Guard Dog

Let

Let's put all our cards on the table here. I do not like John McCain. He is the very thing he claims he is running against. A Washington insider. He favors big government meddling in the economy, he favors a bellicose and interventionist foreign policy. He is a Democrat circa 1980. I do not think he would make a very good President. I do not like Barack Obama. He is arrogant and small minded. He disdains traditional American values and thinks ill of the majority of his countrymen. He favors an economic plan that is a strange hybrid of planned and highly regulated demand side driven capitalism. He actually believes taxes are a tool to modify behavior and strongly favors the federal government having s dominant role in every aspect of American life. He has demonstrated no understanding of the affects of high tax burdens on the economy and has been outright hostile to the concerns of small business owners. I believe his foreign policy will be one dictated by a desire for international friendship and cooperation as Western thought understands it but it will be seen as weak in places like China, Russia and the Middle East. Because of that he will be challenged by one or all of them to see how much he will give without a fight. I think he will make a terrible President. So faced with two candidates I intensely dislike I'd normally vote Libertarian (I did in 2004) but with the possibility of two vacancies of the Supreme Court, I must vote vote McCain and encourage as many others as I can to do the same. I have stated here many times that insofar as government policy goes the US will not make any great changes in the next four years no matter who wins. Political direction takes decades to change in a country like the US. We have been in a slow drift to the right ever since 1980 and that will not change in four years. Or even eight. If Obama wins two terms and is succeeded by a like minded democrat and congress remains controlled by the left you will begin to see the difference 10-12 years out and it will be as lasting as the current trend has been. But here is the thing, modern US history tells us that is a very unlikely outcome. The real legacy of this, the next, or any US President that is real and lasting is their picks for the Supreme Court. On that point alone I must support McCain over Obama. If there were not a real likelihood of SCOTUS vacancies I'd be much less concerned about the outcome of this election. Obama once co-authored an article in the Harvard Law Review in which he argued constitutional jurisprudence should be updated in a similar way that Einstein's theory of relativity replaced Newtonian mechanics, a view that would release judges from the original intent of the Founders of America. Anyone who believes in the concepts of Federalism and limited powers of government should cringe at the thought of who Obama might nominate.

Yeah, that or he realized no one cared about his opinions. I think this is the correct answer. And what opinions they were too. The USA is the source of all evil in the world, George Bush masterminded 9-11, there is no such thing as radical islam, Americans are all evil and the world would be a much better place if we all just went out and shot ourselves. Actually I thought he as an alt for Nur Ab Sal who seemed to believe a lot of the same things.

Getting back on the horse eh? Good for you, I don't think I will do that again myself.

Ditto everything Enoch posted. To that I would add that right now banks that deal in mortgage securities may turn out to be a solid investment long term because I believe the real estate market has hit bottom and buyers with good credit and cash might be looking at real estate as a good opportunity. I know I'm looking at a few lots in Bartlett. Prices may drop more but I think we are getting close. I would avoid stocks of companies that specialize in consumer goods or retail outlets. Companies like that tend to take a real hit during economic downturns when people do not have a lot of extra money to spend.

I won a $500 gift card from a charity auction for the United Way at work. I think this will look good on my kitchen counter: http://www.amazon.com/BeerTender-Heineken-...002&sr=8-30

Is this your first trip down the aisle? I thought you were married?

I did not know you Aussies had to deal with that little piece of pre-industrial madness.

Jeez I hope the 1/4 box you threw in the dumpster did not have any of my personal info in it...

I suspect there are a lot more alts on this board than even I would believe.

I've been on vacation all week. I built a stone walkway down to the creek and built a small stone patio with an old fashioned wood park bench. (found a kit to build it at Harbor Freight). I cut up the dead crappy sod the builder put down and mixed good top soil in with the sand in the front yard and seeded it with St Augustine grass seed. It's a pain keeping the dogs off of it but it's already starting to come in. I spent the rest of the week drinking lots of Coors beer (for some reason it's a lot cheaper here than back in FL) watching baseball and playing frisbee with the dogs. I know one thing for sure, I may not always live here in my new place but I will never...ever sell it. This will always be home.

Has Sand ever owned up you does everyone just figure it out?

This is probably the single most intelligent comment in the thread so far. The US prez is the US prez is the US prez. Don't kid yourselves, folks. Ditto. In the In the 143 years of modern (post civi war) American politics there have been only three radical shifts in US foreign policy and only a few more in domestic policy. We don't change course all that often. There will be differences between an Obama administration and a McCain administration but they will be smaller than most of you will believe.

Gee after reading the comments on this thread it is driven home to me again why Americans are by turns totally indifferent or faintly hostile to the opinions of other nations citizens. A little tip here, the quickest way to get McCain elected is for the news media to keep running stories about how much the rest of the world wants Obama.

That is too funny no matter how many times I've seen it.

I voted for McCain, and am voting for McCain. I doubt that will surprise anyone.

I had an Atari 2600 as a kid (in fact I still have it) but I really loved the big Arcade games. Pac Man, Mrs. Pac Man, Frogger, Defender, Contra, and my all time favorite Xenophobe. I was never into D&D type games until I built my first computer, a 486 DX4-100 with an 80M hard drive that was the size of a cigar box. It used Dos 6.0 and Windows 3.1 (remeber the days when Windows was a shell, not an OS). Anyway I bought Dungeon Hack and Black Sun to play on that old PC and have been hooked on those kinds of games ever since. Until Oblivion that is. After that one I decided I'd had about enough.

