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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...2_floyd18.html

 

Well, considering that the economy is stagnate, there are fewer opportunities, fewer jobs and record deficits, such blanket propoganda only goes so far these days.

Right now, we have a president who is actually encouraging sending American jobs overseas and doing nothing at all to encourage job creation here at home.

 

Let's just assume for a second that this is all true. We'll just say that the democrats have a better plan here. They don't, but I'll humor you on it.

Now, is John Kerry really the guy you want fighting terrorism? Is job creation really more important than the fight against terrorism? Do you believe his philosophy that terrorism should be treated as a "law enforcement" issue? To me the words "Vietnam" and "police action" come to mind here. If you answered yes to all those questions, then by all means vote for the guy. If you can't answer a resounding yes, then I would hope you'd think long and hard about what is going to have the more lasting, or detrimental effect on our economy.

 

I do believe that Kerry would do a much better job in the war on terror and I'll explain why.

There is first the treat of terrorism here at home, which has been and always will be very low because it's not that simple to come here and set up an operation. 9/11 happened because of a lack of communication and lack of cooperation between law enforcement agencies. Security here at home is very simple: Keep track of foreigners and criminals with a national database and pay attention. There haven't been additional attacks here at home since 9/11 because we are alert and aware.

The real threat, and where Bush fails miserably, is in the war on terror abroad. This is where diplomacy is so important and Bush has zero skills as a diplomat. He bumbles his phrases, confuses facts and offends other government leaders with his lack of personal communication skills.

The threat of invading countries like Iran, Pakistan, Philippine Islands, where terrorists are now training is not going to work. We need a president that has the diplomatic skills to inspire these governments to cooperate. Bush has proven that he cannot succeed here.

Look what Bush has done in Iraq. He went in there with no forethought beyond removing Saddam. He didn't take into consideration how much it would cost to rebuild, what he would do when he disbanded their military, or how a democratic government would be received. He certainly didn't think that our troops and any cooperating Iraqi would be facing attacks by foreign terrorists for years to come. As evidence of Bush's lack of forethought, I offer his mission accomplished proclamation in May 2003. Almost a year later and American soldiers and Iraqi citizens are being killed every single day by terrorists.

Meet the Press:

Russert: Are you surprised by the level and intensity of resistance?

President Bush: No, I'm not. And the reason I'm not surprised is because there are people in that part of the world who recognize what a free Iraq will mean in the war on terror.

Bull****! If this were an honest statement, he wouldn't have proclaimed "Mission Accomplished" eight months ago. He hasn't a clue what to do on the war on terrorism abroad.

 

I think it was "an end to major combat operations in Iraq", but hey if that's the impression you got from it.

Bush made no statement at any time that turning Iraq to democracy would be easy. As I recall he made several statements about needing to be able to be in for the long haul. About the only thing you could really work with on what the administration said before the war deal with the WMD. Then we could go round and round how John Kerry (and other dems) made the same statements.

Where I think Bush excels is in his ability to influence foreign leaders. Granted most of the behind the scenes work was probably done by others. I'll consede he isn't a smooth talker, but I'd rather have somebody that isn't afraid to stand up than somebody that just wants to dance and never accomplish anything (read Clinton). I think Clinton actually knew something needed to be done about Iraq similar to what we did, but he could never bring himself to do it. If Gore were in we'd still be screwing around with them and nothing would have been done. The only way anything would ever be done is to go beyond the UN. We might be fooling around in Afghanistan, but that would be it, because the UN would not support anything else.

You know, thinking about it, Clinton went around the UN in Kosovo, hmmmmm. Ok, the UN sucks.



"Security here at home is very simple: Keep track of foreigners and criminals with a national database and pay attention. "

Last I heard the Dems were against this. Something about the ACLU and stuff.

So, again, go vote for Kerry, it's a free country.

 

[per AjRagno Well, considering that the economy is stagnate, there are fewer opportunities, fewer jobs and record deficits, such blanket propoganda only goes so far these days.

Right now, we have a president who is actually encouraging sending American jobs overseas and doing nothing at all to encourage job creation here at home.

I live in Cumberland County NJ, probably one of the most depressed areas in the state. We even have a lower sales tax on some items)than other areas. Our mall has been remodeled, we have a new Home Depot, BJ's, and a new Lowe's soon. There are new neighborhoods and new constuction everywhere you turn.
My second business was started last year. My brother inlaws business of fifteen years has expanded. There are job wanted signs everywhere.

The people griping about the jobs here, have a poor attitude and won't work anyway. We hire people from outside the county to fill positions locally. A lot of people I know, myself included leave the county to get good service in a restaurant even Micky D's.

