America is dying....

[Javaman]

-30,000 job layoffs by GM

-Iraq

-abramoff

-plame

-massive cuts to the poor

-oil running out

-trade deficit

-national debt

-no leadership

-election fraud

-halliburton

-bechtel

-KBR

-Katrina

-the patriot act

We are dying. The basics of the country aren't being met.

one failure after another.

I'm generally not a doom and gloom sort of person, but given the list and probably many I have forgotten to add, unless something drastic changes and soon, it's going to be a slow motion crash.

Like the saying goes, "it takes 5 miles for an aircraft carrier just to slow down enough to turn around", when is someone going to put the brakes on this bullshit and turn us around?

I foresee the effect of the US crash being like that same aircraft carrier, but it's not slowing down to turn around. Because of it's size and momentum, it will plow into a coastline, take many lives and destroy many buildings before it finally comes to a halt.

I don't see land just yet, but according to morons* map, it's very nearby.

[goforit]

1. And the scary and saddest thing is "Caring Hearts"are hard to find.

[0007]

26. I've heard that Linda Tripp and Paula Jones have a caring heart.

'Tis true these kind are hard to find.

Jean Schmidt pour her heart out on the congress floor the other night.


Look at those caring hands

[TallahasseeGrannie]

2. I just can't go there with you

Maybe it is because I teach young children. America is alive and well. We have a lot of work to do but we have always had a lot of work to do.

We have survived:
England
Disease
Two World Wars
Assassinations
The Great Depression
The Great Migration
Slavery
The Civil War
Lack of suffrage
September 11
Vietnam and Korea


We will survive all these challenges as well. Remember, we're mongrels. We have survivor blood on our veins. We are not fancy pants pure breds. The sheer existence of this forum tells you that at least we still have the basic freedom of dissent and discussion.

But we also have the children. And if you are with them every day the way I am, children of all races, creeds, income levels...we are doing just fine.

[rkc3]

4. I wish I could share your enthusiasm - Americans have gone soft

and don't have the muster to stand up to what's going on here.

Maybe we need a decade or two of getting crapped on to find some of the spine that got us through those terrible periods.

[indepat]

3. This is not failure: it is successful implementation of an extreme RW

agenda.

[pauliedangerously]

5. It isn't dying

We're just on a downward slope. Societies have cycles and we just happen to be alive during a crappy part of a cycle. The world isn't going to end, electrons aren't going to stop spinning around atoms, and everything is going to be ok.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

7. But it IS Monday

you can't deny THAT!

I think I see some big cases of Monday-itis this morning.

[The2ndWheel]

8. Everything is going to be ok

only to have it cycle back, and then back again, and then back again, and then back again. Mmmmmmmm, the pointlessness of existence.

[pauliedangerously]

10. Hey...what kind of talk is that??

Existence is FUN!! Ride the oscillation, Dude!! Christmyth is around the corner and I'm feeling the joy of the holiday season already. Relish the intrigue, the mystery, and the beautiful irony that confronts you.

[azmouse]

6. There is a silver lining to every cloud...

Americans are starting to wake up to the disaster that Bush created. Americans are a strong people but it will take a while to recover from all the problems he has set in motion. Once we get the Dems back in control things will begin to turn around again. So this is not the time to give up.

One of my fav quotes:
"Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."
Sir Winston Churchill, Speech, 1941, Harrow School

[leftofthedial]

9. this is an ownerships society

the owners aren't bothered by any of that

shut up and fix me a another soy latte, schmuck.

[daleanime]

16. Hey, they don't know it...

but we all own it.

[Junkdrawer]

11. The Big Picture....

Prior to Word War II, the 'Best and the Brightest' of the US worked on innovation in practical economic matters. As a result, America lead the world in innovation and economic power.

After World War II, the 'Best and the Brightest' worked on defense projects. As a result, America lead the world in weapon systems, but soon lagged behind in economic innovation.

A decade after the old Soviet Union fell, we began aggressive wars to lay claim to the world's remaining oil supplies. In other words, our economic leaders are trying recoup a return on their investment.

And we're surprised how? :shrug:

[daleanime]

18. So what steps should we take?

I'm a firm believer in education. Should volunteering be promoted more? Help me out on this.

[Junkdrawer]

22. Al Gore made themes like this a big part of his 2000 campaign...

A common meme is that Democrats never have a positive campaign platform. We need to resurrect this plank in a big way for the 2008 campaign.

We need to start making people aware that choices have consequences: If you invest your brains and money in a bloated defense establishment, you will become less competitive in the general economy. You lose high paying jobs.

[KansDem]

12. Yeah, at times I feel like we're in a "grab it while you can" mode.

Rich or poor, you'd better grab all you can now because there isn't going to be anything left.

Just take a look at the Bushistas: they don't even pretend to be statesmen leading a democracy any more. They act more like mob bosses staking out "new territory:" They lie, scheme, connive, and lie some more, knowing they won't be held accountable. And they have three more years to do it.

