I choose liberty
President Obama has a clear vision for America — government can do anything and everything in the name of fairness. Listening to his State of the Union address was painful, if you believe in liberty.
Liberty doesn’t promise equal results, it doesn’t eliminate greed, it can’t make us all content and happy. But it does unleash the human yearning to better ourselves.
If individuals are free to pursue their dreams, society is lifted. This is the fundamental premise of America. Our Constitution protects our individual liberties like no other document on this earth. Our founders understood the lure of socialism, they chose liberty, and so do I.
Travis Beal
Beals
Unions hurt manufacturing
The BDN’s Jan. 27 editorial “Why all the outsourcing?” was extremely interesting. It used Steve Jobs as an example as to why American companies are moving to foreign soils to manufacture their products.
The editorial failed to also include the impact of trade unions in facilitating the transition of an American-based company to a foreign-based company. The demands of unions today in the workplace are staggering. In the last 20 years, manufacturing companies have almost disappeared. Those remaining, well, the death watch is near.
Ronald Ferri
Franklin
Color me human
The AP article regarding Americans resisting the race labels offered on the U.S. Census (BDN, Feb. 1) failed to include my personal write-in under “other.” While the article described some blacks describing their shade or color tone, some Americans listing their national origin and others their cultural ethnicity, my choice was not mentioned. I listed “human” under “other.”
Racial differences will continue to matter and separate us until we (and the government) realize that we are all fellow members of one race — the human race.
George Montee
Fort Fairfield
Tank means jobs
I have worked in construction for 22 years and these last few years have been incredibly hard. I went to the Searsport town hall meeting last week because I need work and wanted to hear what DCP Midstream, the company that wants to build a propane tank in Searsport, had to say.
We learned that they have signed a community work force benefit agreement, which means they are already committed to hiring local people. That’s important. I live in Waldo County and we need jobs now. I think we should stop the moratorium because it will mean fewer jobs for all of us in Waldo County.
Ron Flewelling
Monroe
Test score privacy
I would like to call readers’ attention to a bill that will be coming before the Legislature: LD 1690, An Act to Protect the Privacy of Social Workers.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Hayes of Buckfield, seeks to ensure that the licensure exam scores of social workers are kept private. I’m working on my MSW at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast right now, and this bill brought to my attention that any scores I receive on licensure exams would currently be publicly available. Provided I obtain the score deemed necessary for licensure, that precise number of the score is no one’s business but my own.
When I take the LMSW exam upon graduation in 2013, I resent the potentially added stress of making sure that my score is three points higher than someone else’s. Provided I pass, I should be judged upon my licensure, experience and accomplishments, rather than an exam score. Neither doctors nor attorneys have licensure exam scores available for public knowledge; why should social workers be treated any differently?
I commend Rep. Hayes for sponsoring this bill. I urge all social workers as well as those who utilize social workers in some aspect of their lives to support this bill. A public hearing on the subject is scheduled for Feb. 7 at the State House in Augusta.
Jessica Falconer
Belfast
Be a wise buyer
I read the Jan. 28 BDN editorial “Why all the outsourcing?” with great interest.
Right now about 3 percent of the clothing that is purchased in the United States is manufactured here. Our family owns a seasonal cotton clothing store in Bar Harbor, and almost 70 percent of the clothing in our store is manufactured in the United States. It is part of our mission statement to support the cotton farmers, spinners, sewers, dyers and suppliers in the United States.
We believe that with effort and awareness, we can make a contribution and support the local and national economy. However, it also takes awareness and commitment on the part of the consumer.
We urge you to look for the “Made in the USA” label as you shop. Question store owners about where their products are manufactured. You don’t need to accept the status quo answer that manufacturing is obsolete in this country. And please support stores that are making an effort to revitalize manufacturing jobs in the United States. We can only continue this mission with your support.
Joyce Mallery
Bangor
Another way to elect
Mainers now have the opportunity to participate in the first-ever national online primary that is open to everyone. This week, the Secretary of State certified that Americans Elect collected the required signatures to place a qualified candidate for president on the ballot in November.