We even have the so called illegals( I'm of Mexican heritage myself)tending the fields(Garden State) 'cause honest hard labor is to much for some of the locals. I know for a fact they are paid well. Some have even started their own businesses as well.

I do not believe your statements AjRagno cause there's no truth before me. I see Work for those willing to work, and opportunity for those willing to risk.

Because of President Bush, I and others get to use our own hard earned money to create more jobs and opportunities. And I don't need a college education to figure things out. I hire college grads to do bookkeeping, taxes, legal business.

By the way my other brother in law in Texas also has his own successful Landscape Architecture business and has a hard time finding people who want to earn good money for hard work.

It's about some people and their lousy attitudes and a liberal agenda that has made them that way.

Your statement being the propoganda.

And anyone who has served in the military knows that mission accomplished has never meant the war is over, it simply means mission accomplished.

Again I ask AjRagno have you ever built a business?
Ever served this country?

 

First, Kerry will make for a worse economy and job loses simple because he is a liberal and he believes in tax hikes, and honestly believes that government can create jobs with more social programs.

Second, Kerry will not make America safer but rather put America in more danger as his 20+ year record has proved time and time again. He voted to gut intelligence then whines now that the intelligence agencies do not know what their doing, and has also continually voted to cut military spending to the bare bones and then cries we are to stretched with our forces (earth to Kerry, your one of the main people who INSURED they didn’t have the tools and resources to be better equipped to find out things better, and your one of the reason our current forces are stretched beyond their means)

Therefore a vote for Kerry means a vote for sending more jobs overseas, taking more money out of everyone’s pocket who ACTUAL pay taxes, and a vote for putting America in more danger by a guy who continually, proven by his own record, loves to gut not just the intelligence agencies but the military as well…

Second, let’s get some facts straight. The war on terror is not here in America it is abroad and President Bush has done a pretty damn good job at fighting it. We have a good start in Afghanistan and a damn good start in Iraq, the home of terror. You see, in case you don’t know, is that the objective is to KEEP the warrior on terror as far a way from the homeland as possible.

Why is it that some Americans are just so naïve that they actually and honestly believe issues like Afghanistan and Iraq should only take weeks or months? NO ONE said it would be soon and the main person telling ALL Americans that was President Bush him self. He said ”This will take a very long time and winning will not always be evident”

President Clinton had his chance and he blew it, he was all talk and NO to very little action and thus the terrorist keyed in on that fact and thought they could attack at will facing little to know resistance or pay back by America.

Kerry is in the same ball game Clinton was in, all talk and no action. You really want a candidate that has a shot at President Bush then you liberals and democrats should be out supporting Edwards. He has the best shot at President Bush first and foremost because he doesn’t have Kerry’s record of being a coward on defense and intelligence, nor does he have the ULTRA liberal tag that Kerry has. Kerry is more liberal then Kennedy and that is pretty damn liberal, basically a socialist.

Most people upset with President Bush are those that are like Clinton, don’t have the courage to do the right thing but rather follow the crowd on what the crowd thinks is cool for the moment. When President Bush entered into this war on terror he did NOT do so like Clinton had done by taking polls and feeling out where the American public was at, he took the steps that only REAL leaders do and acts in the best interest of America and doing so taking a HUGE political risk and that is exactly what he has done.

NO BODY knows what is going to happen after a war and thus Iraq is no different. Where mistakes made? You bet, so what? That is life, that is reality, and that is WAR it is that simple.

WWII had many mistakes as well, all wars do and there is nothing different with Iraq except many American with the spoiled short attention span who want things done as if you’re driving through McDonalds getting your Big Mac.

We will be in Iraq for YEARS, which was put on the table by President Bush before anybody left this country to head to Iraq.

So why people are coming up now and asking ”why are we still there, and why will we be there for years” where either not paying attention when this all began or have short memory spans…

Kerry will not win for two simple reasons:

1. People want America to be safe and they want terrorist to pay the price, which will only happen with President Bush.

2. People want a good economy, not the kind that Clinton left behind with all his tax hikes that lost over 2 million jobs and sent many jobs overseas and then handed President Bush the Clinton recession.

