Early education
I applaud the law enforcement leaders who are promoting quality early education. Just as early education can reduce crime, it can also strengthen national security.
Lack of education poses a major problem for many young people who want to enter the military. Nationwide, one in four young Americans does not graduate from high school on time. In Bangor and Portland, about one in five ninth-graders does not graduate on time.
A diploma helps considerably but doesn’t guarantee entry; almost one in five seeking to enlist cannot join because of low scores on the military’s exam for math, literacy and problem-solving.
High-quality early education can help reverse this trend. Studies show that these programs can raise graduation rates among at-risk children by as much as 44 percent.
Even in tough budget times, retired generals and admirals like myself who belong to Mission: Readiness are urging policymakers to support and expand high-quality early learning.
As a retired general, I know that quantity is no substitute for quality, and a strong military unit needs both. In the same way, more children need quality early education that will make them part of a stronger community and nation.
Roy Martin
Glenburn
“Where’s the beef?”
I recall a brassy old woman with a gravelly voice shouting, “Where’s the beef?” In a totally different context, I wish she would return and yell that slogan at us once again. To date, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his vice presidential pick Paul Ryan have been unwilling or unable to clearly present to us, the electorate, their goals and how to attain them.
We have been dealt a smokescreen of half-truths and untruths regarding their expectancy to rid us of the mountainous deficit and cruel unemployment condition. It is important that we recognize that jobs are disappearing and changing and will never again be as they were a decade ago. We must realize that the deficit cannot be cured overnight.
Our best chances to start mending our condition are by fixing other deficits. They are patently obvious and attainable. These must be priorities we no longer neglect, or we shall continue sliding backward, with Brazil, China and India gliding past us. Education levels must be raised to world-class levels.
Causes of climate change must be greatly reduced. Government must be regulated to the extent of protecting everybody. Taxes must be reapportioned so the wealthiest contribute appropriately for their good fortune. The finance and investment gamesmanship must be made to serve the welfare of our nation rather than looting it. Congress, by our votes, must be made to serve us all.
If you run for public office you are obligated to inspection regarding your character. We cannot
afford the time and expense of amateurs at the helm or unnecessary wars while our poverty level increases.
Peter Cohen
Ellsworth
Better off today than four years ago?
Before Obama, the price of gas at the pump was $1.70 per gallon. Now it is at $4 per gallon.
Divisions between the rich and poor, between religions, abortion and right to life are now being pushed.
Lawmakers were able to compromise and represent their constituents. This president won’t bend on any issue he does not agree with. Just ask John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan how it goes trying to negotiate with President Barack Obama.
There was no war on women. There was no lengthy law that no one read that forces us to buy insurance or pay a tax. Unemployment was low compared with now, fewer people were on welfare, and opportunity existed.
We are much deeper in debt as a country. Our economy and jobs are in shambles. We felt safe. How can anyone feel safe today with Obama cutting the military, lessening our ability to glean information from captured enemies, allowing serious security leaks, allowing Fast and Furious, still not protecting our borders and not guarding our own embassies?
We had a strong foreign policy. Now it’s a weak, apologetic, kiss-you-know-what one. We had presidents who could and did speak and relate to all our citizens, not just his cronies and followers. We hear spouting but no action.
We are much worse off today than four years ago. We need a new president now!
Howard Cutler
Dixmont
Re-elect the president
With fewer than than 50 days left to the Nov. 6 election, I’m urging all to vote for the re-election of President Barack Obama.
This is a pivotal election. In my opinion, it will determine whether we preserve the middle class, the basis of a democracy, or concede it to the plutocrats. We must not let the consequences of the “Citizens United” decision and the lobbyists decide our future.
President Obama, despite the mess he inherited and the obstruction of the right-wing Republicans, succeeded in passing the Affordable Care Act, which supports Medicare and Medicaid, defended women’s rights, including fair pay, advocates for ending the tax breaks for the very wealthy, saved us from economic collapse and continues to make progress in creating jobs, ended the war in Iraq, promises to get us out of Afghanistan, gave the order to have Osama bin Laden killed, and exercises diplomacy and sanctions re. Iran v. getting us into an unnecessary, immoral, costly war.
