'FORTUNATE SON" ccr
By now most of you know or may have guessed I am over 60 years old.
That's not a bad thing. I have many fond memories of growing up in Painesville, remembering when steam engines still ran through town, GM ‘59 models with ‘fins’ and nobody challenging American ingenuity in the world.
The first leader I remember was President Eisenhower. I never realized his greatness until later in life. This was during the time of the yellow and black triangle CD signs that showed where a fallout shelter was located.
The first Presidential election I can remember was between Kennedy and Nixon. My family were Democrats and were pushing for JFK. I asked my father ‘what if he loses and Nixon was elected?’ My father assured me that Richard Nixon was more than capable of running this country.
Growing up, I watched Kennedy, Nixon, Martin Luther King Jr. and many other leaders from both sides of the aisle who were true leaders and statesmen… not knowing at the time of the true greatness I was watching. To this day, I do not believe the country realizes how much Kennedy and Nixon respected each other. Their first debate was not the one most people remember on television. It took place outside Pittsburgh in 1952 on a subject later to be known as the "Cold War". They also shared a train ride back to Washington D.C. with Nixon winning the bottom berth.
Why bring this up now? Where has the greatness gone? To be honest I see no leadership from either party. I see nothing but kicking a can down the road. I hear candidates that cannot remember the facts that they should. I see cash being the major reason for anything being done. President Obama seems to be in over his head and at the same time, none of his challengers appears to be a better choice.
9-9-9. cannot remember departments to eliminate or whether China has nukes. On the other hand, a promise by one candidate to go to war with Iran if elected… and the latest… they gave me 37 million to hear my thoughts. PLEASE!
People fifty years ago had hundreds of times better choices then we have today. Why?
I believe money has corrupted both parties and have turned our government into a bunch of prostitutes looking for their next money fix.
Do you think those leaders would have listened to the lobbyists years ago as they do today? Do you believe a Nixon, Kennedy, Reagan, Goldwater would have signed a pledge by Grover Northquest the way they all line up to today to do so? Why does Grover, a private citizen, have this power over elected officials? The only one of the candidates that has stuck to his guns is Ron Paul… even if you disagree with him you have to give him credit for not shifting in the wind as others have.
On a final thought: are the occupiers and the tea partiers both wanting the same thing? If they need a cause, they can both join in on; why not make it putting us back to work?
My answer to the tax issue? Every time unemployment numbers go down, tax rates go down. Unemployment goes up and tax rates go up. [I know no economist believes this is good tax policy, but than the current one isn't that hot either] There are some incentives to putting people back to work in that policy. We could just lets just get rid of the Bush tax cuts for everyone shared sacrifice for everyone.
posted by terminator1 @ 9:03 AM
31 Comments
31 Comments:
We don't have leaders any more, just party figureheads. It's the party, lobbyists and donors that have to much power. The president can't get elected now days without tons of money. Where does that come from and what promises are given or jobs passed out as rewards? Solyndra is one example. Can we elect a leader or are we stuck with puppets now????
The USA Gov. better get the occupiers under control, it looks just like the illegals taking over, we are just sitting there watching them.
The ones at college are just looking to party,
I see that with all of the LEC kids right here in Painesville, they just want to party, someone needs to get them under control, if you call the police they just tell them to leave and a 1/2 hr. later they are back all night long.
Grover Norquist? What a piece of work. Watched him on 60 minutes last night. Came away understanding why Republicans can be viewed as so shallow?
They work in the Peoples house not Muppet Grovers.
Please read Lee Iacoca's book; "Where Have All the Leaders Gone?"
He addresses exactly what you have written about and his outrage. Excellent! Morley has it.
I believe the Solyndra thing has been investigated, and they say it got the money based on merit. The government was trying to get the green jobs established here and not overseas like most of them are, and it seems it was done in good faith by the government. They are, however, heavily investigting Solyndra people for what happened. My point is, hopefully (and it looks like) there was nothing crooked going on with government over that. The rest of your point, 4:41, is well taken. Everything is so far out of control, that it's a wonder we still have a country. Most of the leaders are immature fools, so it is a scary, scary situation.
