jmmx

Three Myths About Business in China

China will undoubtedly take over from the USA as the world leader economically. This is due not only to the fact that they are the most populous country, but also that they are more disciplined both nationally and individually, and - very important - they understand rwo things about education:
1- It is important, &
2- it requires dedicated work all throughout school - beginning to end.

Most Americans do not understand this. They are way too lazy. I work in software/hardware industry. Why do we NEED to import so many engineers? (who are very well paid) Are indians and chinese, etc really so much smarter than Americans? Not really. It is just that they are willing to work at their education, while Americans just cruise and whine and the parents let them do it.The society has what I call a "culture of mediocrity" when it comes to education. This in spite of the fact that most teachers work very very hard at trying to provide a stimulating lesson.

Unfortunately, the Bush administration sold America out to the Chinese and OPEC countries with his enormous deficits and pro-oil politics.

Three Myths About Business in China

@ jasper M
You say: "And how long will 'upity' labor prevail once economic growth drops below population growth?"

you are talking through your hat dude - the population growth rate of China is 0.66 % less than USA at 0.98% and almost 1/3 of India @ 1.5%. So I imagine that they will not have to worry too much about what you are saying for quite a while.

- as for "drafty house" I do agree with you there, but somehow I think they will avoid the extreme into which we have sunk.

Julian Robertson: Some Buying, but Bearish on the Economy

@nycTrax

The totally amazing thing is that Obama is not at 70-80%.

It is a tribute to the Republican propaganda machine that they still have as much support as they do. The Dems always were major wuss when it comes to promoting ideology.

Great call on "Projection" I have been saying that ever since Reagan complained about the "ME generation"! Talking about a classic case!

As for the Great Republican Recession: If we start to turn around in 4 years I will consider it lucky.

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Reagan

Only moron here is you.

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"pussies on national security"

Squawk, Squawk, Squawk, - parrot the right-wing propaganda. Then you do not have to think. Not sure how anyone could have found terrorists over what they were thinking. We DO know that prople in FBI/CIA went to C Rice and she ignored them. But no - the dems are responsible for anything during their administration, and anything that happens AFTER their administration, and the republicans never take responsibility for anything! Like I said above they are the "It's not MY fault" party.

I think it is about time we get in a party that is responsible.

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From Wikipedia - This shows how the Reagan administration was involved in helping S Hussein to produce chemical weapons.

Now taxpayers have to pay $1 Trillion to clean up that mess. Notice that Donald Rumsfeld was the special envoy to the Mideast - there is a photo of him shaking hands with Hussein himself. WOW - what a good decision that was!

"According to retired Army Colonel W. Patrick Lang, senior defense intelligence officer for the United States Defense Intelligence Agency at the time, "the use of gas on the battlefield by the Iraqis was not a matter of deep strategic concern" to Reagan and his aides, because they "were desperate to make sure that Iraq did not lose."[13] Lang cautioned that the Defense Intelligence Agency "would have never accepted the use of chemical weapons against civilians, but the use against military objectives was seen as inevitable in the Iraqi struggle for survival. Despite this claim, the Reagan administration did not stop aiding Iraq after receiving reports affirming the use of poison gas on Kurdish civilians.[14][15]
"

"On 25 May 1994, The U.S. Senate Banking Committee released a report in which it was stated that "pathogenic (meaning 'disease producing'), toxigenic (meaning 'poisonous'), and other biological research materials were exported to Iraq pursuant to application and licensing by the U.S. Department of Commerce." It added: "These exported biological materials were not attenuated or weakened and were capable of reproduction."[20]

The report then detailed 70 shipments (including Bacillus anthracis) from the United States to Iraqi government agencies over three years, concluding "It was later learned that these microorganisms exported by the United States were identical to those the UN inspectors found and recovered from the Iraqi biological warfare program."[21]"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..._support_for_Iraq_duri...