He needs another term to complete his goals. Let’s listen to the upcoming presidential debates
scheduled for Oct. 3, 16, and 22, and vote to re-elect President Obama.
Margaret Boyajian
St. George
Pickpockets
The Maine Turnpike Authority sent out its toll increase letter to E-ZPass holders. All along, they said commuters would face a 10 percent increase. Our current commuter rate from Eliot to Wells is $42 per quarter. The new rate exceeds $100.
To even get close to our current costs, we have to go through the tolls 70-plus times a month. Who the heck commutes to work 70-plus times a month? We may have to drive to work and back twice every day and on weekends just to try to reduce the new costs.
Can you imagine that an agency whose former leader stole money and then got paid more than $300,000 for unused vacation thinks that the way it covers its bloated bureaucracy and increased costs is on the back of hardworking Maine families?
I hope other hardworking commuting Mainers join me in protesting this outrageous action. Shame on all of you government officials involved in picking the pockets of Maine citizens again.
David Gray
Elliot
aboyle:
Byline: none
If increasing the tolls on the turnpike encourages a few people to get out of their cars and seek out public transportation, that’s a good thing. Better turnpike users pay for the cost of the road than the general public. Welcome to the Late Automotive Age, where driving will become increasingly expensive and alternatives increasingly available.
Sounds good but how many commuter buses are there on the Turnpike?
Mr. Cohen, there is a reason Romney/Ryan won’t show us where the beef is: to them, we, the middle class, ARE the beef.
The middle class, under their budget, will see Medicare turned into Vouchercare for those under 55, Social Security benefits reduced, and tax deductions favoring the middle class eliminated. This harvesting of money from the middle class will pay for yet another tax cut for the wealthy.
They would no sooner tell us about their plan details than a beef farmer would tell his cattle that they are going to the slaughterhouse.
Gas was so low because we were in a mind altering major depression…..dont mislead. OBAMA 2012
And now with obama we are in a depression. and oil is so high
Just for your own enjoyment, check the unemployment figures handed to Obama when Bush said “farewell.”
Unemployment rate Jan 2009 7.6 %
Unemployment rate Today 8.1%
It is only this low because of the millions that have left the workforce.
It’s true that while we were heading to the bottom when Bush turned the White House over to Obama, we hadn’t yet hit bottom — but we were losing 600,000 to 800,000 jobs a month when Bush left office. All in all we lost nine million jobs in the recession that began on George Bush’s watch.
It took some time before the new president could get Congress to pass significant legislation to stem the tide, and some time for the effect of that legislation to begin to register. So yes, we hit bottom several months after Obama came into office, not on the very day he took office.
Now we’ve been gaining jobs for twenty-two months, not enough to undo all of the damage that was done, but a significant improvement. The slide to the bottom is over, and we’ve come much of the way back up. So yes, we are much better off now than when Bush left office.
I was merely answering Brineys’ question.
how long did Obama keep them on. Then they had no benefits, so when your benefits are gone so do figures go down.
So totally out of touch with reality.
So willing to believe the untruth.
Middle-aged white guys would suffer badly under the Romney/Ryan Vouchercare plan. If you are 55 or younger, you would get an annual lump sum and have to try your luck with the private insurance market. If you had a pre-existing condition, you might be unable to buy a policy given Romney’s intent to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Continue to moo contentedly as Romney/Ryan try to lead you to the slaughterhouse. They will enjoy their feast.
I’ve pointed out the President’s successes to you before (one war ended, depression avoided, health care expanded, Wall Street re-regulated, Bin Laden dead, and GM alive), but you seem to have trouble absorbing reality.
Excellent points. As an aging male assisted through medical upsets partially by Medicare and Social Security, the idea of Ryan’s Gift Certificate, or, Voucher, is nothing to laugh about. Infuriatingly are his and Romney’s cold hearted attacks that would take away the means of survival of millions of America.
Neither Ryan or Romney have a care in the world. Both have plenty of cash. Millionaire Ryan and his family avail themselves of government – provided health care. A similar plan dubbed rather snidely as Obama Care, is quickly dismissed as “Socialism” by Ryan and his cohorts.
