Comments on: GOP: Status Quo Or Giant Leap Forward ?

By: Frank Knotts

Frank Knotts — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 12:11:41 +0000

think123 says,”The courts decide what is Constitutional not you or me. ” Well think123, I believe the Constitution was intensionally written in language that was understandable to all literate citizens, so that they could understand their rights. The courts are not the final judge , the people are.
think123 also says, “Why in the world would you take the side of the credit card bank not the consumer? My friend has a card with a limit. The bank keeps the limit, not my friend. The idea that out of the blue your over limit purchase is not declined, but instead they approve the over limit purchase in spite of a stated limit, then tack on $100 penalty is a rip off Frank. Next thing you’ll be saying there is no such thing as a rip off, just good companies serving dumb customers. That is how extreme you sound.” So your friend has no personal responsibility to know what he has spent on the card and whether the next purchase will put him over the limit ? Are you saying that it is the bank’s job to baby sit your friend’s life ? I’m sure that somewhere in the contract your friend agreed to these penalties were mentioned, but of course we can’t expect people to actually read these contracts, maybe we need a government program that offers to have a government employee read your contracts for you. It is this attitude that leads people to believe that it is government’s role to guide us through every day of our lives.

“How about that Bernie Madoff guy and Enron? All those stupid investors, believed everything the annual report and the accountants told them.” Again , personal resonsibility, or to boil it down ,buyer beware.
“And out there in California when Enron created an artificial shortage of electricity to scam for higher profits? All those stupid consumers kept on using that high priced electricity. Why are the little guys so dumb?”
think123, if you would research the California energy shortage you will find that it was caused by the state of California imposing artificial price caps on energy suppliers . This then lead to a situation that allowed Enron to step in and take advantage of the situation. But of course you don’t think the state did anything wrong.
You speak of the Constitution not enumerating many of the issues of the modern world. The Constitution is not intended to address every personal dilemma that we come across in our lives, it is intended to restrict our government from running our lives, but too many people have attempted to coopt it into a document that gives power to the government to make decisions that are best left to the individual.

By: think123

think123 — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:01:23 +0000

Frank, your attempt to justify calling the President a fascist is lame. How about I say you sound like the Timothy McVeigh anti-American militia fanatic who has no patience with the democratic system. Now I hope you are able to separate the insane violence of that militia from the general militia attitude. I do not mean to suggest you are like Timothy McVeigh, it’s you just have that anti-American government militia attitude – but not the bad kind. That’s how your explanation for slandering the President sounds to me.

The courts decide what is Constitutional not you or me. We shall see on healthcare. There is a lot about the modern world I cannot find enumerated in the Constitution, including why veterans get taypayer funded health care but the rest of us do not. Or why seniors get Medicare. But it’s all Constitutional according to our system of checks and balances.

Regarding the election of the President, you might think the majority is not as smart as you, that somehow voters got fooled did not know what they were voting for, but I have faith in the individual. I think most voters are as smart as you. I knew exactly why I voted Democratic for the first time. And yes, a couple of times in the fall of 2008, when people were scrambling to take money out the bank for fear of a panic, I found the oratory of Obama, not McCain or Palin, worthy of some spine tingling chills. I got that from Reagan too a couple of times. And from the Kennedy inaugural. Nothing wrong with feeling the buzz of some passionate world class oratory. Obama was great during the campaign.

Why in the world would you take the side of the credit card bank not the consumer? My friend has a card with a limit. The bank keeps the limit, not my friend. The idea that out of the blue your over limit purchase is not declined, but instead they approve the over limit purchase in spite of a stated limit, then tack on $100 penalty is a rip off Frank. Next thing you’ll be saying there is no such thing as a rip off, just good companies serving dumb customers. That is how extreme you sound.

How about that Bernie Madoff guy and Enron? All those stupid investors, believed everything the annual report and the accountants told them. And out there in California when Enron created an artificial shortage of electricity to scam for higher profits? All those stupid consumers kept on using that high priced electricity. Why are the little guys so dumb?

If people like Frank were half as obsessed about the needs of their fellow man, as they are totally obsessed about abstract theories, who is what kind of ideology we could make some progress.

You got passion Frank, you gotta come back to America. Join the mainstream.