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Reagan

That is exactly the point. WHY should we have supported a dictator who unilaterally & unprovoked invaded another country??? THAT WAS WRONG. Not only wrong - it was IMMORAL! We should have condemned the invasion that ultimately caused the deaths of half a million people.

The Republicans continually make very bad geo-political decisions and these decisions come back later to haunt us. The Taliban were NEVEER freedom-fighters. But the Reagan administration blindly ignored common sense and supported them. Now look at the mess we have to clean up. Same with Iraq.

Like I said - republicans when faced with facts always resort to name calling. So childish!

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Reagan

Did or did not S Hussein invade Iran in the 80's?
Is it true or not that the Reagan admin tacitly supported Iraq at this time? (ans: Yes they did)

These are simple facts that cannot be denied no matter how much you try to hide from them.

Was there a financial crisis in the S&L industry during the Reagan admin? YES! Did it result ini a multi billion dollar bailout by the US tax-payers? YES IT DID.

YOU may like giving BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars to corporations to bail them out of messes that they got themselves into while the Republican appointed leaders of the regulatory agencies looked the other way or the industries were irresponsibly de-regulated. But I do NOT and most Americans are not happy with this corporate welfare - this socialism for the socialites.

The response you right wingers always have to the truth is to try to denigrate the messenger. When you cannot argue against the facts, you pitifully disparage the sources, even when you do not know who the sources are. You just make up silly rationales for ignoring what other people say. This is inherently unpatriotic as you mindlessly turn over you thinking to those who are trying to manipulate you, such as Limbaugh, Savage, and Rove. In lock-step you march blindly forward repeating their mantra-du-jour while the country goes down the tubes.

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Adoni -

Please read Obama's "lipstick" quote IN context. There was NEVER any mention of Palin in the quote NOR the surrounding paragraphs. It was ALL about MccCain's policies. It is also the identical quote that McCain used referring specifically to H Clinton's policy some months ago.

So pleae stop cherry-picking quotes then changing the context. Why is it that McCain can ralk about specifically one woman's policies yet he is NOT sexist slur, while Obama makes the identical comment - never mentions Palin - and yet that IS? GIMME A BREAK!

As for Iraq. I agree that Hussein was a murderer and got what he deserved.

HOWEVER - there are lots of other murderers who could fall into that category. Should we be attacking them? I think it is a bit safe, self-serving, and arrogant when WE decide that 100,000 civilian deaths, probably over a million civilian injuries, and 2 million refugees of Iraqis is a fair price for THEM to pay for freedom from their dictator. Especially when we have no evidence that the new government will refrain form doing the same - only to different set of people.

Next - If our intention was to remove SH from power, then why didn't Bush come to the American people and say exactly that? Why did his administration have to fabricate a false justification - and the intelligence community was well aware that all the justifications had already been proven false - so why did he have to fool the American people into accepting the war? To me the answer is clear - there is no way that the American people would have signed on to such a foolhardy enterprise if we were not scared into it by false threats of WMDs.

The American people need to learn that we are part of a world that has laws that work (perhaps imperfectly) to provide protection to all - ourselves included. WE need to respect those laws as well! We need to be part of a world of laws. Not a rogue nation that throws its weight around.

Finally - I wish all those people who CLAIM to support the war would actually support it by:
1- paying fro the damn thing so that the deficit does not balloon, and
2- go over there and fight it! All these 20-30 year old guys who sit on the tailgates with yellow ribbons drinking beer while a FEW real patriots have to go for 3rd and 4th terms and we need to pay contractors $1000 / day to do the work that they refuse to do! I am sickened by these COUCH POTATO PATRIOTS!

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wintermute

Thanks man - means a lot to hear that.

