2011-03-17, 19:14 | Link #12501 |
Gamilas Falls
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Republic of California
Age: 46
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I'm feel much better about the situation if Lebennon, Egypt, Tunisia, and other local militaries were leading the enforcement of the No Fly Zone, backed up by France, Italy, and Britian. Only having the United States as a reserve if things go badly and to defend in case of retaliation in the Mediterranean Sea.
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2011-03-17, 20:45 | Link #12502 | |
Senior Member
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http://www.stateline.org/live/ViewPa...ontentId=16625 We spend more on Medicaid a year, than both wars together during the same time frame. The U.S. Government NEEDS to get smaller. We are, right now, running a 1.3+ trillion dollar deficit a year. That's debt in one year, that is more than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan COMBINED since 2001. You can't just blame the wars, Government itself has grown exponentially in the past few years(Both Republicans and Democrats are to blame for this). Also the budget surplus, was a myth. We did not have a real surplus during the Clinton era. http://www.craigsteiner.us/articles/16 http://activerain.com/blogsview/8553...act-or-Fiction http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...surpluses.html http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-183667 |
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2011-03-17, 21:21 | Link #12503 | |
Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2007
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2011-03-17, 22:15 | Link #12504 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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The New York Times is going to try a paywall:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/bu...a/18times.html Its almost a reasonable fee ($15/month) but it will be interesting to see if it works. You will be able to view 20 articles a month (though it isn't clear how that enforcement works yet or if it does).
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2011-03-17, 23:33 | Link #12505 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2009
Location: classified
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US Cost of Living Hits Record, Passing Pre-Crisis High
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42130406 I agree with John Melloy, "somthing's gotta give."
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2011-03-17, 23:44 | Link #12506 | |
blinded by blood
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2011-03-17, 23:53 | Link #12507 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2009
Location: classified
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It means that with the cost of everything going higher, Americans will have less disposable cash and thus less money to buy goods and services.
That means less tax revenue, and thus mandatory cuts in government spending. With the economic disruption due to the earthquake in Japan, and the very likely rise in oil prices due to the emerging conflagration in Libya, necessities like food and fuel will go up even further over the next few months. Thus further lowering the standard of living, and again causing a decrease in tax revenues for State and local governments. Then there's the threat of hyperinflation due to all the spending/borrowing by the Federal government...etc....you get the picture.
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2011-03-18, 01:53 | Link #12508 | |
Um-Shmum
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: at GNR, bringing you the truth, no matter how bad it hurts
Age: 39
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Lebanon and Tunisia have no real air force to speak of. Egypt has its own internal problems to deal with. and the Saudis are already involved in Bahrain' and would have to fly their fighters over Egypt anyway (which i doubt would go well). the only other country in range to lend a hand is Israel, and asking Israel to basically attack Libya is probably the best way to stop the Libyan civil war. at the cost of starting the new "Israel-Libya war" which i doubt would improve matters.
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2011-03-18, 08:17 | Link #12509 |
books-eater youkai
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Betweem wisdom and insanity
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Germany may boost Afghan role and free U.S. for Libya
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...72H2M920110318
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2011-03-18, 09:36 | Link #12510 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2008
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As if increasing some awacs crew numbers would really make a difference for the U.S.. Typical German bullshit.
Gaddafi announced a few days ago that he is very disappointed in the western countries and future oil will only go to China, Russia and India - but he might consider making an exception for Germany, as they had taken a "very good position towards him". Reminds me of Switzerland bowing down to him last year. |
2011-03-18, 11:01 | Link #12511 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
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http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2011/0...ding-with.html "A federal magistrate said Sony may subpoena the PayPal account of PlayStation 3 hacker George Hotz, as the gamemaker ratchets up its civil lawsuit against the man who released the first full-fledged PS3 jailbreak in the console’s four-year history. Tuesday’s order came two weeks after Magistrate Joseph Spero in San Francisco granted Sony the right to acquire the internet IP addresses of anybody who had visited Hotz’s website from January of 2009 onward. Sony has also won subpoenas for data from YouTube and Google, as well as Twitter account data linked to Hotz, who goes by the handle GeoHot." See: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...hacker-paypal/ Last edited by james0246; 2011-03-18 at 14:08. Reason: double post... |
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2011-03-18, 11:42 | Link #12512 | |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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For some actual perspective, the information should go back to 1950 as well... http://www.truthandpolitics.org/top-rates.php This table lacks some depth and detail but its easy to see some issues between revenue and budget -- revenue hasn't "dropped" so much as it was intentionally closed down. The problem lies on both ends... we're spending unwisely (poor bang for buck in some sectors) and revenue sources historically available are not only being ignored but we're repeating the conditions of the 1890s and 1920s.
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2011-03-18, 12:45 | Link #12513 | |
Not Enough Sleep
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: R'lyeh
Age: 48
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2011-03-18, 12:58 | Link #12514 |
Sensei, aishite imasu
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Hong Kong Shatterdome
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China is apparently such an important market that the United States can't even afford to wage fictional war against them.
Spoiler for Article:
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2011-03-18, 13:07 | Link #12515 |
Gamilas Falls
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Republic of California
Age: 46
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I wonder if any Chinese nationals would have liked it to have stayed as it was. Getting to see American under their feet (even if being viewed at the bad guy from the American point of view) might appeal to them.
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2011-03-18, 16:39 | Link #12519 | |||
Aria Company
Join Date: Nov 2003
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http://www.factcheck.org/askfactchec...e_federal.html Also, if you actually read those articles you linked, the last two are completely worthless. They're just regurgitating things the writers don't understand, and put forth nothing that isn't presented in the first article. I suspect you just included them because more sources makes it appear you have a stronger position and the "CNN" link is supposed to make it appear to be a source from a news agency. However, it's a CNN ireport, which can be written by anyone, note the not vetted identifier. In fact, it links to your first article. The second, the guy apparently works in finances so he should know perfectly well what he's claiming is incorrect. The first one does seem like it has some substance. However, it's really the very smoke and mirrors he accuses the CBO of using. A careful reading of it though will show exactly what he's pulling and where the surplus went. "Notice that while the public debt went down in each of those four years, the intragovernmental holdings went up each year" "The Social Security Administration is legally required to take all its surpluses and buy U.S. Government securities, and the U.S. Government readily sells those securities--which automatically and immediately becomes intragovernmental holdings." So there was a surplus, which was used to pay off debt. However, it became debt itself in the process of transferring it to other government agencies because social security was separate from the rest of the budget. However, that's debt between departments of the government. It can't be ignored completely, but it's not the same as public debt, like debt going to China. The public debt, the part that really matters here, which was payed down under Clinton, a fact that the article does not try to dispute, only work around with the aforementioned smoke and mirrors. Also, all of this was known at the time, and wasn't a secret. In fact, it was one of the key platforms of Al Gore's 2000 presidential run. The "lock box" he was mocked for on SNL at the time would have ended that practice, making social security funds untouchable by the rest of the government. Granted, lock box probably wasn't the best term to use as an analogy for it.
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current affairs, discussion, international |
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