When I first heard about Americans Elect, I was skeptical about what it was, who was involved and what they were trying to accomplish. Once I dug further and met the staff and volunteers, I was excited to see people with such differing views come together to change a problem we all agreed on — that the two parties don’t represent us. In fact, a Jan. 15 Washington Post/ABC News poll found that two-thirds of Americans are open to supporting a qualified independent candidate. With this new online primary, the entire nation can weigh in on the issues we face and draft the candidates we wish to lead our country forward.
Americans Elect is for people like myself who believe our two-party system has become more polarized, dysfunctional and corrupted by the influence of money and power. Americans Elect is a tool to bring about positive change. It is up to us to seize this moment in history and vote for who we want as president, not for the candidates that have been chosen for us.
We can make Americans Elect a success! With a two-party system that is already broken, we have nothing to lose. To sign up, visit AmericansElect.org.
Christopher Kessler
South Portland
Travis Beal–Are you campaigning for something? Your letter is full of patriotism tinged platitudes but completely fails to address issues or reality or democratic process. Does the pursuit of your lofty(or greedy) dream of liberty allow you to vend a flawed product to others? Does it allow you complete freedom to behave without regard to your neighbors?
Liberty for some of us is the freedom to address what we see as wrong. It is the freedom to know that anyone harming our person or properties will have consequences for those actions. It is the peace of mind that comes with knowing that we are part of a community that responds to need and protects all its members.
Your liberty sounds suspiciously like a wild west, to the victor go the the spoils mentality to me and I would prefer to live in a civil society. Liberty does not mean libertarian or socialist or any other partisan political label–it means freedom from fear. I agree that we need more of this in todays society but sense that you and I differ as to how best achieve this liberty.
Peace.
Liberty, in our history, was the prize of casting off a tyrannical and overbearing government.
We WILL be doing it again sooner or later.
Hear hear!
You define liberty as freedom from fear. That definition of liberty is impossible to attain in the real world and making a real effort to attain such a goal requites nothing less than totalitarian control of everyone and everything. And still it is doomed to failure.
“Liberty for some of us is the freedom to address what we see as wrong.” The constitution give you that freedom but interestingly, progressives have promoted the greatest restrictions and limits on free speech.
” It is the freedom to know that anyone harming our person or properties will have consequences for those actions.” That is what the justice and court system in our country provides. Progressives believe that if they just pass enough laws and rules limiting true freedom that they can prevent bad things from happening in the first place. Another impossibility even with totalitarian government.
” It is the peace of mind that comes with knowing that we are part of a
community that responds to need and protects all its members.” Pure pablum. And this is the proper role of individuals. Not of government.
The Maine Democratic Party on the 31st of January ran an article on its web site which was totally inaccurate concerning Americans Elect. It asserts that there is aboard that can override the voters nomination and that in itself is false. Americans Elect (AE)is a secure nomination process without the parties dictating who is the candidate. The voters who are members of Americans Elect do not give up their party membership, they actually have one advantage they get to choose to nominate the candidate that they believe will best serve the country. The Voters prepare the questions for the prospective candidates, the candidates fund and organize their campaign, Americans Elect does not. The vast number of AE members are from across the country and from all walks of life who know that the current political system is not representative of the people. The two parties are tied to specific ideologies which limits solutions to problems (we are broken). The selection of the candidate will go through a vetting process to determine the best candidate to put forward. Our Convention is national and for all voters who wish to participate. For the Democrats and Republicans who worry about “spoilers” you should have thought about that when you put your platforms, ideologies, and politics as usual in place.
Travis …I choose Liberty also.