By: Frank Knotts

Frank Knotts — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 09:40:44 +0000

think 123 , since you decided to put the word think in you alter ego, I would suggest that you do a little of it. First if you cannot seperate the violence of the Hitlers and the Mussolinis, from the economic system known as fascism and realize that what is happening in the nation you say you love so much is fascist , then you may want to rethink your thought process.
I stated I was against the Bush administration’s role in this process. As for using “he” and “him”, well since “he ” is the front man calling for these fascist changes at this time, it is “him” , that must take responsibility for these actions.
And to you majority statement, do you really believe that the majority of first time voters who put this president in office have any idea of the concepts that you claim they voted for ?
Your blind loyalty to this president makes me wonder if like Chris Matthews you get a tingle up your leg when Pres. Obama speaks.
Now to speak about regulations, your friend who was charged $100 for over draft, well he had the choice not to overdraft, he also has the choice to change banks after they apply a charge that he feels is not fair. And as to your pointing out that soon insurance companies will not be able to drop people who are already sick, okay so why must the congress and the president mandate every citizen buy insurance, in order to put that simple regulation into place ? That is unless the goal is to take over the insurance industry ?
You state your love of the Constitution time and time agian , so lead me to the part in the Constitution , where the government is given the power to mandate that to be a citizen we must purchase a product, or be fined or imprisoned ?

By: think123

think123 — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:43:10 +0000

Merry Christmas. You said the President of The United States was a fascist or marxist. Now you’re saying not the capital letter kind. That maybe when somebody says our President is a fascist marxist, they don’t really mean anything bad like Stalin or Hitler. You were talking about generic marxist communists fascist not the really bad kind. Sorry, it thought you were slandering the President. Now I understand. You mean under certain dictionary definitions looked at a certain way perhaps maybe President Obama is to be considered a fascist or marxist, but not like Lenin or Mussolini. Why work so hard to justify crazy talk? Why not just state your case without digging the knife of the communist fasicist smear into a President that so many of us voted for less than one year ago?

Just trying to figure how you can love the Constitution but not the Modern American Order arising from that Constitution.

It’s not an “attack” on President Bush to point out that President Bush orchestrated the takeover of banks as well as government intervention into the auto industry in 2008. I was in favor of that when President Bush initiated those policies, I voted for President Bush, but was sorely disappointed by events. I am in favor of the extension of the Bush interventionist economic policies extended by President Obama. You make it sound like there is something terribly different going on. You got yourself into this Glen Beck political pornography Fox News Alert stuff that is bad for the soul. Come back to America dude.

I am not sure what “regulations” you think are so hurtful. The requirements that banks not charge arbitrary fees penalties, exorbitant surprise interest rates increases? A friend of mind got hit with a $100 bank “fine” because the bank approved, instead of declining a charge that was over his limit. They can’t do that anymore. We have a regulation saying those who don’t pay back taxpayer bailout money have executive pay limits? Sounds good to me. Pretty soon there will be a law that says you can’t cut off a kids health insurance in the middle of an illness or deny health insurance to a sick person. That health insurance has to be arranged in such a way so as people do not go bankrupt when they get sick. I think that’s great. It’s the kind of change I voted for. So it’s not enough to say you don’t like these new “fascist” like “regulations” – you have to say who what when where how – if you want to be taken seriously.

In your writing you refer to all that’s happening as – “he” did this or “he” did that. “He” has his sights set on the healthcare industry. He being President Obama. In reality, it is not “he” who is doing “it”, it’s “we” the majority of the voters, people like me, the force behind the agenda. It’s the majority you have issues with, not “He”. Until another election changes things, we the winners are pursuing our Majority agenda. You, the Minority, need to bring voters to your side for next time. Slandering the winners, calling us fascist marxist is not going to help much. Nor is it in keeping with the American Christian spirit or civic virtue.

The United States Of America has always been, as it is now, part socialist part capitalist. A common formula for our GDP is GDP = private consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports).

We have a public sector. We have a private sector. One cannot exist without the other. It is a symbiotic relationship. We do not worship at the alter of economic theory. It sounds like you are so consumed with the theory of Capitalism you have lost sight of real authentic American values which go far beyond how money changes hands.

