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Milkman

One sided distortions and outright lies smack of Orwellian Big Brother.

And these right-wing TV and radio shows rarely if ever, cite their sources.

panama hat

I think it is funny when those on the right, the far right, evoke fears of Big Brother . . .

Milkman

Yes, extolling "big brother" is an over-generalization, as I've read "1984," and it's a good book.

If there is a big brother it's the ever growing governments of many nation-states, domestic spying, lobbyists and special interest groups.

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Military men are dumb, stupid animals, to be used as pawns for foreign policy

panama hat

I'm trying to think of a democracy where special interest groups and lobbyists are very powerful but can't come up with one


Excellent book

Boon Mee

The Obama Plan


btw..it's not a joke...



Barack Obama discovers a leak under his sink, so he calls Joe the Plumber to come and fix it.


Joe drives to Obama's house, which is located in a very nice neighborhood and where it's clear that all the residents make more than $250,000 per year.

Joe arrives and takes his tools into the house. Joe is led to the room that contains the leaky pipe under a sink. Joe assesses the problem and tells Obama, who is standing near the door, that it's an easy repair that will take less than 10 minutes.
Obama asks Joe how much it will cost.

Joe immediately says, '$9,500.'

'$9,500?' Obama asks, stunned. 'But you said it's an easy repair!'

'Yes, but what I do is charge a lot more to my clients who make more than $250,000 per year so I can fix the plumbing of everybody who makes less than that for free,' explains Joe. 'It's always been my philosophy. As a matter of fact, I lobbied government to pass this philosophy as law, and it did pass earlier this year, so now all plumbers have to do business this way. It's known as 'Joe's Fair Plumbing Act of 2008.' Surprised you haven't heard of it, senator.'

In spite of that, Obama tells Joe there's no way he's paying that much for a small plumbing repair, so Joe leaves.
Obama spends the next hour flipping through the phone book looking for another plumber, but he finds that all other plumbing businesses listed have gone out of business. Not wanting to pay Joe's price, Obama does nothing.

The leak under Obama's sink goes unrepaired for the next several days.

A week later the leak is so bad that Obama has had to put a bucket under the sink. The bucket fills up quickly and has to be emptied every hour, and there's a risk that the room will flood, so Obama calls Joe and pleads with him to return.
Joe goes back to Obama's house, looks at the leaky pipe, and says 'Let's see ˆ this will cost you about $21,000.'
'A few days ago you told me it would cost $9,500!' Obama quickly fires back.

Joe explains the reason for the dramatic increase. 'Well, because of the 'Joe's Fair Plumbing Act,' a lot of rich people are learning how to fix their own plumbing, so there are fewer of you paying for all the free plumbing I'm doing for the people who make less than $250,000. As a result, the rate I have to charge my wealthy paying customers rises every day.

'Not only that, but for some reason the demand for plumbing work from the group of people who get it for free has skyrocketed, and there's a long waiting list of those who need repairs. This has put a lot of my fellow plumbers out of business, and they're not being replaced ˆ nobody is going into the plumbing business because they know they won't make any money. I'm hurting now too ˆ all thanks to greedy rich people like you who won't pay their fair share.'

Obama tries to straighten out the plumber: 'Of course you're hurting, Joe! Don't you get it? If all the rich people learn how to fix their own plumbing and you refuse to charge the poorer people for your services, you'll be broke, and then what will you do?'

Joe immediately replies, 'Run for president, apparently.'

ripped from here

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ผมเป็นคนบ้านนอก

sabang

^ President Obama has already been elected, Convincingly. By the People.

Are you a permanent member of the Moaning Class now booner?

Panda

There is a limit as to how much a government can exploit the poor and give advantage to the rich in a democracy.

While maintaining a minority wealthy, educated, ruling/business class with a majority of low paid underclass of workers has proven to be a winning formula through out the ages (eg:ancient Romans, Egyptians right thru to USA and China today), the principles of majority rule in a democracy tend to counteract the excesses of the elite ruling class eventually at the ballot box.

USA has trimmed the majority worker class rights and benefits to the bone compared to other democracies in the developed world and that has (in the past now) made them more competitive and given them the edge re world trade.

But those days of USA as the worlds main producer and exporter of manufactured goods is gone now. No developed country can compete with countries like China and India where workers earn only a few $s a week and live in comparative poverty.

USA is maintaining their standard of living by living on debt now, and it cant last forever. Sooner or later the countries like China who are actually producing items of value to trade will stop accepting the $US paper money the US government keeps churning out to buy themselves deeper into debt. That time is not far away now. When the $US hegemony as the worlds premier trading currency collapses there will be a redistribution of wealth throughout the world. The $US will probably line up at about two thirds of its current value and that will be good for the US working class as it means they can again become competitive in some of the export markets. More jobs. More money going round in the internal economy and the government able to raise money through taxes rather than borrowing from places like China.

There is nothing Obama or anyone else can do to stop this adjustment in the world wide redistribution of wealth. It all comes down to productivity in the end. And America is spending far more than they can produce and sell as exports.

Boon Mee

Buyers Remorse will set in shortly...

sabang

Obama is not the Messiah! (he's a very naughty boy)

bkkandrew