Good morning Baghdad! <-----

[kalantna]

I have a newsflash for everyone, or more importantly for all of us Americans on the board. We are not nor have he ever been what I would call a democracy. We are (brace yourselves) a Rebublic. Don't believe me? Recite the Pledge. "And to the REPUBLIC to which it stands".

A democracy should be 100% by the people for the people.

If we were a 100% democracy there would not be instances throughout our brief history of the electoral college voting against the majority vote for president. (Don't ask me when it was. Find out for yourself.) Also, do you think that "Dubwa" would have been elected if it had been. (CHAD my hairy @$$).

I personally would like to say a great BIG thank you to France for their help some 200 years ago and how can I see the nipples on TV over the web.

 

[Ugg]

Good for the kids who take on the system!

In response to Decado, as of the middle of last year, British Petroleum controls 10% of the worldwide production of solar cels. The oil companies and the automakers know only too well that the internal combustion engine is on its last legs so to speak. Even under the most optimistic OPEC, Halliburton, Cheney, Bush, Saudi, Nigerian, US, etc, etc, estimates, there is only enough oil to satisfy CURRENT demand for the next 30-40 years. Hmmm, that means that new power supplies are going to have to come from other sources whether they be wind, solar, ocean, nuclear, fuel cells, or whatever.

GW and his gang belong to the world of the dinosaurs. Instead of giving the billions in tax breaks to the oil companies he should institute a tax on all oil imports and apply it to the Research and Development of alternative energy sources. Then the US would truly rule the world!!!!!! That is really a joke, ok!

 

[toast]

OECD test victims are asked not to do this kind of stuff. But still, you can't force a grade school pupil to play fool
Very good point, Ed. Shoudl tell OECD PISA inspectors about it

 

[Ugg]

True Kalantna, there never has been a true decmocracy and there has never been a true communist state. Our republic is patterned directly after that of the French model. The french model is the basis for government in the western world. With a bicameral legislative body, a supreme court, and a president and or a prime minister. What this means is that power is decentralized. No longer will the leaders of these republics be able to enslave their citizens.

They are fragile creatures however, Hitler used the republican form of government to get into power and then slowly and systematically weakened it until it was only a shell of its former self. I don't believe he was the only one to do so either.

A republic is only as stable as the people who oversee it and its citizens. The ultimate responsibility belongs to the citizens to ensure that those in power uphold the constitution and the law. The constitution of the US has come under serious attack lately and I think all Americans would do well to focus on that rather than on the middle east. If GW's regime is allowed to institute Patriot Act II then we can say goodbye to forums like these being available for us to express our dissatisfaction. Even if they don't disappear they will be monitored like the Soviets did or the Americans during one of the most hateful periods of our history, the Reign of Senator Joe McCarthy. (Please all bow down in reverence to he who destroyed the fabric of American life to expose the Communist filth among us) I'm not well-versed on McCarthy but his committee is a lot like the Homeland Security thingie with it's color-coded fear elevators. Whose homeland is this anyway?

The only other Regimes that have used the word homeland with initial impunity were Hitler and P K Botha of South Africa. Do we as Americans realize the outcome of our president's actions? Are we willing to give up our freedoms for the sake of our president? Will our government protect those freedoms or simply and slowly do away with them?

Man, I wish I had the answer to all that. All I know is that these are some pretty rough times and we have some tough decisions to make and the consequences of those decisions are going to follow us for a long, long time.

I fail to see a positive outcome to this mess. Anyone else see the sun shining on Baghdad ever again?