Posted on 06/15/2008 12:57:09 AM PDT by neverdem
Oh, I’ll hold my nose and vote for Johnnie Mac. But for the author to claim McCain was a conservative on judicial picks was just a bit much.
Bush's exit helps U.S. image abroad, survey shows
That's a common expression that the U.S. tends to forget in favor of the envy angle. Thanks for reminding me.
So far, that's the best line on the thread. At least Bob Dole had a sense of party loyalty.
> That’s a common expression that the U.S. tends to forget in favor of the envy angle. Thanks for reminding me.
Bush has been a great war-time President, both for the US and for the rest of the world — under the circumstances, I don’t really see how he could have done better. And so it is that I look on with fascinated horror at the upcoming elections: the idiots amongst us in NZ are hoping for Obama, or Hillary! — anything but a good steady hand at the tiller of the Ship of State.
McCain? I dunno about McCain except what I read on the FRee Republic, and what I’ve gleaned of his War Record, and what I’ve been able to surmise on the information that is publicly available.
Of the three? He’d be my pick. But I’d be happier with someone like, say, Ollie North.
I do not understand how it is that the GOP got to this point, where a large percentage of Conservatives are unhappy with their candidate. I do understand, however, that at this time last year I was warning about the absence of a strong candidate for the Conservatives — here on the FRee Republic. I was told that there was plenty of time...
(check the posting histories if you doubt it.)
Overseas it matters a great deal to us whom America chooses as its next President. Like I said, when you lot sneeze, we catch pneumonia.
Please, choose wisely! Do not waste your vote.
God Bless America
*DieHard*
> And it’s just as wrong to take my money to pay for some else’s health care.
I guess that depends upon whether your idea of a perfect civilization resembles a good game of “Survivor” or a good game of Rugby.
And whether you believe in selfishness or selflessness.
It comes down to core values, I guess.
Here in New Zealand we prefer to live and work and fight as rugged individuals who belong on a team, and we finish as a team. We don’t leave any of our own behind.
The Spartans were like that. And, by reputation, many of America’s enduring institutions (like the Marines) are also like that.
We’ve just done all that on an entire-Society basis, that’s all.
Conservatives split their votes. The rest is history.
RNC Last Chance to Fix 2012 Primaries
As I wrote back in January, “According to a Fox News exit poll, 32% of the Michigan Republican primary voters identified themselves as independents or Democrats. Another Fox exit poll showed 20% of the South Carolina Republican primary voters said they were either Democrats or independents. In Michigan, Gov. Romney won with 39%, Sen. McCain was second at 30% and Gov. Huckabee third at 16%. In South Carolina, John McCain won with 33% of the vote, Mike Huckabee had 30% and Fred Thompson had 16%. Given those margins, it’s pretty clear that the Dems and independents controlled the result in both states.”
Open primaries killed the conservatives' hopes.
> Hell, we got tired of boxing and decided on mixed martial arts as a “game”.
Not a bad start: at least you’re moving away from football with pads and moving toward contact sports (albeit with far too many rules).
Soon you will graduate to competitive Yoga, and the next step might even be Rhythmic Gymnastics if you work hard at it. Learn how to skate from the Canadians and you might even try ice-dancing and figure-skating.
When you get into proper contact sports, you will need sports medicine. That will be the time to visit New Zealand.
I was moved by your apology because it takes a good level of maturity and humility...and we seem to see less and less of those characteristics/virtues these days. Thank you. A large number of Hispanics that I know are VERY impressed with the fact that in the United States we adhere to the law.
You said, “Illegals are going to be made into the largest democrat party voting block due to the fact that they don’t understand we are a Republic and not a democracy. Many Mexicans and south Americans think like the New Zealander who posted here, that if the government “gives” you something, it’s free.”
This is something that concerns me. That is why we must take steps to educate and assimilate new immigrants.
You said. “Obama might be president, but he isn’t doing anything without congress.”
This is what worries me even more. I think this Congress may wreak terrible havoc upon this country in unison with Obama. At least with McCain there is the possibility of a veto for the most outrageous proposals.
You said, “I’m hunkering down, praying and voting for conservative legislators.”
THIS is extremely important. By praying for and working for VIRTUOUS conservative legislators, we will ensure a better future. I will also vote for and PRAY daily for McCain.
You are in Texas. I have a number of cousins there (in the Dallas area). I live in the beautiful state of Tennessee and our family members are all Vols fans!
I sincerely wish you the best. ;-)
A "perfect" civilization would not steal from one to give to another with the ulterior motives of securing political support and elected office. Socialized medicine, though perhaps N.Z. is an exception, creates more problems than it solves while creating a huge, inefficient bureaucracy that more often than not gets between patients and the care they need. Moreover, it promotes the false notions that medical care is both free and a right while raising the price of care for all of us.
