Your description reminds me of our current lousy

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"They" are banking on people's inattention. Using the technique of repeating a slogan until it sticks. I think the real problem in our political system is that many voters are too passive to really research and think, just watch the attack ads and go with the slogans.

John Mc said he knew exactly how to find Bin Laden. Shame he refuses to share his knowledge with the military leaders.

something that occurred about 25 years. I was working in a law office, and one of the newer attorneys was reading a medical report that contained the word "cephalgia." He almost started jumping up and down, really excited because (I think) it was such a "big word."

He asked if anyone had any medical background. I said I had a little bit, and he asked me what cephalgia meant.

I said, "Well, let's see: "Algia" means pain. "Ceph" means pain, so pain in the head -- HEADACHE!"

I was relating this to a court reporter friend of mine who then asked me what I would call an analgesic.

an event that took place during the Iraq war (not sure of the date, but I'm sure some of you will remember it). There was an Iraqi child who was (as well as many others) caugt in a bombing raid. It was all over the news about how the US military had given him provisional care and transported him from place to place, trying to get him to a place where he could be treated appropriately. Unfortunately (like many other Iraqi civilians) he eventually died. This in itself was not that remarkable, especially considering at the time the US was lobbing bombs into Iraq with the precision of a pumpkin-chunkin contest. What was remarkable, however, was when the doctor who was caring for the child came out and told the news of his death to the world. There were several questions entertained by the doctor from reporters, but the one that really struck home for me was one from a US reporter. The question was, do you think the boy understood what we are trying to do here? The boy that died was all of about 4 or 5 years old.

Not long after, the US decided to not show casualties in the news. The government unfortunately was right in assuming the out of sight, out of mind thing would work. It's amazing just how naive Americans can be.

This is a perfect example of what you would call American pride, honor, etc. Nevermind the people who die, just make sure we look good doing it. Again, I am not negating the value of the American soldiers here, they are simply doing what they've been told to do.

When you talk about soldiers helping the Iraqi people, exactly how are they helping them? Are they bringing them food and medicine because we have destroyed their infrastructure? Are they helping them find a place to stay because their house played catch with a US missle? Or are we just taking care of their kids because we took mommy and daddy to a torture camp? Believe me, we are doing much more harm than help. Have you noticed that Iraqi civilian casualties far outnumber the casualties of American soldiers? Where's the help for that?

Not long after, the US decided to not show casualties in the news. The story above may have contributed to this, but the basic idea was that Americans didn't like to see Americans dead. The government unfortunately was right in assuming the out of sight, out of mind thing would work. It's amazing just how naive Americans can be.

This is a perfect example of what you would call American pride, honor, etc. Nevermind the people who die, just make sure we look good doing it. Again, I am not negating the value of the American soldiers: they are simply doing what they've been told to do.

our dad ever played on us, and it was at his own funeral many years ago. The guy was a hoot. Mom had died the year before, so my sister (same Norm Crosby sister) remembered exactly where in the cemetery the double-wide grave was.

Dad�s procession wound through the grounds � he had a lot of friends, so it was a long parade. The hearse stopped at the newly prepped grave with the canopy over it. Our limo pulled up behind it. My sister said, �This is the wrong place.� Her husband said, �Nah, this looks like it.� I had no recollection. The pallbearers opened the hearse and started hauling the casket out and my sister made her husband go up and tell them to stop. This was ALL WRONG. So, they shoved the casket back in, and closed the doors. Now you see it. Now you don�t.

All the people behind us started to get our of their cars, and mill around. My sister went up there and now I could see a lot of gesturing and pointing. She�s pointing way that-a-way and the cemetery crew are shaking their heads and pointing this-a-way. So there was an intermission while somebody went to the office for a map.

Now we have the map spread out on the hood of the hearse. Nobody else in the crowd really knows what�s going on, and sure enough, wrong grave. Dad almost got himself interred for eternity next to some other woman. You�d have to know my dad (and my mom) to get the joke.

We agreed to have the graveside service there, but then he had to be moved to where the backhoe would shortly be hastily digging the grave in the proper location.

On the ride back in the funeral home limo we were giggling uncontrollably. Her husband thought it was in very poor taste. The limo driver kept remarking on what good sports we were. Truly, dad almost got away with it. You just hadda be there!

We agreed to have the graveside service there, but then he had to be moved to where the backhoe would shortly be hastily digging the grave in the proper location.

people put together for their first kid. Video of the delivery. Baby's handprint and footprint. Lock of hair from Baby's first haircut. Picture of Baby taking his first step. First tooth Baby loses, and on and on and on.....

What's the followup plan for the 200th day and the 300th? I'd like to pencil this on my calendar.

economic nightmare without also addressing those who are already suffering from it. If that is not addressed while we are setting up new jobs, then we go straight into a depression. It's a whole lot harder and longer to get out of a full-blown depression that what we have now....and right now we're on the edge.

NASA = The 50 million Obama allotted for NASA is for them to repair facilities in Houston from hurricaine Ike (which should have already been done, btw) and non-space activities. Again, job creation. NASA wants more, but I doubt they'll get it.

this. If homeowners were to get lump sums and they just payed off their mortgages it would go to the banks, like you said. However, the banks are currently not extending credit. Even after they passed the first bailout and payed out to banks, the banks that received the money actually tightened up on credit, which was the exact opposite of what they should have done. So, if we were all to just pay off our mortgages, the bank would get the money and just sit on it just like they did with the bailout money, and that doesn't stimulate the economy.