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adoni

1- I never called McCain a war monger
2- Her support of the Iraq war is precisely why I did not support HC

You are trying to avoid responsibility once again - this time for the Mortgage crisis. You are trying to pass all the blame onto the home buyers. But the truth is that most of them were sold a bill of goods by loan agents who encouraged them, many with false or misleading promises. In the end, these financial institutions made loans to people who deserved them, but did not have the capacity to repay them under the given terms. Would YOU have made a similar loan to some of these people? I don't think so. Yet the banks did so when they should not have. Period. There USED to be regulations that prevented this kind of thing, but they either were thrown out or ignored by the Republican admin. Period. All the ensuing foreclosures would then be only the problem of the borrowers, the banks and their share holders, except that :
1- Many of the loans were deceptively packaged and marketed to other institutions and the public, and
2- Now all free-market, laissez-faire types have come to the taxpayers with their hands out say "help me, help me!"
3- In any case - the irresponsible frenzy was so great, that it is taking the whole economy down with it. (Witness this article).

As for Iraq - nobody claims Hussein was a fine fellow. But if he was so terrible, then why did the Reagan Admin - along with Mr Rumsfeld - support his invasion of Iran? And while we are on the subject of Pres. Reagan, why on earth did he ever call the Taliban "Freedom Fighters" Fact is - if we did not support them, then perhaps 9/11 never would have happened! And yes - there WERE people AT THE TIME who questioned the wisdom of supporting these extremists.

As for Iran ready to take over Iraq... what planet do you live on?? I thought the rightwing line was that Hussein - just before the US invasion - sent all the WMDs to Iran. now you tell me if we did not invade then Iran would have??? pleeeeeease!

The poinit is - if we had not invaded Iraq nothing terrible woullld have happened, 100,000 Iraqi citicens would still be alive, we would not have provided al qaeda with the greatest recruiting/training ground they could have hoped for, 4000 american GIs would not be dead and thousands more wounded, we would not have lost the trust of so many of our friends and allies, we would have saved $1 trillion, and we could have concentrated on Afghanistan and just maybe have captured Bin Laden.

Two things sure - Hussein did not have any weapons of mass destruction, and Hussein had absolutely nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11.
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The dotcom bubble was a thing of the market place, the Clinton admin had nothing to do with promoting it. Additionally, the public did not have to dish out scores of billions of dollars to bail it out. The mortgage crisis is a total failure of the regulatory system that SHOULD have protected against such a thing, Bush again (and all of congress) are play around here, as the bill for all this will not come due until next year (or even later) and it will be huge. In fact - there were many who DID come to the Bush administration several years ago warning about the already ballooning crisis. But they ignored it. (Moyers had a good piece on how it has destroyed Cincinnati)


Your argument seems to be "The dems are responsible for anything bad that happened AFTER they left office, and as soon as they achieve a small majority in congress even with the Rep president - then they are responsible for all that follows" GIVE ME A BREAK!

AS if the dems have control of the country now? Ever hear of presidential veto?

Another "Not my fault," line!

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what? "bleeding heart"

just another way of writing off another person without haveing to think about what they say.

Apple Investors: Fasten Your Seatbelts, Put On Helmets

insults insults insults

when logic fails - insult!

Someone suggested a bumper sticker:
There are two types of Republicans - rich ones and SUCKERS

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Ya see, in the face of real arguments - you resort to insults.
The Republican way!

Got to agree with you on the "knows how to win" part. Rove sure does, and the Dems keep loosing cause they are too naive to understand it.

Always thought his first name was interesting - Karl - just like in Marx. They both believe in the dictatorship of the proletariat. marx by force, Rove by propaganda.

Apple Investors: Fasten Your Seatbelts, Put On Helmets

Sorry man - but if you still refuse to accept the fact that man is causing global warming then YOU are the one with the blinders. Wake up and see reality dude.

All you are doing is offering more excuses for Bush. EXCUSES EXCUSES EXCUSES. The Republicans sound like a bunch of middle school kids "Gee teacher - the parakeet ate my homework" But there are too many americans who will believe anything that Karl Rove throws at them.