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Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012 | 2:02 a.m.
Malcolm Telloian, whose letter “Fall of the American empire” ran Wednesday, should take a few deep breaths and relax; the U.S. is not Rome and nothing is falling save the price of gas here and there. Mr. Telloian, a follower of Fox News and the Tea Party, should be grateful that there is indeed one shining light that shone brightly in this recent election, and that is that the election could not be bought — by the high-caliber super PACs of Karl Rove and Sheldon Adelson, which spent millions to unseat the president. Finally, rather than meditate on ancient history, ...
John wrote "the election could not be bought -- by the high-caliber super PACs of Karl Rove and Sheldon Adelson, which spent millions to unseat the president".
Earth to John, liberals had three of the top five super PACS.
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/superpac...
Oh, and don't forget about the unions. The money they spend on political activities far exceed its direct campaign donations.
"The usual measure of unions' clout encompasses chiefly what they spend supporting federal candidates through their political-action committees, which are funded with voluntary contributions, and lobbying Washington, which is a cost borne by the unions' own coffers. These kinds of spending, which unions report to the Federal Election Commission and to Congress, totaled $1.1 billion from 2005 through 2011, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
The unions' reports to the Labor Department capture an additional $3.3 billion that unions spent over the same period on political activity."
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/...
In my opinion, the letter writer is incorrect. America is in trouble. We are not addressing the deficits or the debt through enough increased taxes and enough 'real' spending cuts to stop the bleeding.
I think there are many Americans who know this. Those who voted had to vote for someone and the election was relatively close. Unfortunately, the plan Mitt Romney has was overly optimistic and mathematically challenged. The same can be said of President Obama's proposal and anything that has come out of Congress so far.
Our elected representatives and our President have failed us and are still failing us. To say we are not Greece does not address our problems.
Michael
John says "should be grateful that there is indeed one shining light that shone brightly"
Well John your bright light is leading us over the fiscal cliff by reneging on his campaign promise to reduce federal spending.
Obama has add $6 trillion in DEBT to $16 trillion and needs taxes while still getting to $22 trillion in debt
The Thelma and Louise Democrats are preparing to let ALL taxes rates rise on EVERYBODY to prevent any LIMITS ON SPENDING - so watch for Obama who claims the pubic wind at his back to soar off the fiscal cliff.
WHERE ARE THE SPENDING CUTS THAT OBAMA CAMPAIGNED ON
America is in trouble. Over $16 T in debt,trillion dollar deficits annually, 23 million unemployed, 100 million on welfare,countless millions of illegal immigrants to care for, and the greater Middle East boiling over in Islamic revolution and nuclear threats, and internal political gridlock in DC, one might reasonably conclude the state of the nation is not all that well. Americans are slow learners it seems. While we are not down and out for the count, we are certainly in a declining posture with no solutions in the works. And with the election of Obama it is clear that our leadership options are very limited indeed.
"why the Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, could not carry their own states, Massachusetts and Wisconsin"
To answer your question, which I pondered too, is not easy. I recall Al Gore lost the endorsement of his own home town newspaper in Tennessee to Bush2 in 2000. And by all accounts, the Gore family, father and son, were fixtures and famous in Tennessee local and state politics.
I recall the verse from the Bible WRT Jesus and being a prophet when the residents of his own town ran him out. Perhaps there is much truth in that and it holds the answer.
CarmineD
Enough of this crap already! The majority know they have the edge. The minority know they do not. It's time for the people that were elected to quit campaigning and start governing.
"why the Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, could not carry their own states, Massachusetts and Wisconsin"
Anyone can answer that - these are deep blue states that live off the dependancy model and will not give up the golden pig trough. These are heavy Union states and Obama implement his "KILL" Romney (murderer and racist and felon) bad faith ressentiment character assassination and vilification
This thread has morphed so totally that it is hard to recognize the original point that was being made. For me the lesson learned was that money in and of itself did not and could not win a national election. It is far more important HOW the money is spent. All of us in Nevada, until recently thought of as a swing state, know how awful it was in the last year+ of the campaign. As a registered republican living with a registered democrat we, like so many I know, had to literally unplug the phone during the day. The multiple daily appeals by POTUS for another 5 bucks to save the world were pretty pitiful. But, at least the Dems spent the money more wisely in paying for their get out the vote campaign.
