Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:56 pm
You accuse us of being biased yet you conveniently refuse to address any arguments we present.dvdjunkie wrote:I don't think that any of you are listening and evaluating both sides of this election.
You accuse us of being biased yet you conveniently refuse to address any arguments we present.dvdjunkie wrote:I don't think that any of you are listening and evaluating both sides of this election.
Another pearl of wisdom from Boortz, huh? I suppose the world absolutely adored us when George Bush was in charge; all we need is for Mitt Romney to give them a big F You to set things back to 0.dvdjunkie wrote: Here's something from Neal Boortz that perked my attention:
Is there any part of the world that ISN'T outraged at America? Thanks, Obama, for resetting our image in the world. Good job stud.
Uhhh we have. Way more so than you ever have in this thread. Every article I've read from all sources indicate Romney is not the president meant for people like you or me. That should be clear and obvious.dvdjunkie wrote:I don't think that any of you are listening and evaluating both sides of this election. It is your future and if you are in the age group of 18-35, you have been duped by that despot in office today. You need to pull your head out of your arse and get the facts as they are presented - not just by one news source but by several sources - and then dig deep into what concerns you have and then make your decision.
Not so much we adore him but that he's way better of a choice, even if he a "meh" president, than Romney ever is. Romney is the type who would and will support the mega rich way over the majority middle class like you and me. It doesn't take a monkey's brain to figure that out. Let's not forget Paul Ryan either.dvdjunkie wrote:I just don't understand what you people see in this President.
source: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/arc ... ds/262438/Analysis of six decades of data found that top tax rates "have had little association with saving, investment, or productivity growth." However, the study found that reductions of capital gains taxes and top marginal rate taxes have led to greater income inequality. Past studies cited in the report have suggested that a broad-based tax rate reduction can have "a small to modest, positive effect on economic growth" or "no effect on economic growth."
Well into the 1950s, the top marginal tax rate was above 90%. Today it's 35%. But both real GDP and real per capita GDP were growing more than twice as fast in the 1950s as in the 2000s. At the same time, the average tax rate paid by the top tenth of a percent fell from about 50% to 25% in the last 60 years, while their share of income increased from 4.2% in 1945 to 12.3% before the recession.
In short, the study found that top tax rates don't appear to determine the size of the economic pie but they can affect how the pie is sliced, especially for the richest households.
source: http://news.yahoo.com/southern-whites-t ... 12040.htmlLYNCHBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - Sheryl Harris, a voluble 52-year-old with a Virginia drawl, voted twice for George W. Bush. Raised Baptist, she is convinced -- despite all evidence to the contrary -- that President Barack Obama, a practicing Christian, is Muslim.
So in this year's presidential election, will she support Mitt Romney? Not a chance.
"Romney's going to help the upper class," said Harris, who earns $28,000 a year as activities director of a Lynchburg senior center. "He doesn't know everyday people, except maybe the person who cleans his house."
She'll vote for Obama, she said: "At least he wasn't brought up filthy rich."
White lower- and middle-income voters such as Harris are wild cards in this vituperative presidential campaign. With only a sliver of the electorate in play nationwide, they could be a deciding factor in two southern swing states, Virginia and North Carolina.
Reuters/Ipsos polling data compiled over the past several months shows that, across the Bible Belt, 38 percent of these voters said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who is "very wealthy" than one who isn't. This is well above the 20 percent who said they would be less likely to vote for an African-American.
In Lynchburg, many haven't forgotten Romney's casual offer to bet Texas Governor Rick Perry $10,000 or his mention of his wife's "couple of Cadillacs." Virginia airwaves are saturated with Democratic ads hammering Romney's Cayman Islands investments and his refusal to release more than two years of tax returns.
At the Democratic convention last week, Obama mocked the GOP's "tax breaks for millionaires" as "the same prescription they've had for the last 30 years."
A former private equity executive with a net worth of some $250 million, Romney vehemently disputes insinuations that he has paid less taxes than required by law. He calls the attacks an effort "to divert attention from the fact that the president has been a failure when it comes to reigniting the American economy."
