My Ideas

[Kosar_For_President]

@mr.-t said:

Did they fix it when they bailed out the Banks? Or are we just delaying the inevitable? That last I heard Barney Franks still has his hands on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Look at this

Ok, T, how does this help again? Ideas people. What a bunch of sad sacks.

I will not respond to this in this thread. Especially when "last I heard" is fact.

[Pumpkin Eater]

I agree that the banks need to be forced to lower the principals on a lot of the underwater homes. It doesn't make sense for a bank to go through the foreclosure process and then sell the home for less than what the lowered principal would have been.

Even if people are still making payments, lower the principal. Lower the payment past 31% of their gross income down to 28%. This will allow people to have more disposable income to buy things. Also it will help people have the ability to sell their houses and jump-start the housing market again. If you're worried about people who overbought getting a break, only lower it for people who bought sensibly in the past but lost their job and took a lower paying one.

Kosar is right. The banks needed to be bailed out, now they'll just have to deal with this.

[Mr. T]

We bailed the banks out after they lost Trillions of everyones money, they looted the retirement and investment portfolios of millions of people. They (banks) were bailed out, but the customers were not given a dime of that money, meanwhile the bankers went and spent the money giving themselves pay raises and bonuses. So how do we explain the bailout?

It was a con.

In my opinion; The bailout wasn't just Republicans or Democrats, it was both parties who went along with this scam. We need to remember the only retirement plans that were upheld were the retirement plans of AIG who hold almost all of the Federal Govenments retirement benefits.

In saying all of that, I will admit that i am pissed off over it. I'll give you an example; My mother inlaw who worked all her life and saved every dime that she could was robbed of her 401k when this went down, she lost over 200k and it was never replaced. And if you ask around you can find several others parents and grandparents who have lost money out of their retirement accounts during that time.

So as we play the R vs. D game we need to realize a lot of these scumbags in DC do not give a rats ass. So before some go around discrediting people in the Tea party they may want to take a closer look at the Tea paty's message.

[Pumpkin Eater]

But the Tea Party sees nothing wrong with having a low dividend tax. Dividends definitely need to be taxed more.

[Kosar_For_President]

@mr.-t said:

We bailed the banks out after they lost Trillions of everyones money, they looted the retirement and investment portfolios of millions of people. They (banks) were bailed out, but the customers were not given a dime of that money, meanwhile the bankers went and spent the money giving themselves pay raises and bonuses. So how do we explain the bailout?

It was a con.

In my opinion; The bailout wasn't just Republicans or Democrats, it was both parties who went along with this scam. We need to remember the only retirement plans that were upheld were the retirement plans of AIG who hold almost all of the Federal Govenments retirement benefits.

In saying all of that, I will admit that i am pissed off over it. I'll give you an example; My mother inlaw who worked all her life and saved every dime that she could was robbed of her 401k when this went down, she lost over 200k and it was never replaced. And if you ask around you can find several others parents and grandparents who have lost money out of their retirement accounts during that time.

So as we play the R vs. D game we need to realize a lot of these scumbags in DC do not give a rats ass. So before some go around discrediting people in the Tea party they may want to take a closer look at the Tea paty's message.

T, while I do agree that spending needs to stop. The tea party seems to only want to pull the spending from (correct me if I am wrong) direct government programs. Tom Tillis's staff make a combined $1 million dollars, I think he has like 9 people on staff. Lip service.

They want to stop spending. What are the plans of some of these tea baggers on how to MAKE money? Growth.

[Mr. T]

@kosar_for_president said:

T, while I do agree that spending needs to stop. The tea party seems to only want to pull the spending from (correct me if I am wrong) direct government programs. Tom Tillis's staff make a combined $1 million dollars, I think he has like 9 people on staff. Lip service.

They want to stop spending. What are the plans of some of these tea baggers on how to MAKE money? Growth.

Here is an example of wasted spending. And this was just in the stimulus law, and we know this crap goes on and pork is always attached to almost every spending bill.