The plan, he and his other Congressional friends share is of course above “Socialism.” He and others are unable to see that their plan is no different than the one Obama is working to get for us. Providing health care coverage and helping people overcome the sky high prices of pharmaceutical supplies and medication, is a noble effort. Amazing how Romney, who pushed a similar highly touted plan in his home state, now decries the re-write by Obama as the first item to go if elected.
It amazes me how many Republicans will vote against their own economic interests in pursuit of a fantasy that some day they will be rich. “Joe the Plumber” in 2008 would have fared better under Obama’s tax proposals, but pushed for McCain’s in the belief that he would buy out his employer’s plumbing business which grossed $250,000. He was oblivious to how gross revenues are always much higher than gross profit and gross profit is always higher then taxable income.
The reason Republicans come down so hard on education spending is that they don’t benefit from an educated populace that can more readily perceive their lies.
As Rick Santorum pointed out, smart people don’t vote Republican.
I love it that people do not find the Irony of pointing out how low gas prices where when Obama took office. There was a big reason they were so low, They were not low because we were doing great as a country. They were so low because we were in the middle of a recession. So, pointing out how low gas prices and how high they are not is actually doing the opposite of what you are trying to do.
Are you better off?
I mean, you realize that sequence doesn’t indicate cause, right? If I have a heart attack, even though I started a vegetarian diet that month, that doesn’t mean the salads cause my heart attack.
It’s just so stupid to have caused a mess and then try and blame the guy that is cleaning it up for the mess.
The real question isn’t whether you’re better off than 4 years ago. The real question is whether you think we’ll be better off with Obama in office or if we put Romney in office.
The wealthiest 1 % believe they will be better off under Romney as they trick the Tea Partiers into voting against their own economic interests. But even the rich will suffer more under Romney, as the market and GDP have always done better under Democratic Presidents.
And more jobs have been created when a Democrat is the President. But some folks don’t look at facts. They prefer distortions. Hope we get those do nothing legislators out of Washington this November so something will actually get done.
Did you know that the average income has dropped $3k since the “Obama recovery” started in June 2009. (The last month of the recession.)
I don’t know how much more recovery we can handle.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/americans-incomes-have-fallen-3040-during-obama-recovery_653116.html
I do not see a bad picture being painted from your article. Actually you could say they are trying to but a negative swing on the data. The graph keeps its downward momentum after the Recession, then steady out. What I am seeing makes sense. A lot of areas have recovered, not employment. Jobs that are being brought back are paying less. Income Growth has been down for the last 10 years. What do you say about that?
I don’t see how you can say things are getting better. Last month, American households’ real median annual income fell by another $543 — from $51,221 to $50,678. Unemployment is still hovering above 8% The stock market is up but that is only because of the Fed creating an ASSET BUBBLE with its purchases. QE 1 &2 and the mortgage buy backs. The stock prices are not entirely reflective of earnings/profits. You should be aware that what goes up will go down. Look for a market crash at some point.
Income growth will return with a more vibrant economy. (it doesn’t come first.) In my opinion the key to this is energy costs and housing values and small business access to credit. Blame Fin-reg for small business being unable to get credit which is retarding growth.
Combining posts from above here.
We will not do better until energy costs are reduced. I understand the effect of demand but I also understand the effects of supply and I also understand the effect they have on business. When I look at the quickbooks I can see a 29.5% increase in energy costs for the first nine months of this year over the same nine months last year. Yes this is anecdotal but I could have used the money to pay for the increase in healthcare costs up 12.5% over the same period.
That’s fine, but show us how sequence proves causation.
You can say we’re not better off than 4 years ago — but that question is being asked by Romney and his supporters as a way of courting votes. The implication is that if you’re not better off compared to 4 years ago, you should blame Obama.
Of course I am not quoting Romney when I speak for myself. I am also not commenting on what happened four years ago.
I am commenting on “recovery vs. no recovery”. Poster claims things are getting better. I disagree. GDP growth was revised downward this AM from an anemic 1.7% to 1.3%. Unemployment hovers around 8% and only declines when people leave the labor force. Median income is still in decline.
