I am not going to start this thread by accusing this government of planning the 9-11 attacks. I don't think that happened. I am not a communist, socialist, nor any other ist. I am an American who is very upset with how this country is run.
I was born in 1962, during the Kennedy administration. It was a time when the United States was the shining star of the world. It was a time when dreaming the American Dream of owning a house with a white picket fence was a reality with a little hard work. It was a time when
Mom could stay home and raise the family while dad went to work and supported the family. It was a time when this country invested in itself thru investments in education, infrastructure, technology, and national defense. We kept home grown technology here and it wasn't for sale to the highest bidder. In the country I was born in we had three classes, the rich, the middle class, and the poor. I believed that the poor class was that way because of laziness, addiction issues, or mental competency. In the world I was born into if you traveled abroad you didn't have to hide that you were an American. It was something that you were proud of and your life wasn't in danger because of being an American. I was born into a country where if you chose you could go to work for a company your whole life and didn't have to worry about losing your job because profits were better overseas. I was born into a country where when you went shopping there was no question of where was it made, because everything was made in the USA. I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK.
I am tired of self serving politicians. It can be argued that Republicans are good for this country. This is my view on Republicans. They are no better than Democrats. They fill their pockets and are greedy. They have passed legislation that is anti labor. They argue that labor unions are evil and must be destroyed. Let's examine this for a moment. Why did labor unions come into existence in the first place. Answer: labor unions came into place because business abused workers with long hours, unsafe work conditions, no job security, child labor, sexual abuse, and the list go on. Business brought this on them selves. Now labor unions are no angels either. Unions protect lazy workers, unions do not provide a trained worker as promised, unions do not police the workers to make sure that 8 for 8 is established, labor unions have become bureaucracies that have grown lazy and fat. I believe that without the unions and deregulating business as the Republicans want to do, that sweat shops and poor work conditions will return.The religious right part of the Republican party wants to control our lives in that they feel they know what is better for me than I do. Look at the constant battle with Roe vs Wade as an example. This one has been settled already. Leave it alone.
The Democrats are no better. They restrict business under the guise of saving the environment. They think that everyone should be taken care of even if they don't want to contribute. They grow government at unrealistic rates and add more bureaucratic BS to government. I could go on.
Both parties have taken care of themselves at the expense of the average American. They have sold us out to big corporations that spend millions in lobby dollars. They sign free trade agreements that send jobs overseas . They give preferred trading to countries that don't trade fairly with us. We accept their goods freely here but our goods get quarantined and lost on shipping docks.
Our government has sold us out world wide to gain control of oil and to spread democracy which is good for business. Our politicians spend dollars in foreign aid but yet our roads go to pot, our education system is struggling to survive. The military has been downsized and technology items like NASA that was once a crown jewel is going belly up. The space shuttles were retired because of lack of funding not because they were no longer useful.
The wealth of this country has shifted. Do you realize that 90 percent of the wealth in this country is owned by 10 percent of the population and the gap is getting wider. The middle class is being squeezed out and they are not becoming rich. Our politicans cater to the whims and wishes of the rich and tje rest of us get screwed. I for one have had enough of it. I don't think any of the Republicans or Democrats should get re-elected. I want to take a que from the movie Brewsters Millions and vote none of the above. The two parties and the media who are all controlled by big money are only going to put the puppets they can control on the ballet and all we get is more of the same. We need to institute term limits. We need to roll back the politician benefit packages to relistic levels. Why sould we pay the a couple hundred thousand a year plus benefits when most of us make less than 50K a year? We need to nullify every free trade agreement. We need to invest in America again. We need to be energy dependent on ourselves which means oil drilling here, investments in solar and nuclear and water and wind power. Our government lies to us when it comes to profits for the rich.
I'm tired of the lies. I'm tired of the self serving. I'm tired of living in an America that isn't recognizable as the country it once was.
I believe that the United States is still the best country on the face of the earth. I would not want to live anywhere else, however we are not anywhere as good as we once were and I want that back. I want to be proud to be an American and want the rest of the world to be proud of Americans.