It's as if they don't care about being "caught." While the "press" languishes in reporting their crimes and while the opposition party decides what to do, they've made another few hundred million dollars, and it's off to the next conjob.

[donsu]

13. agree - health care is already purposefully destroyed

the stock market is running on props

the bushgang is happy, all is going as planned.

[daleanime]

14. Do...Not...Give...Up

Americas simply don't quit. We get distracted, bored, and make stupid mistakes(Hi W!:grr: ) But we keep moving. We find new ways. It's starting already.

[lumpy]

15. The US has become a 'frivolous society'

as Rome was defined before the fall. Perhaps when obsession with self-image, greed, over-indulgence and the rest of the 'seven deadly sins are wiped away by diminishing economic security, citizens will come to their senses. Time to realize that we are in danger of losing our democracy to fascism and the anarchy that can follow. Hope and providence are waiting in the wings.

[Arugula Latte]

17. Don't worry. China will tell us what to do.

I wonder how the I'm-American-Therefore-I-Kick-The-World's-Ass crowd will feel when we are second or third fiddle to China and India.

[Protagoras]

25. Think it's better to mandarine or cantonese?

or should we learn Hindi?

[Arugula Latte]

28. Let's wait and see what our masters tell us to do, m'kay?

We don't want to rock the boat, you know. They won't let us have our one bathroom break a day if we're too uppity.

[pansypoo53219]

19. but but but

TAX CUTS! for the RICH! the corner! and and and .....um, growth! uh,..........TAX CUTS! for the RICH!

[daleanime]

21. Oh my..

Thanks. I needed that.

[Ioo]

20. I see a 1980-somthing Billy Idol song in your Future! (NT)

[DainBramaged]

23. WAIT, the 30,000 GM jobs lost is smoke and mirrors for Wall Street

Most layoff not happening till 2007-2008 time frame, by which time the jobs would have been lost THROUGH NORMAL ATTRITION.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2005-11-21-gm-closures_x.htm

Assembly plants
Oklahoma City, Okla., with 2,734 employees, will cease production in early 2006.
Lansing, Mich., Craft Centre, 398 employees, will cease production in mid-2006.
Spring Hill, Tenn., Plant/Line No. 1, will cease production at end of 2006. Total plant employment: 5,776.
Doraville, Ga., 3,076 employees, will cease production at the end of current products' run in 2008.
Third shift will be eliminated at Oshawa Car Plant No. 1, in Ontario, Canada, in the second half of 2006. Oshawa Car Plant No. 2 will end production after the current product runs out in 2008.
Third shift will be eliminated at Moraine, Ohio, in 2006, with timing to be based on market demand. Total plant employment: 4,165.

Stamping, power train and service operations
Lansing, Mich., Metal Center, 1,398 employees, will cease production in 2006.
Pittsburgh, Pa., Metal Center, 613 employees, will cease production in 2007.
Parts Distribution Center in Portland, Ore., will cease operations in 2006.
Parts Distribution Center in St. Louis, Mo., will be converted to a collision center facility in 2006.
Parts Processing Center in Ypsilanti, Mich., will cease operations in 2007.
One additional Parts Processing Center, to be announced later, will cease operations in 2007.
St. Catharines Ontario Street West powertrain components facility in Ontario, Canada, 1,699 employees, will cease production in 2008.
Flint, Mich., North 3800 engine facility ("Factory 36"), 2,677 employees, will cease production in 2008.

[Mechatanketra]

24. Carrier analogy is the reason compromise kills us.

Right now, the country's caught in a Catch-22 situation politically. The Republicans -- and let me be clear, I mean the current prevailing Republican philosophy, the political movement defining the Republican party -- are ruining just about everything they can touch. It doesn't work.

The Democrats want to get them out of office, and to a greater or lesser degree have settled on compromise as the method to do this: saying "Well, we need to find a middle ground between where we are and where they are." But where they are doesn't work -- the fundamental approach the GOP is taking to government is wrong, not just handled poorly.

What we have is a sick patient given a choice between being bled with ten leeches or just five. The second will probably take longer, but he's still gonna die, and neither doctor is going to fix what's wrong with him. That's the catch-22 of the yellowdog approach: the less you ask of candidates before you support them, the less they'll actually do for you once they're in office. If it was just about getting a Democrat-on-paper in the WH, no problem: we could have just nominated Bush in 2004 before the GOP did. But we need someone who'll undo the damage the GOP is doing -- not maintain the damage, or just less of the same damage, either.

It's not the Republican party that's dangerous (or the Dem party that's good). It's what they're doing. If we literally can't get someone into office by getting the people to vote for radically different approach, by creating demand for what's right instead of just making our own version of the product that's selling, then the country's doomed no matter WHO wins any given term.

[daleanime]

27. Yes, Yes, Yes.

Amen Brother, Amen.