Chile Forum

RWS wrote:And, yet, some people continue to have more than two children apiece!

Oh, come on, RWS, grow a nuance already! The individuals who thoughtfully choose to have more than two kids that they will love and can afford to take care of don't deserve that kind of comment. And are probably in a decreasing demographic anyway...I'm not any happier about overpopulation than you are, but there are a lot better targets than the individual parents--why not complain about lousy to nonexistent population growth policy, or lack of cheap easily available contraception, or idiotic or nonexistent sex education for teenagers, or especially for lack of first-world support for these things in the countries with the worst overpopulation problems?

I sure hope the Obama administration has a better record along those lines than the last one did, not that that would be difficult.

I sure hope so, too. But I'm not sanguine (can you name a single American government during the past who-knows-how-long that had?).

YAWN ....

Saw this JibJab clip staring Obama on youtube. Better yet, see it on JibJab...
http://sendables.jibjab.com/originals/hes_barack_obama

A soundbite from a recent press conference:

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/med ... =105837148

Forward to minute 50:00

The newly published BBC World Service poll of 20 countries (including Chile) shows a significant year-over-year improvement in how the US is viewed and is atributed to the so-called "Obama effect". For example, the Chile component, 1200 participants polled (face-to-face) across 80 cities, reflects a 55% favorable impression of US influence --- up 13% from 2009. There were similar poll results in 16 of the 20 countries. For those interested in reviewing the complete poll data go to http://www.bbc.com and click on the "Obama effect" item.

What do you expect from the Brits and BBC? No more credibility then any other poll in Europe or anywhere else you might choose to go. Typical MSM all over the world!!!! Sounds like the NY Times and Washington Post polls.!!!
The Euro's would sure like us to join their Socialist bloc. It's great now, but listen to them scream when the USA isn't around to pull their chestnuts out of the fire again.
Stang

Gathering from the perceptions of the chilenos around me including my pareja, they haven't slightest idea of what the situation is INSIDE the USA outside topical reporting.

Really, so what? Not like the rest of the world has their act together. We are all fu••ed ideology aside (as it is too late IMO). What amazes more are the idiotic arguments and posts that continue to follow along partisan lines as the ship sinks.

Given that only about half the workers in the US financially support all fed programs, not surprising.

All that post an opinion should reveal their past employers, type of pensions, etc.

What do you expect from the Brits and BBC? No more credibility then any other poll in Europe or anywhere else you might choose to go. Typical MSM all over the world!!!! Sounds like the NY Times and Washington Post polls.!!!

Yes, the days when one might hunch over a SW radio late at night to get the "straight scoop" from the BBC are over. Since Blair gutted the Beeb and placed his party types at every level, their spiel has been predictable.
A SW set is still a useful tool but say...Radio Havana isn't quite the quotable source one needs for informed discourse.

OK, let's say the Euros, etc like us more, dislike us less, whatever. I don't buy it, but let's say. So what? Does that make Iran stop its nuke program? Did the Euros suddenly grow a pair and now they are going to help us? And so on.....

The rest of the world supposedly liking us and $4 will get you a cup of coffee.

John Hyre, Wants "Friends" With "A Pair"

In the US news: looking more and more as if some of the long-expected challenges to the unpopular healthcare law may be moving forward. That's 20 of the 50 states suing the federal government at this one venue alone, with other venues coming up. Previous rulings that provisionally upheld the healthcare law are headed for appeals courts.

A federal judge in Florida has allowed key parts of a lawsuit against the federal health care overhaul to proceed, presaging a long legal battle over the legislation.

Judge Roger Vinson of Florida's Northern District, a Reagan appointee, ruled that two elements of a lawsuit brought by Bill McCollum and 19 other attorneys general, along with the National Federation of Independent Business, could proceed. A Michigan judge recently ruled against a similar suit.

The charges that survive:

That "the individual mandate and concomitant penalty exceed Congress’s authority under the Commerce Clause and violate the Ninth and Tenth Amendments";

and "the Act coerces and commandeers the states with respect to Medicaid by altering and expanding the program in violation of Article I and the Ninth and Tenth Amendments."

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In a Sept. 14 hearing, Vinson questioned whether people who don’t buy something -- health insurance -- can be considered actively participating in commerce and taxed for it. The U.S. previously claimed that the possibility of being injured and unable to pay medical bills is enough to draw a link between commerce and taxation.

“They are attempting to take inactivity and are making it activity,” said Randy Barnett, a constitutional-law professor at the Georgetown University Law Center said in an interview before the ruling. “The question of whether something is activity, and you don’t make inactivity into activity by saying it has an effect.”

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On a related note, Vinson ruled that the fee imposed on people who fail to comply with the individual mandate amounts to a "penalty" rather than a "tax." This would mean that Congress's ability to impose it cannot derive from its constitutional powers of taxation. Vinson, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, also rebuked government attorneys for arguing that the fee was a tax in the response to the lawsuit after congressional supporters had characterized it as a "penalty" during the debate over the health-care law.

Apparently the argument "simply because it stinks" was not considered sufficient.

HEALTH CARE PANEL/RATIONING BOARD VIDEO
IF YOU NEVER WATCH ANOTHER 6 MINUTE VIDEO - WATCH THIS ONE! DR. DAVID JANDA FROM ANN ARBOR AND A NATIONALLY KNOWN HEALTH CARE EXPERT SPOKE TO US ON SUNDAY, OCT. 10TH IN SALINE, MI.. THIS IS WHAT IS 'GOING' TO HAPPEN IF OBAMACARE IS NOT REPEALED. DR. JANDA, AS HE STATES IN THE VIDEO, TESTIFIED BEFORE CONGRESS AND THIS IS WHAT HE WAS TOLD. THIS WILL SEND CHILLS DOWN YOUR SPINE - GUARANTEED.

CARE ENOUGH ABOUT YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS, CO-WORKERS AND SEND THIS TO THEM ALSO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HnkxIh62dQ