::applauds::
Excellent post, BobLibDem; I agree.
Screw the moon…it’s been a longer 46 years since anybody’s been visiting a Trench.
1978 was the era of ‘Malaise’, the ‘Misery Index’, double-digit interest rates and inflation, and the Soviets were on the move in Afghanistan and Central America. 1978 sucked. People also wore ugly disco clothes.
The cold war was going strong, there were marches around the world against the Pershing missile, the cruise missile, and the MX. The economy was just starting to recover after a nasty recession. Unemployment was high, the deficit was higher as a percentage of GDP than it is today (5.1%).
The country was just emerging from recession. Unemployment was 9.1%. In 1992 I paid 11.5% in interest on a five-year mortgage.
Ooh, 1999 - the last good year of the .Com bubble. THAT sure set us up for good times ahead, huh? The stock market was over-inflated, the employment market was distorted, people were making foolish investment decisions right and left. The next two years would see trillions of dollars of wealth wiped out as reality set in.
Now, let’s compare that to today, shall we? 10 quarters of consecutive growth. GDP growth will average 3.5% this year. Unemployment is 4.9%. Housing starts and home ownership are at an all-time high. Real wages are increasing. Inflation is about as low as it can be. Interest rates are low. The U.S. economy is outperforming Europe by a mile.
If Bush says the state of the union is strong, he won’t be lying. It’s just about as strong as it’s ever been.
Without getting into the Iraq war debate, the idea that it’s a complete quagmire is, well, nuts. The U.S. lost over 50,000 soldiers in Vietnam. It’s lost 2200 in Iraq. They have an elected government, and everyone’s talking about the Iraqi military taking over and the U.S. withdrawing. That’s not a quagmire.
Typical lefty talking points when Republicans preside over a good economy. A couple of the reasons wages are stagnant overall is because A) benefits are up, and B) wages were unsustainably high during the dot-com boom, and still have not recovered. You also ignore increases in net wealth due to personal real-estate increases and other trends.
Real per-capita GDP has increased by almost $2000 since 2000.
Are you kidding? There are two rovers rolling around Mars. There’s a spacecraft on the way to Pluto, and a huge nuclear powered spacecraft orbiting Saturn. There have been huge breakthroughs in cosmology in the past five years. We’re making huge strides in stem cell research and nanotechnology. Computer technology is still exploding. HDTV is beginning its big breakthrough into mass-market acceptance. Flat-panel TV technology is making the CRT obsolete. Over the past five years DVDs have become the fastest-accepted technology in history. Carbon nanotubes are promising the greatest breakthoughs in materials since aluminum came along. There’s a new renaissance in auto engineering. The internet has exploded in functionality and popularity. We saw the first private manned space launches, and are promised commercial space tourism within this decade. And NASA has started its exploration initiative, which is the first time since 1972 that they’ve contemplated taking men anywhere but low earth orbit.
Seriously, this isn’t a partisan thing. If you’ve let your partisanship so blind you that you think we’re living in a dull time where nothing interesting is happening and the world is coming apart, it’s time to stop focusing on politics. There’s more to life than who’s in the oval office.
Beats the living shit out of duck-and-cover, wouldn’t you say? My childhood was spent in fear that we’d all be obliterated in an atomic war. Then there was the ‘population bomb’, a new ice age coming, starvation in 20 years, yada yada yada. EVERY generation has its bogeymen. Some are real problems that have to be confronted. Most are overhyped, and a few are complete bullshit. So it will ever be.
Then there is no excuse NOT to do something about many of the items mentioned by BobLibDem.
Just as there is no excuse to sweep under the rug the sorry state of health care:
http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=11028940&src=rss/domesticNews
And don’t forget the fleecing of America the Medicare medicine plan is.
And after all that, people have less health care than before.
My biggest complaint against any “strong” comment from Bush is that Bush can only take credit by using America’s credit. Since his base and cronies are not willing to pay the price (no taxes to beat the axis) I’m not willing to give him any credit.
Well, there you go OP. In less than the first five minutes.
‘Isolationism’, Bush? Fuck you. Who backed out of the ICC and the Kyoto Protocol again?
I say this is a lie.
The foreign al-Qaeda is a minority part in the insurgency and recent reports are pointing to the Suni insurgency not liking al-Qaeda, they are realizing what I realized eons ago: al-Qaeda attacts (mostly indiscriminate suicide bombs) in an attempt to keep America in Iraq (loony kill Americans death wish), the Sunis attack (mostly the military targets) to get America out. If reports are correct that the US is negotiating with the Suni rebels and al-Qaeda is fuming about that, it shows that the al-Qaeda groups have no power whatsoever to control the nation after we are gone; they will be in IMHO hunted by the Iraqis after they stop being useful to them.
The first thing I’ve heard out of Bush that I’ve really liked so far is a push to get the line-item veto back into law.
Tax cuts? The other day I was reading about this armed conflict in the Middle East that’s apparently costing billions of dollars. Maybe Bush should look into that? It sounds pretty pricey.
Now THAT was funny!
When Bush spoke of inactivity on Social Security, the Democrats stood and cheered. Bush rebuked them with pointed finger, and they did it again!
This is great political theater. I pity people who miss this, they miss a great show.
Damnit Aeshenes, you got to the “Bush is a Soviet-style Commie” before I could muster up the strength to start a thread about it. I must agree… and I’m tickled to see that more people have noticed.
Ouch.
It was never the law before.
A conflict we did nothing to invite.
Jeez, how much longer are the American people going to put up with this shitstain?!
Yes it was…briefly.
It was passed during the end of the first Clinton administration. Clinton got to use it once before it was declared unconstitutional first by the US District Court and then upheld 6-3 by the Supreme Court. linky
Are you talking about IRAQ?! We did nothing to invite the conflict in IRAQ?!
Which planet are you posting from? Or are you one of those people who still believe that Saddam Hussein’s brainwashed minions were flying those jets on 9/11/2001?