I certainly wish all this WOULD happen, but I don't think any of it would lead to a long economic depression as you say. Please explain why the exact opposite of what you said here has been going on for the last six years (more regulation, less privatization, more food stamps, more welfare programs and unemployment benefits), and we DO have a long economic depression.

I found it highly hypocritical that a woman from Russia should be casting aspersions about the U.S. imposing their will on another country. When she kept saying that Iraqis did not want democracy imposed on them, Monckton could have asked her "Then why do they keep Democracy going until this day?" Despite the troubles in Iraq, they have not yet reverted back to a Dictatorship.

In typical lefty fashion, the Russian woman repeatedly tried to talk over Lord Monckton and cut off his dialogue with her own.

Hello Larry, I have never responded to single post of yours, but since you did not mention anything about Z*****m or the Jews in this short comment, I feel compelled to agree with you on this very specific issue. Flashes mounted on cameras give about the worst possible lighting situation possible. Especially when doing portraits. All the normal three-dimentional structures become flattened out because the shadows all disappear. This has caused me tremendous headaches when painting portraits from someone's old snapshots, which is what I am doing at this very moment.

Now in the spirit of this thread, I am unwatching. Good Luck.

I am sorry, but it is exactly like I said. The liberal States that have raised the minimum wage have made only token raises, enough to keep the masses from grumbling. The Federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. The absolute highest minimum wage on the State level is The District of Columbo (the annoying stogie smokin' detective) at $9.50 an hour. Vermont and Connecticut are just a smidgeon over $9.00 an hour. This is barely two dollars more. And those are the highest ones. The recent protesters from fast food restaurants were asking for anywhere between fifteen and thirty dollars an hour!

I still stand entirely by my statement.

How have you proven that it is not an economic disaster? Here is something to consider:

There are liberal enclaves in all the big cities of the United States, where there is virtually NO republican opposition in their legislatures. Every one of them could have raised their local or State minimum wage as high as they pleased at any time they wanted to. Yet in reality, not a single one of them has ever raised the minimum wage more than a token amount, in order to keep their base from grumbling too much. This is because even democrat politicians know that it would be a financial disaster. Seattle has taken the boldest step by enacting a raise to $15.00 an hour. But even they are phasing it in incrementally over several years time. Why not do it immediately if it is so good?

:thumbup: Great Points!

This sounds well and good, but it does not answer my question "Why should they not have to live in poverty?" You just kind of said "Well, they just shouldn't!" We live in a super abundant society and I think that people are so used to this that they sometimes get the idea that everybody deserves to have wh**ever they need, because of some immutable law of nature. I know this is an ideal that most people strive for, but things don't always work out like we want them to. You might think this seems like a minor point, but you can't just blink your eves like "I Dream of Jeanie" and declare that it will be.


"Please don't hand me bulls**t about improving his or her own situation". I have no idea what you mean by that.

"As to your second question, the Constitution guarantees everyone "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". The first word there is "life". If you get sick and die, you don't have life. Health is as basic a human right as free speech. We guarantee our citizens the right to carry guns, we should guarantee health care to everyone. Being healthy should not send people into bankruptcy or make them homeless. As human beings we need to take care of each other, and guarantee that everyone has access to quality healthcare."

I don't think that the writer of the Declaration of Independence (not the Constitution) had in mind socialized healthcare when he wrote that. He meant that "we will not k**l you". There is no right to healthcare. You may think there SHOULD be one, but there is not one in this country. As far as everybody should have access to quality healthcare, they already do. And they did long before Obamacare was enacted. But I know personally, people who have received free healthcare that did not deserve it in my opinion. I actually don't buy into this notion that everybody deserves healthcare.

Yes, conservatives rail against raising the minimum wage, but that is exactly my point. The minimum wage is the government forcing one individual to pay another individual a certain amount of money, regardless if he earns it or not. The restaurant owner you have cited is doing this of his own free will. If the business plan doesn't work out, he is free to discard or change it. The government should not dictate how you should run your own business unless you are impinging on someone else.