1. Forest Service to Replace Windows in Visitor Center

Closed in 2007 (Amboy, WA) – $554,763

2. “Dance Draw” – Interactive Dance Software Development

(Charlotte, NC) – $762,372

3. Ants Talk. Taxpayers Listen (San Francisco, CA) – $1.9million

4. Town Replaces New Sidewalks With Newer Sidewalks

That Lead to Ditch (Boynton, OK) – $89,298

5. Scientist Attempts to Create Joke Machine (Evanston, IL) – $712,883

6. Jamming for Dollars (Atlanta, GA) – $762,372

7. DTV “Experts” Plug Boxes Into a Wall (Buffalo, NY) – $350,000

8. Museum With 44 Annual Visitors Gets Funding for Bug Storage (Raleigh, NC) -$253,123

9. Reducing Menopausal Hot Flashes Through Yoga (Winston-Salem, NC) – $294,958

10. Stimulus Funds Going to the Dogs (Ithaca, NY)505 – $296,385

And this is just a small sampling of what our money is spent on. Wasted Money

[Kosar_For_President]

@mr.-t said:

Here is an example of wasted spending. And this was just in the stimulus law, and we know this crap goes on and pork is always attached to almost every spending bill.

1. Forest Service to Replace Windows in Visitor Center

Closed in 2007 (Amboy, WA) – $554,763

2. “Dance Draw” – Interactive Dance Software Development

(Charlotte, NC) – $762,372

3. Ants Talk. Taxpayers Listen (San Francisco, CA) – $1.9million

4. Town Replaces New Sidewalks With Newer Sidewalks

That Lead to Ditch (Boynton, OK) – $89,298

5. Scientist Attempts to Create Joke Machine (Evanston, IL) – $712,883

6. Jamming for Dollars (Atlanta, GA) – $762,372

7. DTV “Experts” Plug Boxes Into a Wall (Buffalo, NY) – $350,000

8. Museum With 44 Annual Visitors Gets Funding for Bug Storage (Raleigh, NC) -$253,123

9. Reducing Menopausal Hot Flashes Through Yoga (Winston-Salem, NC) – $294,958

10. Stimulus Funds Going to the Dogs (Ithaca, NY)505 – $296,385

And this is just a small sampling of what our money is spent on. Wasted Money

I 100% agree here. But what else are the the canidates wanting to cut? Social programs?

[VaporTrail]

A wild scientist appears!

Okay. Obvious angry Republicans are pissed off at scientific spending.

Let's address these issues.

1.9 million dollar grant to an ant study

First off, this grant created ~30 jobs. Secondly, the research that they're doing is looking at the impact of humans on ant behavior in newly human-inhabited Madagascar. In effect this is an evolutionary study on par with Darwin's study in the Galapagos which, as you may or may not know, revolutionized scientific understanding. Okay, now you're obviously wondering, what the xxxx is the point of scientific understanding that we got from Darwin.

How about genetic counseling? What are the chances your child might inherit some recessive disease? We can figure this out because of Mendelian genetics. Also included from this are genetic therapies, not to mention an increased understanding of human origins and why some parts of our body are inefficient.

Okay, so yeah, evolution and genetics is great. What does that have to do with ants? Well, this is newly inhabited so they're going to see how ant colonies respond to the presence of humans. Why the hell do I care what ants do when they see humans? You might not, but many people do. As it turns out, artificial intelligence programs that model ant-swarm behavior are increasingly being applied to different, real-world problems. Companies such as Barilla (you know the pasta company) use an ant-swarm program to calculate the most efficient shipping routes which change every day, and it only takes 15 minutes to sort out plans for 1200 trucks. As it turns out, this ant-swarm method is more effective than a bunch of programs we've come up with already, including packet sorting for internet routers, so yes, you get a faster internet from ants. Swarm computing is also being applied to models of the human brain, which we know extremely little about. And the more we know about how the brain functions, the faster we can begin to understand neural diseases such as Alzheimers or Parkinsons.

This shit is important. I'll discuss the other ones in a few.

Source: http://www.economist.com/node/16789226?story_id=16789226&fsrc=rss

[Kosar_For_President]

@vaportrail said:

A wild scientist appears!

Okay. Obvious angry Republicans are pissed off at scientific spending.

Let's address these issues.

1.9 million dollar grant to an ant study

First off, this grant created ~30 jobs. Secondly, the research that they're doing is looking at the impact of humans on ant behavior in newly human-inhabited Madagascar. In effect this is an evolutionary study on par with Darwin's study in the Galapagos which, as you may or may not know, revolutionized scientific understanding. Okay, now you're obviously wondering, what the xxxx is the point of scientific understanding that we got from Darwin.