To the people who are concerned over the Occupy Wall Street people, especially the young people... If you were around in the 60's like I was, everything you are saying times ten could have been said about us. But we brought about lasting changes in our country, as these kids (and adults) are trying to do now.
Even concerning the college kids that recently got pepper sprayed protesting tuition hikes...I believe that this is democracy at its finest, and I am thanking God that all these Americans are off their couches, off their phones, etc. and are fighting for America and American reforms. I had previously heard someone complain about the (alleged) pot-smoking at these rallies (or some of these rallies--I don't know). I think pot-smoking is stupid, but it made me laugh because many of the people of the 60's that led the demonstrations smoked pot the whole time, and I think many of them still pathetically smoke it now. So although I am sad to see that pot is still so heavily used by so many young people, for me it does not rule out the greatness of what these people are doing. And I do think it's pretty great. We all know that this country is in serious trouble for all the reasons mentioned by Term and the people on this post, and these people are actually trying to bring about change. In fact, they have done so on some issues already. Americans have sat by and watched all this transpire without ever collectively fighting back. Now FINALLY here we go. Like my friend Bud used to say at the top of the toboggan hill, "Look out--we're going over!" They just may end up saving our country by letting the people in charge know that we are mad as hell, and we ain't gonna take it anymore.
In fact, it seems the whole world is waking up. I think it's called hope. Bravo.
wink, wink....it's not your or even my job to assign or guess who submitted a post. .Yes I'm 100% behind OWS. After witnessing what happened on campus this weekend in California. Seems someones getting scared?
How can anyone believe those students got what they deserved?
4:33, this is 5:01: Don't know what to even say to you. I guess I would just say again how grateful I am that people are on the streets demanding change, and this time (unlike the Tea Party) they are speaking truth and looking for justice. America is awake, and hopefully, not even someone like you can silence those kids and those people. I have been waiting for decades for the younger generations to wake up, and now they are. I love what they are saying, I love what they want, I love who they are, and I LOVE that people from my generation are joining in to support them. It's wonderful. If you don't like it, then don't look, I guess.
You know what these kids were protesting? Tuition costs! from $6,500 to $12,800 to $23,000 within the next couple of semsters.
My grandaughter once asked afew years ago why My generation had tagged police "Pigs"
I explained most of us didn't but there were times during the civil rights and anti-war era that police took excessive force.with battons. After watching what took place at UC Davis she mentioned she understood and the 99% people had a new member.Her.
Good grief! You are raising a generation of entitlement junkies. Give me, give me, give me. And you TERM, your censorship makes this just another liberal site. You want no other view but your own. At least on the other site they let the liberals have their say, but we can post too. Here is good bye for good. I don't need you to keep me informed of what is going on in the city. I know. And there's the other site that does a good job, too. You have such an inflated opinion of yourself. You think you really are affecting change. I do have to say that your letter campaign worked well, didn't it? DeLeone took the most votes of anyone. But you don't have influence. This site has become a joke. My solution is that I just won't be here any more. I have better things to do with my time and a better site I can go to when I want.
4:28 BYE! Look the censorship that is mentioned that wink wink mentioned by name the person responsible who posted a certain comment. If I don't even know how does 4:28 know? Go to the other blog. and if the let you name names thats their problem. No now Your their problem.
Fox News reports what's the big deal? Isn't pepper a food? Way to go Megyn that's using the blonde noodles!
100%, that's what you said.
So, you condone sexual attacks, public indecency, physical violence by both sides, piles of garbage left behind, drug use, an the occupation of public buildings among others? Don't claim things like this aren't happening.
What is the cost of police, fire and public workers these actions cost the taxpayer? How would you like to have a business or live across the street from these protests?
