They take your money now they want the handful of rights you still have left:

[SubwayGuy]

House and Senate agree on sweeping defense bill - Yahoo! News

 

Embarrasing that something like this is even being considered. Every single person in Congress needs to get voted out in the next election, without exception.

 

Defense spending needs to be CUT significantly if anything.

 

You know if the budget was cut 10% the joint chiefs claim the US will fall behind technologically in military...despite the fact that the US would still (with significant cuts enacted) have the largest defense budget in the entire WORLD by a very significant amount.

 

If we can't maintain military competitiveness with the largest budget in the world, what good is spending more going to do?

 

This is dumber than the Yankees free agent strategy in the early 2000's, jacking up the payroll while not getting any better (I say that as a Yankee fan).

 

But that's not enough. It's not enough they won't raise taxes on the rich, or get rid of subsidies and tax breaks for some of the largest countries on this planet that outsource most of their productive labor. Now they want the right to detain AMERICAN CITIZENS indefinitely without due process of law, based on "suspicion" of terrorism.

 

This is not without precedent. Internment camps during WWII were a very similar way of taking away rights. The difference is this enemy has no color, no nationality...meaning anyone could be a suspect, anyone could lose their rights without any of the civil protections our ancestors fought for and won, based on "suspicion" and you can bet your ass that if you're exonerated you're not going to get one cent from them - for lost wages, you're not going to get your shit back, and you're not going to get "made whole" you're going to get released and left to fend for yourself with whatever you've still got left.

 

This country is going down the tubes incredibly fast, and their needs to be a major purge, major cleansing of the aristocracy that makes 95% of the country's decision. If you want to talk about putting any population in "concentration camps" it's not the terrorists but the elites. Terrorists would have no issue with the United States anyway if the elites weren't shoving a globalist agenda around the world which most of the American people reject anyway.

 

We want jobs, we want piece, we want reasonable government, we want fair taxes based on the ability to pay and the benefits one receives from existing society, and we want fairness in business and trade, both international and domestic enforced. We want our rights upheld, so long as they do not infringe on the equal rights of others.

 

End the f*cking fascism already.

[Guest lance25]

I knew I forgot to post something the other day.

 

Just crap all over the 4th Amendment. It's not like the freedoms in the Constitution our Founding Fathers fought for mean anything today. What ever happened to due process or unlawful seizing? I'd like to know what exactly qualifies as aligning with al Queda or its affiliates. Does clicking on an anti-American website equal a one-way trip to Guantanamo Bay? If someone doesn't want to go through the intrusive airport searches, does that mean they're part of some terrorist organization? On that note, I read somewhere that these "criminals" (I'd be more inclined to call them hostages with the way we're going) would be released once the threat of al Queda and its associates is eliminated. I'll let you digest that one for a second. When our "war" on an idea, not a country or a definitive group of people, is over, they'll be released. That's all well and good...if the anti-American sentiments could ever be quashed. Now I'm not an al Queda sympathizer, not by a long shot. It's just that the language and the actual law here is quite vague. I mean, we have criminals in our regular jails fighting for new trials to prove their innocence with the full extent of the legal system behind them. Now imagine someone trying to fight for their freedom when this is basically saying that you have no rights and the Constitution means absolutely nothing to you.

 

The funny thing about all this, if you want to call it funny, is that while we have all these news networks and what-nots, there has been such limited coverage on this story. We can find out what happened to Kim Kardashian or who Ashton Kutcher is dating two seconds after the fact, but getting information about a law that could rewrite parts of the Bill of Rights is not even mentioned on the evening news. I heard about this on The Daily Show. That's right, a satirical comedy show on basic cable covered this more than the real news.

[MHV9218]

Please, watch the Nazi Banksters Crimes Ripple Effect at http://jforjustice.co.uk/banksters

[SubwayGuy]

Agreed lance. Lindsay Lohan doesn't serve any real hard time whatsoever but steal a loaf of bread and you're going away for a while, normal people.

 

And of course celebrities and the super rich (the traitors who outsource or job, way of life, and productivity) wouldn't be affected by this, because everyone "knows" they're loyal to America right?

 

You'd think we would have learned from the failures of McCarthyism and Japanese interment but I guess not when we have the same breed of inbred pompous idiots running everything just years later.

[SubwayGuy]

Just hoping to god that Obama gets away with the default cut as a result of the supercommittee failure, otherwise these morons can and will spend us into a defensive rut. One point I agree with Ron Paul on... What's his foreign policy? None.

 

NONE of the candidates have any foreign policy plans.

 

Defend your country, but get out of everywhere else and put American money back to American lives... first thing we can do to help this economy.