The GOP nominee's lucrative business career, which he touts far more than his record as governor of Massachusetts, does resonate with many Southern conservatives. "I don't like to see the wealthy punished for their success," said Cory Beaver, 26, as he waited on customers at a Lynchburg restaurant. "Obama leans toward socialism."
Romney's opposition to gay marriage and his commitment to reversing the Supreme Court's decision granting women the right to abortion also gain him more support in the Bible Belt than in other regions of the country.
WHERE OLD AND NEW SOUTH COLLIDE
Focusing on 11 states from Virginia and North Carolina to Texas and Oklahoma, the Reuters/Ipsos polling project canvassed 8,690 people in households with incomes under $55,000 a year -- just above the U.S. median.
Non-Hispanic whites in this bracket have skewed Republican for more than three decades, and they prefer the GOP nominee to Obama by 46 percent to 29 percent. However, as Romney launches a post-convention ad blitz, those numbers could signal trouble for his campaign. Strategists in both parties figure that to offset the president's expected landslide among an expanding electorate of blacks and Hispanics -- Obama won 80 percent of minority votes in 2008 -- Romney must garner more than 60 percent of the white vote overall.
In Virginia, polls show the candidates virtually tied. The state's 5.9 percent unemployment rate, well below the 8.1 percent national average, works in Obama's favor. Overall, 35 percent of the electorate is black, Hispanic or Asian.
Large swaths of northern Virginia, which includes Washington, D.C. suburbs, and the Tidewater region, with its heavy military presence, see the federal government as more friend than enemy.
In Lynchburg, a city of 76,000 in south central Virginia, Old and New South collide as downtown's Victorian gingerbread homes yield to high-tech suburban factories. On Main Street, a pawnbroker displays racks of shotguns across from a marble-and-stainless steel bakery offering creme brulée cupcakes. Several times a day, Appalachian coal trains, more than 100 cars long, wind through town.
The city is best known as headquarters of an evangelical empire: Thomas Road Baptist Church, with 25,000 members, founded by the late Reverend Jerry Falwell, and its fast-growing offshoot, Liberty University.
At Liberty's May commencement, Romney, a Mormon, sought to stake out common ground with fundamentalist Christians. Without directly mentioning the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as the Mormon church is formally known, he told the crowd of 34,000: "People of different faiths, like yours and mine ... can meet in service, in shared moral convictions about our nation stemming from a common worldview."
According to Reuters/Ipsos polling data, however, 35 percent of voters overall, and the same proportion of lower- and middle-income white Bible Belt voters, say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who is Mormon.
Many evangelicals who would normally vote Republican say they view Mormonism as a cult.
Several of those interviewed in Lynchburg were devotees of the TV series "Big Love" and "Sister Wives," about polygamous Mormon families. They were unaware that the Mormon Church long ago renounced polygamy.
"Mormons don't believe like we believe," said Dianna McCullough, a retired factory worker, as she tossed salad in a Tree of Life Ministries soup kitchen. "Like the wives -- Romney's probably got more than one."
Still, she is undecided in the election. "The gay marriage thing hurts Obama," she said. "It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve."
The president has said he supports gay marriage, whereas Romney, in his speech at Liberty, drew his biggest applause with the line, "Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman."
ENTHUSIASM GAP
Four years ago, almost a quarter of voters identified themselves as white Protestant evangelicals in exit polls. Obama won only a quarter of them. This year, many passionately want to defeat him.
In a survey conducted this summer by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life, almost a third of Republicans said they believe Obama is Muslim, compared with 16 percent of independents and 8 percent of Democrats. The falsehood is a frequent theme of conservative talk radio.
Still, the challenge for the GOP is to ensure that white evangelicals, most of whom voted for other candidates in the primary, are sufficiently enthusiastic about Romney to make it to the polls.
On a humid evening at the Thomas Road church, the weekly "Hands Stitching 4 Jesus" group was crocheting teddy bears for children in Mexico. Middle-school teacher Stephanie Parrish, 27, was setting up a slide show from her recent mission to Guatemala with Campus Crusade for Christ.
Her thoughts on the presidential election?
"Abortion and gay marriage -- where they stand on morality, that's big for me," she said.