My comments are really directed at what it might take to get us out of a bad economy I think evidence shows is going nowhere, into a better one. I site three things that might improve it. I imply nothing. (so don’t tell me I do) It is what it is.
Then good for you, but the rest of us are talking about “are you better off?” in the context of who to vote for. That’s what the letter was about. That’s what my initial comment was about and that’s what chenard’s comment was about (which you replied to).
And if you’re comment is about what it might take to get us out of a bad economy — that’s exactly what I said in my initial comment. The question isn’t whether you’re better off (because that implies that sequence is the same as causation), it’s whether you will be better of with Romney or with Obama. So thank you for agreeing with me.
No, we are not better with a policy that encourages higher energy costs. Does not address low property vales and access to credit issues for small business caused by the Fin-Reg bill. More of the same will leave us bumping along the bottom probably for the next 6 years. I envision increasing numbers of people leaving the workforce, an increase of people on food stamps & disability income. Also fewer small business start ups with the new capitalization requirements from the Fin-reg bill.
Gee, the economy was in utter freefall headed to the next Great Depression due to BUSH and COMPANY and since then we’ve prevented that and added 4.6 million jobs no thanks to the corporate right wing TeaPubs who dance for joy every time their corporate masters send another American job overseas. Please. Enough of the nonsense.
More distorted numbers. Under your buddy Dubya we had 8 years of flat wages, near zero job growth in the, and many thousands more jobs shipped overseas, then HIS and YOUR Great Recession in the endgame. So you are full of typical TeaPublican LIES. The TeaPubs are the very CAUSE of a mess, do NOTHING to help clean it up, then blame the other guy. It is just sickening. Well, come November 6th your pathetic little numb-brained TeaParty is OVER. The MittTwit and your LeBUFFOON-loving TeaPubs here in Maine are going to get royally SPANKED at the polls, and you know it.
I love that people can not find the Irony in pointing out how low gas prices were in Jan 2009 to try and slam Obama, since gas prices are higher now. Do you know why they were so low? Not because the country was doing well, its the opposite, we were doing terrible.
Absolutely correct. We are doing poorly now because they are so high. It is a double edge “oil market” sword. A damned if you do and don’t scenario. We will not do well unless we are able to drive energy prices down which allows us to grow. That is Obama’s responsibility.
higher gas prices mean higher demand. I don’t get why people say we are doing so poorly, yes unemployment has not recovered but a lot of other areas have. Some corporations are seeing record profits. Companies have employees less people, but have actually seem productivity go up. How do we drive energy prices down? How do we drive the price of a finite source of energy? Drill more, great we have more. We are drilling our finite source quicker. Drilling more, will only cause more harm in the long run. Getting more oil will prevent us from getting alternatives.
How long have they been talking alternatives, King and his wind power. Look at the prices since Obama has been in office. I can just imagine what Kerosene will be the middle of this winter. Now he is letting more illegal aliens stay. No Obama.
You do know we will eventually have to go to those Alternatives right?
Yes, I am aware and believe in alternatives. What some have to realize we live in Maine and in general there are no easy alternatives. Until we find one we have to rely on certain fuels. In the U.S. we have an abundance of oil that is not drilled or refined. I also understand the enviromental aspects. Windmills is not cost effective, and they still have to use some fossil fuels in my understanding. Obama has done nothing that I can see to help those states that have cold climates, I have not seen any energy policy that has come out of the Obama administration that would help alleviate this problem.
Obama has deported more illegals in 3 yrs than Bush did in 8 yrs.
That is because he is and has let more through than Bush’s 8 years, and now he is showing his true colors by lettierng 800,000 stay. That is just the beginning, of him letting down the barriers.
Absolutely false.
Geez it is all over the news since he did it. I guess the liberal democrat stuff is all false.
Not true. Oh, maybe you are getting your misinformation from faux news.
Looks at the links in this same thread.
This is from several papers online http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/19/4836057/new-french-cartoons-inflame-prophet.html this one happens to be from Sacramento. This one is from Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/20/us-pakistan-usa-advertisements-idUSBRE88J1DT20120920 I do not listen to fox news, sorry to disappoint you. So it is actually factually. All one has to do is look this up. But Obama reports do not like the truth, so it seems.