 

I just realized that thru my long winded text I did not relate it to 9-11. I will do this here. I believe that our government didn't directly plan the 9-11 attacks. What I do believe is that thru the governments underhanded dealing around the world in the persuit of greed and power for the top ten percent that they have created some much hatred for America and Americans that we are unsafe to travel many parts of the world and that more attacks will happen. Do you realize that the terrorists who flew those planes had so much hatred for Americans that they gave their own lives to instill death and destruction on innocent people that they don't even know. Our government as it stands today is putting us all at risk. I also heard yesterday about the GE deal and China. China is an imperialistic power that would like to rule the world. We trade with then and sell them all the technology that will be required to defeat us. What sence is that? Again it is all for greed. It has got to stop.

 

No one has an opinion on this either agreeing or disagreeing with me? If we don't get involved in our political system then all we are going to get is more of the same. As an American I am hated in many parts of the world and my life would be in danger if I travel there and it is in danger here on American soil from terrorists who want to add more dates to the 9-11 tierony. I have never left the United States other than to visit Canada half a dozen times or so. Most of us have nothing to do with the hatred that is geared toward us.

 

Well on the same note. Most Russians didn't have anything to do with the communist regime back in the cold war. They simply had to live under it. But most people hated all Russians back then.

There's stereo types and reputations for just about every country on earth. Not all of them are correct. All Americans are stereo typed in other countries as being arrogant and such. Of course we know that's not the case. And I'm saying that as a Canadian who deals with Americans and Canadians every day.

The political system here in Canada is very similar to the US. I think we tend to give politicians and the government more credit for intelligence than they sometimes deserve. Yes, some politicians are very intelligent, and know what they're doing. But we live in a system where anyone can run for office and get elected if you're popular enough. And being popular doesn't always mean intelligent.

Theoretically, my (fictional) neighbour Bob can run for office. Bob is an idiot. He thinks the faces on Mount Rushmore are natural formations that just happened to look like the Presidents. That type of idiot. You get the idea. But he has a very likable personality. Everyone that meets him likes him. So he gets elected on his likability, and the fact he had friends telling him what to say during the election. Now Bob is one person in charge of making laws for our country (God help us all!). Bob being an idiot, gets swayed easily by anyone who can talk a good argument. No matter how silly the idea is.

My point is this...

Running a country is hard work, and it's a guessing game at best. There's so many different areas of expertise needed, it's impossible for everyone in government to be an expert on everything. Occasionally they need to make educated guesses on things. That means occasionally they're going to be wrong. It doesn't mean there was a secret conspiracy going on. It simply means they guessed wrong at what the outcome was going to be.

I don't believe there is such a thing as a perfect political system. Ours is one of the best ones, but it's not perfect. Part of our system means that companies are able to do things to maximize profits. Companies take advantage of the economy in other countries in order to make more profit. That's why most things are made in China. Our government can't stop companies from doing this. But at the same time, they have to come up with some ideas to bring jobs here and keep them here.

At this point, I have no idea how to do that. So I'm glad I'm not in government.

 

None of what I previously posted has anything to do with 9/11.


Personally, I think 9/11 is a sad reflection on the reality of life as it was back in 2001. A highly organized group of terrorists lead by Osama Bin Laden. A group known in many parts of the world for their extremist views and tactics. This group bought airline tickets, hi-jacked the planes, and crashed them. In an effort to make a name for themselves. These terrorists hate the world around them, are never truely happy, and figure if they aren't happy then nobody else should be happy. It's a shame that these terrorists have a "spread the misery" mentality.


Before 9/11 happened, commercial airlines got hi-jacked a lot. But the hi-jackers usually wanted to negotiate for something. The release of someone in prison, etc. Before 9/11 it was common practice for the authorities to wait until the plane landed, then deal with the hi-jackers on the ground. Nobody expected suicide missions.

I honestly find it sad that some people feel it necessary to fill themselves with so much hate that they'd rather go on a suicide mission instead of letting go of the hate.

Let go of the hate, the greed, the revenge and such. Life is too short to be pissed off all the time.