In 2008, Parrish was a fan of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who was defeated in the GOP primary. She counts him as a Facebook friend. She has yet to "friend" Romney, although she plans to vote for him.
"I'm not extremely excited," she confessed. "I'd prefer not to have a Mormon."
Nonetheless, she added, "Romney seems to align himself with conservative values."
Among low- and middle-income white Bible Belt voters, 21 percent in the Reuters/Ipsos polling data said they are uncertain they will vote in the presidential election. That's not much more than the 17 percent of other respondents who were uncertain. But in a group that leans Republican, it could be enough to hurt Romney.
Democratic TV spots in Virginia and other battleground states portray Romney as outsourcing jobs to China and Mexico when he was chief executive officer of Bain Capital -- a charge he calls "deceptive and dishonest."
The GOP nominee's attacks on "big government" as "hostile and "remote" appeal more strongly to white low- and median-income Southerners than to the nation as a whole. The deep cuts in the federal government's domestic program pushed by his vice-presidential nominee, Paul Ryan, reinforce the message.
In the Reuters/Ipsos poll, these Bible Belt voters blame Washington more than Wall Street for the recent recession by a margin of 30 points. Overall, Americans blame Washington, too, but by only six points.
"Other than the military, everything that's government-controlled is screwed up," said William Clarkson, a retired postman who was rooting for the Lynchburg Hillcats, the city's minor league baseball team, on a sweltering afternoon.
"Romney took a lot of businesses that were failing and turned them around," he said, adding: "I don't see big business as evil. Obama is using class warfare with his ads about Romney wanting to give tax breaks to millionaires."
Obama's plan is to extend Bush-era tax cuts for families with incomes under $250,000 a year, while Romney and congressional Republicans support an across-the-board extension.
According to the Reuters/Ipsos data, 35 percent of the white Southern group saw Romney as having a "better approach" to taxes, while 25 percent thought Obama does.
Paradoxically, the same group agreed by more than 4 to 1 with the statement: "The wealthiest Americans should pay higher taxes," which is Obama's campaign theme.
SOUTHERN DISCOMFORT
The apparent contradiction in public attitudes about tax policy mirrors widespread confusion over the Affordable Healthcare Act, which Romney has promised to repeal.
Overall, 54 percent of Americans -- and a decisive 69 percent of white low- and median-income Southerners -- opposed Obamacare, according to the Reuters/Ipsos data. But when asked about specific parts of the law, the results largely favored the president.
Both groups opposed the provision that would require them to buy health insurance. However, by more than 2 to 1, both supported making businesses with more than 50 employees offer insurance and forcing insurance companies to cover people with preexisting conditions.
Almost two-thirds of both groups supported a central element of Obamacare: extending Medicaid -- the federal-state program that covers healthcare for the poor -- to families earning less than $30,000 a year. Romney and Ryan seek to cut the growth of Medicaid by capping federal contributions and shifting responsibility to the states.
If Obama has fed class resentment with attacks on Romney's taxes and his mixed record at Bain Capital, the GOP is tapping into a different strain of white middle-class rancor -- one directed toward low-income recipients of government aid.
A Romney ad asserts that "Under Obama's plan, you wouldn't have to work and wouldn't have to train for a job. They just send you a welfare check." Independent fact-checkers say the ad distorts the administration's plan to give states more flexibility on work rules -- a request that came from Republican governors.
In Lynchburg, however, it resonates with some white conservatives. At the Modern Barber Shop on Main Street, where the Ten Commandments are displayed in the window, a group of retirees chatted about the election on a recent morning.
"I don't believe in free handouts," said Robert McCanna, a former accountant. "Obama is pitting blacks against whites."
Retired truck driver Lyle Campbell interjected, "If I was black, I would get anything I want."
Just up the street, however, Sheryl Harris, the senior center activities director, sees the election through the lens of class, not race. "Romney didn't get to the top of the pile by being a nice guy," she said. "To make the money he makes you have to step on a lot of people ... Democrats are more interested in helping the lower and middle classes"
yeah, that global view of America has been around for a lot longer than, well, since before bush was in office. I mean a "we're the greatest nation in the world!" attitude is not gonna go over well with some people. It doesnt even with me, and I live in America.Disney's Divinity wrote:Another pearl of wisdom from Boortz, huh? I suppose the world absolutely adored us when George Bush was in charge; all we need is for Mitt Romney to give them a big F You to set things back to 0.dvdjunkie wrote: Here's something from Neal Boortz that perked my attention:
Is there any part of the world that ISN'T outraged at America? Thanks, Obama, for resetting our image in the world. Good job stud.
