I talk with my hands, speak in technical terms and big words and spend a lot of time stroking my goatee and saying "Everything is just as it was written in the Necronomicon. All hail to Chtulhu!"

Are we going to discuss the transcript and how it relates to problems presented within the OP or are you deciding to avoid doing such a thing... something else perhaps?

Spider, you are being rude.

Where is the "love?"

When I wrote that a corporations sole motive was profit, you answered "So?"

Looking at the transcript will expand and elaborate upon the scope of the problem(s) that I'm laying out which is how that profit motive can corrupt a representative government.

Don't let perceived rudeness alter the course. That is often the aim... to avoid talking about what matters and attack people on a personal basis.

It is the glowing sign of the lack of argumentative substance.

I think I have that...is there a cream for it?

And no I haven't read back so I just interrupted your thread for no reason, sorry.

No problem Dragoness.

All you've missed is the avoidance of the issues.

Aw thanks.

I still think your OP was right on.

For someone who stays out of the political forums you are pretty up on the info.

I think if we ended the "wars" that would help the situation greatly too.

Fixed that for you.

Scurry away...

Shew fly, I'm reading.

When you are done reading, you can color this in and have a cookie.

Funny pictures. Good argument.

Man, I just LOVE politics in forums. There's just something about politics that breeds contempt, shoves aside respectful discussion, and seemingly requires categorizing people under the liberal/conservative and left wing/right wing banner. In short, it makes for good times all around! Seriously, though... Our country is in a pretty ugly mess, right now. The Bush tax cuts didn't work, though it sounded like a good idea at the time, to some people. Then, instead of putting the social security surplus into interest-earning treasuries, which is what was supposed to happen, Bush put it into "special" treasuries which could essentially be liquidated at any time. Which he did do, and then used the funds to make his horrible tax plan look better by using the social security surplus to bolster his plan.

Now social security's a mess, welfare programs are becoming a problem, and defense spending is a little overzealous. I believe that if you're better off than someone else, you should help them out. So, yeah, I like welfare programs, but I've seen far too many people abuse them. I've been on unemployment. Hell, I've even been on food stamps, when I was younger. I used them when I was between jobs or during tough times. And I always stopped them, when I could go without it. The welfare programs need a major overhaul and need to make sure that if you're on them, that you're trying to become self-sufficient. If we had invested the social security surplus instead of using it to prop up a horrible tax plan, then it wouldn't be nearly the problem it is now, though it would still be an issue.

Before I say what I'm about to say next, I want to point something out. I know what it's like to be poor. I was raised by a poor single mother. I've went more than a couple of days without food. I've slept in a car and bathed in public restrooms. I've been there. And I know that an extra 1-2% income tax wouldn't have made a difference to our very poor family. And it definitely won't make a difference to the middle class families. Just like a 3-5% increase won't bother the top 2% income earners in this country. And that brings me to my last point.

This is what we need to do, in my opinion. We need to restructure welfare and medicare. We have to fix social security, because that's just not something we can "toss out." Taxes NEED to be raised. Maybe 1% for lower class, 3% for middle class, and 5% for upper class, or something to that generalized effect. As much as I love NASA, I think it's time that we stop funneling funds into it and many other non-essential programs. Maybe they should be privately funded or put on hold for 5 or 10 years, until our economy at least bounces back. Defense spending needs to be cut. It's around 20% of our budget. That's about the same as social security and a little less than medicare, but I think we could do without a lot of the defense spending. We're pretty much guaranteed military superiority for the next 10 years or so. Especially with that uber sexy F-22 Raptor!

I'm sure I left some things out, as I'm pretty tired, but that's my take on our current economic situation. If you read this entire post, give yourself a cookie, because I know it's long and boring, lol. Now, I gotta go try to catch a snake. It got in the house and I saw it a minute ago slither under my couch, lol.

OK - NEVER MIND
I got excited and posted this before I had caught up with the thread. Creative already suggested reveiwing this link.

But I'm going to leave it in case someone missed watching it.




Also Go to

http://storyofstuff.org/citizensunited/

It is SEASON 2:
The Story of Citizens United v. FEC: Why Democracy Only Works When People Are in Charge:

If you are a corporation do you get to vote more than once?

I own stock in several corporations. Does that mean I should get extra votes or does it mean I should get no vote?

I feel that if you decide who you are going to vote for based only upon political advertisements you shouldn't be voting in the first place.

If you are a corporation? Do you mean if YOU have incorporated would you get to vote more than once? Vote for what?




Explain what you THINK your ownership of corporate stock has to do with voting of any kind and show how that fits with reality.




WHAT'S THAT YOU SAY????? - you seriously don't think that our mainstream media is capable of educating the masses on the few political candidates they would be asked to vote for? HOW SHOCKING.

How do you determine who the best candidate for the job is?

Corporations don't get all of the rights of people. They don't have the right to vote, they can't be drafted, they can't plead the fifth. But a group of people who all free strongly about smoking could incorporate to pool their money and do an advertising campaign. But if the leftists had their way, they couldn't do that. They would have to form a 501.3c, which would be much more difficult to form, if not impossible.

The glowing sign.