Most of those money troubles you speak of under Bush, were started by Liberal Democrat Socialists, when they decided that even people who were not qualified for a home loan should get one.  That is one of the things that spiraled out of control and started the banking mess.  It may have started spiraling down on the Republican's watch but it began under a Democratic president and laid down it's poisonous fruits during the Bush years.  He had to deal with it, then we voted in a man with no experience whatsoever and horrible judgment.

Yes I agree with you that we need to repair our infrastructure and bring back industry, but they have sold out America with the NAFTA agreements and others that allowed US manufacturers to farm out their industry to other countries with cheaper labor.  Now we are reaping the whirlwind of the failed policies of the past.

What I see is corruption, piled upon corruption, piled upon corruption piled upon corruption in US politics from both sides.  But the lesser of the 2 evils are the Republicans.  I see no way out of the shark infested waters we are in, but the only hope to slow this is through the Republicans and the Tea Party.

Yes, we should stop all payments to foreign countries, withdraw our military, and guard our own borders.  I am tired of the US policing other countries, especially Arab countries, who mostly desire to take us over and place us under Sharia law.

They use our own laws against us to make us succumb to their rule, which will be much stricter than our own.

I read those words from someone 20 years ago, I had called them a liar and said they were paranoid.  But 20 years later, I see those prophecies from then coming true.  To late for us to take a lot of action now.  We have been asleep at the wheel, while they worked behind the scenes to bring us down. 

I am not sorry that I started this post. The illusion of democracy is what we try to foist upon countries with different political systems (as if that is anything to do with us). Rampant Capitalism goes hand in hand with the democratic illusion. At least Halliburton does OK out of it, I guess.

Gaza DID run a democratic election but Hamas was not to the West's liking so it did not count!

Defecits begin with running wars and arms races. This is not new. It has always been that way. The USSR economy fell due to the costs of developing a Russky version of the B1 bomber (ironically, now rented by US agencies). A pity that folks forgot this!

Some years ago, in one of my newspaper satires, I listed all the countries bombed by the US and the reasons why since WW2. It is current up to about 2006. Since then I have lost count. Forgive me for any offence given. The same applies to many other Western countries but to a lesser extent. Most of my satire is about France BTW.

country bombed and reason for attack

China 1945-46  they have slitty eyes
Korea 1950-53  was trying to bomb Arkansas
China 1950-53  eat with chopsticks
Guatemala 1954  can't spell it
Indonesia 1958  bunch of Muslims
Cuba 1959-60  Castro smiled at the Russians
Guatemala 1960  still can't spell it
Belgian Congo 1964  all Belgians are boring
Guatemala 1964  still can't spell it
Dominican Republic 1965-66  tactical weapons training
Peru 1965  thought it was Arkansas
Laos 1964-73  missed Vietnam
Vietnam 1961-73   thought it was France
Cambodia 1969-70  missed Vietnam
Guatemala 1967-69  still can't spell it
Lebanon 1982-84  Tel Aviv asked us to
Grenada 1983-84  thought it was Great Britain
Libya 1986  their leader wears a dress
El Salvador 1981-92  CIA were bored
Nicaragua 1981-90  CIA still bored
Libya 1986  refused McDonald franchise
Iran 1987-88  practice
Libya 1989  their leader wears a dress and still refused a McDonald franchise
Panama 1989-90  thought it was Arkansas
Iraq 1991-2006  because France wouldn't and Dubya did not know there were two kinds of Muslims
Kuwait 1991  missed Iraq
Somalia 1992-94  can't remember
Croatia 1994 (of Serbs at Krajina)  thought it was France
Bosnia 1995  thought it was Arkansas
Sudan 1998  Africans don't need Aspirins
Afghanistan 1998  won't watch 'I love Lucy' or 'Gilligan's Island'
Yugoslavia 1999  testing of stealth technology
Gaza (as and when)  proxy bombing for Israeli Lebensraum
Lebanon 2006  proxy bomb for Armageddon

Rule 101: Another sovereign power may have any policitcal system it likes as long as it keeps on pumping oil.