How about genetic counseling? What are the chances your child might inherit some recessive disease? We can figure this out because of Mendelian genetics. Also included from this are genetic therapies, not to mention an increased understanding of human origins and why some parts of our body are inefficient.

Okay, so yeah, evolution and genetics is great. What does that have to do with ants? Well, this is newly inhabited so they're going to see how ant colonies respond to the presence of humans. Why the hell do I care what ants do when they see humans? You might not, but many people do. As it turns out, artificial intelligence programs that model ant-swarm behavior are increasingly being applied to different, real-world problems. Companies such as Barilla (you know the pasta company) use an ant-swarm program to calculate the most efficient shipping routes which change every day, and it only takes 15 minutes to sort out plans for 1200 trucks. As it turns out, this ant-swarm method is more effective than a bunch of programs we've come up with already, including packet sorting for internet routers, so yes, you get a faster internet from ants. Swarm computing is also being applied to models of the human brain, which we know extremely little about. And the more we know about how the brain functions, the faster we can begin to understand neural diseases such as Alzheimers or Parkinsons.

This shit is important. I'll discuss the other ones in a few.

Nice Vape. Discuss some others. I've been out of school for a while and don't keep up on this shit. Plus I have a BFA, lol.

[VaporTrail]

Next up,

Dance Draw

Alright, after a bit of research, I find this one a bit harder to defend. I'm more of a fan of the sciences than the arts, but the arts are important to many. I mean, people will pay a shit ton of money to see dancers at so-and-so's concert, or on Broadway, I don't know too much about it personally, but there is a market for it, and therefore it's earned its funding.

First off, 44% of the costs are specifically for overhead at the university...

The correct name for "overhead" is Facilities & Administrative (F&A) Costs. The percentage is established for us (and for every other institution) by the federal government after auditing our actual expenses in administering externally-funded projects, and includes administrative costs at the department, college, and central levels (accounting, personnel, payroll, research facilities depreciation, utilities, library use ... to name a few). We put those funds back into research development, including the development of new research facilities. A good example of our use of F&A receipts is the current Research Administration Project, in which the Chancellor is committing well over $1M a year to improve Banner system processes and hire additional staff in Grants and Contracts Accounting and Financial Services to keep up with the workload of administering federal funds.

tl;dr - it's helping the university pay for administrative jobs. Okay, not exactly what I was looking for, but they are jobs, and it's >300k. So that's maybe 4-6 administrative jobs.

Anyways, as to the science behind it...

It's meant to improve the computer interaction between dancer and computer. The programming that goes behind this is very likely the best in the field of dance. It will allow people to choreograph stuff to youtube videos, and will get people more interested in the arts. Can't say I necessarily agree with it because the money that goes to artists typically only goes to the best, and it seems that it might attract a bunch of shit poor dancers to a guaranteed failed career. On the flip side, the money that goes to scientists also only goes to those who prove their research is the best use of funds, and there is an overabundance of PhD's. I find this a bit hard to swallow, but again, it's more about the arts than it is the science. Art is, and always has been important to this country, so that's why there is funding for it. However much the arts receive, it's chump change compared to the sciences.

Sorry, I'm not that enthusiastic about the arts, but I sort of do agree that the money should be there for creativity. I mean, the rest of the money is going toward dancers and programmers, so again, that's jobs. Might not be my favorite type of job, but it's a job nonetheless. Of the things listed above that involve science, this would be the first one I would cut.

Source: http://www.wsoctv.com/news/24500081/detail.html

[Pumpkin Eater]

Dividends should be taxed at 25% if not reinvested.

[Kosar_For_President]

I actually agree with Bunker here, I know. There are some things that need to be given up vs. cutting in to SS and Medicare. If it is so important to Barolli and their business model, let them pay for it. It is interesting though, but we need to tighten our belt and cut shit like this, for now.

[VaporTrail]

Bunker said:

So are you saying that if a kid has some bad genes we should abort them before they are born?

But to get to the point, who gives a shit that we have a faster internet when granny is starving to pay her light bill? so this shit is really useless to fixing our country. but for loonbey tunes like you it is intriguing in your studies of a utopian controlled society.