Ronald and Joyce on “outsourcing”. President Obama made the claim that American businesses are creating jobs in his SOTU. They sure are creating jobs…in foreign countries with federal backed funds. Sun Power Corp $1.2Billion DOE guarantee 15 US jobs, 500 Mexican jobs. First Solar 3400 jobs in Malaysia. GE moves X-ray division from Wisconsin to Beijing. Ge partners with Chinese to build new commercial airliners and provides advanced avionics technology to Chinese. Conversely President Obama wants to create infrastructure jobs here in the USA. He is! The Chinese are building the Bay Bridge in Oakland California, the Alexander Hamilton bridge in New York, refurbishing the Brooklyn bridge, and building new subway stations in New York. One step beyond that his DOJ raids Gibson Guitar and files a court brief advising them if they move their operations overseas the problem would go away…the problem being rare wood was violating India’s law for size by 4mm. Then the political raid on Berg Sportswear in Corinna Maine. I could go on but it boils down to one thing. Washington will do everything in it’s power to put America out of business and everything it can to marry us to foreign powers.
Either you choose liberty or you get socialism.
yep
Nope
Travis Beal, I am confused by your message. Plus, I suspect someone with the last name Beal hailing from a place called Beals might not make a good spokesperson for liberty, or equality, or anything else, other than something Beals-related. Your letter reminds me of “The Little Prince.”
removed.
I believe Mr. Beal served in the military for a number of years before settling on Beal’s Island. He knows more about liberty than many of us.
You’re saying he wasn’t born there?
What makes the difference? You are stereotyping people who were born and live in that town that you don’t even know.
Tell me why someone with the last name Beal from Beals Island would not know anything about liberty, equality or anything else? Let’s hear it, this should be good.
Just my opinion Mr. Native. I don’t see how someone named Beals who spent their entire life on an island named Beals, population give or take 700, can know much of anything outside of lobstering. Since he clearly doesn’t understand what socialism is, then why would anyone assume he understands what liberty is? If he has served in the military as you say, I don’t believe that means his opinion can’t be questioned, do you? Though I would question his tone regarding the Commander in Chief.
We have the knowledge of the world just a mouse click away. It no longer really matters where you live because technology has brought the world to remote places like Beals Island, Maine.
I know many lobstermen (the ones you are implying who know nothing beyond lobstering) who are college educated and many who are veterans. Many of them get their degrees but then their heart wants to be on the water. They can make more money and have more freedom than pursuing a job with their degree would bring them.
As I said, Mr. Beal has not spent his entire life on Beals Island, but even if he did, we live in a day and age where the world is at our fingertips. Mr. Beal’s wife is a college graduate, his oldest son in his second year of college. In 2009, he received the Principal’s Award and was the valedictorian of his graduating class. His younger brother is an A student.
You can have a differing opinion with someone without trying to make them less than. You can disagree with Mr. Beal, but there is no need to put down where he lives and make unfair assumptions about where he lives and the people who live there.
I personally dislike how the world socialism is tossed around, but I don’t need to attack Mr. Beal and the place he calls home.
That’s all very enlightening. I hope Mr. Beal and his family appreciate your trumpeting the details of their lives in the BDN comments section.
Traveling to foreign lands,meeting new people and then killing them does not teach one about Liberty. You want to ask someone about Liberty? Ask someone who has lost it.They can really tell you what liberty is all about.
So that’s what you think of our military?
Mr. Beal, please take out a dictionary and look up the word “socialism”. “Government ownership of the means of production,” the dictionary definition, describes nothing of what President Obama has done. He has pushed for a world in which the son of a lobsterman from Beals Island has the same chance at an education as the son of a wealthy hedge fund trader from Manhattan. Socialism as a theory or a word did not exist at the time of either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. What did exist in the north was free public education, laws prohibiting banks from charging usurious interest rates, and an acceptance of slavery in the states of the south. We are more free than at any time in our nation’s history. Learn our history before you write again.
Mr. Ferri, manufacturing has been growing by leaps and bounds for the last year. Just last month we added over 50,000 manufacturing jobs, most of them unionized. The single biggest reason for the decline of manufacturing jobs was granting China most favored nation trade status. Turn off Faux News and learn about the reality that surrounds you.
Everyone gets a free high school education, and everyone is free to get a job and earn their way through college. If the son of a lobsterman on Beals Island ends up being the stearn man on daddy’s boat, it’s because he didn’t have the ambition to pursue college, not because he couldn’t.