I wonder what your psyche must be like. Pretty bad state, I’m guessing, if you’ve convinced yourself that you “reason from both sides.”dvdjunkie wrote:Until someone here can reason from both sides why one is better than the other, I will continue posting what I think are eye-openers for you who think that the President is truthful and honest (he isn't, wake up!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge3aGJfDSg4
There is a ton more to back this up.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lQzZdyzDZVY" frameborder="0"></iframe>dvdjunkie wrote:Until someone here can reason from both sides why one is better than the other, I will continue posting what I think are eye-openers for you who think that the President is truthful and honest (he isn't, wake up!!)
Wow, that was awesome! How.. how is this bad? I might be missing something? He believes in a certain amount of redistribution to keep things fair. That sounds pretty darn awesome to me.dvdjunkie wrote:Until someone here can reason from both sides why one is better than the other, I will continue posting what I think are eye-openers for you who think that the President is truthful and honest (he isn't, wake up!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge3aGJfDSg4
There is a ton more to back this up.
what part of "lesser of two evils" involves reasoning from one side?dvdjunkie wrote:Until someone here can reason from both sides why one is better than the other, I will continue posting what I think are eye-openers for you who think that the President is truthful and honest (he isn't, wake up!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge3aGJfDSg4
There is a ton more to back this up.
Why would he do that when he would rather pretend to understand things we lesser people couldn’t possibly understand. He might as well be talking about time travel.ajmrowland wrote: I could say a few other things, but I challenge you. Post a reply to this post, and I will listen to your argument, then I will judge it the way a Justice judges a case: By looking at both sides logically.
Stating things that are helped me personally has no meaning to the country, and is a very self-centered way to think about things. I already posted a list of stuff he did for trans people, which effects me because of my friends and family. In addition to that list, Obamacare has also stopped medical discrimination against trans people in the whole country. Trans people could be legally turned down for medical care just because they were trans before obamacare. That matters a lot in my personal life.dvdjunkie wrote:It seems like I am talking to a brick wall on this forum. There isn't one of you who could list Four (4) things that you have benefited from with the current President.
I'd much rather live in a socialist country than one ran by mittens. And Obama is nowhere near being a socialist. He is way too far right politically. And you seem really confident. Not saying that's a bad thing, but it seems like a really difficult thing to predict right now, with obama with a slight lead (which makes sense, because he is the incumbent).dvdjunkie wrote:I don't want to live in a Socialist country and that is the direction we are headed in with this despot in power. A change is needed and needed soon and that will come in November.
Then you need to meet me and the people I hang out with.dvdjunkie wrote: There is no one person on this board or that I know of who is more liberal and extreme as Obama.
I agree with him. See my post about the legos above.dvdjunkie wrote:Remember, if you have a successful small or large business that Obama said "You Didn't Build That!" and I think we should all read into that a lot more than even the liberal media is doing.
I *tried* to read them, but honestly, the people who wrote most of those articles annoy me a lot. And I usually enjoy reading about politics and social justice. But ugh the way they were talking was just annoying. The voice in the article is either really boring, or, more often, it seems like they are making a mountain out of a molehill, to a point where I really don't care for the issues they bring up. They are unimportant to the real issues (PEOPLE) and I feel the points they were trying to make are very unlikely to become real issues anyway.dvdjunkie wrote:Anyway read about the 'battleground' states and Obama, and then go back and truly read my other links. Just because you don't like the truth doesn't give you the right to ignore it.
meh, I was tired.Disney's Divinity wrote:Why would he do that when he would rather pretend to understand things we lesser people couldn’t possibly understand. He might as well be talking about time travel.ajmrowland wrote: I could say a few other things, but I challenge you. Post a reply to this post, and I will listen to your argument, then I will judge it the way a Justice judges a case: By looking at both sides logically.