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Originally posted by Lasheic
Cut out all the bridges to nowhere you want, but it's not going to make a damned bit of difference in the long run.
Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
Originally posted by parrothead0333
The left has chosen to call the Tea Partiers racists and terrorists and the comment about Tim McVeigh wannabees wasn't meant to say the Tea Partiers are literally domestic terrorists.
Some months ago, I spent some time in the "hidden" Tea Party Nation web site's discussion board. Primarily because I'm somewhat aligned with the core values that gave birth to the movement. I was banned for pointing out their inaccuracies and intolerance in a very civil and calm manner.
I can say with absolute certainty that I experienced, first-hand, a great deal of hateful rhetoric that did not assuage concerns that many of the "rank-and-file" faithful are racist and prone to considering violent reactions. While the rhetoric of the "left" is certainly exaggerating the issue for sensational effect, it's not without foundation.
This is not socialism, it's the purpose of government. To build roads and maintain them.
The answer is, the merger of the phone companies that control the phone networks decreased competition. Instead of deploying the high-speed fiber-optic lines they promised, they were content to collect profits, tinker with existing copper connections instead of rewiring, and roll out inferior DSL services. The FCC defines anything above 200 Kbps as broadband (1000 Kbps = 1 Mbps), allowing them to claim that Americans have broadband access. However, this definition is a politically-driven embarrassment for technologists, the equivalent of two tin-cans with string.
Yet—and here is the most troubling part—the phone companies got paid anyway. Through tax breaks and increased service fees, Verizon and the old Bells reaped an estimated $200 billion since the early 1990s to improve subscriber lines in the United States. And what have American consumers received? The most common DSL Service over the old copper networks tops out at 768 Kbps in most areas—a hundred times slower than routine connections in other countries. (There are faster, more expensive versions of DSL, but most have a top speed of 1-3 mbps in one direction, and it varies based on how far a person lives from a network hub.)
Originally posted by Lasheic
I was trying to go for sarcasm, actually. I wasn't really suggesting that you were a socialists... just implying that your listed social works bolstering moves would be decried as socialist evil in today's political atmosphere.
Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
Some months ago, I spent some time in the "hidden" Tea Party Nation web site's discussion board. Primarily because I'm somewhat aligned with the core values that gave birth to the movement. I was banned for pointing out their inaccuracies and intolerance in a very civil and calm manner.
I can say with absolute certainty that I experienced, first-hand, a great deal of hateful rhetoric that did not assuage concerns that many of the "rank-and-file" faithful are racist and prone to considering violent reactions. While the rhetoric of the "left" is certainly exaggerating the issue for sensational effect, it's not without foundation.
Originally posted by havok
Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
I'm stunned. Is there any hope of recovering from this political psychosis that has an apparent death-grip on the nation?
SkepticOverlord....this is what one of the biggest conspiracies is all about.
I think they (TPTB) want us to be divided. They want the public to fight.
United we stand, divided we fall.
Recovering would involve the entire nation getting along.
Too many people watch TV, and do not research to know any better.
What I mean is, too many people watch American Idol, etc, or worse...
And don't get off their collective butts to find out about the corruption.
This will destroy our country. Simple. The dumbing down of America.
[edit on 2-4-2010 by havok]
“Is the president purposefully using propaganda and hyperbole to garner the American public for support?” - Sean Hannity thinkexist.com...
Originally posted by Kaytagg
reply to post by hangedman13
But you can't blame Obama for one thing -- he took single payer option off the table, so that we can have our health coverage administered by private for-profit insurance companies. That was one thing the republicans wanted, and they got it.
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;
To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;
To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;
To establish post offices and post roads;
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;
To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;
To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;
To provide and maintain a navy;
To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;
To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;--And
To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.
“At last, we can stop dreaming and start digging,” Gov. Mitch Daniels said last week. The Republican has hailed the transaction as “the Louisiana Purchase of our time for Indiana.” Privately operated toll roads are slowly catching on in the United States after decades of popularity in Europe and, more recently, South America, Australia and other nations. The roads are attractive to investors because they offer long-term, stable revenue from tolls. Last year, Chicago became the first U.S. government entity to lease an existing tollway to private investors. The city turned over the 7.8-mile Chicago Skyway to the same Spanish-Australian consortium for 99 years in exchange for $1.83 billion. By this fall, about 30 of the 5,244 miles of U.S. toll roads will be run by private operators — the Chicago Skyway, the Dulles Greenway in northern Virginia and the South Bay Expressway, expected to open this fall near San Diego, said Patrick Jones, executive director of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association.
Originally posted by Blaine91555
There is not a doubt in my mind that bad people have latched on to this, but to blame the whole for the vocal minority of nut jobs? Is that right?
Originally posted by neformore
The issue is the subconcious one, where a host on a TV debate describes a set of people as "Timothy McVeigh wannabees".