We can only hope the 2 parties agree on one thing, and start a constitutional amendment process to make the PACS reveal their contributors identities. That won't stop them all, but at least we will know which huge contributors are enjoying themselves at the public trough after the election.
Mr. Esperian you seem to be a typical mainstream media follower. If you think $16 trillion in debt, 20 million un-employed, social division, millions more on government aid is not the beginning of Americas demise, maybe you should start watching Fox so you can get more up to date with whats actually happening.
John Esperian, of Las Vegas, Nevada,
You have given a full description of a person living in the Bubble. Also known as, a Bubble Citizen. You must forgive Malcolm Telloian, for he does not know what he is doing.
The Bubble Masters, Foxnews, Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Michael Savage, the Drudge Report, are in business to sell "Fear" to create "Uncertainty" for viewers and listeners, and business' in America. The Bubble Masters dishes out Fear and Uncertainty daily to the Bubble Citizens, like an addiction. If you take away the Fear and Uncertainty from a Bubble Citizen, who know what will happen. Maybe, just maybe, they would return to reality..maybe. But, the Bubble Master will not have it, will not allow any type of real message into the Bubble. Why? That would run the Bubble Master out of business. A real message, is the Bubble Master's Kryptonite.
Seriously, one has to wonder why so many voting Americans are stuck on Stupid!
Access to information, whether it be true or not, escalates the incubation period of a person's thought process. This process is called learning, or better known as indoctrination when a hard ideology is in play. Stuck on Stupid would equate to not viewing or listening to different sources of information on a specific subject or item. Like not changing the channel. Self-indoctrination is a better description. After all, we have the power of choice in American. We can choose to view or listen to what we want, or need.
One problem with the power of choice,...bad decisions have consequences. Bad decisions, like not changing the channel.
No, we're still a nation metamorphosing into lying shape-shifting Chameleons, especially journalism and the media that have become particularly proficient at deceiving the most illiterate voter base America has ever seen.
My goodness,
The folks that are still in shock over the assertion of goodness by the American people are spraying everyone like a cornered skunk this morning.
Have a great life you whiners, we will take care of you, despite your ungratefulness.
The election was bought. Taxpayer money was promised.
It is interesting how concerned Obama supporters are with how Sandy spends his money or how Mitt invested his money when they should be more concerned with how Obumma has spent the taxpayers money. Picking losers, crony-capitalism and investing it in his campaign bundlers.
Fortunately for him, non-Fox media doesn't dwell on it.
The plot has made another change, to evaluating the various news sources. CNN and the networks will tell you, off the record, that they believe "Fox News" is an oxymoron, wholey owned by the RNC. They like to delude themselves into believing that they are the only fair and true voices of fact. But they are for-profit entities. Profits come from viewership. And viewers only view news, they don't need to watch certainties. Who would watch an hour of political news if the outcome of an election was a virtual certainty?
So, the commercial news broadcasters invariably shade the news toward suspense. Almost all year they would tell us that the President was leading by 3% or 5% in 7 of 8 swing states BUT THAT IS WELL WITHIN THE MARGIN OF ERROR SO IT IS STILL A TOSSUP. Do you remember an election since Dukakis when they weren't saying the same thing? They do not know what margin of error even means. It is based on possible sampling error, but when you get 10 polls in a row showing the same result, the sample is 10 times greater, and the margin of error becomes negligible.
My point is that FOX was telling you that they had it wrapped up because the demos had bought the pollsters, and the rest of them were telling you to "stay tuned in, this is a cliffhanger". If you want unbiased news, better tune in BBC.
ODNelson,
It's called "Changing the Channel."
The sky is not falling but Rush Limbauh and Faux News' ratings certainly are.
After getting stomped in the recent elections its understandable why GOPers are so depressed and despondent. And especially so after they went to all the trouble to "unskew" hundreds of polls that correctly predicted a voter turnout advantage of around plus-six percent for Democrats.
What's the world coming to when you can't believe unskewed polls?
Kudos to Mr. John Esperian!