Both of these links are on articles about Pakistan…. have a nice weekend, am done.
Figures, never wants to read the truth.
You are independent of the facts.
The 800,000 are currently serving in the military, or attending college, or working. Hardly a burden on society. try turning off Faux news and do some independent thinking!
If you read the threads then you would know I do not read fox news. Maybe I should then! Independent thinking that is a laugh you guys believe anything Obama tells you. Maybe he should appologize more to the Muslim countries, like paying 75,000 in Pakistan or appologizing to the Lybian people. Who is next. Stop listening to the Liberal Propaganda he puts out.
How is he going to do that?
Start with the approving the Keystone pipeline. That would send a message to the speculators. (not only that create 10k job in 4 weeks). Many more over the next few years.
We are producing more than we ever have. We have doubled renewables. You whine like a baby about gas prices then blame Obama, then dance for joy over the free market and speculation which determine prices. Did you whine when prices went past 4 bucks under Bush? Of course not, because right wingers are utter hypocrites. Are you giving credit for increased efficiency standards? Are you lobbying for increased electric car development? Are you lobbying for investment in vastly expanding clean renewables and getting off oil once and for all? No, because you also are deeply in love with your oil millionaire CEO’s who buy more mansions and get billions in subsidies while you pay high gas prices. You should be dancing for joy and want gas prices to be even higher so your corporate masters can buy even more mansions. Sorry fella, but you don’t get to have it both ways. You don’t get to idolize your CEO oil company masters, be willing to lay down your life so they can continue to receive subsidies, express your endless love for the virtues of the “free market,” then whine about gas prices. Typical TeaPublican HYPOCRISY.
Everything bad is attributed to Obama. Bush was perfect – despite high unemployment, an insurmountable debt, two wars, a recession, a Wall Street collapse, the foundering of the auto industry, terrorists running wild and belittling the USA.
Who, in their right mind, would want to return to what tea party induced republicans play up as paradise?
Contrary to their propaganda, we are slowly moving forward. Yes, even thought Mitch McConnell, Ryan and Cantor have blocked and continue to block everything attempted to improve our lot in life.
Howard Cutler, a case of the pot and the kettle. You seem to have a rose colored view of the past, more than four years ago. Your views on the last four years are at best jaundiced and at worst blinded.
The rest of you, good letters.
I think you need a re-read. Without blinders.
Pardon my Latin ignorance but I’m still trying to figure out your “handle” (I know, that’s the object, isn’t it). My Mother’s 91 year old Latin book isn’t any help either.
It roughly means “you will know the lion by it’s claws”, or in English, you can deduce the whole from a part. This poster obviously wants to seem to be the tough guy. No doubt a real hard a** pounding those keys !!! But hey!, kudos for using Latin, I guess.
Thanks. I got the lion part but not the whole meaning.
Or, “You can tell the lion by its paw print.” It sometimes means that you can recognize who an anonymous author is, because what they say anonymously is consistent with what they say publically.
Howard Cutler– I think you better get ready for the same great President, as apposed to what most intelligent people call, the most incompetent candidate in 50 years. He has had more flips then were done in the Olympics and earned the name reversible Mittens from me. If that is the best the Republicans have they better fold their tent and go home. I have tried to figure out where this guy is and what he believes in to no avail, my head ends up swimming in confusion and I have given up with over 50% of the country.
Actually, Romney IS the best the Republicans have in their fold — look at the others they considered: Ron Paul (right about military policy and marijuana, wrong about everything else, and someone who never had any realistic chance of being nominated by the Republicans), Michelle Bachmann (who thought the Battle of Concord, Massachusetts, was fought in New Hampshire), the philandering Herman Cain (“I dont know who the president of Uz-beki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan-stan-stan is, and I don’t care!”), Rick Santorum (“the elite, smart people will never support us”), and Rick Perry (“and, uh, uh, I forgot the other cabinet post I’ll cut”).
Romney, as annoying and clueless as he is, was actually the least incompetent of that very sad bunch.
