Comment Re:They do have a platform pal. (Score 2, Insightful) 1425
-withdraw from iraq, try to do so gracefully since were damned if we stay and damned if we go.
We aren't winning Iraq, but we're not losing either; we're only holding back the hordes trying to drive us out. Unfortunately George W. Bush has proven a weak wartime leader unable or unwilling to prepare the American people to sacrifice in order to win a war, or to explain the consequences of abandoning Iraq to terrorist who will quickly proceed to make use of Iraq's vast oil wealth and WMD know-how and production facilities against us. Think Afghanistan under the Taliban was a threat? Wait until al Qaeda runs Iraq!
The good new is the problem with our strategy in Iraq are immenently solvable with a little leadership at the top. Too bad that's exactly what we're lacking with this idiot at the helm. Sad but true.
First, get our troops out of their bases where they can do some good. Currently most of our troops are holed up in ever-growing compounds, accomplishing very little in order to keep American casualty levels very low. Second, drastically increase the number of American 'advisors' to the Iraqi military. Third, stop pushing Iraqi troops into the field long before they are ready. Fourth, we need to permanently increase the size of our military by a million troops to support our military strategy in Iraq. 140,000 troops was never enough to successfully implement an oil-spot strategy in a country the size of Iraq. Rumsfeld should be fired for this one alone.
-undo the damage to our civil liberties done by the patriot act
There have been no serious abuses so far, so that's a hard sell.
-reform social security by removing the blatant privatization bush put in which basically amounts to abolshment (but with the added benefit of commissions to brokers before your stock tanks)
The current surplus in SS is being used to fund Medicaid and welfare and every other government program, and to say there is no budget shortfall in SS now is to pretend these programs are funded separately. They aren't. There is just one big pot of money out of which the Treasury pays all government obligations. And since today there is a budget deficit overall, every time two or three baby boomer retires to be replaced by one new worker, the Social Security solvency and the overal budget deficit gets worse as the ratio of payers to payees increases.
Bush's very small (2%), totally voluntary privatisation would help solve the problem by bringing in a whole lot more money than is possible now in the highly inefficient purely government system. Few remember this, but Bill Clinton actually proposed a similar solution several years ago, of course his solution was to allow the *government* to do the investing, a poison pill.
-Universal health care (which responds to the increasing 10s of millions of people without healthcare, and which they make a damned good economic case for!)
Yeah that one worked great for Hillary. I dare you to try it again. ;)
There are a lot of misconceptions about the American medical system such as a lack of emergency care for the uninsured, something which is actually illegal here. Or that people commonly do without necessary operations, in truth a rarity because charity almost always picks up the slack. I bet you buy into them all. But I would ask you why Canadians have to wait 6 months go south of the border whenever they have major operations? Why do those who can afford it instead opt to go south of the border to find timely care? Or maybe you could ask yourself why our medical care costs started to explode only when government HMOs took over? Or why virtually all the world's cutting edge medical research and new procedures are developed in the U.S., why such a large percentage of relevant Nobels are awarded here? Did it ever occur to you that all those great miracle drugs and other amazing advances wouldn't have happened in other places that make such long term, ultra expensive research risky, so frequently unprofitable business?
-Investigation into bush's illegal activites, followed hopefully by impeachment
Dream on.
Meanwhile, most Americans are firmly in the Republican camp when it comes to an agressive prosecution of the War on Terror because they know 5 years with no terrorist attacks didn't happen by will power alone, but by employing things such as wire taps on international phone calls when a known terrorist is on the other end or tracking international bank transactions above a certain size.
They listen to Democrats whine about such tactics, then incredibly claim we should be treating the WOT more like a police action! They see such contradictions and sees your arguments for what they are: unserious, at a time when they need serious.
-Investigation into oil companies among others for gouging.
There was a bipartisan investigation I recall to investigate the gouging after Katrina. While some individual cases of gouging were found (and punished), no evidence of industry wide coordination was found. But judging by the other parts of your 'platform' I know you won't let reality get in the way.