His father would not have had to run up debts in excess of $100,000 to simply get a four year degree. A generation ago, tuition rates were a quarter of what they are now, adjusted for inflation. I know. I took out loans to pay tuition for four years and paid the resulting loans off in three years. The change is that we have cut back the public funding of public universities. The wealthy corporations, whose tax bills have been lowered to facilitate that de-funding, now ask why there are not enough skilled workers among Americans and beg the government to allow them to import even more foreign high-tech workers.
No, it was because he doesn’t want to become part of the “machine” but would rather be his own boss, set his own pace, follow his own dream, enjoy the natural world and reap the benefits of being a self-taught, self-employed businessman.
I applaud those that can make a living doing what they love, and not necessarily(sp) working for the man. life is not that simple really. I’ve met alot of educated idiots as well as wise self taught people. oh yeah, I forgot to say that I agree with you on that one.
Excellent letters every one good to know there’s like minded individuals out there that still read the bdn.Thanks to the editorial staff for letting a few conservative viewpoints through.You folks are doing better.
Travis Beal: With the signing of the National Defense Authorization Act any American citizen can now be detained by our military indefinitely without trial.
Sure doesn’t sound like liberty to me. Liberty is dead. We have the pretense of liberty, not the real thing.
The National Defense Authorization Act has to be reviewed and authorized every year. Let’s make sure we let our representatives including the president this is unacceptable and we want it taken out. It will require talking, calls, letters. Get involved.
Congratulations. For once, you’re on the right side of an issue.
Ooooooo I’m so honored.
President Obama sign the Act but stated his administration would not authorize the military to detain american citizens without trial. The congress needs to change this but I am thinking this whole thing goes back to 9/11 and the Republicans never want to admit a mistake. For more info on the above go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization_Act_for_Fiscal_Year_2012
Yes, President Obama said he would never detain a citizen – doesn’t mean President Romney wouldn’t, or any other president that comes after. Incrementally, they’ve taken our liberties away right before our eyes. Some magic trick, hmm?
There you go. Absolutely correct. Despite what his administration says I don’t trust Obama not to use it as well. He already has assassinated an American without due process
.
There is nothing incremental. In my mind its full blown but then we have had this discussion before haven’t we.
Ronald, you are a little behind the information curve. Jobs are coming home because workers overseas are organizing. Yes, that’s right. They are unionizing. More expensive to produce over there now. But, the jobs coming home? A substantial pay cut. Just ask the workers in Millinockett who I understand start out at $12 an hour. Oh, and on the what bad managers say list is this one…. they should be glad they have a job. Just sayin’.
George and Travis. Your letters are outstanding.
Joyce Mallory and Ronald Ferri both address the lack of manufacturing in the US. There is a simple way to fix the rush to outsource to cheaper places. The USDA already does it for imported canned meat products. Any country that wants to export into the US gets visited regularly by the USDA to make sure they are following the rules which are: factories and people producing the product must be scrupulously clean: the plants must be safe according to OSHA standards: workers must be paid a living wage for the area: workers get vacations, benefits and health insurance: the plant must conform to environmental and sanitary regulations.
This gives good jobs to foreign workers instead of exploiting them. It makes it unlikely the workers will migrate to the US for better jobs and because the factories have to provide decent wages and benefits and observe safety and environmental laws moving abroad becomes less attractive.
It’s a win-win situation for everybody. And we could do that with every thing we manufacture abroad.
Maybe it would be a good thing if the USDA would have the ability to check on the legal status of all the immigrants working in our slaughter/meat packing houses. Check the payrolls to see if these people are getting any benefits at all. Time and a half for overtime, vacations, workmans comp, health insurance, etc.
Businesses and corporations assured Congress that government regulations and inspections were an unnecessary expense; that they could self monitor. And we bought it. Silly us.
Ronald: You’re right…Curse those unions! For without them, we would all still have manufacturing jobs in this country. Of course we’d earn $2 a day, work on machines designed to rip the limbs off of us, be paid in scrip, be forced to buy all our goods at outrageous markup prices in the company store, be buried in cave-ins, wade shin deep through industrial chemical infused icy water, no health care or retirement or disability, see our children have no hope for an education because they worked along-side us for 12 hour days, be fired instantly if you dared to complain…Yeah…curse those unions, because them poor old bosses need all the help they can get.
