He's come out swinging. This is a pretty powerful ad, and the 2nd half reminds me somewhat of the Reagan "Morning in America".
The first half though, certainly foreshadows a brutal Presidential campaign to come.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
You look at the first half of that ad and you don't see that as one hell of a roundhouse punch right to the President's chin?
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
I thought that the time lapse image of the iconic "Obama Hope" poster falling apart was powerful.
The only thing I really worry about as far as Obama is concerned is that his negatives are already so high that trying to drive them up may seem like piling on in some way. That may help him "circle the wagons".
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
I think you're right. The republicans should focus their efforts in supporting a strong candidate. Obama dug his own grave, and he's not going to get near the media support that he did in '08.
And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. - John Muir
Quote: you don't see that as one hell of a roundhouse punch right to the President's chin?
I see it but anyone can make an a political piece like that.
Quote: Got a better reason to vote for somebody else?
I'd like to vote for a candidate who likes to focus on just themselves instead of spouting off why they're better than (insert incumbent here). I'm not a fan of blatant nationalism to say an individual is more American than someone else, either.
Give me a candidate that actually cares about the majority of the American people that can follow through on their promises.
Even so .... I know what we get with Obama ..... and that's a failed Presidency. The country is in a downward spiral right now, and we need to get things turned around. We are teetering on the edge of a double dip recession.
I don't know if Perry has all of the answers, but I do think that no country can be successful by strangling business with taxes, mandates, and regulations. I know that no business will hire when there is uncertainty. Hell, bad policy is better than uncertainty.
I still do believe that this country can be a great economic force ..... but it's only going to happen if we take a hard look at our policies, tax structure, and regulations. I don't think that will happen under the current President and his administration.
I also think that whoever wins the nomination will look at Rubio out of Florida as his VP candidate. That will pull a major segment of Obama's voting block away from him.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
I dunno. What I got through so far produces some doubt .... but the guy who puts that doubt in my head didn't visit the scene even once, and typed his report so badly that it was filled with typos. He made a lot of assumptions, not based on any first hand examination of the scene.
I'll have to take more time to read through the whole article again before I finalize an opinion.
Did they ever disprove his confession his wife said he made to her?
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
wow. it's hard to tell whether Perry is running for our highest elected office or starring in next summer's Hollywood blockbuster. frankly, i was waiting to see Bruce Willis and Rick Perry barge into the White House and tackle an Obama on the verge of offering American surrender to al Qaeda.
if i can digress for a moment...
i voted for Obama on the basis of being non-establishment and preaching a bi-partisanship approach to governance, as well as the total transformation of McCain from an independent thinker (2000) to a far-right capitulator (2008). i don't have a problem with Obama's general method of trying to compromise, but he has failed insofar as surrounding himself with the best and the brightest (mark of transformative leaders, IMO), as well as in his ability to balance that willingness to compromise with some degree of ethical backbone.
that said, if this vapid offering of the GOP is my alternative, what is a reasonable person to do?
YTOWN...
do you really believe de-regulation and lower taxes are a magic elixir for our economic problems? have we bought into politicians' simple talking points? i'm all for policies that promote small and mid-sized business. but the next time big business pays its fair share of taxes will be the first time, and how can our recession (seemingly ongoing) be construed as anything other than a result of a LACK of corporate regulation, albeit in 1 specific industry?
please keep in mind i have a limited knowledge of economics, and am not attacking...just trying to understand what you are saying.
in response to the ad, and i am in no way supporting rick perry, this is a powerful ad. perfectly placed shots at obama and "hope" at things to come. its almost like obama's 2008 team shot this video.
do you really believe de-regulation and lower taxes are a magic elixir for our economic problems? have we bought into politicians' simple talking points? i'm all for policies that promote small and mid-sized business. but the next time big business pays its fair share of taxes will be the first time, and how can our recession (seemingly ongoing) be construed as anything other than a result of a LACK of corporate regulation, albeit in 1 specific industry?
it costs a company 3 times the amount of money to start up a company in the USA vs another country because of all the regulations and our excessive corporate tax rate. its not rocket science.
I want Obama out as soon as possible....but I will vote for him in this election if he is going up against Perry. I want absolutely NO part of him as president. He makes even W. look like a genius. This is a great ad....for someone else. I don't buy it with Perry one bit though. You don't have to look much further than "The United States is the last hope for mankind" to see how full of it he is.
Quote: United States is the last great hope for mankind?
