NationStates Jolt Archive

If so, I'd like to hear them. All I've seen or heard so far is a massive smearathon slugfest, with both candidates dishing out loads of crap at each other, arguing about why the other candidate shouldn't be President, blah blah blah. Why don't they stop badmouthing each other and actually talk about the issues?

Yes, Bush wants to let America destroy the world.
And, Kerry wants to let the world destroy America.


ISN'T IT AWESOME WE GET TO PICK EITHER ONE OR THE OTHER?

Semi-joke post

Yes, Bush wants to let America destroy the world.
And, Kerry wants to let the world destroy America.

No surprise there. :(

If so, I'd like to hear them. All I've seen or heard so far is a massive smearathon slugfest, with both candidates dishing out loads of crap at each other, arguing about why the other candidate shouldn't be President, blah blah blah. Why don't they stop badmouthing each other and actually talk about the issues?

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A Plan for A Safer World & More Hopeful America

On September 2, 2004, in New York City, President George W. Bush accepted the Republican nomination for President. In his address, he promised to build on the accomplishments of his first term by building a safer world and more hopeful America for our workers, families, and children. Over the next four years, President Bush will create new opportunities for American workers. He will help every family adjust to the challenges of a changing world. He will make it easier for every American to have a personal stake in the American dream and to take personal ownership of America’s economic prosperity. Americans can count on President Bush to strengthen our communities, stand by our families and share our values. And President Bush will continue to build a path to security by pressing for reform of the intelligence community and the transformation of our military to meet the threats of the 21st century.

Chapter1:
Creating Opportunity for American Workers

• Reforming America’s High Schools: President Bush will provide $250 million annually to extend state assessment of student reading and math skills.
• Jobs for the 21st Century Initiative: President Bush will provide $500 million for Jobs for the 21st Century, which will help educate and train high-skilled American workers in schools and community colleges.
• Tax Reform: President Bush will work to make the tax code simpler for taxpayers, encourage saving and investment, and improve the economy’s ability to create jobs and raise wages.
• Opportunity Zones: President Bush will create new Opportunity Zones, which will encourage public and private investment and provide priority consideration for Federal benefits to communities that are under economic hardship.

Chapter2:
Helping American Families in a Changing World

• Helping the Working Uninsured by Expanding Health Savings Accounts: President Bush will propose a tax credit for Health Savings Account contributions to help individuals and families who work for small businesses fund their Health Savings Accounts.
• Make Health Care Accessible: President Bush will call for a community health center in every poor county in America.
• Promote Comp-Time and Flex-Time: President Bush will work to enable employees to choose paid time off as an alternative to overtime pay and to give employees the option of shifting work hours during a pay period.
• Crack Down On Drugs in Schools: President Bush will increase funding for school drug testing to help students resist peer pressure and help parents intervene with students in need.

Chapter3:
Promoting an Era of Ownership

• Homeownership: President Bush will provide assistance to help America to meet his new goal of creating 7 million new, affordable homes in 10 years.
• Social Security Reform: President Bush will strengthen and enhance Social Security, guaranteeing no changes in benefits for current retirees and near-retirees, while giving younger workers the opportunity to use their Social Security payroll taxes to build a nest egg for retirement that can be passed on to their families.
• Help Small Businesses: President Bush will help small businesses in a number of ways, including by allowing them to band together to provide more affordable health care for their employees through Association Health Plans.

Chapter4:

Defending American Lives and Liberty

• Fight the War On Offense: President Bush will continue to lead a worldwide coalition to fight terrorists abroad so we do not have to face them here at home.
• Intelligence Reform: President Bush will work with a new National Intelligence Director to improve the quality and quantity of our intelligence and our ability to disrupt and prevent terrorist attacks.
• Troop Redeployment: President Bush will restructure American forces overseas to use existing forces more effectively and to support servicemen, servicewomen, and their families more efficiently.

Chapter5:

Supporting Our Communities and Honoring American Values of Compassion and Service

• Judges: President Bush will continue to appoint to the Federal courts well-qualified judges who share his commitment to strictly interpret the law.
• Welfare Reform: President Bush will continue to press for reauthorization of welfare reform and to build on its successes, strengthening families and helping more welfare recipients achieve independence through work.
• Faith-Based and Community Initiatives: President Bush will continue to support the good work of community and faith-based groups and help ensure that these charities can participate in Federal, state, and local programs without discrimination.

Yes, Bush wants to let America destroy the world.
And, Kerry wants to let the world destroy America.


ISN'T IT AWESOME WE GET TO PICK EITHER ONE OR THE OTHER?

Semi-joke post


i'd phrase it differently.

bush wants to have america destroy the world. kerry wants to have france and germany help.

I would post Kerry's, but it's not as organized. It's a bit longer.

Check out www.johnkerry.com and look under "issues".

remind me of a little limerick that happened under the influence of alcohol.