By: Frank Knotts

Frank Knotts — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 14:17:38 +0000

think123, first let me just state that in my opinion capitalism is the anvil on which democracy was forged. Without the freedom of capitalism, we can have no freedom of choice, freedom to choose is our greatest freedom.
Now to answer your question of what is a fascist ? Well first, take note that I use a lower case “f” when I describe the President as a fascist. You of course throw out the Hitler comparision. Not the same thing. Hitler was a violent monster, it had nothing to do with his also being a fascist. F.D.R was a fan of Mussolini’s form of government (the father of Fascism by the way) and actually sent people over to Italy to study and bring back ideas to put into place here in the U.S. and did. I believe the current president has been compared to F.D.R many times and has taken great pride in those comparisions. In the early years of F.D.R’s administration fascism was not a bad word, it was only after we entered the war and needed to demonize Hitler and his allies that fascism became a negative to F.D.R and his administration .
A fascist is anyone who is in favor of, or supports fascism.
And fascism , as defined by the world book encyclopedia is: any system of government in which property is privately owned , but all industry and labor are regulated by a strong national government, while all opposition is rigorously suppressed.
So now I have to tell you how I see the current president as a fascist. Well let’s see , he orchestrated the take over of the banking industry through regulations and buy outs,he did the same thing with the auto industry, and now has set his sights on the health care industry.
Of course you will defend Pres. Obama by attacking Pres. Bush. Well I was against TARP and many of Pres. Bush’s spending programs. But as I saw them they were never an attempt to take over the industry in question, as it seems Pres. Obama intends to do.They were though many times counter to my conservative views.
As for your point of Pres. Obama and his agenda being the will of the people who voted him into office, well that may be. But the same freedom that allowed those people to voice their opinion and to elect him , also allows me and others to voice our opinion against him and his agenda, and to work to change public opinion and to remove him from office with the same process that put him there.
That is unless you would “rigorously suppress all opposition”?

By: think123

think123 — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:06:31 +0000

Just remember America is not about Maynard Keynes, Karl the Marx, Adam Smith or economic theories. It is about We The People and Democracy. It’s easy to get our loyalties confused with money matters.

What actions (not rhetoric) by the current President puts him in a category different from the former President? None. The cheesiest form of politics is name calling with nothing to back it up.

In the case of our present Commander In Chief, he is the embodiment of the 65 million citizens who voted for him. The expression of American will in the purest form – our elections. Wannabee super patriots need to take heed of the basics – respect our Constitutional process.

Even the most brilliant self-righteous know-it-all can’t know more than what is expressed by the will of the People.

Our Nation wasn’t founded to promote an economic theory. It was founded to enable people to shape the government they live under. To promote the general welfare. Happiness. Security. Freedom. That is what we strive for every election. Losers need to respect the winners. Be good sports, not poor losers.

On of our cherished values is civic virtue. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civic_virtue

How can anybody possibly think they are some kind of red blooded all American Constitution loving fan of freedom and the American Way if they can’t even stomach the very basics – our national elections? Trying to discredit, destroy, slander a brand new President from day one? For sport, or spite. It’s anti-American. Self destructive.

By: David Anderson

David Anderson — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 04:32:12 +0000

There are 6 or 7 major schools of economic thought today. The Marxist school, the Austrian School, the Chicago supply side school, the Keynesian school, the monetary school, the corporate state (fascist ) school, and the Democratic Socialist school which is between the Keynesian School, and either the corporate state or Marxist school of thought depending upon the flavor. You could almost divide it into three. The free market school, the mixed economy school, and the socialist school. The current administration is either a Democratic Socialist administration or a corporate state administration. Keynesians do not take over huge segments of the economy. They are mixed economics in thought. The tend to emphasize private ownership and responsibility with heavy government oversight, demand stimulation, and an active fiscal policy. The government guides the economy, but the ultimate control is private. We are well beyond that in intention. Follow the links for what we mean by each school.

By: think123

think123 — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 19:48:12 +0000

Frank, can you tell us what a marxist is? What a fascist is? I want to make sure we are talking about the same thing. Your above comment sounds literally insane to me.

I know Fidel Castro, Ho Chi Mihn, Lenin, and Stalin fit the bill as marxist. Mussolini and Hitler are histories most infamous fascists. How is it you put the President of the United States of America in league with these people?

Q. What is a marxist?

Q. What is a fascist?

Q. What has the President done that justifies that kind of hate talk?

By: David

David — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 19:42:51 +0000

Go Colin! (for Cookie)

By: Frank Knotts

Frank Knotts — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 15:24:36 +0000

think123, agian it seems that you are arguing with the delivery mehtod, not the message. Pres. Obama is a marxist at the very least, but actually he is a fascist, and to ignore it based on political correctness is dangerous. Why should we or those in the right wing media hesitate to call him exactly what he is ?We have for far too long done this and have paid the price.