 

Exactly which is why from the start I've advocated lower business taxes, elimination of capital gains taxes on qualifying contribution limited retirement accounts (IRA, 401k), coupled with tax penalties for companies that outsource, limiting corporate deductibility of individual pay above a certain threshold, outlawing option based compensation and requiring it to be in stocks included in total compensation as of the issue date and taxable as a gain to the recipient when sold, raising capital gains tax rates for nonqualifying accounts, raising high income earner tax rates, using all of the above to pay off China so we can tell them to go screw and start limiting their imports to generated American economic growth, backing out of certain international trade agreements, and more strictly regulating both financial services and lobbying with harsh penalties for violating established (new or old) guidelines in both.

 

I've also advocated bringing the troops home and enabling them to be part of American society and productive instead of fighting pointless wars for someone else's benefit, ending all foreign aid to non NATO countries, and limiting it to economic aid only.

 

But there's something fundamentally wrong that this bill could pass the House and the Senate, and it'll probably happen in the White House too. It was a crush to lose Barney Frank for next term because honestly, you could count the number of progressives left on one hand.

 

Barney Frank is a blubbering idiot who does and says what he thinks people will want to hear. He had some great things to say about regulation post financial crisis, but his and Chris Dodd's bill was an ultimately useless bunch of bureaucratic nightmare that won't stop financial mischief in the least. He was also the same one who touted the missteps of Freddie and Fannie at the time since they were popular when the righting was on the wall for what the government was encouraging them to do.

 

We need to really shake up the political system and the political leaders in this country, and the first step is getting out and getting your voice heard. I'll be protesting.

 

Unfortunately protesting does nothing when the entire system is garbage in, garbage out. We need someone who will grab the game by the balls and twist until all the vipers give up and walk away, and "a few good men" in Congress who will do and say the right things to generate public support.

 

If I'd been Obama, I would have had those idiots calling me "communist" labeled as the real "communists" because political rhetoric, however false, is very powerful if used correctly.

 

Why Obama could have used the Eisenhower administration - holy crap, a REAL conservative! - as a bastion of tax policy. Why surely if higher taxes for the wealthy under Eisenhower weren't "communist" how could they be so now? And think of the ultimate non-communist goal for raising them - to pay down debt to red China so they don't think they "own" us and can "boss us around!" Then lower taxes on the real businesses (hint: small ones) since the deficit if lower, would mean less spending per year with no debt service costs to the government. That could have played anywhere because IT MAKES SENSE. And it's not 100% accurate and has half truths (what doesn't?) but it could have played.

 

Instead Obama went to his advisors and basically came back to his critics with the equivalent of "no it's not...oh and here's my birth certificate".

 

I'm not happy with what ANY of them are doing. And it'd be great to vote them out, but the ones running against them are equally retarded. The only ones with any cunning in the game are the BIGGEST a-holes of them all. The Mitch McConnels, the Nancy Pelosis, the Newt Gingrich's, the **** Cheney's, and the Ben Nelsons.

[MHV9218]

Please, watch the Nazi Banksters Crimes Ripple Effect at http://jforjustice.co.uk/banksters

[R68 Subway Car]

I believe in strong national defense but this is insane. We are running out of money. We got to pour more money back into our country.

[SubwayGuy]

No, that's just not true. He's one of the most progressive individuals with any power at the moment, and he's done huge amounts for gay rights while also pushing harder than any other politician for better regulation. He was a phenomenal negotiator and he was always frank (no pun intended) and honest when it came to domestic policy. He is the furthest from a politician you can find in Washington today, which you could easily see from the quips he gives. You're misdirecting your anger on this one.

 

Frank was a big reason and one of the leading advocates of requiring Fannie and Freddie to begin making subprime loans in the 1990's, regardless of how anyone spins it after the fact. No matter what he said later, this paved the way for the crisis. Sure, he can blame the banks and deregulation that he personally opposed, but the reality is that any elected governing official ought to know better than to allow a taxpayer funded entity to make what amount to bad loans just to support a fantasy of universal home ownership out of a sense of charity.

 

While I believe in safety nets, I don't believe in pie in the sky charity. People need to earn what they get, and when they fail, they need a helping hand. NO ONE deserves a handout in this life. It is NOT everyone's "right" to own a home, or even have a place to live in. It IS however, the right of those who maintain gainful employment, to be ABLE TO AFFORD HOUSING, and that's not a question of loans, that's a question of supply and demand and properly regulating the market to allow free trade and competitive forces to work to keep prices low while preventing the corporate abuses that drive prices up. It is not government's place to tell a GSE to "lower its standards" when the burden of the bill is likely to fall on the taxpayer. It's also unfair to those who ARE paying their bills, and ARE "earning" their home.

 

Really? It does nothing? Really? Do you think Cuomo would have went through with his middle class tax cuts and essentially kept the Millionaires' tax if it hadn't been for Occupy Wall Street and the new anger in America about inequality? I sure don't. Abandoning the system is, to be frank, childish and ineffective. Getting rid of just about everybody we have up there and thoroughly revisited the numbnut policies regarding filibusters and others? That's a better solution, and that does require having your voice heard.