He is right about us failing as a nation, it just won't happen. There have been times when we've hit rock bottom on social, labor and economic issues and bounced back. It took dangerous events to have rational people represent the electorate on The Hill. There was always a section of the country that moved forward while others wanted to hem and haw keeping the status quo. Our great nation as a whole now leans left and is no longer fairly conservative. It's called progress and sooner or later all will stabilize.
In the 60's we led the world and were able to put men on the moon, today we have to hitch a ride from Russia to a space station a few miles above the Earth.
I would call that a serious and significant demise.
@JefffromVegas: I am still laughing over your "spraying everyone like a cornered skunk this morning!" So perfect--will have to remember that one!
I'm Malcolm Telloian, the writer John Esperian was refering to in his letter. I would enjoy debating Mr. Esperian but my late father always advised me before matching wits, to be sure my opponent was well armed, which I'm afraid Mr. Esperian is not.
We are trying to protect you from yourselves but the left is too hung up on political parties and hate the wealthy, perhaps in part due to their own failures. How much more wrong can a President do before you finally get it? If anyone qualifies for impeachment, it is Obama. They pressured Nixon to finally resign after Watergate and for what?
A break in! How does that even begin to compare to allowing the mass murder of four American diplomats
by refusing them protection? And for the record, we watch all the news broadcasts (NBC, CBS, ABC, and MSNBC, but find they are so biased, its laughable. They only report from the left while at least FOX News reports the good and bad on both sides, which is probably why they have the most viewers.
"They only report from the left while at least FOX News reports the good and bad on both sides"
That comment is a joke. Fox was manufactured by Roger Ailes to represent the Republican party on television. He noted that in a memo to Richard Nixon back in 1970.
"A Plan For Putting the GOP on TV News"
"Today television news is watched more often than people read newspapers, than people listen to the radio, than people read or gather any other form of communication. The reason: People are lazy. With television you just sit--watch--listen. The thinking is done for you."
"This is a plan that places news of importance to localities (Senators and representatives are newsmakers of importance to their localities) on local television news programs while it is still news. It avoids the censorship, the priorities, and the prejudices of network news selectors and disseminators."
"... Mr. Telloian might look into the reasons why the Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, could not carry their own states, Massachusetts and Wisconsin."
Ouch. The truth hurts, especially the brutal, ugly truth that R/R failed to carry their home states. And all this time I thought Paul Ryan was the second coming of Saint Ronald. What happened? Why was the Wonder Boy unable to win Wisconsin for the team?
Maybe Ryan's actual popularity isn't as great as advertised by wingnuts, having been thoroughly unskewed by the same people who tricked GOPers into believing Etch a Sketch was a sure winner, lol.
Jeff,
"The folks that are still in shock over the assertion of goodness by the American people are spraying everyone like a cornered skunk this morning."
Yup! Good stuff. Good stuff. Now, back to football.
John: while we're not falling apart like ancient Rome, we sure as heck are in a deep pile of ka-ka. Perhaps you believe your own brand of fairy tales, like the government can keep playing with money they don't have forever or we can support 150 million people on the public dole forever. What about our so-called budget? 16 trillion already in debt and adding another trillion to that every year. Over 20 million people still out of work. Corporations still outsourcing jobs and manufacturing. Housing still weak, and we're going to dump 30 million more people into an overtaxed health care system (I had to see 45-50 patients a day to stay afloat). Who do you think will take care of them? You call out the "other side" a lot, but your own brand of absurdity is just as bad as the bubble gang.
USA GDP is around $15 trillion.
USA government debt is $16 trillion.
Medicaid and Medicare together have an unfunded liability of nearly $70 trillion.
State and local government are carrying a unfunded liability of nearly $4 trillion.
Annual US payments on interest is around $500 billion and expected to top $1 trillion in some 15 years from now. During that same time, it is expected that interest expense will exceed the size of the defense budget.
US Fed. gov. spends more on interest then education and welfare combined.
The day of doom will surely happen within the next 40 years.
It will happen.
DC is doing zero to stop it.
Written like a true lib. Ignorant. No idea the ramifications of our debt, open borders, coming higher taxes, on liberty and freedom. He thinks the gov can just continue to print worthless fiat money to the end of time. Sad thing is that they allow low IQ like this guy to vote, that's the real reason this country will cease to be free someday.
John........GREAT LETTER! SPOT ON!
