Problem One - Education - I agree that the education system needs to be fixed, but oddly I know that it does not need more money. (Even though I'm a righty) I do NOT like Bush myself, but he did give 4 billion additional dollars to education that was NOT needed.

The problem here is this. The money that goes to schools is a direct reflection of the personal property taxes collected. SO, poor areas get poor education.

Is that Bull? You better believe it. Uniformity is something that is lacking in our current education system. I'm sorry, but every kids deserves the same level of education.

Problem 2 - Foreign Aid - I am tired of SO much money going out of this country that I WORKED HARD TO EARN. Am I against helping people? NO. There needs to be a bigger incentive for private industry to foot the bill with tax writeoffs etc. I am positive that a profit minded company (most at least) would want to be sure of what they were spending their money on, unlike the federal government, who seems to just give generously in a global Western Union transaction.

Problem 3 - Foreign policy - STOP MESSING AROUND WITH OTHER PEOPLES BUSINESS, unless asked nicely, and prove to be a worth while task. It took the U.S. quite a while to get into WWII, and there were Nazis in power. Why are we so quick to start a third one?

The simple fact is, is that we almost are totally at fault for terrorist activity. We effectively aimed the sights of angry folks world wide on us by interfering with business we had no right to be in (i.e. Isreal...god when will learn from that alone).

Problem 4 - Big Business - I read something about this above and agree whole heartedly. Big business is important in this country because they have the JOBS. I keep hearing all the left wing folks compain about Big Business this and that, but they need governmental help (tax and legislative wise) to be profitable thus maintaining the jobs the tax payers hold.

What I'd do, is make campaign ads free for all media, period. That way, the money given to each candidate would be enough to run even for the presidency (although they might have to raise the amount a bit). I am sick of people giving huge funds (business, etc) to political parties and candidates. It severely underminds the possibility for objective agendas.

Problem 5 - Immigration - Immigrents are great. They add a diversity to our country who has forever counted on innovation of thinking to succeed.

BUT, there needs to be a bit of a lockdown and organization. Maybe a modernday Ellis Island (without the name problems (hehehe).

All current illegals should be given a grace period to come forward and obtain legal status (with some conditions of course), that way we would have A RECORD.


There are a ton more, but these are the big ones to me.

Oh yes Thomas lemme tell you, my teacher is a liberal all right (sarcasm). And I am sure that the book I am reading for my college class is all lies too (sarcasm).

Those lies you speak about were read in my book and from the History channel, where they value fact over opinion, not from my teacher. Nobody here wants to destroy the nation.Destroy the nation? Where, please tell me, did this come from?

What does my age matter? I could be older than you for all you know. I am still old enough to think for myself.

The fact that I do not follow politics closely allows me (unlike you) to not buy into the BS that politicians are so good at flinging at people.

By the way the federalist and antifederalist papers were all opinion. James Madison is just one of the founding fathers. Apparently more people liked the idea of democracy better than Monarchy (go figure:@@

Follow politics? The factr that you walk around with your head up your arse, buying into the 10 second blurbs of half-truths you are told makes you think you are so much smarter?
What does age have to do with anything? Listen to you. You are typical. You don't know what it is that you don't know. You don't even begin to have a clue. And thats ok, but you think you do have a clue.

The garbage you vomited is in direct contradiction with what the "Father of the Constitution" said. Who do you think knows better what was expected?

You think being ignorant of the onsgoings of the government better ables you to understand? LOL! You are riot, you know that? "I am stupid on the issues, whereas you pay attention, therefore I have a better understanding!"
I do I waste time with idiots? I think they actually want to ignore the truth, so that it won't confuse as they push forward their own selfish, liberal agenda.

I don't follow politics because it is a bunch of BS.

You're the one who wanted to know my age.

For somebody who says they are an "unassuming white guy" you sure make alot of assumptions. Where in my post did I say anything about understanding stuff better than you. What I said is that I do not buy into the crap politicians throw at us.

I agree with both of you in a way

Side One - yes, it is smart to look at the intentions and views adopted during the fraiming of the Constitution and our country. It helps us understand the ideas about what our country was to be.

BUT

Side Two - The framers purposely structured it fairly loosely so that each generation could think for themselves and assess it's own needs under the context of the general framework.

We should consider what is there at our disposal while pushing what is good for the current masses.

I agree that they constructed the constitution loosely, and people are thinking for themselves, however, people can't decide with unanamity what to do. People are fighting over things instead of trying to reach compromises.