 

Like I said, I take a long view. Middle class rights, freedoms, and income have been slowly and systematically been eradicated since as long as I can remember. It doesn't matter what Cuomo did. The beating down of middle America will continue until something real happens. And getting a bunch of people together in a square and chanting and marching isn't going to do it. A string of nationwide bank robberies, isn't going to do it. It might DELAY it, but we're not solving problems here, we're kicking the can down the road to future generations just like our government.

 

AND PLEASE don't get it twisted on the millionaire's tax:

#1-The millionaire's tax they are fighting about is SMALL POTATOES to them. They're talking about 1%-1.5% of these people's incomes. It's really not going to change much of anything, except the results of a few calculations. It's not going to fundamentally change anyone's lifestyle in ANY social class, nor will it solve the state budget fiasco.

 

#2-They aren't even talking about "raising" it so please don't misspeak about that. They're actually lowering the millionaire's tax. As with the Bush tax cuts, a temporary "cut" in the millionaire's tax was set to expire triggering the rates back to WHAT THEY USED TO BE. BUT they're not going back to what they used to be. They're going up for people making more than $1.5 million per year ONLY, as they should considering the CUT is expiring. But many people making less than $1.5 million, their tax rates are going DOWN from what they would be had the cuts simply expired. But only in the myopic and stupid world of mass media covered government does allowing a cut to expire and replacing it with a smaller cut equal a tax "increase". Oh, best part...the only tax bracket that's temporary? The top one, set to expire in 2014. Meaning in 2 years the rich will be crying again that they need a cut to create jobs. And they'll probably get it.

 

So where's the fundamental change from protesting?

 

Preach brother preach. Obama has been the single greatest disappointment in recent memory, and the 2012 elections are a sham. I just hope that enough of us begrudging Liberals show up to keep Newt Gingrich as far as possible from the Oval Office.

 

For the record I consider myself, in one word, a moderate, something there's not enough of these days. As a moderate I do agree Newt Gingrich would be one of the worst possible presidential choices, right up there with Bachmann, Palin, Huckabee, Romney, Gore, Ross Perot, Herbert Hoover, anyone with the last name Bush, etc.

 

Garbage in, garbage out.

[MHV9218]

Please, watch the Nazi Banksters Crimes Ripple Effect at http://jforjustice.co.uk/banksters

[Joel Up Front]

The bill's sitting right on Obama's desk. SOPA will more likely than not pass as well...

[SoSpectacular]

“Did you ever see a rich man go the whole route through to the Death House? I don’t know of any.” -Lewis E. Lawes, warden of Sing-Sing Correctional Facility, 1920-1941

 

Best quote I ever read.

 

Fight the power!!!

[DJ MC]

Please, watch the Nazi Banksters Crimes Ripple Effect at http://jforjustice.co.uk/banksters

[Guest lance25]

With the New Years celebrations and the Iowa Caucuses, this one slipped through the cracks.

 

President Obama has turned a full 180, going from saying he's going to close down Guantanamo Bay in his first year in office to allowing something worse than the Patriot Act to be enacted.

 

Obama signs defense bill, with "reservations" - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

 

Sure, he signed it with "reservations", but he still signed the damn thing. I get that he wants to circumvent Congress, something he criticized Bush for doing, but allowing the indefinite detention of people suspected of terrorist activities, which is still vague, goes against everything this country stands for. What the hell happened to due process and the rights of the accused?

[Urbanfortitude]

It just proves how screwed up things are. If I have "reservations" about something I refuse to go through with it till those reservations have been dealt with. I don't see how he could sign that thing into law if that's how he really felt about it especially when he had the power to send it back until the finished product met with proper standards.

[SubwayGuy]

This is why I've said what I've said about Obama. He talked a great game during campaigns, but he is easily coerced, convinced, misled, etc. He doesn't seem to have the spine to stand up to these idiot advisors around him, or the nincompoops in congress.

[QM1to6Ave]

I don't think Obama doesn't have the spine to stand up to the idiots around him or opposing him (from what I have seen, both sides are wholly incompetent despite having opposing values and ideas-it's fascinating to see this phenomenon!). I think he tries to maintain popularity by giving in to everyone's desires- he is a politician who based his whole election on becoming a Demi god adored by all.

 

It's a nice strategy if you want to be a popular public speaker, but not if you need to make some hard decisions.

 

What happened to his promises of streamlining government to save money?? There has been. Almost none of that.

[NYCtrainfan01]

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.-Abraham Lincoln

 

This is something we all have a right to do. The government is not doing a great job at all. Like SubwayGuy says we need to vote all of the idiots out. We also have a right to revolt against them too. Just my 2 cents.