Bunker, you actually bring up some great points that are indeed issues that have arisen with the human genome project. There are a shit ton of ethical issues that will be raised (so now we can pick the sperm and egg we want for our ideal child? will insurance companies be able to see this information, thus categorizing us as high risk and raising our premiums? or maybe they'd refuse to cover us?). Bunker, you're absolutely right, and these are serious issues that would be the absolute worst outcome of everyone mapping their genes.

On the flip side, however, the benefits of everyone mapping their genes would be the greatest medicinal advancement since we learned to use penicillin. As it stands, only ~100-200 human genomes have been mapped, and that is an extremely small sample size in which it is extremely hard to draw any conclusions from. If even 1% of the human population were to map their genes, then we could look for correlations between gene sequence and symptoms of disease, giving us a better understanding of why they occur, and more importantly, a better plan of attack for nullifying the disease, whether it's Cancer, Alzheimers, Parkinsons, TB, or muscular dystrophy. If you think that isn't important to our country, I don't think I'll convince you otherwise.

As for your point about granny starving to pay her light bill, I'm going to answer your question with another question. Why are old folks traveling across the border to Canada for medicine? Why has it become extremely difficult for people to do this in the past 10 years? There is definitely a dark side to the field of medicine, and this is the embodiment of it. The insurance and drug companies are so xxxxing greedy, but they have enough money and influence to lobby Congress so that these senior citizens have to pay an arm and a leg for medicine to keep them alive and healthy, even though they get dropped from their insurance.

[Pumpkin Eater]

93% of the financial wealth of this country is held by 20% of the people.

1% of the people hold 42.7% of the financial wealth.

And you know what? They didn't get there by playing fair. Spare me the "they worked harder, they should be rewarded" bullshit.

50% of the wealthiest people got their wealth through an inheritance. Nearly all of them benefited from politicians who can be bought like candy at the five and dime store.

Tax the rich their fare share, as Warren Buffett stated, he payed less a percentage of his taxable income then you or I most likely did! At least make them pay an equal share!

[calfoxwc]

"sigh"

First of all - if you tax the rich more bigtime - they will invest less. Watch the market go down more than it keeps doing off and on....

more. What liberal dummies don't get - is that for every action, there is a reaction.

It isn't about emotionally going after a solution in taxing the rich a whole lot more. Class envy is the enemy of our freedoms.

And socilaists use it to the hilt - because they want control. Of every freakin thing.

That is Obamao and the rest of his "mafia", like it or not.

Second of all - K is pansying around trying not to blame Democrats. DEMOCRATS were solidly in charge of Fannie May and Freddie Mac during the

Bush admin, while they owned Congress.

Thirdly of all - If you tax the freakin rich 50 freakin percent, this corrupt bunch of spend it all and more Dems (and a few Reps),,, will simply spend it all again.

Does anybody think Obamao and co and the Dems in the Senate will agree to ONLY USING THE EXTRA MONEY FROM TAXES TO PAY DOWN THE DEBT?

NO, DAMMIT.

They will create more gov programs to buy more votes.

It's like farmers. They want to make all family members who drive a farm vehicle, even IF THEY ONLY DRIVE IT ON THEIR OWN PROPERTY, get a CDL license.

And recertification every two years. And they can raise those fees. And force inspections. And raise fines. Then they can make a new gov program to enforce it all

under the Dept of Agriculture. Then they can require training, and they can charge $$$ to attend the required training. Then they can know everybody to hope they

can get them unionized, then they can buy off alegiance to the Dems like with the NEA, SEIU, and the list goes on and on.

It's about politics. It isn't about money. Gate and Buffet and the rest are welcome to give even 75% percent of their money every year if they want, to help pay down the debt.

But like I said, it would just be spent for more votes, more entitlements, especailly for illegsls...no, wait, that is also for more votes.....

The spending is absolutely UNSUSTAINABLE if if you DO raise the taxes on the hated, filthy rich.

Say, those NFL and Basketball stars who get 60 and 100 million dollar contracts... why not bash them and make them pay out the nose in taxes?

"It would only be fair?" "They don't need all that - it should go to help the poor" ???

Because that wouldn't be popular, and would step on fans' toes, and that wouldn't buy votes.

I don't give a crap if they raise taxes on the rich. But that's a precursor to saying that it STILL won't be enough, and it's only fair to raise taxes on the middle class.