It’s your choice people but myself I would much rather be able to sleep at night knowing our leader is doing his BEST to protect us and also knowing that tomorrow I will have a job to go to. President Bush will do that. Kerry will cause nightmares and could very well cost thousands of lives due to inactions to protect America and/or his cowardness to do so and thus letting terrorist know they have a friend in the White House that will not harm them…

The statement ”Mission complete” could have been stated a little better and I would agree to that. However, again for those that actually pay attention, the message was a true message that we had over taking Iraq, run the government out and thus the first major wave was ”Missions complete” Perhaps ”Phase one complete” would have been more accurate but nonetheless President Bush had NEVER stated in any way, shape or form that we were completely done in Iraq…

 

Let’s also not forget that due to President Bush and his actions that Libya would not have wanted to admit to their weapons program and basically came crawling to America saying ”PLEASE don’t hurt us, PLEASE do not attack us next, we will play nice” that is a fact my friends and that happen because people in the world are beginning to once again believe ”You had better not screw with America or we may completely take you OUT”

 

You know, this guy is blunt, maybe even insensitive, but he is right. No one likes to lose their job, and the educational investment in IT is generally pretty heavy, and transient anyway due to the speed that technology changes. But the fact that these jobs are being lost is a characteristic of the job, many of which did not exist 20 years ago at the beginning of the PC revolution. ANYONE with an education and the ability to speak English can pick it up.

We understandably want to protect our way of life, our wealth, but we have not gotten that wealth by protecting ourselves from other markets, we have gotten that wealth by letting others do the mundane stuff while we do the creating. We led the computer revolution, the aviation revolution, the internet, most medical breakthroughs, process development, and by that we became wealthy. We cannot blame companies for trying to cut their costs as low as possible (and computer mice cost considerably less than $40...The old fashioned ball type can be had for $5 some places. The consumer gets the benefit of lower prices everywhere there is no monopoly. Microsoft is able to charge prices that amount to something like 800% profit because they are the only game in town, and guess what, they employ Americans, and the money they make is reinvested in business that make more money.

Raoul, I am a little surprised at you. This is not new news. Should it be met with complacency? Certainly not. Is blaming the government, or businesses making rational, decisions in an attempt, not always successfully, to lower their costs the answer? Also certainly not. We all need to get busy trying to find ways to make money. The markets will adjust.

As cruel as it sounds, this article describes the workings of a free market perfectly. Consider the workers in Eastern Europe whose secure jobs making (admittedly poor quality) manufactured goods had to adjust and fast in order to keep from starving. Their governments had protected their jobs, and permitted mediocrity for decades. Do we want that?

I think the article had made many think hard about what they really believe. Do you want socialism, where jobs are your right? or do you want capitalism, where jobs are not guaranteed by anyone, but making money any way you can (under the law) is your right. If your skill, albeit complicated and difficult to learn, is not needed, get over it.

I have learned and forgotten more skills than many, and fewer than others, but here are a few of my hard fought skills that are no longer in demand (in comparison to what I actually do now):

Finite element structural analysis
Nuclear shielding design
Nuclear criticality analysis
Fortran programming
Packaging integrity evaluations
Thermal performance of Concrete
Impact performance of Concrete
Japanese Language

Each of the above skills took me considerable effort to learn, I was good at them, they were at one time or another central to my career, and they are now contributing zilch to my income.

The more things change, the more you have to change with it. The entire industry I spent the first 15 years of my career in has all but disappeared. We need to move on. It is inevitable.

This was not intended to be a rant, but some of you should really listen to yourselves.

TS

 

Steve -
If only you had learned infinite element structural analysis you'd still be employed in that field..

Just messin with ya...

 

Awesome post, SaxnBBQ!

 

"infinite" element structural analysis...hmmm...sounds like some way out liberal air-headed left coast concept to me!

TS

 

Any one who thinks this is war on terror is going to be a short one is a fool. Plan on at least 10-20 years. You are talking about knocking out an organizations that took decades to build, it won't be gone in a couple of years.

As far as the question of how long are we going to be in Iraq. Think about it--we took out the government. Kind of like we did to Germany and Japan in WWII--the last time I checked we were still in those countries. I don't think we will stay like we did in Germany and Japan, but it is possible. Look at the location and I think the new governemnt of Iraq will probably want us there for a while after they take over. If we hadn't taken out Sada$$ then we woud still be over there in Saudi or Qatar or Bahrain. So either way we would be over there. No we probably wouldn't be getting shot at or blown up, but our bases would be getting probed and yes we were shot at every once in a while.

As far as the job market goes. The US is becoming a country of ownership. The business owners have it right. If you want to become financially wealthy buy something that makes you money. If you are expecting you employer to make you wealthy, I'll show you 2,000,000 people who would probably advise against it. If you want to stay employed the only sure way is to constantly upgrade your skills, but do not expect a pay raise for the upgrade. If someone with your qualifications expectes to get paid $50,000 and you do the job for $45,000 odds are your not going to lose your job. Like the article stated you'll price yourself out of the market. You hear it all the time, "After 20 years with the same company, I was replaced by someone younger who was willing to work for less money."

 

WOW!! you guys are good!

 

Bush was a very successful small business owner, right up until his company went bankrupt

-Don