maybe i should just stay out of this, but...
i guess i just don't understand why i can go in the supermarket and have a choice of over 50+ cereals, or 15+ different types of peanut butter, yet when it comes to the president of the united states, i only get two choices. hell, i have more 29er tire choices than president.
one argument i'm tired of is the now old argument that republicans will keep us 'safer' while democrats will just let every terrorist into the country to kill us. seriously... please. i was in NYC on 9/11 too. 9/11 is an event far beyond any political party's attempt to spin it. no one owns 9/11 - and no one owns the ability to keep us 'safe'. hell, if anyone in our gov't read huntington's 'clash of the civilizations' they may have actually taken some of these documented threats seriously... who knows. but no political party came to the rescue - people did.
that being said, there are two issues that are on my mind, besides a bunch of others.
one is that our nation is in debt - tremendous debt. we need to pay it off to get our economy stronger. if we don't pay the debt off, we're screwed if other nations start dumping our securities because they view our securities, which are backed by our weak economy, as impaired. our current debt-based economy just enables our spending habits as a nation. it is not sustainable.
the dollar will be worth crap in comparison to what it is already valued at if the securities start getting dropped by other nations. debt and its subsequent payment only takes common sense to deal with - when you spend tremendous amounts of money on credit, you have to pay it off. for those that don't want to raise taxes, i agree with you. for those that don't want government waste, i agree with you. problem is, we gotta pay off this debt NOW... we can't continue to be owned outright by outside investors (i.e. other gov'ts). and its gonna take us cutting back on our 'latte factor' as a nation and dishing out a little bit more as a group to get us out of this hole we are in. getting out of debt will help our economy. weak dollars don't always help the economy, and right now, the weak dollar is hurting us. let's actually pay for these wars we are in if we are going to continue them.
number 2: since we're on a bike site, let's talk the environment since we all care about it in one way or another... i sometimes don't even know where to begin. all i know is i want clean air and clean water for at least myself, my wife, and my son to enjoy for his life and his kids' lives. we all have an impact on this planet, and to deny that just doesn't make sense to me. what's the thing running around the news lately - i think its called fracking for oil? just doesn't make sense to drop waste in what we drink. stuff like this needs regulation - and certain industries have proven they won't regulate themselves. love it or hate it, regulation is necessary, and we all have to pay for it. most of us bitch about a 2 foot wide strip of dirt that runs through the woods being ridden when it's wet... we yell about mud, yet how can you not be concerned about clean water or clean air? heck, look at what happened in ringwood with ford motor co... the EPA got in there and made ford clean it up, and it still isn't even totally 'clean'. our tax dollars helped out a park we are all concerned with - "big gov't" or not - it worked and it's not as half as polluted as it would have been left without regulation.
i guess i'm saying, i hate taxes, but i'm willing to pay for some stuff that may not work great, but its better than nothing.
just thinking about this stuff has me lean towards O versus M right now... either way, i know i'm not an L or Q... but we have a lot of time left. i'd like to see some debates (mind you, most likely filled with false promises - just watch with factcheck.org at the ready... if that site is even correct).
