. . .But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. . .

Declaration of Independence in Congress, July 4, 1776

[emphasis mine]

With huge chunks of pork.

I pray that a super-flu does not hit our shores. Will we have money for vaccines?

No matter, which side one is on, the way it was passed was wrong. If handled right, the congress could have had hearings all week with expert economist from various groups, some professors from universitys, etc., and still passed it on Friday but with more checks and balances.

How did the president change all the minds of the “NO’s”?

“Truly, there are tears in our lady’s eyes,
looking over her nations vast comprimise….”

It’s that even those who did live through his Presidency have seemingly forgotten that lesson and have either joined the “Well Obama promised me this” crowd or are members of the brain-dead “it couldn’t be worse…” community.

One of the reasons past “great civilizations” have fallen is when their economies consisted of more net takers than providers.

We’re not all that far from that today, and at some point the providers are going to say “#$@! this” and the whole nasty deck of cards will collapse.

The question is how long that effect can be put off by oh, say Government action to buy bad loans in the hope that creditors will… issue more loans.

Sigh.

wardmama4, sadly you also miss the point in that the “useless” are a very loud constituency that have influence with the MSM and vote. You can’t vote by computer in most places – yet – but even slackers can send back their postage paid absentee ballots without having to move the old pizza boxes off the kitchen table or even replace the bong water.

Thus the net effect won’t be the “useless” go, but rather “the useless have so little – that means we must take even more from those who have any use whatsoever.”

The only good news – is that they don’t turn out – they can’t vote by phone or computer -so why bother. And a lot of people who do ‘answer’ polls on the phone and online – don’t bother to vote. My neighbors b**** right and left about the ‘state’ of things but aren’t registered to vote and like my new sil – have never voted. His having never lived anywhere for more than 3 years – I buy his attitude more than my neighbors – which is just plain don’t care.

That is the only thing keeping me from dispair after this whole mess – collapse the economy – survivors and little spenders like me – aren’t going to be in as much pain as the whinners and cryers who don’t even know how to do much of anything other than text messages and decorate their facebooks pages.

And that might be the whole point of America going to hell (socialism) in a handbasket – the first to go will be the useless.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10057618-38.html

I believe the bill passed yesterday was criminal. Further, I voted for Bush twice (holding my nose, but the alternative wasn’t), but he should be impeached for sending the first Paulson plan to Congress—which gave unsupervised, extra-constitutional power to the treasury secretary. Bush proved he either doesn’t respect the Constitution he swore to defend, or is stupid. The members of Congress who voted for this bill should be thrown out of office and publicly rebuked. I have to tell you, I get sick at my stomach listening to folks on the right talking about the “courage” of republicans who voted for this POS—no, the republicans proved they value the power of government over the Constitution.

Folks, it is time to REBOOT the USA.

Using history as a guide, a northern liberal like Barry has never won a national election. Next biggest liberal for comparison would be Carter. On this site we all know what a disaster that was. Most people under 40, however, do not understand the malaise created by a weak-kneed ultra liberal President because they did not live through it. Their only understanding of history is the re-written history in liberal textbooks.

If McCain does not take the gloves off, he will have the dubious distinction of losing to the most liberal Presidential Candidate in the history of the Republic.

Allow me to ‘think differently’ for a moment.

I think Bush, McCain and the Republicans may have played this brilliantly.

The bill needed to pass. You hate, I hate it, everyone hates it. The people that voted for it hate it. It still needed to pass.

The fact remains that the Democrats caused this problem and refused to address it amongst Republican warnings since 2003 at least.

A majority of Democrats supported it – a minority of Republicans supported it. This was passed by Democrats.

It’s also noteworthy that the Democrats largely passed a ‘Bush bailout’ – which surely can’t help them with their base.

McCain turned that $100 million for ACORN into $60 million for NASCAR (wtf?) with tax cuts attached and still got the Democrats to step into this BS bailout.

Now we just need to see McCain play this out along this scenario.

This bill was brought to you by the Democrats – who couldn’t figure a way out on their own so they looked to their arch enemy in order to solve the problem they created.

If there was ever an opportunity to sway borderline voters to McCain this is it.

Yes, there are some holes in this outlook – but if played correctly this can actually help McCain and Republicans in a big way on Nov 4.

IF they play their cards right.

But at least maybe now we won’t have to hear that stupid linkage of the word “Wall Street” and “Main Street” every time we turn on the TV -until this fiscal masterpiece flops and they start all over again. Give it three months.

They want Mom & Dad.

They want “low taxes” but they want Government services.

They want “free” health care.

They want their employers to be forced to give them a pension.

They want lifetime guarantees of employment.

They want to be forgiven when they buy things they can’t afford.

They want someone to “do something” if their employer doesn’t know how to build products the market wants.

They want someone to “do something” if they don’t get a raise every year.

They want someone to “do something” if their cable or satellite TV goes up in price.

They want someone to “do something” if they ignored all financial advice and had their retirement plan invested 100% in company stock.

They want someone to “do something” if they are about to retire and ignored all financial advice and had any more money than they could afford to lose in the market.

They want someone to “do something” if gas goes up $1/gallon.

They want someone to protect them – but only immediately after an attack; any other time it’s “invasion of their privacy.”

They want someone to force banks to give them loans and then force them to not foreclose when they don’t pay them back.

They want guarantees of a “middle class” lifestyle that would exceed the wildest fantasies of the wealthiest in most other countries in the world and definitely at any other time in the history of Man.

They want all these things.

But freedom? Not as such.

I have no doubt if you gave a list of conditions in Communist Poland or the USSR to most Americans today they’d say “Hey, where is this, if they can do it why can’t we?”

Everything Reagan achieved is, for the most part, now gone, aside from the military, and that’s next come January.

The left has wanted to erase the Reagan years for decades, and now they’ve succeeded and returned us to the days of FDR, with ample help from many, many Republicans.

Where to go now?

I don’t know.

For the past week every statement out of McCain’s mouth has made it less and less likely I could ever vote for the man – even drunk.

There is one, and only one reason (other than the defeat of Obama) why I can even conceive of pulling that lever for McCain in November.

Her name is Sarah Palin (even despite her support for the plan.)

You can see why smart pundits like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh stay out of politics; who needs the brain damage?