Let's say you started yours in the Painesville square. You now have protesters, homeless, illegals, unemployed, college students and maybe some fringe group added for balance. You now expect our safety forces to ALWAYS turn the other cheek? What about their safety and ours? In MOST cases, I support the police over the semi-violent protester or criminal every time. Maybe you don't. How about the students in our schools that must walk by these people. What about the churches on the square? Ask McDonald's, Subway or the library if they want to allow them to use there bathrooms and take over the lobbies. What if they decide to march and block the fire department from making a emergency run. Perhaps they can live in all the vacant store fronts in town. Peaceful and respectful protests are always more successful than violent ones because sooner or later it escalates.
Sure, they would picket the likes of McDonalds, but what about the poor workers who loose work because people go elsewhere? Would the city be force to issue a permit because of free speech? Tents and outhouses in the public square, sure to attract more jobs and people to the city.
The right to assemble doesn't include the right to occupy indefinitely. Who says their rights supersede the rights of those who must live and work around them. We fought half-way houses crying not in my back yard but these kind of protests are OK here?
Some of these protesters mean well and I'm fine with that. It's the others who are just there to protest for the sake of protesting. We judge a group by the members they keep, or a few rotten apples. I see no clear goal or plan, just chaos.
Again, 100%?
OWS
The way I see it is that it's not 1% vs 99%.
It is the 47% entitlement mentality vs the 53% work ethic. Where will we be when the percentage of people who expect the government to support them out number those who support them? Now they can vote and pass more benefits. Look at Social Security (oxymoron now days), The percentages aren't even that close and it's running out of money.
Not 1% vs. 99%? 47% vs. 53%?
Lets look at it through your logic your 53% was probably 85% back in the 70's. What changed? The 1% moved all those jobs. They paid people like Newt to do what? What has his group ever created? Banking laws were changed Wall St. became Vegas. Now you only have 53%. I am willing to bet in the next ten years the 53% will shrink. AGAIN! The people want jobs . Where are the job creators creating jobs? Not in the U.S.A.
Keep following this path.
In the 70's you talked about we didn't have the illegal immigration problem we have now. Painesville's schools were equal to the surrounding schools. Are they graduating a worker you would hire or someone to add to government entitlement programs. No future and no job leads to a life of crime, drugs and welfare.
We have become a service industry country instead of a manufacturing country. Rather than deal with out of control union contracts, companies outsourced the work. Why did Honda come to Ohio when the big three were leaving. Job quality or labor costs to high? We shipped jobs over seas and then allowed the illegals to fill the vacancies.
Yes, banking laws were changed, but by both parties. Now to say home ownership is a right without making sure the person can pay for it in the future was a big mistake. Barney Frank and friends? Back then we paid cash for most things, but now we use credit for everything. The average family credit card balance is over $10,000 and then make minimum payments. That's 5 times the amount I paid for my 1970 new car. Who's fault, the bank for lending the money or the person for over extending their credit to the breaking point? Think the over use of credit cards has any thing to do with the interest income banks make? When I bought my first home back then, they only counted my income, not my wife's and we needed 20% down. Now people need a BIG house and need two incomes to qualify to buy a house and as little as zero down. One of them looses a job and they must sell or loose their house. We are seeing that way to much in today's economy. Allowing insurance companies to make home loans when it is not their expertise.
Welfare and unemployment don't add to the GDP, only subtracts. Greedy? Just look at the NBA. How many regular people are out of work because of these millionaire players and owners. Automatic raises and workers only performing one job and refusing to do anything else if they happen to be caught up with their work are a thing of the past.
And yes, the hope and change needs to go back to those days or the 53% will be a minority sooner than ten years. We need proud American workers, not lazy workers who only show up on payday.
Forget what you read on the signs at the local Occupy Whatever City rally. The so-called “99 percent” have never had it so good.
Living standards for poor and middle-class Americans have improved steadily since 1980. Much of this improvement can be credited to the economic growth and tax reforms that provide incentives to invest and work. In a study for the American Enterprise Institute last month, Bruce Meyer of the University of Chicago and James X. Sullivan of the University of Notre Dame examined survey-level data to determine changes in what they call the “material well-being” of the poor and middle class - that is, the Americans in the bottom 20 percent of the income distribution and those in the middle 20 percent.