 

Thanks Taz for responding to my posts. You brought up some very goods points and I applaud you for doing so. Unfortunately for the Russians they didn't have a government that they could change and to try to make changes or even voice their opinions could be a death sentence. I am grateful that I can say what ever I want within reason and suffer no ills for it.
One of the points that I am trying to make is that for the time being we still have the power to make changes in our government. No one person can do it alone, it takes a collective effort. We Americans and maybe the Canadians too have got too lazy to get out and vote but will complain to high heaven of all the wrongs.
As I see it right now in the US and I could be completely out to lunch, but I think that the rich and the big corporations that can throw money around are running this country, and running it into the ground and for nothing more than their own dam greed. I don't have anything against the rich. I don't have anything against big corporations. I do have issues if they are running the country and getting legislation passed that stacks the deck in their favor at the expense of everyone else.
I also don't like closed door meeting and double dealing by my government. In the media it has been documented that the US government supplied Osama Bin Laden with money and arms in the past for regime change in other countries because the US has an official policy of not overthrowing other governments. A similar story can be told of Sadam Hussain. Now these are not policies that the average American would endorse and that is why it was done secretly by bureaucratic agencies that don't answer to the American people. We are supposed to have a government that is by the people for the people and of the people or something like that and it is supposed to be transparent. This is not what we have now.
Our representatives that we elect are supposed to do what is in our best interest.instead they do for the special interests. Let's look at free trade agreements for a moment. They say it will brings goods here for cheap prices. They sign the free trade agreement and then American factories close putting Americans out of work. They then open the same factory overseas where they make inferior products, pay lower wages and benefits and in some cases have no regard for the enviroment. The products are shipped here and the price that we play isn't that much lower than they were before. I'd like to talk about shoes because we used to have textile mills on both sides of the border that made shoes. My grandfather had shoes that were made domestically that he owned for most of his adult life. Granted they were probably re soled a few times and they were his dress shoes that he wore more often than I wear dress shoes but they were quality. Now all we have are she's that are made in China and other countries. The shoes are not all that cheap to buy. Wear them everyday and maybe they will last six months. I had a few pair of dress shoes that I would wear on Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, weddings and funerals. They still looked new. I put them on and walked across the house and the dam soles broke. I had to throw them away. These shoes didn't get near the use the shoes my grandfathers had. Foreign cars are no cheaper than domestic built cars. The products are made cheaper both in price and quality, because of the free trade agreement there are no tarrifs but yet we see very little difference in the retail market so the worker has lost on both ends because he lost his job and saw little savings in the retail end and because the product is of lesser quality he gets to buy it again. The only winner is the fat cat.

 

 

I think it is a shame now that our boys in uniform must travel in civilian clothes in parts of the world that we have help out over the years. The American uniform and flag was respected and looked upon with admiration and hope. Now our boys and gals must hide who and what they are. I agree "I want my country back"

 

I do agree it's both parties leading us down the path to destruction. The way I see it, our biggest problem is out federal governmen is WAY too big. The states have no wiggle room to speak of anymore because they're bribed with their own citizen's tax dollars to impliment whatever the feds want put in. According to the Constitution, Congress has 18 enumerated powers. I'd love to see us work our way back to that because I think, given the proper room to manuever, the states could do a much better job with many things. Especially considering that what works in California may (or in many cases probably) won't work in Tennessee and vice versa. Unfortunately the feds don't understand (or more likely just don't care) and try to ram California and New York down the rest of the nation's throats anyway.

Our politicians (at least at the federal level) are VERY intelligent IMO. They know EXACTLY what they've been doing over the last 40 or so years. The more the rest of the country gets run down the drain, the more power they have to be able to control us with our own money. IF things continue the way they are currently going, we will at best end up in a tyranny and at worst will end up in a tyranny AND be reduced below a first world status.

Here's some food for thought. I think it pretty well describes the mainstream parties right now.

 

I did not post as I see no point in arguing our points on the internet, but you are right we do need dialogue so here goes. I disagree with you completely about the fate of our country, but I do agree that our country has many flaws, but it is still great and has great things going for it. I am involved locally and plan to be involved politically as musch as I can. I do not fear that I am in danger here or when I travel out of our borders. Sure there are bad places in the world, but there are places in the u.s. so gang infested that I don't go there as well. 9/11 was a product of foreign policy, expansionism, and the fact the world is shrinking because of technology. 50 years ago someone in Iran, would have no idea that life in the U.S. was different then there life, but as technology shrinks the world they see a free society as a threat to their dictatorship lives. I am filled with hope for the future, I refuse to give up and have a negative view. Yes we need to change things, yes we need a congress who is not afraid to act and step outside the party rhetoric. Yes we need charismatic leadership and strong morals, but those can be fostered in ourselves and each other. We are responsible for our lives and the influence we have on others. Spread the message of hope and change the world, but always remember, just because I am hopeful, it does not mean I am not prepared to stand up and fight for what is right and just.