We aren't winning Iraq, but we're not losing either; we're only holding back the hordes trying to drive us out. Unfortunately George W. Bush has proven a weak wartime leader unable or unwilling to prepare the American people to sacrifice in order to win a war, or to explain the consequences of abandoning Iraq to terrorist who will quickly proceed to make use of Iraq's vast oil wealth and WMD know-how and production facilities against us. Think Afghanistan under the Taliban was a threat? Wait until al Qaeda runs Iraq!
The good new is the problem with our strategy in Iraq are immenently solvable with a little leadership at the top. Too bad that's exactly what we're lacking with this idiot at the helm. Sad but true.
First, get our troops out of their bases where they can do some good. Currently most of our troops are holed up in ever-growing compounds, accomplishing very little in order to keep American casualty levels very low. Second, drastically increase the number of American 'advisors' to the Iraqi military. Third, stop pushing Iraqi troops into the field long before they are ready. Fourth, we need to permanently increase the size of our military by a million troops to support our military strategy in Iraq. 140,000 troops was never enough to successfully implement an oil-spot strategy in a country the size of Iraq. Rumsfeld should be fired for this one alone.
-undo the damage to our civil liberties done by the patriot act
There have been no serious abuses so far, so that's a hard sell.
-reform social security by removing the blatant privatization bush put in which basically amounts to abolshment (but with the added benefit of commissions to brokers before your stock tanks)
The current surplus in SS is being used to fund Medicaid and welfare and every other government program, and to say there is no budget shortfall in SS now is to pretend these programs are funded separately. They aren't. There is just one big pot of money out of which the Treasury pays all government obligations. And since today there is a budget deficit overall, every time two or three baby boomer retires to be replaced by one new worker, the Social Security solvency and the overal budget deficit gets worse as the ratio of payers to payees increases.
Bush's very small (2%), totally voluntary privatisation would help solve the problem by bringing in a whole lot more money than is possible now in the highly inefficient purely government system. Few remember this, but Bill Clinton actually proposed a similar solution several years ago, of course his solution was to allow the *government* to do the investing, a poison pill.
-Universal health care (which responds to the increasing 10s of millions of people without healthcare, and which they make a damned good economic case for!)
Yeah that one worked great for Hillary. I dare you to try it again.
There are a lot of misconceptions about the American medical system such as a lack of emergency care for the uninsured, something which is actually illegal here. Or that people commonly do without necessary operations, in truth a rarity because charity almost always picks up the slack. I bet you buy into them all. But I would ask you why Canadians have to wait 6 months go south of the border whenever they have major operations? Why do those who can afford it instead opt to go south of the border to find timely care? Or maybe you could ask yourself why our medical care costs started to explode only when government HMOs took over? Or why virtually all the world's cutting edge medical research and new procedures are developed in the U.S., why such a large percentage of relevant Nobels are awarded here? Did it ever occur to you that all those great miracle drugs and other amazing advances wouldn't have happened in other places that make such long term, ultra expensive research risky, so frequently unprofitable business?
-Investigation into bush's illegal activites, followed hopefully by impeachment
Dream on.
Meanwhile, most Americans are firmly in the Republican camp when it comes to an agressive prosecution of the War on Terror because they know 5 years with no terrorist attacks didn't happen by will power alone, but by employing things such as wire taps on international phone calls when a known terrorist is on the other end or tracking international bank transactions above a certain size.
They listen to Democrats whine about such tactics, then incredibly claim we should be treating the WOT more like a police action! They see such contradictions and sees your arguments for what they are: unserious, at a time when they need serious.
-Investigation into oil companies among others for gouging.
There was a bipartisan investigation I recall to investigate the gouging after Katrina. While some individual cases of gouging were found (and punished), no evidence of industry wide coordination was found. But judging by the other parts of your 'platform' I know you won't let reality get in the way.