LMAO is this guy for real? makes me feel like he is not in touch with reality Someone tell him this isn't Texas
FIFY. That sort of bravado is par for the course here.
The "Texas Miracle" of stealing jobs from other states won't work at a national level.
Saw something on TV (60 Minutes?) where people are starting to bring manufacturing jobs back to America and move some to India because Chinese labor is getting too expensive.
Quote: The "Texas Miracle" of stealing jobs from other states won't work at a national level.
Yes it will, you just steal them (or steal them back) from other countries by creating a business friendly atmosphere with minimal common sense regulations and lower taxes on the federal level and then you allow states to make their own rules to compete for those jobs.
why not? it will work, and it's simple. common sense is what created this country in the first place. overthinking and overanalyzing is what created the mess we are in now.
Because countries like Thailand and China and India and Pakistan and Vietnam will allow much, much worse chemical dumping and much, much lower wages than we will ever be willing (and than I would want us to be willing) to tolerate. States are, for the most part, on a level playing field as far as baseline allowances. When you start involving Southeast Asia, regulations and wages are a whole new ballgame.
do you really believe de-regulation and lower taxes are a magic elixir for our economic problems? have we bought into politicians' simple talking points? i'm all for policies that promote small and mid-sized business. but the next time big business pays its fair share of taxes will be the first time, and how can our recession (seemingly ongoing) be construed as anything other than a result of a LACK of corporate regulation, albeit in 1 specific industry?
please keep in mind i have a limited knowledge of economics, and am not attacking...just trying to understand what you are saying.
We currently have Boeing who is facing suit by the NLRB because they opened a second factory in S, Carolina. They have had labor problems at their current factory, but this new factory will take no jobs away from that facility. However, because South Carolina is a right to work state ....... the government has problems with the new facility. This facility, by the way, will create thousands of new jobs.
We have the federal government invading Gibson Guitars because they didn't like the way they imported wood .... despite them having all of the proper paperwork, and having everything in order.
The government is attempting to block ATT's purchase of T-Mobile. As far as I can tell, Sprint, Verizon, and other smaller carries are already in competition with ATT. These are not small, minor, little companies, likely to be overwhelmed by the evil ATT. The purchase would make ATT the largest wireless carrier in the US. I thought that was the whole point of business .... to be the biggest and best you can.
The government had mandated increases to employer costs with the Obamacare package. Isn't it surprising that the main groups to request waivers are unions and Obama supporters?
Currently the government is in competition with US companies. The government is in control of GM, and has final say on everything they do. Same thing with IAG. They also put the UAW in a controlling position with Chrysler when they sold 20% to Fiat. (with 55% going to the UAW) The government also took over GMAC. (Now Ally Bank)
That's a huge amount of power in the hands of the government, and a conflict of interest when it comes to the competition for these companies.
The government also puts forth, IIRC, something like 10-20 new regulations every day. Every single day. Now while most won't hit every business, those businesses who are hit must be more concerned with adhering to the new regulations, and making sure that their company is in compliance, than with actually competing for business. (and thus expanding their employment) There are some sensible regulations, but adding and adding and changing them constantly makes no sense. Unless it is an absolute emergency ... or a blatant attempt at a monopoly, the government should butt out.
The government is currently on an attack capital mode. Many times people risk ... and they do risk, capital on start-ups. Given the many new start-up companies will fail, these investors take a risk when they invest. The bigger the risk, often the bigger the reward. The government is trying to out such a punitive tax rate onto this type of investment that it would make little sense to take the risk.
The President's latest tax plan has new taxes on airlines, and tickets. Yeah, no one talks about that, do they. There would also be a new $100 per flight tax for air traffic control. The new tax n each ticket would raise the current tax from $5 to $10 ...... with a future raise to $15 in the plan ... and then puts further increases in the hands of the Transportation Department. Yep ... tax the rich ...... the devil is always in the details, and they almost never match the rhetoric. People should read the bill. No wonder he wants it passed "NOW!". It taxes almost everyone in one way or another ..... not just the "millionaires and billionaires".
The President wants to raise marginal tax rates ..... but that will have no effect on "billionaire investors" who make their money through sources other than employer payroll. it will impact those who work for a living, and take home a paycheck. I don't care how much you make, being successful should never be discouraged. Further, I don't believe his rhetoric. If he wanted to just raise rates, or close a few loopholes, he wouldn't need a 155 page bill that even those in his own Party won't introduce in the House. He keeps saying "Pass this bill", but it really is DOA .... because he won't even have his members on board.
