"We are keeping Americans safe."  McCain, Gulliani, Romney, Huckabee ALL repeat this daily.

How so?
1) Our borders were left wide open and illegals went from 3 mil to 11 to 30 mil since 9/11.

2) We have our military spread thin around the world so we are vulnerable.

3) Homeland security couldn't find a bomb in an airport if the bomb had a loud alarm clock attached.

4) We've p*ssed off millions of people globally with hidden prisons and torture (and fictional reasons for attacking Iraq) and many Geneva convention violations.

5) and the issue nobody wants to talk about.....our number 1 threat inside the American borders......Our disgruntled and possibly mentally untstable troops returning from war and not receiving solid mental health counciling, heatlthcare, etc....

There was only 1 Timothy McVeigh but his anger sure made an impact.

There could be another, or three, or ten more, or a hundred, or more........

The Pentagon has said that they have not seen political gains in Iraq as of yet (which means the surge might have helped secure Iraq but it didn't do what it was intended to do) and republicans brag about the surge.

This is like seeing your favorite football team behind in the 4th quarter and the QB is bragging that he threw some nice passes earlier.

If you don't get the end result it's all worthless. The surge did not get the end result anyone needed and until we start  SHOWING the Iraq government that we are getting out they will NEVER get their act together. EVER.   Why would they?

We are there keeping those guys safe and they are getting rich from us being there. What is the motivation for them to get the political system in place and working?

This is another point that NO ONE in our media tells us about.

The Pentagon has also said that we need to get out of Iraq sooner than later because our military is severly damaged. They have admitted that they cannot sustain even the pre surge levels.

We will have to have a draft if we stay in Iraq.... PERIOD and McCain and on top of that sad and dangerous statistic many Republicans want to bomb Iran.

The economy is busted in a big way. and this $400 rebate will fall flat just like the last Bush rebate did. 80% of America now live pay day to pay day. Only the irresponsible ones will take that money and blow it to help the economy. Most will pay a bill or two which won't help sh*t.

Also, this isn't a tax cut. It's a tax LOAN. If the Government has to borrow the money to give to us it's not a tax cut. It's a LOAN. The Republicans refuse to be honest about this stuff.

We'll each get $400 in 2009 and we'll each owe China $3000 later.

Anytime you hear someone whine (like Man Dirt) about paying for single mothers baby formula remind them that he soon will be contributing weekly payments towards interest from the Republican tax cuts in the 1980's.

I saw a study done by Yale (I think) that combined Reagan tax cuts combined with interest and combined with what we borrowed to give those tax cuts combined with GW Bush tax cuts combined with his rebate combined with what we had to borrow plus interest and each American living today will make $42,000 in interest payments on that money over their working career.

NOT payments on what those guys borrowed....payments on INTEREST on that money borrowed.

This isn't including the trillion $ Halliburton War (Iraq) the Elderly drug bill ($800billion) the corporate tax cuts since 2002 ($4.8 trillion) or the energy company subsidies ($32 billion to oil alone)

Think about this rebate for a minute.

 If you don't have the money to give the rebate then it's a LOAN. So Bush is willing to borrow the money (this will come from China) to give us some cash hoping we run out and spend it.

Instead of looking at this in a huge picture let's instead break it down using the analogy of an average singular person. Let's say they make $30,000 a year.

How much would it help them if they made $30,400?

A little but not a lot.

Now lets say this person makes $30,000 and doesn't get a tax "rebate" (loan) but they still want to come up with that $400. They apply for a credit card and borrow $400 cash from it.

Should they now consider their wages increased because they have $400 in addition to their $30,000 salary?

Heck no.

They would say they make $30,000 and they borrowed $400 and will have to pay back $600 so they actually make LESS than $30,000 a year due to payments plus interest.

This is where the Republican dishonesty and the media's failure to truly educate the American people screw us once again.

Who on Earth would take a cash advance from their credit card and lump that into their annual salary?

NOBODY.

The guy makes $30,000 a year and Bush gives him the $400 "rebate" (loan) and that person thinks they are getting free money and that's not the case at all.

 Now think of all the corporate tax cuts the Republican Party has given out over the past 6 years and the huge dividends tax cuts that help the richest of the rich more than anyoine else.

Those too need to be considered tax LOANS and those add up to much much more than the numbers we've described above.

If anyone at this point is thinking of voting for ANY Republican outside of Ron Paul for the White House you are not only lost in the brain but also selling out America and our future generations.

