we say we have won the war that things are good. Reality is, Bush lied to us to go there, there were never any weapons of Mass Destruction. War on Terror was all bullshit, if that was the case we shouldve concentrated our efforts in Afghanistan and got Bin Laden by now. 9/11 was an eye opener for most americans but the reality is the US has inflicted their foreign policy and bullied other countries around for quite some time. By the way if we are winning in Iraq why are we still there 5 yrs later. Bush sucks

By the way I want our troops back home and I advocate small govt

Vote Ron Paul
2008

Friday, January 18, 2008, 10:29 AM

the people actually fighting the war are very supportive of it. Unlike vietnam where even guys like John McCain thought the generals were idiots. It is the media and the democratic party primarily who are against the war- and they control the narrative in the press. Now that things are getting under control, you are hearing a lot less about Iraq. If it were not going well, it would be on page 1 every day.

Friday, January 18, 2008, 10:30 AM

i'm with 10:29 on the war, but not the vote.

Friday, January 18, 2008, 10:41 AM

I beg to disagree on the soldiers wanting to be in the war. It is so not true from my end. I have 2 family members enlisted, and many coworkers. It's the camraderie they are there for, or the money to support school, families, or just a job. There are a few that are for the war, but from the ppl I know it's not the war. They think it is ridiculous and that it keeps tearing ppl away from their families MULTIPLE times. Also, they are recruiting in inner cities where ppl are from the projects and don't hardly have enough money to live. So we've got 18 something year old men out there dying just for a paycheck to support their families.

Friday, January 18, 2008, 10:42 AM

Subjective Comment

I find your first sentatice to be subjective and negative. How would you know about anyone, other than yourself and the people in your surroundings? This is an assumption.

Friday, January 18, 2008, 12:02 PM

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