"Socialism is a great idea, until you run out of other people's money"

I don't see the gigantic deficit spending by Dems stopping, until we get a Rep pres with a Rep Senate.

STOP the SPENDING. Even if you tax the ultra-rich 90 percent, it would NOT pay off our debt. They'd just keep spending more.

So, that is why there is a Tea Party. STOP THE FREAKIN SPENDING AND LEANING ON THE UPPER AND MIDDLE CLASS FOR HIGHER TAXES.

Just once, I'd like to see some stupid ass dem come out and start talking about PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.

BTW- it takes THIRTY PEOPLE to study ants? Why that many? I could have two scientists go there. What, half of the money spent

goes for houses to build there, and a hospital, and a nightclub and swimming pools and a hotel and an airport and....

then there will soon be no more room for the ants.

And the mind-numbed liberal weiners like Kosar and Vaporized will sit back and make tearful pleas like parrots,

for higher taxes to build a new island for the ants.

STOP THE STUPID ASS SPENDING NOW. The Tea Party has it RIGHT.

[Kosar_For_President]

I am not pansying around anything Cal. The blame game is old. You want to whine, bitch and complain like a girl, but don't offer up a solution. You can't think for yourself, it's ok, we understand you have a feable mind by now.

"Stop spending". Wow you and the Tea Baggers have it right? On what, when, why? I mean a REAL solution.

Your a fooking dolt.

[calfoxwc]

You are the pansying dolt. You spell "you're" this way:

Y-O-U-'R-E.

Not "your". "Your" is the possessive form of "You".

Like "your nonsense".

Like "pull your stupid britches, dumbass".

"YOU'RE" is a contraction of "You are"...

well, I think it's a contraction. It's been so long since I had to argue about that.

Yes, I play the blame game, dummy, because it's a fact. Go look up who was in charge of Fannie May and Freddie Mac,

the last at least two years of Bush's admin. with an all Dem Congress.

But no, you don't want to blame either party?

How quaint and politically self serving, nimrod.

I don't claim to be a major Republican. I just see that there is only ONE TRULY AMERICAN POLITICAL party in this country anymore.

And it is NOT the Democrats. They aren't Dems anymore. They don't offer much of any kind of an AMERICAN CHOICE anymore.

That puts the onus on the Republicans to stick to the American principles, and get rid of the wishy washy polician rhinoes.

The solution is to stop the spending, Kosar. Because if you don't, you see, raising the taxes on those mean, terrible, wicked, bad and nasty rich folks

won't do anything fo get us out of this deficit horror. The UNAmerican "democlatz" will simply spend more to buy more votes from their base.

If you really don't see that, get glasses and some high powered binoculars. It doesn't take x-ray vision, trust me.

[Pumpkin Eater]

How about ending the medicaid coverage of circumcisions in all states. Why in the world is a completely medically unnecessary procedure covered by medicaid anywhere?

[calfoxwc]

I'm not a doctor. But wouldn't that be an option for parents to do, that optionally would be covered by their

insurance, in return for a higher premium?

If you are an older couple, in your eighties, why the bleep would you have to pay for

a global provision like that?

Why not bring abortion into it? Why is the left so insistent on paying for abortions?

That is most always a completely medically unnecessary procedure.

Actually, there is the possibility of infections in that part of the body, but perhaps that's a reach.

But to support abortions as medically necessary is just corrupt liberal dem thinking of pandering to their leftist base.

[calfoxwc]

It's called freedom, btw. If you want that covered, then YOU pay for the coverage.

You don't make other people collectively provide it for you.

Right now, we have way too many people slurping the "make everybody else

pay for me to be happy" pink=o koolaid.

It's time for the lefties to start being responsible for themselves, and to

leave other people alone, and start being self sufficient instead of self serving.

It's a liberal disease, the symptoms are:

Depression about not being rich, not being taken care of, and not being fed, housed, clothed and entertained

like little babies. The gov is not a babysitter. Some programs are necessary, but there isn't a program for utopia.

So STOP THE FREAKIN SPENDING. The gov shouldn't pay for abortions OR circumcisions, without that coverage persnally paid for,

by the users of those services who wanted that coverage. Or, you pay for it your own selves.

You don't make the gov have new taxes to provide it for you. That's the Dem way. And a few Reps. Vote for stopping the crap in gov..