YES, the fox followers and the crazy teabaggers
LOST HUGE in this election.
The republican party is finished.
THANK GOD!
LIVE BETTER/WORK UNION!
"Anyone can answer that - these are deep blue states that live off the dependancy model and will not give up the golden pig trough. These are heavy Union states and Obama implement his "KILL" Romney (murderer and racist and felon) bad faith ressentiment character assassination and vilification" @Future
The solutions are too hard for people to accept. Not unlike the so called friends and neighbors when Jesus said to them: You must pick up your cross and follow me. It was easier to run him out of town and impugn him as a prophet than accept their crosses and follow him.
CarmineD
Future said:
"Anyone can answer that - these are deep blue states that live off the dependancy model and will not give up the golden pig trough. These are heavy Union states and Obama implement his "KILL" Romney (murderer and racist and felon) bad faith ressentiment character assassination and vilification"
Wow! It appears that Future is again off of his meds...How else could he come up with his twisted rant?
The right-wingers are still having a difficult time accepting the fact that Romney & the Republicans got their butt kicked.
Actually it's the deep red states who receive the most federal money, not the deep blue states. Also, those same states have the poorest educational systems, a very high unemployment rate & a stagnant economy based on low minimum wage jobs....
Hmmmmm....nothing new coming from my little buddy Carmine. He continues to wrap himself in the American flag and make a stand against those he disagrees with by hitting them over the head with his Bible!
If around today, I wonder what Jesus would say about America's fat cats who believe that "greed is good," and the many racists who refuse to accept the fact that we have an articulate and intelligent black man in the White House?
Last Throes says Fox News ratings are falling. ha ha ha! You must be watching to much mainstream media. They're number one and have been for a looooong time.
It appears that Malcolm Telloian spends way too much watching FIXED NEWS....
Despite what Malcolm believes about this country, and the fact that we're still pulling ourselves out of the worst recession that we've faced since the Great Depression, (thanks to George junior...) things are starting to look up!
The present budget deficit is cause for concern, but look for a compromise to be reached before January 31st....
Neither party wants to go on record as the party that refused to do what was needed to be done for us to avoid an economic melt down...
Malcolm's latest post on this board is clearly the thoughts and beliefs of a man who has not a clue about what is going on....
His knowledge of history is very limited and his take on world affairs is straight out of FIXED NEWS...
His statement saying the following is proof of that very thing....
He said:
"How much more wrong can a President do before you finally get it? If anyone qualifies for impeachment, it is Obama. They pressured Nixon to finally resign after Watergate and for what?
A break in! How does that even begin to compare to allowing the mass murder of four American diplomats by refusing them protection?"
Nixon resigned because he knew that he had broken the law and lied about the Watergate break-in. His attempted to cover-up what he had done, and his resignation simply enforced the belief that we're "a nation of laws and not a nation of men."
What happened to Nixon, he clearly deserved....
The right-wingers in Congress may well try to impeach Obama, but don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen....
The Republicans are still in a "stooper" due to the recent election. The GOP has major, major problems facing it and one of their biggest problems is that they simply don't get it.....they can't figure out why they got their butt kicked some four weeks ago.
The GOP is well on their way to becoming a minority party.....a party that may "dry-up and blow away" if they don't change their views on numerous things......
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the GOP has moved way too far to the right and they have chased most moderates and all progressives out of the party......
I'm keeping my fingers crossed hoping that the GOP doesn't change. A refusal to change will keep a Democrat in the White House through at least 2020...
Look for the Democrats to take back control of the House in 2014 and increase their hold on the Senate...
The Republican Party and their refusal to acknowledge the will of the electorate will keep them out of the White House through 2024. Hopefully they can retain an edge in the House so there is some balance of power.
I'm an optomist. I think our best days are still ahead of us. We will get the debt thing under control once we have the political will to properly tax people and generate the revenue needed. We have a powerful and dynamic economy, and when we can generate enough demand for products (possibly via the re-emerging housing sector) trillions of dollars of corporate money that is on the sidelines will flow, and companies will be hiring again. The revved up economy will allow us to start to pay down the debt, and we will emerge with a better sense of the balance needed for taxation and economic stimulus. Now, if the right will learn a lesson from this, we could even be in better shape politically from all this.