Unions perfect? No. Did unions experience a time of corruption? Yes…but if you know your history (of, say, the Teamsters), it was a choice between letting organized crime in the door and getting some workplace concessions because now YOU had some guys on your side who owners were afraid of or continuing to get beaten over the head by owners and their government goons…who always seemed to work for the owners and not the people.
Why do unions create sometimes byzantine regulations? Because without them, owners would bust their humps to return to the old way of doing things faster than you can say “Jack Robinson”
I find it interesting that anyone who stands up for the poor/working class (99% of us) is branded as “starting a class war”. Well folks, I have some news for you…In this country, a class war has been going on for nearly 250 years…it’s just that one side has been taking all the shots and when the other side ever attempts to fire back, it is labeled “unpatriotic”, “unAmerican”, “Communist”, or “Socialist”. nd why is that? Because the wealthy and powerful control the media and education system at its highest levels to keep pumping you with propaganda so that you blindly march in step toward the American dream…the American dream of those already richer than can be imagined.
Ron, if unions drove sweatshops to Thailand or Mexico, or China, or Vietnam, then good for them, but the only way those jobs would still exist here would be if you were wiling to work for third world labor conditions/ Are you willing to do that? No? Then stop bawling about unions driving jobs away. So long as someone is desperate to work in those conditions (and with the world’s population is GROWING), then those jobs are gone forever anyway…and good riddance to them.
Great post!!!
People tend to forget that this country was founded by members of the world’s oldest union, the brotherhood of Masons. Greed has turned the American dream into a pyramid scheme where everyone goes door to door selling their cheesy wares while only those at the top ever get ahead.
Great post uncle. Ronald also seems to have left out the fact that the textile industry fled New England to avoid the unions rise in power. They fled to the southern states where it seems they flourished in that anti-union haven where the poor seem to be kept down by that old divide and conquer method. Once our military power has pretty much stabilized the world and calmed things down in Asia, it created conditions that were deemed safe for our manufacturing to move to.
If Ronald wishes to witness the glories of a non-union life style, he need only hop on a plane and visit any of the countries from Mexico south through central America. Or take a vacation to non-union paradise islands like the Dominican Republic or various other paradises. That way he could experience what it would be like to live like a king surrounded by abject poverty. Ronald should be very careful if he gets too close to the poorer areas of these paradise countries.
Well said. However I doubt that he has the basic intelligence to understand what you said. PT Barnum was making a direct reference to people like him when he said there’s a sucker born every minute.
TRAVIS,
The freeloaders and their supporters care nothing about liberty. Their leader in the White House cares nothing about liberty. He and his merry folowers dance to the tune of social justice.
RONALD,
Just another social justice program to keep the king in office. Employees always wanting way more then their worth.
GEORGE,
Just more ways the left tries to divide this nation. I have always said no to multiculturalism, and yes to Americanisn.
JESSICA,
Social worker, Social justice, Socialism, all the same.
See, the problems is, your comments gives some to say, “This guy doesn’t think we should have social justice”. Which, i’m assuming is wrong.
You want our country to thrive you had better hope we do a heck of a lot better job then we have been doing with our social programs.
Like it or not there are millions of people unable to help themselves for a variety of reasons that have little to do with our economy. Until the least among us is taken care of, I don’t care about left or right talking points.
We on the Conservative side have no problem with helping those that can’t help themselves, giving an hand up to those that are down, or providing the tools that will improve a person’s place in life. The trouble is, however, that far too many have taken the position of being owed a living. No one is owed anything. And for those that think this way, your time of taking will come to an end one of these days when the economy collapses and you’re left in the gutter.
You see, if this nation keeps on the course that the progressives have it going, the haves will no longer have enough for the government to take to give to the have nots. At that time, the revolution will commence. And America will lose it all. If that’s what you want, then vote Obama. On the other hand, if you truly love this country, in November, vote ABO.
Many on the Independent or social liberal, but fiscal conservative side feel the same as you.