Kerry: I wish I wish I had a spine
Bush: John, Ill trade you a brain for mine
Nader: They dont even want the job! theyre not even trying! Ive been running for at least a decade!!! Please!! mJust One little itsy0bitsy term! PLease!!!

The above poster is close enough 'for government work'...
Kerry doesn't want to discuss the issues, because he only has one {The Need to Defeat George Bush}!

As to Dubya, he HAS been discussing the issues, which is WHY so many people agree with Senator Kerry on his one issue!
{Massive debt-financed 'tax cuts', Stay the course on Iraq (without embarassing the Saudis, of course!), ban abortions at any cost, and, above all...
Spend the American Taxpayer's money before he gets the chance to!
{This seems to be the only major point of agreement between both parties...}

Thanks. :)

A Plan for A Safer World & More Hopeful AmericaI went to johnkerry.com (http://www.johnkerry.com/index.html) to see if I could put together a response to Brian's Room. It's not there. I wanted to see what the candidate's home page could tell me about the specifics of his positions were, and they just aren't there. All I found were platitudes. Here's a sample.Launch And Lead A New Era Of Alliances
The threat of terrorism demands alliances on a global scale - to utilize every available resource to get the terrorists before they can strike at us. As president, John Kerry will lead a coalition of the able - because no force on earth is more able than the United States and its allies.

Modernize The World's Most Powerful Military To Meet New Threats
John Kerry and John Edwards have a plan to transform the world's most powerful military to better address the modern threats of terrorism and proliferation, while ensuring that we have enough properly trained and equipped troops to meet our enduring strategic and regional missions.

Deploy All That Is In America's Arsenal
The war on terror cannot be won by military might alone. As president, John Kerry will deploy all the forces in America's arsenal - our diplomacy, our intelligence system, our economic power, and the appeal of our values and ideas - to make America more secure and prevent a new generation of terrorists from emerging.

Free America From Its Dangerous Dependence On Mideast Oil
To secure our full independence and freedom, we must free America from its dangerous dependence on Mideast oil. By tapping American ingenuity, we can achieve that goal while growing our economy and protecting our environment.I don't want to work for Bush's reelection. I want to have a candidate that stands for some of the things I think are important. The more I dig into Kerry's positions, the less I find. It's disheartening.

I want more than vague promises and "I'm not George W Bush". Kerry, if you're reading this, get off your ass and give it to us.

Here you go Frisbeeteria. http://www.johnkerry.com/issues/

There's a whole mess of links for you to work through, each with their own specific policy discussion. Have fun.

There's a whole mess of links for you to work through, each with their own specific policy discussion. Have fun.
I did. I quoted one of them. There's nothing there. It's all air. Blue smoke and mirrors.

Show me specific policy, something with numbers and plans and strategies in it. Show me that his plan is more than "we can do better!"

Then I'll listen.

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• Reforming America’s High Schools: President Bush will provide $250 million annually to extend state assessment of student reading and math skills.

Of course, since he encouraged that teachers stop actually teaching students to think, the students will pass required reading and math skills, but never make it in any institute of higher learning.

• Jobs for the 21st Century Initiative: President Bush will provide $500 million for Jobs for the 21st Century, which will help educate and train high-skilled American workers in schools and community colleges.

He will then encourage the corporations who might higher these young hopefuls to ship all jobs overseas.

• Tax Reform: President Bush will work to make the tax code simpler for taxpayers, encourage saving and investment, and improve the economy’s ability to create jobs and raise wages.

And while Bush is allowing the American individual to pay less taxes, he will simultaneously be running the largest deficit spending of any president - thus *increasing* the debt of the American people.

• Opportunity Zones: President Bush will create new Opportunity Zones, which will encourage public and private investment and provide priority consideration for Federal benefits to communities that are under economic hardship.

Opportunity Zones? Is that like Free Speech Zones? Shouldn't everyone have opportunity?

• Make Health Care Accessible: President Bush will call for a community health center in every poor county in America.

Meanwhile, he will raise the copay on Medicare and confuse lots of old people who thought they were supposed to be getting help.

• Promote Comp-Time and Flex-Time: President Bush will work to enable employees to choose paid time off as an alternative to overtime pay and to give employees the option of shifting work hours during a pay period.

Of course, this will not help those who he just took overtime pay away from.

• Crack Down On Drugs in Schools: President Bush will increase funding for school drug testing to help students resist peer pressure and help parents intervene with students in need.

Of course, this will actually just encourage LSD use. After all, drug testing rarely involves hair samples.

• Social Security Reform: President Bush will strengthen and enhance Social Security, guaranteeing no changes in benefits for current retirees and near-retirees, while giving younger workers the opportunity to use their Social Security payroll taxes to build a nest egg for retirement that can be passed on to their families.

He will fund the unchanged benefits for retirees and near-retirees by pulling large wads of cash out of his ass.

• Fight the War On Offense: President Bush will continue to lead a worldwide coalition to fight terrorists abroad so we do not have to face them here at home.