The main problem we have is that we've turned into a nation that relys on credit. The banks don't want you to pay off your principal -- they want you to keep paying interest because that's where the money is for them. Now that the credit has been frozen, people who live on credit don't have anything to spend -- thus creating the spending deficit.

And the destruction they have wreaked on our country.......keep the mindset. The republican party will have a wretched time climbing out of the sewer from whence they came.

So, if you lose your job, it won't be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country (the decider), steamrolled the constitution (the decider), and will have changed its landscape forever (the decider). If that happens, you can find me sitting on a beach, retired, and with no employees to worry about... Yes, GW, you will be just FINE.

Where Would General Motors Be Without the United Automobile Workers Union?

This is a question that no one seems to be asking. And so I've asked it. And here, in essence, is what I think is the answer. (The answer, of course, applies to Ford and Chrysler, as well as to General Motors. I've singled out General Motors because it's still the largest of the three and its problems are the most pronounced.)

First, the company would be without so-called Monday-morning automobiles. That is, automobiles poorly made for no other reason than because they happened to be made on a day when too few workers showed up, or too few showed up sober, to do the jobs they were paid to do. Without the UAW, General Motors would simply have fired such workers and replaced them with ones who would do the jobs they were paid to do. And so, without the UAW, GM would have produced more reliable, higher quality cars, had a better reputation for quality, and correspondingly greater sales volume to go with it. Why didn't they do this? Because with the UAW, such action by GM would merely have provoked work stoppages and strikes, with no prospect that the UAW would be displaced or that anything would be better after the strikes. Federal Law, specifically, The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, long ago made it illegal for companies simply to get rid of unions.

Second, without the UAW, GM would have been free to produce in the most-efficient, lowest cost way and to introduce improvements in efficiency as rapidly as possible. Sometimes this would have meant simply having one or two workers on the spot do a variety of simple jobs that needed doing, without having to call in half a dozen different workers each belonging to a different union job classification and having to pay that much more to get the job done. At other times, it would have meant just going ahead and introducing an advance, such as the use of robots, without protracted negotiations with the UAW resulting in the need to create phony jobs for workers to do (and to be paid for doing) that were simply not necessary.

(Unbelievably, at its assembly plant in Oklahoma City, GM is actually obliged by its UAW contract to pay 2,300 workers full salary and benefits for doing absolutely nothing. As The New York Times describes it, "Each day, workers report for duty at the plant and pass their time reading, watching television, playing dominoes or chatting. Since G.M. shut down production there last month, these workers have entered the Jobs Bank, industry's best form of job insurance. It pays idled workers a full salary and benefits even when there is no work for them to do.")

Third, without the UAW, GM would have an average unit cost per automobile close to that of non-union Toyota. Toyota makes a profit of about $2,000 per vehicle, while GM suffers a loss of about $1,200 per vehicle, a difference of $3,200 per unit. And the far greater part of that difference is the result of nothing but GM's being forced to deal with the UAW. (Over a year ago, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that "the United Auto Workers contract costs GM $2,500 for each car sold.")

Fourth, without the UAW, the cost of employing a GM factory worker, including wages and fringes, would not be in excess of $72 per hour, which is where it is today, according to The Post-Crescent newspaper of Appleton, Wisconsin.

Fifth, as a result of UAW coercion and extortion, GM has lost billions upon billions of dollars. For 2005 alone, it reported a loss in excess of $10 billion. Its bonds are now rated as "junk," that is, below, investment grade. Without the UAW, GM would not have lost these billions.

Sixth, without the UAW, GM would not now be in process of attempting to pay a ransom to its UAW workers of up to $140,000 per man, just to get them to quit and take their hands out of its pockets. (It believes that $140,000 is less than what they will steal if they remain.)

Seventh, without the UAW, GM would not now have healthcare obligations that account for more than $1,600 of the cost of every vehicle it produces.

Eighth, without the UAW, GM would not now have pension obligations which, if entered on its balance sheet in accordance with the rule now being proposed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, will leave it with a net worth of minus $16 billion.

What the UAW has done, on the foundation of coercive, interventionist labor legislation, is bring a once-great company to its knees. It has done this by a process of forcing one obligation after another upon the company, while at the same time, through its work rules, featherbedding practices, hostility to labor-saving advances, and outlandish pay scales, doing practically everything in its power to make it impossible for the company to meet those obligations.

Ninth, without the UAW tens of thousands of workers � its own members � would not now be faced with the loss of pension and healthcare benefits that it is impossible for GM or any of the other auto companies to provide, and never was possible for them to provide. The UAW, the whole labor-union movement, and the left-"liberal" intellectual establishment, which is their father and mother, are responsible for foisting on the public and on the average working man and woman a fantasy land of imaginary Demons (big business and the rich) and of saintly Good Fairies (politicians, government officials, and union leaders). In this fantasy-land, the Good Fairies supposedly have the power to wring unlimited free benefits from the Demons.

Tenth, Without the UAW and its fantasy-land mentality, autoworkers would have been motivated to save out of wages actually paid to them, and to provide for their future by means of by and large reasonable investments of those savings � investments with some measure of diversification. Instead, like small children, lured by the prospect of free candy from a stranger, they have been led to a very bad end. They thought they would receive endless free golden eggs from a goose they were doing everything possible to maim and finally kill, and now they're about to learn that the eggs just aren't there.

Here is the link for the rest of the article: http://mises.org/story/2124

on the issues in politics is Media Matters America. As the name explains, they monitor all forms of media and report on the distortions and misinformation. They give factual rebuttals. They make it a lot easier to sort fact from fiction.