The ant and the grasshopper

[Steve Ekstrand]

One of my biggest fears as an economist is the class envy cries of the liberals. They seem so eager, almost frenzied in their anticipation of turning back 8 years of George W.'s tax breaks.

But given the fragile state of our economy, it is outright suicide to raise taxes and eliminate incentives and things like the long term capital gains break. Now is just not the time to be doing radical income redistribution and massive central government revenue raising for unprecedented social programs. And how they think dramatically raising taxes on domestic oil companies will lower pump prices or world crude prices or increase supply or reduce foreign reliance is just insanity in its saddest most pathetic form.

[George Schilling]

Did I mention how much I hate George W Bush for the war in Iraq?

I can't bear the hundreds of billions of dollars pissed away while we argue over hundreds of MILLIONS at home that can do real good for Americans and America. Then I think of the human toll of lives lost, lives shattered, families destroyed, and of the extended and repeat tours and destroyed careers for reservists.

I will NEVER forgive W.

I know many many Republicans who feel the same way.

As to the money part of it. Barry "don't call me by my middle name or you're racist" Obama's biggest proposed piece of legislation as a US Senator is a nearly trillion dollar aid package on top of existing aid. Its a total give away to the same crooks at the UN who stole all the oil for food money. If Obama is willing to toss an additional $700B to a $1T in blind world aid, where does his spending stop? I hope he's bright enough to realize that a 150% income tax rate doesn't raise more money than a 35% tax.

Yep, the war was an unfortunate mistake. I'd rather know my enemy than face an uncertain and costly future. But that's easy to say now. What I was always against was the no child left behind program and the prescription drug program. These costs were known and they are staggering. This huge federal expansion does not sit well with me. Thankfully, at least McCain is a fiscal conservative and has historically been very tight with spending. But as you cited Steve, I'd be very worried if Obama is elected. He's making promises that we not only can't afford but will clearly move us toward socialism. In fact, I had the TV on in the backround taday and I heard some democratic leader, might have been Pelosi, actually let the word socialism slip out referring to Obama's programs before catching herself and choosing another word. Yup, I'm worried. Going to the garage now to check my air pressure.

[Steve Ekstrand]

To make things even worse about Iraq, our kids are being killed as they guard reconstruction projects solely for the Iraqi's and the Iraqi gov't that are costing us hundreds of Billions of dollars. Then you find out in reports today that surplus oil profits the Iragi's are keeping to themselves amount to nearly a $100 billion more than expected over the past 5 years. Thats oil we made possible to pump and we defended it shipment. Now as the really big projects line up, the contracts go mainly to foreign firms. Yet we'll probably still pay to defend them. And we'll defend the shipments to the tune of tens and hundreds of billions of dollars and incalculable human cost.

And we'll pay more at home for gas as our economy and world stature diminish and a few Iraqi warlords become oligarchs. And terrorism gets greater funding.

And Obama will figure out how to give them more aid, and more leeway and more appeasement crap until they can hurt us far worse than 9/11.

[Kurt Rahn]

Did I mention how much I hate George W Bush for the war in Iraq?

Hallelujah from the choir. And I have to say (though I said something similar about Bush and look where it got us) luckily Obama's only got 4 yrs to prove he's not the liberal dumb$hi* tool we all think he is. How much damage could he cause?

[Steve Ekstrand]

And here I thought McCain was hopeless uncool....

He just pushed his wife into the topless Miss Buffalo Chip contest at Sturgis. Now I'm not too eager to see Mrs. McCain get naked... But I'm glad Mr. McCain does.

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Reporters are calling it a gaffe... How so???

[Jeff Shyu]

i think most people i personally know, were against going into Iraq.

apparently we know our history, and knew that the country isn't just going to suddenly change to a willing republic.

now that bush has gotten us stuck in the sh!!tpile though, it's pretty childish to essentially skirt the issue by claiming you were against it in the first place.

you're already stuck in a pile of crap, the best you can hope for, is to try to get out of the pile without going in over your head, and end up having to eat it too. It's really a bad situation that has no good solution. If obama had his way, the military would be out of there, leaving the infrastructure in shambles. thousands of civilian contractor that are responsible for Iraqis being able to live a semblance of life, are going to bail.. you might as well have just bombed it back to the stone ages.

McCain's is the more realistic view of things, but will cost us a lot more...

either way, it sucks... i'm just not sure which one sucks more.

[Bob Beamesderfer]

i think most people i personally know, were against going into Iraq.

apparently we know our history, and knew that the country isn't just going to suddenly change to a willing republic.

now that bush has gotten us stuck in the sh!!tpile though, it's pretty childish to essentially skirt the issue by claiming you were against it in the first place.

you're already stuck in a pile of crap, the best you can hope for, is to try to get out of the pile without going in over your head, and end up having to eat it too. It's really a bad situation that has no good solution. If obama had his way, the military would be out of there, leaving the infrastructure in shambles. thousands of civilian contractor that are responsible for Iraqis being able to live a semblance of life, are going to bail.. you might as well have just bombed it back to the stone ages.

McCain's is the more realistic view of things, but will cost us a lot more...

either way, it sucks... i'm just not sure which one sucks more.

I think Obama will very quickly realize once he's briefed by the agencies involved that rushing out would be a different kind of disaster. But we have two countries we need to prop up, don't forget Afghanistan.

For the record, I was opposed to the Iraqi invasion on the grounds that a) Bin Laden wasn't there; b) we were already fighting a war in Western Asia; c) Hussein's record clearly demonstrated that he would have nothing to do with Bin Laden and his group, partly on religious grounds. partly because he hated Iran, and partly because he hated anything connected to the Saudi royal family. Osama's relatives, the capitalist Bin Ladens, are tight with the royals.

[Jeff Shyu]

there's a lot of reasons why we should have never been in iraq after 9/11, but the simple fact of the matter is, the fickled masses (which unfortunately, includes us too) was for this.

all i can hold on to, is that i was personally against it, and i did what i could by voting against Bush both times. I can't change the minds of your average "bible belt" Americans that have never set foot outside of their state, much less their country. the administration sold the war, the media helped, and the uneducated masses bought it, hook, line, and sinker.

[Bob Beamesderfer]

there's a lot of reasons why we should have never been in iraq after 9/11, but the simple fact of the matter is, the fickled masses (which unfortunately, includes us too) was for this.

all i can hold on to, is that i was personally against it, and i did what i could by voting against Bush both times. I can't change the minds of your average "bible belt" Americans that have never set foot outside of their state, much less their country. the administration sold the war, the media helped, and the uneducated masses bought it, hook, line, and sinker.

That's where I'm at; there were no good reasons for invading. There are still people who believe there was a connection between Iraq and 9/11, despite Bush's own commission finding otherwise.

[Steve Ekstrand]

I don't need to argue reasons for going into Iraq. Just because you have some excuse, validation, reason, bug up your butt, desire, whatever to commit your nations resources and lives in a war doesn't mean you have to go there. Bush obviously, had some desire to fix what he saw as something broken in his fathers legacy and the NeoCons capitalized on it. Bush Sr. wasn't a great President but he understood the issues a whole lot better than his dimwitted son. Sr. had to invade. Very little choice. He managed to do it without getting stuck there. And he managed to get some block to Iran in place. It was one of those uncomfortable real politik compromises. The son never understood it. The NeoCons didn't want to understand it.

I didn't mind hitting Iraq a second time. Blow up a few dozen Presidential palaces from the air? No problem. Vietnam v2.0 are you freaking stupid or what????