Should I worry about you even if you’re in Florida and I’m not?
You shouldn’t worry about me at all. You should worry about yourself, your family, and America.
Seems to me that is good advice for you particularly when it comes to same-sex marriage. You should worry about yourself, your family and America, not someone else’s loving relationship.
But same-sex marriage is immoral, and that further deteriorates the moral fabric of this great nation. So does abortion, the stealing of freedoms and liberties by our oppressive government, pornography, drugs, illegal immigration, the violence of the 99ers, unfair taxes, out-of-control welfare, corruption in government, desecration of the Constitution, Obamcare, and bailing out the car companies and Wall Street. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Thank God we still have a strong military and enough people that still cherish freedom, or this nation would be no better than Cuba or N. Korea.
Discrimination is immoral and further deteriorates the moral fabric of this society.
Immoral is immoral. And what I listed is immoral.
Morality is not an absolute. If you’re using the bible as your basis, it applies only to the believers. And even among those, there will be dissention.
EJ: you can’t go back to the Garden of Eden where there is no sex, sickness, taxes or sin. After that apple snack God sent Adam and Eve out of paradise. (Sheesh, what’s wrong with a healthy snacks? You’da thought they’d eaten a chocolate frosted pecan brownie delight) Anyway, He sent them out and told them they had to deal with the real world since they didn’t like His garden. I believe God’s exact words were “Suck it up and deal with it”
Whining because the world doesn’t meet your standards deteriorates everybody’s peace of mind.
EJ: The perfect world without sex, sickness, taxes and sin no longer exists. Remember? After that little snack in the Garden God sent Adam and Eve away to live in the real world since they couldn’t handle Paradise. “I believe his exact words to them were, “Zuck it up and deal with it”.
Constant whining that the world doesn’t meet your model of perfection deteriorates everybody’s humor. I’m betting your God gets tired of it too.
Americanism is multiculturalism-duh. We have always have been multicultural.
Since you are so opposed to multiculturalism I suggest you do the following; Before posting here write down what you want to say. Then do a google search of the origin of the words and their meanings. After doing that if you find words you can use that are strictly of American origin go ahead and post. If all you can find are words which have foreign origins, do not post.
Now of course I do not expect to ever see anything posted by you again.
Mr.Flewwelling, New Mexico Environment Department has fined DCP for numerous air quality violations from the flares necessary to the storage of propane. They said DCP is a major source of unhealthy air pollution. I wish that the same space they want could house five or six businesses the size of Hamilton Marine that could provide 10 times as many jobs and not be as dangerous or as polluting and would not have to clear cut or destroy precious wetlands. Propane is an expensive fuel that we don’t need to import as DCP does. We need more natural gas, not the most expensive product. Propane is a dead end no matter how you view it. The jobs should come from converting homes and businesses over to gas or re-building the roads. With no guarantee that the very local people who want jobs would get them, this is a project slickly packaged and greased by big promises.
Ronald Ferri- Private union membership is down to 7% in this country. It is okay to stop fearing the scary union monster hiding under your bed. No coincidence that wages are stuck in the early 90’s with no one looking out for the working men and women of America. The manufacturing jobs all left the country because our “public servants” in their rush to grovel to the top 1% have practically held the door open and invited the cheap dirt bags to pack up and move to China. I can not imagine anyone being against the working men and women of America earning a living wage, or having access to affordable health care. But you, Scott Walker, and the fabulous Koch brothers can keep bashing and blaming unions until they disappear. But then you are going to have to find a new scapegoat.
Don’t forget Mitch Daniels in Indiana the former Bush budget director and John Kasich Ohio governor. Ohio has already rejected the union bill and Wisconsin is in process of sending Scott Walker for a vacation via a recall. So all of you people can see that the republicans are hell bent on getting rid of unions so their 1 percenters can drop the pay and fringes for all workers. If this is what you want to receive even less pay then vote republican.
Exactly. Vote Republican if you want to put Amerca back to work. For $3 an hour, part time of course.
——————————
It pretty simple. If you think your boss needs a raise,vote republican,if you think YOU need a raise,vote for anyone but a republican.