Much of the literature looks at the income these groups receive - before tax and transfers - to conclude incorrectly that they are worse off today. Mr. Meyer and Mr. Sullivan argue, quite correctly, that pre-tax income doesn’t tell the whole story. For example, a retired couple with substantial assets could have almost no income. Even though they enjoy a very comfortable living, they would be tossed in the “poor” category because they lack income. That’s why Mr. Meyer and Mr. Sullivan concluded that consumption levels are a better measure of how well people are doing.
By this yardstick, even the bottom 10 percent of the population can boast a 54 percent improvement in material well-being between 1980 and 2009. Moving the next rung up the ladder, the 20 percenters live in homes, on average, that are 200 square feet larger. Eighty-three percent have central air conditioning, compared to 41 percent in 1981. In 1981, just 69 percent of those in the bottom 20 percent owned at least one car; in 2009, this number was 76 percent. The cars have more comforts and conveniences - just 47 percent of cars had air conditioning in 1981, compared with 77 percent in 2004.
The middle class - in the strict sense of the word, the middle 20 percent of the income distribution - also has done well over the past almost 30 years. Median income grew by 46 percent. Houses grew bigger, increasing on average by 300 square feet, without adjusting for family size. Central air conditioning increased from 27 percent to 67 percent. Car ownership is at almost 95 percent, with 83 percent of the cars having air conditioning.
The only year consumption fell for the middle class, notably, was 2009 - the year of the Great Recession. That’s no accident. The improvement in the material well-being of the poor and the middle class that Mr. Meyer and Mr. Sullivan documented so thoroughly was the result of economic growth. Some of this economic growth was correlated to tax reforms that reward effort. They identified lower marginal tax rates and the earned income tax credit in particular as major sources of poverty reduction in the long run, but found that non-cash transfer programs, such as food stamps and subsidized housing, don’t do much to improve material well-being.
Ultimately, the best way out of poverty is to have a job, and the best way Congress can help is to set clear ground rules and simplify the tax code to allow the private sector to flourish. That’s the key to improve living standards for everyone.
3:09 If the 99% have it so good. What does the top 1% have. More wealth then the bottom 60%?
3:09 What's wrong with a tax code that you pay 35% on wages and 15% on investment income? Well if you run a large multi-national country and have a salary of 2 million you pay the 35% But... if along with your salary you also receive 10 million in stock options that you can later only pay 15% on them when you cash them in? Thats just one game they play.
The problem you fail to realize is the 53% are shrinking instead of growing? Is that the 99% fault or the 1% fault?
3:00 Lets throw Barney Frank in jail? O.K. Will you also agree to throw Newt Gingrich in jail also? what was his take from Fannie Mae? 1.6 million for what?
Also is there anything you don't blame on illegal immigration? Heck even Newt has seen the light.
You for illegal immigration now Term?
No I am not but there has to be a better way to deal with this situation.
I get the feeling many people believe if the Hispanics all left town our problems would be solved.
News you won't get at FOX. The Brazilian government suspend Chevron license to drill for oil off shore seems they were making a mess?. Send in Newt & Co.
The best way to deal with the situation is e-verify. Then most of them will leave on their own. And we must stop the anchor baby nonsense right now. There has to be a field-only worker program in place that actually works for the farmers, and that would be the end of the problem. Will America suffer some when they all go? Yes, it will be a large adjustment for many businesses, etc. It should all be okay in the end after things shake out. The alternative is to completely lose America, which is well under way. I personally would be very interested to see just how the medical costs and welfare costs go down in our country if that were to happen, and also how much the crime rate goes down.
9:09 Am I to believe this 10 to 20 million people will load up the truck and head south due to e-verify?
Field only workers? Not really citizens uh?
Second classers?
Term 9:16: Several years ago, the Mexican government said that there were 20 million illegals Mexicans in the United States. (Notice, that's just Mexicans, not the illegals from the other countries.)Which means they are having millions of legal babies every year, thanks to the anchor baby nonsense. Something has to be done now, and yes, I do think most of the problem will be solved with e-verify. How could you possibly think it would not.