The MittTwit won because the Kochs and his other corporate cronies gave him the money to carpet bomb his opponents with ads. He bought the primary. Santorum would have won otherwise. As far as I’m concerned, the MittTwit is the WORST. At the least the others were always consistent in what they believed. The MittTwit has Etch-A-Sketched and reinvented himself so many times to pander to whatever audience he has to win to get elected, who knows just what this plastic man is. Well, we do know what he is now. A NeoTeaPublican who would sell his own mother to make a buck that he could then hide in the Cayman Islands.
Margaret Boyajian–great letter, your wish will come true.
Yup, and a man named Cohen has nothing to do with any of these wars. . .. chicken feed man, chicken feed.
Here is one lady who is better off than she was 4 years ago. Good job Mr. Foodstamp president!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tpAOwJvTOio
She’s referencing a program that was started in 1984 under Reagan. Don’t let those facts get in the way your baseless comments though!
http://washingtonexaminer.com/where-do-obama-phones-come-from/article/2509203
Welfare Phone program soared under foodstamp president
Sequence isn’t the same as causation. Obama didn’t cause the recession.
Also, you’re still ignoring facts. The program is an old one and was around before Obama ever got into politics. Just blindly accusing and spreading misinformation. It’s sick.
Peter Cohen
We have had 3 1/2 years of an amateur at the helm and look where we are.
Yup, look where we are. We stopped the REPUBLICAN GREAT RECESSION from becoming a Great Depression, we have 30 months of job growth and 4.6 million new jobs including a quarter million in manufacturing, we have reduced unemployment, we have cut taxes for small business and the middle class, we have ended the Iraq War, killed Bin Laden, and we are again respected in the world. So keep pushing for the FAILED MittTwit who was run out of Massachusetts on a rail with one term of office ending in a 30% approval rating, has reinvented himself time and again, hates half the country, made millions killing our jobs, and lives to hide his tax returns and hide his money in the Caymans. And Come November 6th, the MittTwit is going get SPANKED at the polls.
lol, poor Mitt Romney. I can already hear the conservatives ready to say that they didn’t want to nominate Romney, the establishment forced them to. That if they had nominated a “real” conservative, they would have won the election.
Mr. Cutler, your condemnation of the president, follows strict radical right wing policy.
And, as with all radical right wing policy, it is full of errors, actually -, sorry, would be scrubbed if I called them what they are.
First, since when has the president of the United States been able to control the price of gasoline? Not even Bush, who led us down the road to almost self destruction with his two wars, and unprotected borders.
Bush and Condoleeza Rice not only ignored advance warnings of the 9/11 suicide attack on America, they scoffed at their terrorism expert’s knowledge that a strike by Osama Bin L:aden was imminent. How safe were our borders when that horrible attack occurred?
Bush declined to go after Bin Laden. In fact he waved aside any undertaking of a mission to either capture or take out this murderer. He told the world “I have more important things to do.”
President Obama vowed at the outset of his presidency to get Bin Laden. He did. However, we’re not allowed to say that. All praise for the mission has been grafted onto the attack team. The president also helped eliminate Khadafi. The Libyan leader who terrorized and killed hundreds by blowing a jumbo jet out of the skies over Scotland. The president’s war on terrorism has resulted in the elimination of 50 or more Al Queda and Taliban terrorists.
You cite Boehner, Cantor and Ryan as being “unable” to discuss issues with the president. As with all republicans under the tea p[arty rule, they have blocked every move the president has attempted to increase jobs, and improve the economy.
The attack on AG Holder over Fast & Furious was without fact and merit. A judge has already dismissed charges that the AG knew about it.
The war on women cannot be lightly dismissed. In key tea party states, women are being forced to undergo unnecessary medical intrusions of their bodies to ascertain the certainty of pregnancy. The tea party brags about having less government. These measures are an insult to women. The tea party-controlled GOP believes they should control the biological functions of all women.
The “strong policy” you claim the country had prior to the president’s succession neglects to mention the impending recession, the Wall Street crash, and the wipe out of a keystone American industry – that of the automobile kingdom in Detroit.