Links please! I'm buying The Witcher this weekend. I figured it's finally time I gave it a look.

Congrats Taks! They say if you make it past 7 years you are in good shape.

Kill, you need to read my explanation of this current banking crisis a few pages back. It could hardly be called capitalisim when the government compels banks to make loans to certain lenders (low income). As far as trying socialisim in my country; only over my dead twitching corpse.

Actually beginning in September-October both candidates will get full Secret Service details as well as daily briefings from the NSA, State Dept, and other cabinet departmnets so the transitions actually begin before the election os even held.

n00b & Gorgon hit it right on the head... it is just a campaign stunt. This move coincides with a new gallup poll that has Obama not only ahead but gaining a greater than 50% share of likely votes for the first time since the Dem convention ended. I think the strategy here is this: He is falling behind in the election so he tries this to set himself above the election and try to make Obama look petty by baiting him to attack the move. Which will work if Obama does attack, if Obama ignores this McCain will just look a little melodramatic and foolish. The problem here is if McCain and Obama actually did return to the senate to work on the bail out legislation all it would do is inject Presidential politics into the process and probably polarize the Senate to boot. Neither would be helpful.

Ha, so true. I'd say it's a mixed bag of lack of understanding of the candidates, a lack of understanding of how politics actually work, and a serious lack of choices. Especially the middle one I think. For example, Obama has promised the end the Iraq mess once he is in office. I say that the Iraq occupation will not end one day sooner no matter who is elected. Why? Neither side wants the effort to end in failure. Obama is not stupid, far from it. If the the war ends in a failure he will be the one history blames no matter that it did not start on his watch. Quickly, think Nixon and Vietnam and what is the first thing that flashes in your mind? See? As far as substantive differences Obama's foreign policy will be far less confrontational than McCains will be I think. Although McCains will certainly be far less than Bush has been. As far as foreign policy goes I really believe there will be far less difference between Obama and McCain than most people believe, never mind what they are saying on the campaign trail. In economic and social policy I think they will be very different. Obama is all about government control, government regulation, using taxes as a means of controlling economic behavior. Control, control, plan and control, is Obams's economic mantra. McCain is more from the Teddy Roosevelt mold, he won't be shy to use government regulation but I doubt he would be near so heavy handed about it either. I think he will cut taxes and allow market forces to work. I thought the same of Bush but although he did the former, he did not do the latter. Here is the thing, and there is no getting around this. No matter who wins the Presidential election, Congress will be controlled by the democrats. If history has shown us anything, bad things happen in the US when one party controls everything. I don't care what Obama and McCain are about, I'd rather have a Democrat in the White House when the congress is Republican and a Republican when congress is in the hands of the Democrats. Heck I voted for Bush in 2000 but not in 2004 for that very reason. Well, lots of reasons but that was one of them. My post on the banking situation should demonstrate how much damage Congress can do while trying to do good. The need a counter weight to keep them in check.

I think that some socialism is a good thing. Take police and fire departments. It would be hell if these two socialized services were privatized. Services that caters to the well being of our society as a whole, such as police and fire departments should be socialized. That also means expanding it to include health care and municipal utilities. I draw the line at non-essential services such as banking and real estate, but taking the full privatization route that you seem to propose would only make the US weaker. Actually Kill, taks is right. Municipalities providing a service like police or fire or trash collection or dog catcher is not socialism. Especially since such services are not free, they are paid for by taxes on the members of the community. And there is a history of privatization of all of those things with mixed results. For example the Pinkerton Detective Agency was in fact a private police force with deputized powers that a or county or state or town could hire to practice law enforcement. And although the agents worked on behalf or a government entity they answered only to the company. They were effective but notoriously heavy handed. Trash collection has been a private company contracted by the city in every city I've ever lived in. And it works fine. A traditional definition would be this. You are an employee at a car factory, the government owns the factory, it owns the companies that makes the components to the factories, it owns the foundries that smelt the steel that makes the components, it owns the mines the iron comes form and all of the logistics from start to the finished car rolling off the line. And no other company is allowed (or able) to make cars. Health care in the US is an prime example of the Democrats new vision of American socialism. They dream of anyone walking into any clinic anywhere and getting whatever they need for free. Of course to accomplish this the clinics work for (and are Sly answerable to if not outright owned by) the federal government. And all clinics MUST be government owned or at least operated because a competitor might drive up costs by offering better or more efficient or higher quality service. And as for the cost, it will be borne by taxpayers, who must pay no matter if they get sick or not. I could go on pointing out the problems but you get the point. I could also trot out my comparisons of how minimally state regulated veterinary medical care is superior to and far less expensive than heavily state and federally regulated human health care in the US but you have all heard it before. I would never argue for full privatization of everything. Police and Fire are essential public services that everyone must pay for because at some point, everyone may need their services. Health care is different however. If I never need to see a doctor (the last time I saw a doctor was my physical when I separated from the Marine Corps) I should not need to pay for doctors visits for someone else I don't even know by having the money I earn more heavily taxed.

Thanks Nice to put a bit of background in a lay man undertandable way to some of the names and preceeding events. My pleasue. I kind of enjoyed writing that up. My job gets dreadfully dull sometimes.