But in reality he will fight anyone he considers to be "evil," and then make excuses afterwards that they were *definitely* tied to terrorism, despite the information saying they were not.

• Intelligence Reform: President Bush will work with a new National Intelligence Director to improve the quality and quantity of our intelligence and our ability to disrupt and prevent terrorist attacks.

As per his usual MO, he will only appoint people who will tell him what he wants to hear, thus ensuring that the quality and quantity of intelligence lets him do what he wants.

• Troop Redeployment: President Bush will restructure American forces overseas to use existing forces more effectively and to support servicemen, servicewomen, and their families more efficiently.

Nevermind that he likes to cut Veteran's benefits. He really is trying to help servicepeople and their families!

• Judges: President Bush will continue to appoint to the Federal courts well-qualified judges who share his commitment to strictly interpret the law.

And by "strictly interpret the law," he means "legislate from the bench."

• Faith-Based and Community Initiatives: President Bush will continue to support the good work of community and faith-based groups and help ensure that these charities can participate in Federal, state, and local programs without discrimination.

Of course, "without discrimination" means giving them special permission to break the law by accepting government money without being equal opportunity employers and using government money for proselytizing. Never mind that this is breaking down the (much needed) barriers between church and state.

There's nothing there. It's all air. Blue smoke and mirrors.
And as Dempublicents pointed out, the same could be said for Bush. The only concrete numbers in his platform have no funding source listed. And it begs the question, "What's kept you from doing all these things during the last four years?"

I gotta go back to Corpse Snatcher's original question, and wonder where the hell the real discussions of issues are. Maybe they'll come out in the debates. Yeah, that's it. That's the ticket. It'll all be made clear in the debates.

Yeah, right.

I did. I quoted one of them. There's nothing there. It's all air. Blue smoke and mirrors.

Show me specific policy, something with numbers and plans and strategies in it. Show me that his plan is more than "we can do better!"

Then I'll listen.How about health care (http://www.johnkerry.com/issues/health_care/health_care.html)
Because catastrophic costs are both high and unpredictable, they raise the cost of health insurance for all people. John Kerry believes that cost of the sickest Americans should be shared - not just by people paying for private insurance but by the government. He proposes to create a "premium rebate" pool that will make health care more affordable for employers and employees by helping out with certain high cost health cases. Under this proposal, the pool would reimburse private and public employer and group health insurance plans that meet certain qualifications for a portion of catastrophic costs. "Catastrophic costs" would be defined as the annual claims for an individual that exceed a certain threshold. This catastrophic threshold would be set so that the average estimated savings would be approximately 10 percent for qualifying plans nationwide, which is estimated at 75 percent of the costs in excess of an approximate $50,000 threshold in 2013 (and about $30,000 in 2006). The resulting savings would decrease family premiums by up to $1,000 annually. In addition to lowering costs, the rebate will make premium increases more stable over time. To qualify for this "premium rebate" pool, employers and insurers will have to:

Provide Health Coverage to Their Workers. Many companies work to provide quality coverage to all their workers. However, some companies have stringent rules that prevent some workers from obtaining affordable health care. To receive the premium rebate, employers would have to provide insurance coverage to their employees.

Adopt Disease Management and Care Coordination Programs to Improve Quality and Lower Costs. Innovative programs targeting patients with chronic conditions have illustrated that both the human and cost consequences of chronic diseases can be alleviated through hands-on medical management. Employers and their insurers must adopt model programs to receive the premium rebate.

Share Savings with Workers. By substantially reducing catastrophic costs, John Kerry's proposal will make it easier for employers to offer affordable coverage. Firms will be able to provide higher wages, maintain benefits, and make investments that help employers and workers alike. Health economists predict that these savings will automatically be passed onto workers in the form of higher wages and/or other forms of compensation. If employees do not share in the savings, the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Labor would develop policy options to ensure that employers do share these savings with workers. On the same page, there are discussions on prescription drug coverage, malpractice insurance, quality of care, and coverage for children.

For most of the individual sections, there are links to more substantive discussions on the right side of the page. The economy page has 7 links on its own. There's a lot to get through.

How about health care (http://www.johnkerry.com/issues/health_care/health_care.html)
On the same page, there are discussions on prescription drug coverage, malpractice insurance, quality of care, and coverage for children.

For most of the individual sections, there are links to more substantive discussions on the right side of the page. The economy page has 7 links on its own. There's a lot to get through.I'm gonna have to find a way to tell the Kerry campaign to move the links from the right column to a more prominent spot

The worse it looks for the Bush people, the more they want the electorate to think that's there are no significant differences (except in taxes and security.) Why? The more voter apathy, the more likely they are to win. Fight them! Find first hand accounts of Kerry. His actual words, in context. The fact be was instrumental in exposing the Iran Contra affair (a lot more important that a stained dress.) The bravery and eloquence he displayed under oath when testifying to Congress after the Vietnam War.

Do not believe the right's lies about Kerry! You know the right lies to you, why are you beleiving them abouty Kerry??