Well, it kills me to see everyone roll over and play dead for these two, buffoons. Why is no one talking about the other four candidates? The msm has facilitated a full blown black out of four legitimate parties, and no one is talking about it. WTF? I'm betting Bob Barr, if not any of the others, would slaughter Obama and McCain in a debate. Same for Cynthia McKinney. Where's the outrage?

Abaco21

I see rolling votes for McCain at the last minute. It seems that Americans are not educated enough to vote for the base of American values. We have seen them deteriorate since the Vietnam war.

Our government has carefully dumbed us down and pulled a One World Order over our eyes claiming at only America has the proper morals to lead the world. Sadly most Americans bought it. When I was a kid, American values were taught in our government classes that our Constitution guaranteed a Federal government based on freedoms. Even I began to see a deterioration of the honesty but it hit bottom under the last three Presidents.

Neither party has a moral base. We are destined to be a theocracy as our generations of Americans believe that only God in charge can return America to the top triple crown winner world power.

I can imagine the swearing in of the next President in 2012 where the elected leader will put his his/her hand on the Constitution and swear to protect and support the Holy Bible.

Abaco, there is no outrage left in America. We must get on our knees and watch the Inquisition grow under the Federal Government.

Malcolm

Third, fourth, and fifth parties are little more than ego trips for a few extremists on the right and on the left. Take Ralph Nader, for example. He has no more chance of being elected than I do, yet he continues to raise money and throw himself into the ring just to be able to put a black mark beside his name on election day. What he does not realize is that there's a black mark beside his name every day for the rest of us.

But to the real question: It's tough to fix things in this country because it is going to be flipping expensive and neither candidate is willing to call for sacrifices on the part of the citizens. Neither candidate would come out and respond directly to a question about citizen sacrifice.

But can you imagine if a candidate stood up and said, "We are going to have to tighten our belts, stop buying luxury SUVs, pay more taxes, and be prepared for a lesser life style. We cannot afford to borrow more money, we must spend within our means, and we must pay off our national debt by the year 2050."

Talk about a bum's rush.

The first thing I would do as President is send a message to the Congress asking them to reinstate the fleet fuel economy rules with a vengeance. Within four years the average fuel economy of new vehicles must equal or exceed 30 MPG.

Then I would buy up all existing poorly performing mortgages at a to-be-determined percentage of face value. The Treasury Department would be authorized to renegotiate interest rates and payment schedules to try and keep the mortgagees out of foreclosure. There would be no reduction in principal, though in the most severe cases we would waive back interests if the individual overall situation showed the willingness and ability to pay. The percentage of face value would be low enough to encourage lenders to work their own deals with mortgagees rather than sell the loans at a guaranteed loss.

I would also encourage mortgage holders to renegotiate interest rates, repayment schedules, etc., with those debtors who have not defaulted on their mortgages, as a way of inducing them to continue to make payments and as a reward for having been faithful to their bligations. One way to "encourage" lenders to do this would be to tell them that they would eat any future losses, that this was a one-time good deal. Another way would be through tax incentives. A lender who renegotiated a mortgage would be entitled to exclude from income an amount equal to the first six months of interest due on a renegotiated mortgage. A mortgage would not be considered renegotiated for these purposes unless the interest rate was reduced by at least 75 basis points.

As horrible as this may sound, I would also ask Congress to do away with deductions for interest paid on mortgages. Home owners are the largest welfare group in the United States. We have been subsidizing their home ownership for decades. It's not fair to renters, and it's not fair to the taxpayers. I would at the same time ask Congress to reduce overall tax rates so that there was no initial bite from doing away with interest deductions.

On the international scene I would do several things.

First I would tell the Iraqis that by a date certain we would be pulling all of our troops out of their country. I would warn them that we would not leave any infrastructure behind unless the Iraqis paid the full construction costs.

Second, I would reduce our overseas military presence by 10 percent per year over the next ten years. This will serve notice that we are no longer going to be playing Texas Ranger to the world. It's past time that other countries got involved in keeping the peace.

Third, I would reduce our Embassy staffs by at least 50 percent across the board. In the current economic fix we are in what real good are such niceties as cultural attaches, agricultural attaches, etc.

Fourth, I would announce that the days of foreign aid are over. No billion here, billion there. We just cannot afford it.

Preparing for the future:

I would use the money saved from the four cuts listed just above to fund research into alternative fuel sources and to fund grants to implement alternative fuels.

I would eliminate the Department of Education entirely; except in very limited cases no Federal money would be spent on education at any level. This is a state and local function and our involvement should be limited at best.