We would do better to adopt your country's legal reforms first and see how that goes before ruining our system even more by socializing it. Then we should abolish the HMOs. I don't have insurance and am charged less for care as a result.
Yeah, the article basically says what I’ve been posting for the past month, McCain knows he has the Conservative vote, (Conservatives won’t sit home and allow a Marxist Socialist win the White House), and this fact FREES McCain to treat Conservatives with total disdain. In short, the Country Club Establishment is once more in charge of the Republican Party and is claiming the legacy of Reagan. How pathetic.
So sad, and yet so true.
The Marines, and the rest of Military, also demand that each individual does their job, pulls their own weight, and helps others.
When a service or benefit is "free", too many who are not pulling their own weight, or even making an effort, go along for the ride. If the provider attempts to eliminate those, they invariably eliminate the deserving as well.
Besides, we do have a system of essentially free care, at a minimal standard. Virtually every county or city of any size has a facility that anyone without the means can go to for 'acute' care. Yeh they probably have to wait longer than in the so called private hospitals, but even the latter must take anyone who shows up for "acute" care, switching them off to the "public" hospital, or in smaller places, sending a much reduced bill to the county or state. We do pay for that with our taxes, just not at the national level. Especially in a place a big as the US, the more decentralized system works better, and originally health care was beyond the powers granted to the national government(and legally still is). Once the national government, and in some cases the state governments when the system was run at the county level, stick their bureaucratic noses in, the system tends to move toward the "free for everyone" sort of deal, with the attendant abuses.
As an example, a county I lived in for 10 years, and still have a home and pay taxes, once had a privately run "Orphanage and Old folks home". It was a nice facility for it's time. the county paid for some of the cost for the orphans. The Old folks provided adult oversight of the kids, and paid some amount themselves. The kids helped with the "chores", such as washing, doing dishes, cleaning up, and so forth. The old folks also provided love, which the orphans needed more than anything, since some were really abandoned, rather than orphaned. The orphans also loved in return. then the state decided that that was "Child Labor", "Exploitation", etc. and separated the groups, causing the Old Folks home to become insolvent. The buildings still stand as a monument to the folly of over centralization. Probably not for long, developement is very near, and the property was sold some years ago. Meanwhile the old folks of today are in sterile "old folks only" facilities, at much higher expense for the state, and the kids are in foster homes, where the foster parent(s) is paid for taking them in and where they are far more often exploited and abused than was the case in the older facility which had lots of eyes watching over everyone. The kids often do not receive the love they would have gotten in the previous arrangement, and are shuffled from home to home with some regularity.
“He seems to think he can get elected by Hillary supporters and the masses brainwashed into believing the “maverick” label. I really don’t think that strategy is going to work.”
The strategy that Sen. McCain is playing is certainly unorthodox: run against your own base and hope that the number of votes you lose there is more than made up elsewhere. I seriously doubt that it will work. If given the choice between socialism-lite and socialism, I think that voters will pick the real thing or opt out completely.
> When a service or benefit is “free”, too many who are not pulling their own weight, or even making an effort, go along for the ride. If the provider attempts to eliminate those, they invariably eliminate the deserving as well.
We certainly agree on that!
Our welfare systems in NZ are, in theory, supposed to prevent that from happening. If you are on the Unemployment Benefit, you are expected to check in with your case manager twice per week and log every job that you have applied for, and accept any suitable job you are capable of doing.
If you are on a Sickness Benefit, you require a medical certificate from your doctor, and it expires after 13 weeks. It can be renewed, but WINZ (our Work & Income dept) can liaise with your doctor.
Heaps of resources are made available to help people become productive: Occupational Therapists, Work Brokers, Career Counselors, Halfway programs for the disabled — they really do pull out the stops.
Abuse of the system is vigorously prosecuted.
Where the whole thing seems to fall into a screaming heap is the “Domestic Purposes Benefit”. Yup, you guessed it: for some dumb reason NZ pays single women to have children and stay at home to raise them. More kids = more money. No limit. Once you qualify, you are in until your youngest kid turns 18, or until you are in a stable domestic relationship...
...a well-intentioned idea that is just plain nuts when you think thru the implications.
Couple that scenario (perpetually unemployable and unproductive people, with every motivation to stay that way) utilizing expensive social services (such as free medical) and you can easily see how the system gets very expensive.
That’s not a flaw with Social Medicine, tho’ —but it is a flaw with other aligned social policies that coexist around it.
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