The story of the restaurant doesn't lay to a lie any economic arguments by conservatives at all because there is no answer yet on whether it succeeded or not. The guy just announced what he is going to do. Nobody has any idea whether it will work or not. In fact Racmanaz posted a story of a restaurant that tried it, and found that they had to raise their prices in order to survive.

I don't think you have a firm grasp on conservative ideas.

This last question is not meant to provoke or insult you. Why do you think that no one in this country should have to work full time and still live in poverty, and why no one regardless of their employment situation should be without healthcare?

I am right with you on this Tschmath. His lines of discussion are so outlandish that I find it silly to try to refute them. It would be a waste of time that could be spent on so many other topics, with people who at least have a couple of brain cells to rub together that can form some sort of rational thought.

The Obama administration's silence on such issues is deafening. Don't forget that Obama was silent for over a week when Iran's young masses were demonstrating and threatening to revolt against their government. Only after prodding from all the prominent democrats such as Hillary and Biden, did he issue a statement. Even then, he lied about it and said that he had been supporting them publicly all along.

"OK, Righties, What is your answer to this???"

What makes you think right-wingers would have a problem with this? A staple in conservative (or right-wing) philosophy is letting business owners do what they damn well please. I say hooray to wh**ever they would like to try. I am completely unaware of any right-wing opposition to waiters getting tips or a decent salary.

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Chill a bit. I think Mr. Seward is being sarcastic and mocking the people who refuse to acknowledge the danger of militant Islam even when it stares them in the face ... or murders people.[/quote]
Thanks Mr. LA Shooter. I considered putting an "end of sarcasm" disclaimer at the end of my message, but I thought it would dampen the humor.

And please don't shoot too many people in L.A. They have enough problems.

I am sure this cannot be true. A number of liberal posters on Hedgehog have pointed out that there is nothing to fear from Militant Islam. I have learned that it is r****t and right-wing propagandist to relay such stories, even if they are true.

I'm not looking specifically at the local Cleveland economy for my outlook. Perhaps your local economy is booming, as is the State of North Dakota (or wherever it is they do fracking).I am citing national trends. The 700,000 jobs lost per month have not been regained. As I said in my post, we have a NET LOSS of jobs nationwide since Obama took office. True, GM was failing, but it took 55 Billion Dollars of taxpayer money to prop them up, and they haven't even come close to paying back the money. I think we should have let them fail. It would have saved 55 Billion.

Lehman Brothers deserved to collapse and it was a good thing. This company had leveraged itself to something like 40 times its real value by indiscriminately buying real estate around the world that it could not afford. Companies cannot act like that and survive. But this did little to contribute to a failing economy. The mostly millionaire traders who worked there undoubtedly didn't end up in soup lines and were absorbed back into more solvent firms.

You are right about the housing market collapsing, but it has only made a very slight recovery from its low point so far. About the only bright thing that I can see right now is that the price of gasoline has finally gotten back to the level it was when Obama took office. And this despite the Presidents orders to stop drilling on Federal Land and to stop the Keystone Pipeline. The gasoline price helps every American motorist and also has a very large spillover savings to all sorts of industries.

Although I am not an economist, I don't really see that Europe's financial state has all that much bearing on ours.

I disagree that the country is better off now than when Obama took office. You cite the unemployment numbers which are grossly misleading. This is understandable because the mainstream news chooses to report only the government figures of people currently looking for a job. The huge number of people who have given up looking for job, but nonetheless are still unemployed, are not counted. The huge number of people who have gone onto the welfare rolls, but nonetheless are still unemployed, are not counted. The number of people who are receiving food stamps has DOUBLED under Obama. The number of people receiving a disability check from the government has DOUBLED under Obama.

The government does in fact keep figures on the actual percentage of people who are employed, regardless of circumstances. It is called "the labor participation rate". This percentage is currently at its lowest point in almost 40 years. We have actually had a NET DECREASE in the number of jobs since Obama took office. Hardly any news sources choose to report on this.