I would ask Congress to pass legislation to expand the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program to include all small businesses within three years and all large businesses within 10 years. State governments would be allowed to participate as well, and would be encouraged to use this vehicle to provide affordable insurance to all who could not participate otherwise. The legislative request would provide that this expansion be at no cost to the Federal Government, whose only role would be to administer the program and collect premiums from employers.

Further I would do away entirely with Medicare and use the vehicle above to provide health ensurance for all Medicare enrollees. Medicaid likewise would go away entirely.

I'd really like to hear other peoples' answers to the question in the headline above.

And also reasoned critiques of what I propose.

Your proposals are certainly worth responses. But, I have the advantage of listening to Ron Paul's warnings of this financial meltdown that have been around for many years.

I believe the White House was also warned in 2003 that this crash was coming and they sat on the warnings asking the congress to have faith in the system.

If we continue to go along with the same two-parties who simply trade places in the White House and Congress, nothing will change. We need several leaders in all houses who understands the basic premise of healthy economics. This is a lost subject in our schools, homes and in our government. We will continue on the down side of economics until we realize there is no difference in the current parties.

We are entering into socialism and we will stay there asking the government to cover our bad investments. It can be reversed in 10 to 15 years but only if we elect the proper financial experts who understand supply and demand. We must begin to teach economics as an academic subject and start the next generation learning from the first grade exactly what economics is about.

Putting a Neoconservative Empire builder in the White House starting with Bush 41 it was no surprise to many of us that Bush 43 would destroy the base of our American Values and then our economic base before he left office.

Gazelle, the solutions cannot be found with either Candidate at this time. The voters need to be educated into what is involved in these elections. When both candidates agree to Socialism as our solution to anything, it might be better if no one votes for either.

I appreciate your solution list but the voters have nothing to vote for or against in November.

Malcolm

1. No foreign government or world government body or entity, not even an ally or neighbor of the US is allowed to own any portion of US roads, airports, homes, buildings, lands, waters, resources (oil, gas, precious metals, minerals, etc,), religious facilities (no matter what faith), stocks, bonds, US treasury notes, businesses, banks, military bases or military assets or manufacturing facilities in the US regardless of how much the foreign governments donate to the political campaigns or private fortunes of US officials, elected or bureaucratic, or even to the US treasury.
2. End Department of Education. Have all federal legislation related to education repealed. Under no circumstances should the federal government be involved in national teacher certification, educational curricula, textbook selection, learning standards, comprehensive sex education, psychological and psychiatric research testing programs, and personnel. Because control over education is now being relegated to departments other than the Department of Education, it should likewise be made clear that no federal agency, department, board, or other entity may properly exercise jurisdiction over any aspect of children's upbringing.
3. Uphold the right of the citizens to keep and bear arms and oppose attempts to prohibit ownership of guns by law-abiding citizens, and, further, stand against all laws which would require the registration of guns or ammunition.
4. Begin the process of safely extracting our troops from Iraq. In the first place, our troops are no longer fighting a war, they are an occupation force, which occupies a sovereign country. And this is being done without a Declaration of War. The Iraqi people resent our occupation as much as we would resent another nation stronger than ours invading and occupying America.

   Empire building and playing policeman of the world will come to an immediate halt and the United States of America will once again begin conducting itself as the Republic it was meant to be.

5. Elimination of the federal Food and Drug Administration, as it has been the federal agency primarily responsible for prohibiting beneficial products, treatments, and technologies here in the United States that are freely available in much of the rest of the civilized world.

   Oppose any legislation designed to secure government subsidies for special interests, such as the HMOs, and/or to protect the artificially high cost to consumers of prescription drugs. Oppose any legislation, such as Homeland Security Bill, H.R. 5005, which seeks to authorize the forced vaccination of American citizens against small pox. The government should not have the power to force people to receive immunizations or vaccinations.

6. Utilize whatever force is necessary, including regular military personnel, to effectively secure our borders immediately. It is lunacy to send troops and National Guard half way around the world to protect the borders of Iraq while leaving our own borders wide open. Any employer who consciously hires illegal aliens would go to jail.

   Anyone who overstays their visa or otherwise violates U.S. law is immediately deported. No "path to citizenship" given to any illegal alien. That means no amnesty. Not in any shape, manner, or form. End birthright citizenship for illegal aliens. There would be no "anchor babies."

7. A tariff on foreign imports, based on the difference between the foreign item's cost of production abroad and the cost of production of a similar item produced in the United States, would be a Constitutional step toward a fair trade policy that would protect American jobs and, at the same time, raise revenue for our national government.
8. Maintenance of a strong, state-of-the-art military on land, sea, in the air, and in space will be of the highest priority. All defense expenditures should be directly related to the protection of our nation, and that every item of expenditure must be carefully reviewed to eliminate foreign aid, waste, fraud, theft, inefficiency, and excess profits from all defense contracts and military expenditures.