Our foreign policy has never been stronger. Romney and Ryan Ryan want a war with Syria and Iran. We will be paying for the other two wars long after the veterans are gone. To war, Romney and Ryan merely sign the papers and lightly pay tribute to those in khaki and blue. Neither having never experienced service or the horrors of war.
How many times are Republican’s going to say “gas was $1.70 when Obama took office and now it is $4”?
Are their memories so short that they don’t remember that the economy was in freefall from Bush’s economic policies and that just 6 months earlier gas was over $4 a gallon?
Or are they just so used to being told what to think and say by the RW talkers that they do not question anything they hear from them?
Ask ’em what they expect the president to do… that usually shuts ’em up.
Is your memory so short that you do not know that since elections on Nov 6, 2006, control of the house and the senate (49 D, 49R, 2 ID, of which one caucused with the dems) was in the hands of the DEMOCRATIC party – therefore essentially controlling the finances of the United States? Or are YOU used to being told what to think and say by the LW liberal media that you do not question anything you hear from them? The fact is BUSH is not solely responsible for the “mess” Obama inherited. There was plenty of blame to go around. Maybe, just maybe, the “mess” continues because Obama is not capable of cleaning it up?
Just asking the same questions you ask back to you. I look and listen to all points of view and try to keep an open mind, something most posters here can’t or won’t do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_elections,_2006
Ah Mr. Cutler, what a bunch of stinking malarkey. The lies and utter hyprocrisy of the right wing just never end. It is the right wing who has spent the last 40 years dividing us with their “southern strategy” and attacking their political opponents on issues like race, abortion, gay rights, religion, etc. Almost no African Americans and precious few hispanics support the TeaPublicans. Gee, wonder why??? It was the right wing that drove the nation into the worst recession since the Great Depression, squandered the Clinton surplus, and exploded our deficits. Your right wing nearly destroyed the nation, then you people have the disgusting audacity to blame Obama and do NOTHING to help clean up YOUR own MESS. It is just sickening. We all know how much the TeaPublican radicals hate the truth, but here it is: Under Obama, no thanks to the radical right wing obstructionists, we have added over 4.5 million jobs including a quarter million in manufacturing, and unemployment is down. We have saved the auto industry which your people wanted to kill. The middle class and small businesses have received a number of tax cuts and credits. We finally have some MODERATE CENTRIST PRACTICAL healthcare reform that will REDUCE healthcare expenditures significantly over time while expanding care. We have the Lilly Leadbetter fair pay act. We have the MOST traditional energy production EVER and have doubled production of renewable energy. We have restored the stock market. We have new rules in place to prevent Wall Street from and the right wing from causing another Great Recession. And your nonsense about foreign policy. My goodness, what you don’t know is a lot. Appeasement, BALONEY. We have TOUGH sanctions on Iran and a TOUGH policy there. We helped liberate Libya. We ended the Iraq War. We are winding down Agghanistan. We are respected again in the world. We have a terrific foreign policy team under Secretary of State Clinton who holds better than a 60% public approval rating. Obama beats the MittTwit by more than 10 points on foreign policy, and he also outdoes him in public ratings on the economy. As to gas prices, what HOGWASH. That is controlled by the “free market.” It is a global economy with China and India now competing for oil and huge speculation on the oil commodities market. Under Bush, gas went to $4 a gallon. Where was your whining then? The president can’t just control gas prices. But, Obama has increased fuel efficiency standards so over time we will be using much less gas, and he supportscontinued electric car development to get us off gas entirely over time. Remember science and the future? Funny how right wingers dance for joy over the “wonderful free market” but then whine about gas prices that are determined by THE MARKET. Gee, you should be jumping for joy that your corporate oil company CEO heroes are doing so well. You certainly want to keep allowing them to take our tax dollars in the form of subsidies to the tune of billions of dollars a year. What is the MittTwit plan? Gut the middle class and continue to help millionaires buy more mansions and hide their money in the Caymans. That is about it. Double down in FAILED trickle down. Come November 6th, in Maine and nationally, the TeaPubs, the GOOFY OLD POTBELLIES (GOP), are going to have a very, very bad day at the polls.