Oh ... he also wants to kill charities by making it prohibitive for "millionaires and billionaires", who donate the most to charities, to do so by changing the tax deduction status on charitable donations. Suddenly a millionaire who passes away and leaves half of his estate to charity will die knowing that his donation will likely be cut in half when the government takes their share. Of all of the President's proposals, this, to me, if the most vile.
In the end, it really is this simple:
When business is given some degree of freedom to invest, innovate, and grow, it will do so. Look at how business and industries are expanding around the world. There should be some degree of oversight. However, we strangle our businesses with regulations galore, that take an MBA to figure out. This also impacts small business, who must now have some legal representation instead of just running their business.
Taxes also impact business .... especially uncertainty about the tax rates to come, because now you are trying to project future sales in an uncertain economy ... PLUS uncertain taxes. A business could wind up in a position where they reach only 85% of their sales goal, but now have 100% of their projected tax liability. Business will not invest and hire in such an environment beyond their most desperate needs. How can they? They have to stay in a "capital preservation" mode to protect the business against unforeseen increases in taxes and/or compliance with new regulations which could necessitate additional or changes to equipment or product. Further, increased costs to employers, such as a tax on those who do not provide healthcare to their employees will force employers to either cut their workforce, or simply demand more of the employees they have. Further, since there is a 50 employee limit before Obamacare kicks in (or some such arbitrary number ... I believe it is 50) an employer with 47 or 48 employees is going to be really wary of adding additional employees. Further, if the tax is less than the cost of providing healthcare, then the employer will choose to pay the tax, and we will have another enormous government bureaucratic nightmare.
Anything and everything that takes capital away from business risks jobs. Business is in business to make money. Profit is the engine that creates jobs. Without a suitable profit, business goes into a productivity mode as opposed to a hiring mode. The mantra becomes "each employee much do more and more with less and less". Taking money away from those creating businesses and jobs takes away jobs. It's not always that simple, but it often is. If it is only true in half the cases, that's still one hell of a lot of jobs sacrificed on the altar of increased taxes, uncertainty about tax structures, regulations and uncertainty about said regulations, and governmental agencies run amok. Business needs simple things to survive and thrive.
An idea.
A market.
A product.
A budget.
Investment capital.
Management and employees.
The freedom to create and expand as demand requires.
Certainty about taxes and regulation.
Any time you limit any of these, you limit business growth. When you limit business growth, you get businesses either stressing productivity increases ... or moving to a friendlier environment.
Also .... the US corporate tax rate is another problem with repatriating capital earned by US companies in overseas markets. The federal government makes it far too expensive to bring the $1 trillion or so that US companies have earned overseas back to the US to be spent, saved, or invested. The US corporate tax rate should be cut to the level of the lowest in the world. We live in a competitive world, and this is one area where we are nowhere near being competitive. Because this capital "lives" offshore, it cannot be used domestically. It cannot be used to expand business, or to pay for new employees.
In short, the whole system is a mess, and needs a overhaul.
While deregulation and a lower (and certain) tax structure may not be a 100% elixir for all of our woes, it is a major step in the right direction. Instead of being a disincentive to expansion, investment, and hiring, the tax code could then become an incentive for such activities, that are the only ones that do create sustainable, private sector jobs. Other things,like "stimulus spending" can provide a very short term boost, but without the economic structure and environment also providing an environment for growth, we get what we've seen in the past several years.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
All very legitimate points.. but you left off one of the biggest problems. ENERGY.
We are sitting on enough, just in what we know of, to sustain us for hundreds of years... but we aren't allowed to go get it.... Oil, shale oil, natural gas, coal, it's all right here for the taking and the using but we are so beholden to the save the planet folks that we can't go get it, even though we have made tremendous strides in doing it safely and with minimal impact to the environment... so we import and we complain and we struggle..
I heard the other day that our government subsidizes wind power to the tune of $26/megawatt produced and subsidizes coal something like $.25/megawatt of power produced.
We won't let oil companies drill in the gulf but we will pay to send those same people to Brazil to drill for oil...
If a wind farm kills 10,000 birds a year nobody bats an eye but if ExxonMobil kills 400 birds they are fined hundreds of thousands of dollars..
In the 90s Bill Clinton rode the tech boom to some of the greatest economic years in memory and, contrary to what mac thinks, his tax structure had very little to do with it..... well the next round of greatest economic years is right under our feet and they won't let us go get it.