As for the field-worker only program. They would need to come for only a year at a time, during the season they are needed. If they cannot come without their families, or they do not like the arrangement, then the situation is not for them, and they should not apply. Nobody will force them to come, and nobody will ask them to stay. If they do not like it, or do not want to come, they will not. It is that simple. Then they will go home TO THEIR OWN COUNTRIES.
THE PROBLEM WITH YOU IS THAT YOU ACT LIKE THESE PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE HOMES OF THEIR OWN. POOR PEOPLE-- IF THEY ARE MADE TO LEAVE HERE THEY WILL WHAT??? Answer: GO HOME. THEY HAVE THEIR OWN COUNTRIES!!!!!!!!! They are not going to melt or die--they will just go home. HOME--AS IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY. They seemed to know how to get here, alright. Now, yes, they need to turn around and go south. To their OWN country. It is that simple, and that is where they belong. In their OWN country. I'm in MY country, now they need to go back to THEIRS.
As I keep reading this blog I have a curiousity as to why you continue to let people like 11:38 have a platform to spill their hatred out?
All them damn anchor baby's need to be sent away with there illegal moms and dads, they are the worst kids in school, they have been told they are special, Im sick of them all
3:51 Spill their hatred. I guess I believe everyone has a right to there opinion. Although I've always believed that we could find common ground many issues don't seem to have a way of finding a solution. One side believes everyone who comes should be welcomed with open arms no matter what the cost to our country. Another group wants deporatation at any cost to our country. It's a vicious circle. Another way to look at it with some of the views expressed on the blog. anonymously these same people would never put their name to these thoughts?
I was told that for every call for Amnesty our local Congressman gets for amnesty for illegalls he receives 10 for deportation. So what should his response be?
His response has to be Deportation
it is the law, they are law breakers so they need to be sent out of the USA
It's real simple. They are illegal. They don't belong here. They must go. And when threatened with having to leave, the Mexicans always threaten to leave their children behind here, and I believe many of them will. I know of no other people who would think of, or do, that. I say if they abandon their children, they should lose custody of their children. They'll do anything to steal our country--whatever it takes. We're so stupid to have let it get this far that I can hardly believe it, and we had better do something NOW.
We need to break this down into smaller pieces to get it accomplished. We need to fight for a Temporary Fields-Only Worker Program that actually works for the farmers to make sure that problem is taken care of, then we can get the rest out. Our country really can't do anything about the whole problem until that is taken care of. At the same time we need to be fighting for e-verify to be put into place all across the USA, and we need to be fighting to stop the anchor baby nonsense. Most of the rest of it will take care of itself, but those are the steps we need to be working/marching on.
My cousin had some geese that she no longer wanted on her farm. So they put cloths over cages to take them to a pond several miles from their home so they could not find their way back. They had gotten aggressive, and could no longer be kept with children around. If you don't hide where you are taking them, they will come back, she tells me.
Well, they ended up right back on her farm. I asked her how in the world did THAT happen? She said they went to the corner and turned left, she guessed!
This story applies to the illegals both ways. First, you cannot get rid of these law-breaking people. You take them back home and they turn right around and illegally come back to take some more from our country and to march for even more rights that they have no right to. Secondly, they knew how to leave their homes, so they certainly know how to go back.
Just turn south and keep going.
3:58: You are losing your country to millions and millions of illegals--has to be at least 30 million according to my calculations--and all you can do is call the people who are fighting for your country...haters? Get a grip, man, get your head out of the sand, look at the facts, and use your head. America didn't survive this long because of people like you, that is for sure. Please do a little research, or a lot, as this case calls for. If you want to help these people, then please go do it in their own countries. Take them all with you and march on THEIR governments to make things better for them. They've got no right to be here marching on our government, and you have no right to help them continue to break our laws or to stick up for them. This is your country. It is your duty to make sure it survives, and we cannot survive this takeover.
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