   Except in time of declared war, no state national guard or reserve troops shall be called upon to support or conduct operations in foreign theaters. 'Supporting the troops' means putting their interests and America's interests first and not in needlessly endangering them by engaging in "policeman of the world" military adventures all over the world. We should be the friend of liberty everywhere, but the guarantor and provisioner of ours alone.

   Never deploy American troops into combat without a declaration of war by Congress, pursuant to Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. Under no circumstances commit U.S. forces to serve under any foreign flag or command.

9. Civil governments must be strictly limited in their powers to intrude upon the persons and private property of individual citizens, in particular, that no place be searched and no thing be seized, except upon proof of probable cause that a crime has been committed and the proper judicial warrant issued.

   America is engaged in an undeclared war with an ill-defined enemy (terrorism), a war which threatens to be never ending, and which is being used to vastly expand government power, particularly that of the executive branch, at the expense of the individual liberties of the American people. The "war on terrorism" is serving as an excuse for the government to spend beyond its income, expand the Federal bureaucracy, and socialize the nation through taxpayer bailouts of the airlines, subsidies to the giant insurance corporations, and other Federal programs.

   Oppose any legislation and/or executive order, that deprives the people of their rights secured under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments under the guise of "combating terrorism" or "protecting national security." Examples of such legislation are the National Security Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, and the proposed Domestic Securities Enhancement Act (colloquially known as "Patriot II").

   Oppose and vigorously support the movement already underway in many state legislatures to repeal the Real ID Act. The national ID card called for in the Real ID Act of 2005 is repressive, invasive, and unconstitutionally violative of the fourth amendment rights of the people.

   The "Real ID" has been unadvisedly promoted as a deterrent to terrorism and illegal immigration, but would not resolve either of those problems as evidenced by the fact that several of the September 11th hijackers used legitimate driver's license.

   American citizens should not be required to carry identification papers or be data based by the federal government.

10. Take the United States out of NAFTA, CAFTA, and end FTAA talks. End the SPP and the dreams of a "North American Union."

    Oppose all international trade agreements which have the effect of diminishing America's economic self-sufficiency and of exporting jobs, the loss of which impoverishes American families, undermines American communities, and diminishes America's capacity for economic self-reliance, and the provision of national defense.

11. Terminate United States membership in the United Nations, and its subsidiary organizations, and terminate U.S. participation in all so-called U.N. peace keeping operations and bar the United Nations, and its subsidiaries, from further operation, including raising of funds, on United States territory.

And if you find yourself agreeing with these measures, you owe it to yourself, your kids, and grandkids to check out Chuck Baldwin as these are all his views and what he intends to accomplish if elected.

Concur. Especially points 1, 7, 8 and 10.

-- Kent Shaw

The one that bothers me the most is the Sanctity of Life when it controls the unborn and not the American citizens. Maybe in the future when the Americans know right from wrong this might be necessary. Our 12 to 16 year old girls are still having unprotected sex and should not be forced into giving birth when their own bodies and minds are not fully developed.

I do not believe that prohibiting abortions is a factor of the Federal Government and using infants as a penalty for these young teenagers is ridiculous. Once the Federal government gets into the prohibition of any social activity it will lead to the government telling us what we cannot ingest, inject or inhale in our bodies. I do not like the term "Sanctity of Life or Sanctity of Marriage" This opens the door to the relgious aspect of the Constitution that is not part of the document.g Of course Baldwin in a Christian Minister and makes millions from his conhregations who demand that he add the Sanctity be part of his campaign.

Please show me where in the Constitution any social action is found within the American family. Every American should be taught the social laws from home and abortions not allowed from the head of the household. It is the same with drugs and alcohol abuse. Legislating this stuff opens the Federal Government to set our lifestyles within the Constitution. It is an insult to every American citizen.

We must remember that not all Americans are Christians. I say "Nice Try Chuck Baldwin, but no cigars."

If the Christians would teach right from wrong instead of promising redemption and forgiveness there would be fewer abortions needed. No nation was ever able to legislate against social sins. How about our war on drugs? What the hell are parents for?

Malcolm, who up to now, was with this group.

Gazz and Woody for Prez
Malcomb, a reporter asked me how I felt about Palins stance on abstinence. I said, when did we decide to allow the government to teach our children moral values..
Teach them the science of conception. Sure. Morality? We take care of that just fine in the home, thank you.

Not me. I'm too damned aware of my limitations to fall into THAT trap.

And I absolutely totally disagree with No. 5 above. One word: thalidomide. The FDA is our shield.

And think VERY carefully before implementing No. 1.