Quote: The "Texas Miracle" of stealing jobs from other states won't work at a national level.
Yes it will, you just steal them (or steal them back) from other countries by creating a business friendly atmosphere with minimal common sense regulations and lower taxes on the federal level and then you allow states to make their own rules to compete for those jobs.
In Perry's case, a 'business friendly atmosphere' means a lot of grant subsidies and having a large illegal immigrant workforce.
Again, I don't know how that plays nationally.
Perry is a complete idiot. If the GOP runs him, I'd put Obama's re-election chances at around 70%.
Quote: I dunno. What I got through so far produces some doubt .... but the guy who puts that doubt in my head didn't visit the scene even once, and typed his report so badly that it was filled with typos. He made a lot of assumptions, not based on any first hand examination of the scene.
I'll have to take more time to read through the whole article again before I finalize an opinion.
Did they ever disprove his confession his wife said he made to her?
The man who looked at the crime scene was an expert and he found several inconsistencies. Such as the grill and lighter fluid sitting on the front porch. The firemen spilled the melted can all over the front porch that is why that area tested positive for "lighter fluid".
The burn marks were proved by him to be non-deliberate and so no arson. His report was delivered to the parole board and to Perry himself. Perry said: "He was a wife beater." and that's why he would not grant him clemency.
The science used to convict was based on superstitious beliefs that hold no water in the scientific community.
Quote: “My little girl was trying to wake me up and tell me about the fire,” he said
Quote: Willingham was taken to a hospital, where he was told that Amber—who had actually been found in the master bedroom
So if his daughter is the one who woke him up to tell him about the fire, how does he get out and she gets stuck in the master bedroom?
As he said, it was dark and he couldn't see anything. She tried to wake him, she stopped trying (probably lost consciousness from fire inhilation) and in the darkness he couldn't see her.
The claim that the first investigators had was that he created a trail of lighter fluid from their bedroom down the stairs to the front of the house and that he started the fire when he ran out because as they put it (he would have burned his feet if he ran down the stairs with them on fire). However, it was proven that the fire started in the children's room and then traveled down the stairs to the front entry - because that was the source of oxygen.
In the original investigator's bizarro world, he started the fire in plain view of everyone - when he simply didn't. Further, no wounds were found on the children (as in they were not beaten). His daughter that went into his room to wake him could climb the retaining wall in the children's room.
Quote: I thought that was the whole point of business .... to be the biggest and best you can.
And make the most money possible right? I have no problem deregulating, but it shouldn't be at the cost of sanitation, chemicals released into the environment, food and drug quality, etc. All of those regulations are profit-prohibitive and directly affect the bottom line. However, each is incredibly important. They're meant to protect the livelihood of the rest of the populace from those that would abuse their power. Total, absolute deregulation of business is a bad thing, we have ample evidence that a business will lookout only for it's bottom line regardless of the ramifications to those around them. Look no farther than the state of Lake Erie and the fire on the Cuyahoga in '69. Self regulation doesn't work, nor does regulation by the invisible hand of the free market; both are fairy tales. So the only thing left is oversight by an unbiased third party, in this case the government.
Quote: common sense is what created this country in the first place. overthinking and overanalyzing is what created the mess we are in now.
Common sense to who? You? Me? I'm pretty sure you have different ideas than I do. Common sense depends on the context, knowledge and experience of the observer.
I disagree that this country wasn't founded on overthinking and analyzing, only common sense. My reasoning is that Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4,1776, but the US constitution wasn't ratified until June 21, 1788 (created a year earlier though). That 12 year period was filled with arguments, debate, and most important, thinking. Lots and lots of it. One could even make the argument that the "common sense" decision was the articles of confederation that were implemented a year after the Declaration was signed. It looked good at the time, yet in practice it wasn't that good.
I thought of a great campaign comerical, and I'm good enough to donate the idea to the future Republican party nominee.
The comercial consists of various pictures of Obama. Pictures of him smiling, pointing, fist shaking, and looking like the atypical dictator speaking to the oppressed. The Beatles song Tax Man will be playing in the backround. The pictures should change on every 2 and 4 beat. The candidate doesn't even have to say anything.
I like this idea, as it will also tick off sir paul mccartney, the british wank that has decided to tell us Americans we're all racist, and obama's race is our only reason we don't like him ("We" is used for all the Americans that want the government out of our way).
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Nope 
All hat and no cattle as Bush said.
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