If your son or daughter were to come to you and say "Dad, I nee da pay raise, I'm going to borrow $400 from my bank" who would tell them "good idea?"

NOBODY.

 Now think of how little of positive impact the prior Bush rebates helped the American people and THIS was back in 2002 when only 52% of America lived pay day to pay day.

NOW we have nearly 80% of America living pay day to pay day.

They will pay bills with this $400 which will only give credit card companies a small boost.

Why not cut out the middle man (us) and just give small chunks of money to credit card companies?
Oh, that's right they already did that to the tune of $134 billion in the past 4 months (and it didn't help sh*t)

If these jack asses really wanted to help the economy they'd send all of us a gift card for a $400 shopping spree.

I wonder how many Americans would take advantage of that $400 shopping spree if they knew how many thousands of $ it will cost them later?   

ozymandias:

I hate mud slinging.  I understand there are sometimes you should point out your competitors faults, but in general, I think you need to focus on why you are good, not why the other is bad.

I agree with you but sadly a positive message alone doesn't work.

You are forgetting that we are brainwashed by a corporate media into loving all things negative and not giving a crap about anything positive.

From the daily news, to American Idol, to Britney to Heath Ledger to Barrack Obama possible being a radical Muslim in hiding......we love the negative.

You'd think after 9/11 and all the attention fire fighters got for their heroic day to day duties that we'd have seen more focus put on them whether it be a reality show or just news segments about fire fighters saving lives every day but what do we have? NOTHING.

On the flip side....look at the 2004 elections as a prime example.

Bush was able to completely wipe out his 4 negative years as President by going negative (and brutally dishonest) about John Kerry.

I wonder how our troops feel knowing that a President is willing to sell their patriotism, bravery and honestly down the river like that to win re-election?

John Kerry was one a brave member of our armed forces coming out of Vietnam who had the guts to go up against our Government and publically come forward and explain the negatives of war and how the troops are impacted when wars go long and are not planned properly.

and Look what Bush did to him.

It's absolutley shameful.

It wasn't anything unusual, he did the same thing to Ambassidor Joe Wilson and his CIA agent wife, John McCain in 2000 (with the help of the Christian coilition) Richard Clarke, General Shinseki, etc.....

and people wonder why so few of troops come forward to speak about orders given to them in support of crimes against humanity be it torture, the innocent people killed during the very unessesary "shock and awe" or any of those horribly planned acts or evil acts of power.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti war. I'm just a big fan of other options being exercised first and I'm also a big fan of proper planning.

If you have the best foortabll team in the NFL and you hire a coach that doesn't know football are they going to win?

No way.

Even if you make adjustments in the 3rd quarter you are probably doomed to fail.

This administration was so negligent in exercising other options first and proper pre war planning that our military has suffered emensely because of that.

From "schock and awe" to blowing up water treatment plants to lying to the Iraqi people over and over to controlling their elections we have put our military into a terrible situation.

and now we don't have the numbers to sustain this war.

If you have a great football team and you play a game and 4 of the 11 starters get injured do you continue playing?

I know the right wing (Hitler) propaganda would respond with "killer, you want us to surrender and be cowards right?"

NO.

Would a football coach be called a coward for putting 7 men on the field?

No, he'd be called smart and forward thinking.

I know it's silly to compare football to the Iraq war but we have put our military behind the 8 ball in so many ways that it's impossible to expect that they could perform a miracle like getting the Iraqi government to actually function or bringing peace to the region or getting the Iraqi people to mgically support a President that we inserted into office (like we do here)

I wish people would focus on positives and on top of that something as simple as looking over a candidates resumes.

Think about it....

If we focused on positives and resumes the leading candidates from both sides would be people who have already dropped (Richardson, Biden, Dennis K, Dodd) or ones that have no chance no matter how much money they raise or passion they bring out of us  (Ron Paul, Obama, Edwards)

The entire World thinks we are stupid (and rightly so) because we not only ignore accurate exit polls, we have no oversight on our own voting machines but on top of that we don't even take the time to look at a candidates resume.

John McCain is favored to win the White House and he above any other candidate has been involved in the biggest blunders in American history.

Second on that list? Hillary Clinton who is running second and being primed for a November defeat. 

If we really had an honest media or we actually used our own brains we'd realize this stuff.

I have to go.

Take care.