Democratic Debate.

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The debate found lots of agreement.

It's Bush's war, fighting about who has the best credentials against Bush's war (some claiming because they didn't vote for it they have superior cred), Dems candidates are all like McCain and Bush (or softer) on immigration, high gas prices are oil companies fault so must consider investigations or profit caps, need universal health care (disagreeing on the specifics), get rid of Bush doctrine. Cautious on same sex marriage (some pragmatic politics in that), Bush tax cuts benefit rich.

Biden is relatively stronger on defense then the others (he said Sudan lost it's right to sovereignty for committing genocide, and voted for the troop funding after Bush vetoed the troop timetable bill), and hence probably has no chance in hell at the nomination.

Nothing big. Hillary Clinton has a much better machine then the inexperienced Barack Obama. Edwards has been stumbling allot lately. Richardson turned to be not so much. Mike Gravel? .

The race continues.

High gas prices are not the oil companies fault. There hasn't been a permit issued to build a refinery in this country in decades thanks in part to environmentalists. Saying they are going to lower gas prices is pure politics the market will set the price. The bush tax cuts are the only thing that saved us from complete economic disaster after the corporate scandals and 9/11 and they are the only thing keeping revenues up right now.

Giuliani 2008!! !!

suck it dry

foreign policy is what's been keeping gas prices up because it's been keeping the cost of barrels of oil up. that is directly bush and his administration's fault.

ghouliani should be killed for being such a classless scum as to run for president on the platform of "i was mayor in the city that 9-11 happened". he has no real credentials otherwise, he's clueless on terrorism, he's clueless on the economy, he's clueless on immigration. he says his little sound bites that make him sound all nationalistic and like a cock and people love it because they're morons.

funny thing is i've been following the republican debates more closely than the democratic debates...i hate pretty much all the democratic candidates other than edwards.

Well, I tend to agree with the first statement. After all, given all of the crap that the oil companies are facing, I would have expected that most collusive agreements would have collapsed. Not only that but I believe that the supreme court said that gas prices were not based upon collusion.
http://www.investmentu.com/IUEL/2007/20070323.html

Bush tax cuts did help us, I am not sure if they were perfect for their cost as they were not designed to be stimulus so much as be a long-run incentive. I am not sure if they are working perfectly, but then again, it is hard to tell the normal resiliency of the economy from what one politician or another is doing but I imagine that the large deficits have created some concerns. I sort of wonder if the cuts have cut too deeply as we did have not cut spending much to deal with deficit problems.

Meh, I am sure that I am voting Republican at the end of all of this anyway.

I would say that is somewhat true but I don't think it is the entire truth.
A bit callous but you have a good point. Most politicians are probably very clueless on many of those issues. People are morons though, it is demonstrable that their views on the world differ very markedly than those of the experts.

I follow the republicans more too, but I think I dislike Edwards as well.

Just recently crude prices dropped and gas prices went up because we don't have enough refineries. Oil prices are high because of the war and that is part of it but investigating the oil companies won't do anything except make socialists happy.

I think Giulianis tax policy is realistic since raising taxes right now would be a disaster and his economic policies were responsible for increases revenues in New York. He wants a border fence and a guest worker program maybe I'm naive but I think he will follow through on that if he is given the chance. I don't know about his foreign policy but I don't really like any of our options right now,

Obama and Hillary scare the crap out of me right now.

Well, I am not pro-taxes either and I think it can be true that careful use of such measures can make things somewhat better. I am not sure if a border fence will work much, but a guest worker program could be nice. Most options suck on foreign policy, I tend to agree with Dr. Paul more on foreign policy than the others in some ways, at least with Dr. Paul's ideology. The only issue is that I don't like his economics.

I don't like the populist streak found in many democrat candidates.... not to say I like the nationalist streak in republicans but I think it is less dangerous to the nation in some ways.

Bush signed those tax cuts into law months before he knew we were going to war and right before the recession so maybe his strategy would have been different if had done that after 9/11. The deficits are a problem but we had worse then that in the 80s and didn't suffer for it too much.

In re: to Giuliani. It's really his behavior on 9/11 that catapulted him to the front of the pack. Admittedly, if not for 9/11 he probably wouldn't be running for President right now (although he certainly is a valid candidate based on his experience). I am starting to think people may be assuming too much about how much his liberal social views will effect the primary vote. I think it might have less impact then it used too. Immigration, on the other hand, has pretty much ended John McCain's chances. Giuliani has been a bit cautious on that, but that's nothing compared to McCain's co-sponsoring of such an incredibly unpopular bill inside the party.

The internet traders give an effective three way tie right now between Giuliani, Romney, and the yet to officially declare Fred Thompson. McCain is a bit back. Traders have Clinton up on Obama 2-1. Edwards, is behind Gore, and in front of the rest of the field.

I don't feel like looking up the national polls, but I know the margins are different (Giuliani up a smaller amount then last time, McCain down; Hillary up on Obama), state primaries polls vary (Romney is up in Iowa, a state with a bad track record).