I have never heard a more realistic litmus test! That about sums it up.
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Joyce Mallory- You are correct. Our lack of patriotism at the cash register has helped to tank our economy. We hold the key to our economic success or failure. Buy American, pay your fair share in taxes, and stay to hell out ChinaMart while there is still one American left with a decent job.
Mr. Beal: You do realize that liberty and socialism are not mutually exclusive. It’s perfectly possible to have education, medicine, transportation, communication socialized to some extent, meaning we all pay for the services whether we use it or not and still retain the liberty granted you by the bill of rights.
You might perhaps want to have the water in Beals checked for reactionary contamination.
Liberty defined by who?
Ask Mr. Beal. He’s the one complaining about lost liberty. Ask him what he has lost.
Mr Beal was quite clear on what Liberty meant to him. How does socialism equate to liberty and who defines it, is my question to you.
Tell us what liberty means to you.
No, he stated what liberty did for people “But it (liberty)does unleash the human yearning to better ourselves.” And he appears to imply that the fairness President Obama spoke about in the SOTU speech somehow restricts his liberty. He has strung together a bunch of reactionary catch phrases in trying to say that President Obama, a socialist, has restricted his ability to pursue a dream to better himself. What rubbish!
I hear ya’ Mr. Montee.
“I’m here, I’m …….HERE!!, And i’m not going anywhere.”
Our country’s goal should to be to see that everyone is put in the best position to succeed. that means the untreated mentally ill and like it or not the ADDICTED,need care. Not disrespect and disdain, You can make all the silly comments you want. These people didn’t grow up hoping to be a burden on society.
Thanks Common for a caring comment. You’re absolutely right. Little kids look forward to a future of exciting jobs.
As I’ve said, I suspect we are on the same side on most issues. I just don’t see how trashing people is ever going to get a vote passed. I don’t know about you but it seems to me that if politicians keep emulating these posting sites we won’t be able to pass bill on new dogcatcher. And it’s always the other guy’s fault. No it’s not. It’s both party’s fault. period.
Over the last ten years whichever party was in power played the same political games and so did the minority. Cracks me up. All I can think is, “Wait a minute, You were just complaining about the same thing when you were in their position.” Am I the only one that sees this? Is everyone that easily manipulated? I wonder why anyone that says that aren’t being manipulated feels the need to make nasty comments with nothing to do with the topic.
The biggest problem we have with addiction in this country is those who are addicted to Faux News, Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck. How do we solve this addiction? The First Amendment gives these sad sacks the right to be lied to.
I have no idea where that came from, but is there some way I can block users? l lol
People who listen at Maddow and Schultz live in glass houses. They’re just as bad.
Way to address the issues!!
Think for yourself.
“Think for yourself”, is ironic coming from a ditto head.
YOU have just made yourself exhibit A.
I can’t stand Limbaugh or Beck OR MADDOW OR SCHULTZ. They are all partisan’s that take advantage of the WEEK MINDED.
Anyone that has read any of my posts certainly wouldn’t call me a “Ditto head”.
You attack without knowing ANYTHING WHATSOEVER about the discussion or the people involved. THAT, is PARTISAN ignorance at it’s finest
I have always thought for myself, as my posts here reveal. As I won’t waste my money on cable, Maddow and Schultz aren’t part of my data base.
However, I reject the false equivalency that Limbaugh = Maddow. The few times I have listened to either on the radio or in a hotel room, I don’t sense any sort of equivalency. One thrives on fear and anger, the other on humor and a willingness to criticize a President of her own party.
There are five impossible things that the right stubbornly believes that are demonstrably untrue: Obama was born in Kenya; we found WMD in Iraq; Saddam was responsible for 9/11; global warming is a hoax; and tax cuts will always “pay for themselves.” I find no such systematic separation from reality in the left.
Spoken like a true partisan, “Sure, our guy may say a little but their guy is out there.”
Are you aware that your Republican counterpart’s say the EXACT SAME THING?
Oh but of course because it’s a Republican they must be wrong. . Guess what? that’s what the Republican is saying too, sigh..