Frenchy

What a tragedy that these fine young men have died purposelessly in a 13th century land which will revert to the Taliban as soon as the Allies leave.

I should imagine the families will be grieving and angry rather than feeling proud but what do I know?

Over thirty years ago, we lost our precious ward to rape/murder. She was actually a second daughter to us. The murderer apologised to us in court prior to being sentenced and stated that he never meant to kill her, 'just' rape her. His defence was that she 'led him on because she was wearing a mini skirt'  ( the fashion at that time'). His 'remorse' contributed to a short sentence.

During his incarceration, he attempted to seek our forgiveness several times. We never replied. We were visited by a priest who had 'led him to the path of the Lord'. He actually told us that we would be damned because we could not forgive this piece of shit. I have to admit that I experienced a 'red haze' ; something that is most rare for me and I actually hit the bloody priest and physically threw him out of our house.

On getting up, he said, of course, 'I forgive you'.

For many years, the murderer has been free and lives in La Défense in Paris. He has lived on our taxes ever since and is himself a senior citizen now, of course.

A number of other damned priests have attempted to preach forgiveness to me and frankly, I have a job not not hit them too.
The question is, would an execution twenty years later using L.I. have made me feel better? Would we have been able to begin 'closure'?

I have to say that for me, it would not help a lot. The bastard would have lived a further 20 odd years and his death would have been so peaceful that I actually feel envious as many of us non murderers cannot usually find death, when it comes to us, that easy and painless. 

The reality is that I  wanted REVENGE. I still want revenge and know I will never get it. I never did seek to obtain revenge personally as inevitably I would find myself in his shoes but I really did want the state to give revenge by proxy.

I wanted him to die in a very scary way, such as by guillotine, hanging or electric chair and I wanted to watch him die.

I still feel this way.

So, for many, the word revenge is now not PC when discussing capital punishment. So I am not PC....sorry. Those who are executed may have 'paid their debt' to society but in such a humane way, it hardly seems, to me, to be a debt at all.

Closure never comes for most survivors and the anger remains.

Our murderer has family, who also tried to contact us. He no doubt has friends. Frankly, I just do not care. I would still like to kill him in a most horrible way and then, perhaps, at least the anger would have found an outlet.

To top it all, now that the bastard has found God and thinks he will be forgiven, because that is what the damn priests say, he will even die in peace.

The term 'Debt paid', is only a PC sop for society but never to the survivors.

Frenchy

I have been reading again and again on US websites that this event was caused by the enforcement of gun control. Most European countries support gun control and several police forces do not carry them.

I very much doubt that Europe would be a safer place if everybody carried guns. It is the choice of every sovereign country whether to have gun control or not.

The US has suffered many such mass shooting events. The one that springs to my mind foremost are the shootings at Ft Hood. The place was full of trained people with guns yet still many died.

I believe that Norway will not change the way it does things because of one mad person.
Frenchy

That may be partially true Frenchy, but it was someone with a gun who put the madman Hassan down and living the rest of his life in a wheelchair.  The real problem at that time and why Hassan was not put down faster, was that many of the military were on base, felt safe, and were not carrying their rifles or sidearms.  Had they had their firearms with them, not as many people would have been killed or injured from this ambush on base.  Hassan knew they did not carry them on base, which is why he so easily killed them.

But remember this, Hassan killed 13 and wounded 29 in Ft. Hood.  Unlike the 91 who were murdered in Norway, because no one had ANY GUNS with which to stop him.  It took too much time to get security to the island, so he killed them like fish in a barrel. 

It is still time for Europe to wake up and smell the coffee.  You have many hundreds of thousands of potential terrorists living there waiting their chance to do the same thing to you and your family.  Without any firearms, and with security too far away, dealing with a diversion disaster, you have many more conceivable disasters waiting to happen, just as we do in the US.