(Intratrade Prediction Markets)

That is true, but not all of our spending was war spending. There was also a lot of useless pork. The deficits will not destroy us no, they just are not ideal at the current point.

a fence won't do s**t other than cost us money. it's worthless. the fence will be jumped no problem. the best way to enforce the border is through border patrol, not some fence that will be quickly dismantled and broken-through (or around or under or over) or just walked around (can't build in certain areas due to terrain that could easily be walked over). and we have a guest policy...it's called a green card. how about we start enforcing it more. most of the illegals that show up in reports are actually people whose green cards have expired...not mexicans going through the rio grande or across the cali border. get the green card program more organized and enforced properly and we won't need an extra guest work program...beacuse we already have one. not to mention the green card does allow a path for mexicans to eventually become naturalized citizens in a legal and acceptable manner.




they dropped how much? down to $73 dollars from 75? the prices have been steadily increasing. just 10 years ago, the price of barrels were down around $25 or so. within the time that bush has been president, the price has risen drastically. his foriegn policy is the main reason for this price hike. not only in what he's done with iraq but what he hasn't done in encouraging a proactive means of dissuading terrorism by showing that islamist extremists are just that....extremist morons. all bush has done so far is proven them right by invading two muslim nations and not leaving. we're viewed as interfering in muslim affairs and we have to various extent (see: iran, saudi arabia, iraq, afghanistan). so with bush proving them right, he has effectively increased terrorism in the middle east and as a large biproduct of that, the price of oil has risen.






raising taxes is a must. without raising taxes, we simply print new money for all our expenditures and that cost gets passed on to the lower classes (including me) in the form of the inflation tax...which is something that only affects poorer people. while i am not a fan of taxes (almost a whole 20% of my 15K last year was taken out in taxes), it is necessary to fund government spending. when bush becomes a true conservative (instead of spending money without worrying about the income like the rich spoiled brat he is) then maybe tax cuts will be reasonable.




i seriously might leave the country if hillary becomes the next president. obama scares me more because his slickness reminds me of every slimey corporate businessman who uses unethical means to achieve their personal profit (even at the cost of their workers or the company). but i could be wrong about obama considering his past and his upbringing....could just be that he's very well spoken and well educated. the charisma somewhat scares me, though...

ghouliani did nothing with 9-11. there's still a big hole in the ground at ground zero. he certainly didn't prevent the attacks. all he did was give a speech then jerk around the citizens of new york while he spent his last days in office.

Go prediction markets!!

I disagree, the Israeli security fence works and the people who try to cross that are mostly determined young males who don't have their family in tow. It won't work unless we patrol it though but it would drastically cut the number of people coming in and it may also stop drugs an potential terrorists. It wouldn't cost half as much as we spend on health care for illegals annually now. You're right though just enforcing the laws we have now could go a long way.

It's starting to go up again but it was down a few dollars as gas prices continued to go up. When the Alaskan pipe line was shut down gas prices went down because at the same time refineries in New Orleans were coming back online. I'm not saying crude prices don't matter but beyond a certain demand the issue is more of a refinery capacity problem. It's an easy fix all we have to do is issue permits to build some refineries but the democrats would rather investigate fat cats then give them permits to build. It's completely ideologically driven; democrats generally make economic decisions based on their moral beliefs instead of what is practical.

The economy right now could go either way and new taxes would almost certainly send us into a recession. We have to grow the economy to pay off this debt, it's called voodoo economics and the principle states that after a certain point of taxation revenues begin to drop with an increase in taxes because the taxes slow the economy. We are beyond that point and that is why the Bush tax cuts resulted in increased revenue and lower unemployment not instantly but it will probably pay off in time for a democrat to take credit for it. Inflation has been under control in spite of the deficit and if Bush was a true conservative like I think Giuliani is he would have cut spending and entitlement programs.

I'm leaving the country anyways but I'll blame it on the president if a democrat wins. I want to see Obama versus Giuliani though since I think neither has a charisma advantage.

Actually, both sides are ideologically driven, I just think that Republicans have less of the ever dangerous pessimistic and anti-market biases.

New taxes right now would send us into a recession but possibly not later when they might be passed. Economic growth is how we dealt with past deficits. It is called supply-side economics, the term voodoo is used to make fun of it. What you describe is the laffer curve. Inflation has been relatively controlled though, probably because of good monetary management.

1. israel shoots to kill with those crossing the fences. 2. palestine does not have nearly the same means of getting over fences and such that mexicans do (mexico is poor but not as poor as palestine). 3. most of the terrorists who have successfully attacked us have come through legitimate means or faked passports...not sneaking in illegally. i think the only example of the border is a failed attempt to bomb a fort in texas and if we enforced border patrol through humans patroling and using force to stop those from entering illegally, that wouldn't be a problem anyways. not that we should be killing everyone who enters illegally...but they'll be less likely to try it if it costs them an arm and a leg and is cheaper to stay in mexico or enter through legal means.






there is somewhat of a bottleneck effect but the most practical move is opening up nuclear power plants, reducing our need for oil and opening up yucca mountain. it'd be cheaper if we pulled out of all our involvement in the middle east and invested that money in transitioning towards electic power and alternative fuel sources for vehicles (trillions have been spent protecting israel and otherwise meddling in the middle east...that money can be much better spent). i agree with us cutting down on our greenhouse gas emissions for the sake of being on the safe side of if global warming is human influenced. if not, we can just dig alaska later (i could care less about nature reserves).





ghouliani won't cut spending. he's been spouting the same rhetoric as bush has. this means that he's of the same idealogical beliefs....and though he's lying about the economy now, he will be just another spend and inflate neo-con. no economic sense....just as much garbage ideology as the dems have on the environment.


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people i'd consider leaving the country if they get elected: fred thompson, rudy ghouliani, mit romney, hillary clinton, barak obama, and sam brownbeck.


the country is going down really fast with this group of candidates. there's no quality. only rhetoric without action and without real concern for the country first. they have other interests before ours.


and on that note: i also propose that no dual citizen can hold office. eliminate all the israel/US dual citizens.