PATHETIC, YOU PEOPLE ARE UNBELIEVABLY IGNORANT.
Are all of you partisan’s so deeply entrenched that you really don’t see it? REALLY??
At least tell me that you tow the party line for party sake. NOT that you people believe all of the mean spirited, misdirected, misquoted, nonsense that you hear without doing any research?
WE are doomed. There is no grasp of our country’s plight.
I await the next cruel completely unrelated post with baited breathe.
Who knows, could come from either side.
I would imagine Mr. Ferri would have us all working for .75 per hour, living in dorms, and putting in 12-14 hour shifts a day.
Christopher Kessler: Are you sure that this “other way to elect” is not another ACORN community organization begun by our organizer-in-chief in the White House? What skewing can be done by online voting? Perhaps much to our chagrin, it will wipe out our voting system as we know it. The mission and agenda are not explained in detail on the website–very vague. Eliot Cutler is on their board, and he is a die-hard Democrat, turned Independent to try to get elected as governor in 2010.
Mr Beal, I believe in liberties but I also believe in responsibilities. We all have freedoms and rights in this country and I hope that we all share them and benefit from them at an equal level. For instance, if I am required to pay 30% of my income in taxes to support schools, roads, the military, medicare and medicaid I believe those who can afford it should pay their fair share as well to support our country. It makes me laugh when the haves rail against welfare while embracing their tax breaks and loopholes. If you want liberty then lets us all have liberty that is equal.
Mr. Ferri:
Have you not read about the big strikes ongoing in China?
Maybe American unions should start organizing workers there!
Raise Chinese salaries enough and jobs will come back here.
Some manufacturers already have figured out that the production problems, the travel needed to monitor, and the shipping costs mean that overseas plants make less business sense…
Mr. Beal is simply spouting abstract right wing talking points. “Socialism, socialism, socialism…liberty. liberty. liberty…bla bla bla.” It is such a broken record. Mr. Beal doesn’t understand the term “socialism” (which is just propaganda and nowhere near reality) nor the Constitution. Mr. Beal, sadly, has been suckered into the right wing propaganda lie that somehow by having fair tax laws and other policies which attempt to extend the opportunity of the American dream to all of our citizens and not just the privileged few, this results in less “liberty.” No, Mr. Beal. Enough of this twisted TeaRadical thinking. When the nation’s wealth is overwhelmingly and insanely concentrated from the lower and middle classes into the hands of just 1% of the population, the rest of us have far less liberty. “Freedom” to struggle paycheck to paycheck, “freedom” to not have healthcare, “freedom” to not be able to afford college, “freedom” to have low pay and no benefits, and “freedom” to pay higher tax rates than multi-millionaires who hide their money in the Cayman Islands is not freedom at all. It is unpatriotic, unAmerican, unfair economic suppression and injustice. Yes, we all need to be responsible, including the rich. And we also need a level playing field. I don’t think Mr. Beal and his fellow TeaRadicals really support the Constitution. If they actually knew their history, they really support the Articles of Confederation. That was thrown out by the founders mainly because it did not extend enough power to the federal government. It wasn’t effective. Turn off FakeNews and Rush Limpmind, Mr. Beal, and learn our nation’s actual history.
Obama – 2012 – Change and hope we can believe in !!!!!!
I choose liberty also. The war on drugs is a socialist welfare program which does nothing to enhance liberty, in fact it does the opposite. This war has raged since 1972, it is a forty year program that grows by leaps and bounds each year, and creates corruption. Sheriff Smith in Washington County gave Maine Drug Enforcement Agency the boot because of their corruption, their deceit. I think their ‘enforcement’ is to ‘force’ drugs on people and thus increase a demand for their services; this is definitely American marketing at it’s best. We need to cut them out and recognize them as a welfare program.
Ronald Ferri – Guess you haven’t read anything about the negotiating sessions with unions the last 10-15 years. You’re a little behind. Actually, a lot behind. Unions have given up billions across the country to do their part in rejuvenating the country’s economy. But I guess facts aren’t part of your prejudice.