Mostly in out Foreign Policy. We should stop worrying about stupid little things and work together. Instead of only worrying about America, what about places like UK, or Australia, Russia, or Germany? We should worry about helping the world!

i notice a commonality among all the posts in this thread...they are convey the concerns of the person posting. in other words, their OWN interests.

some i wont even bother to address but some i will.

education. it is of the utmost importance we teach our kids, not just at school but at home as well. parents should go beyond what the teachers teach them and encourage their kids to do more, learn more, be more. i was instilled at a very young age to read and i have a passion for it, i love to read and i dont know if i would if my parents had not enocuraged me to read. i did well in math partially because i was encouraged at home to do better than i was doing. so i did better, i found out i could do more, i could do harder math. children are capable of doing more than they realize and this whole notiong of letting your kids decide for themselves what their limits are is BS.

the education system in some instances has been overrun by parents who are expecting the schools and the teachers to teach their kids everything and play babysitter for them. some expect the teacher to make johnny or suzy do their homework and sometimes the teachers are held responsible for their students not coming to class with their books and all required materials needed for the class. the teachers are blamed more and more for students failing, not learning as fast as others, etc. the parents yell at the school boards and then they make new policies placing resposibility on someone else so they dont have to hear all these parents yelling at them. zero tolerance policies do not work, changing the F grade to a U doesnt work. trying to not hurt a childs feelings for failing a test or a class doesnt work, they are still failing and many more are joining their ranks! as with many things in a childs life education begins at home with parents encouraging and reenforcing the idea that an education paramount in this world. it is one of the most important investment into their own lives they will ever make. it can mean the difference between becoming the boss or one of his lackeys.

rather just expecting the government to do soemthing about education we should motiveate ourselves and encourage other parents to take a more active and pivotal role in their childs education. most of us should know by now the government can only do so much and should only be allowed to do so much, noone said parenting was easy.


deficit budgeting/fixing. do you want the government having a surplus of money? do you understand that really means they are taking more of your money than they need and are sitting on the unused portion. do you want them sitting on YOUR money when you could be sitting on it yourself in your own account? this country has been in debt almost since in inception. to blame any one president is rather foolish and shortsighted to say the least. i dont have a clear idea on how to decrease/get rid of the deficit as making a decision to stop paying for this or that or to cut spending on certain things can and usually does have large ramifications at a later date and lets not forget politician have do and WILL continue to spend some of our money on those who vote for them and will spend more on them hoping to ensure their votes the next election. i have my own ideas on how I would cut the deficit but whether it would work or not i will never know. but unlike many here on this thread (and this board) i'm not going to claim to KNOW the answer to this problem as there is no clear cut solution.

i think one way to fix america is to encourage people to stop relying on the government for everything for us. welfare, retirement, housing, food, education, drugs. the government that can give you everything can also take it all away. what happened to relying on yourself or acting as a community and come together to help those in need? whatever happened to giving to charities and churches? with all the money the government takes from us we could give that to charitable orginizations and churches and THEY could take care of the poor and homeless (as they do already) and the government could focus more on defense/military strengthening, better roads and highways, finding ways to makes itself smaller and less intrusive on our daily lives. we are a charitable people and give a lot of money each year to help out the unfortunate, both here and abroad yet we are having some of our money taken from us so the government can do the same thing! talk about giving till it hurts, ouch! people are more apt to being charitable and helpful when it is VOLUNTARY, making it mandatory is forced charity and i liken it to robbery except the government makes the laws and i cant have it locked up for stealing from me.

i know some people think its so nice the government thinks for them and takes their money from them for retirement but not everyone likes this or wants to do this but everyone is forced to participate in this "program" as they call it. why? why cant those who want to opt out be allowed to do so? of course they would be on their own after that and whatever happens happens. if they make it great, if not there are churches out there to help out. this goes for those who want out, in other words, those who take the risk upon themselves, not forcing others to take a risk they dont want. (i can still hear colonel running up to blast me for this anyway)

personal choices in your own life. i dont care if you like men women or both, its none of my business and i dont want to know, what i do is none of your business and i wont be telling you any time soon either! that being said i am not for "going back into the closet" as some may accuse me of saying but rather keeping certain things private such as our sexuality. why anyone feels this overbearing need to tell others they like people of the same sex is beyond me. its not that i'm intolerant of it i just dont get the point of it. so what? you're gay, whatever. its not a big deal to me and i dont think i should be told because it doesnt involve me. i think some poeple have grown tired of this and feel some are throwing it in their faces and to a certain extent i dont blame them for feeling that way, SOME people do feel this need to tell everyone within ear shot and then expects them to be overjoyed or something. not every gay person tells every last person they know about it, some do believe in keeping private aspects of their lives private. why do you think its called private? because it is one of the most personal aspects of our lives and not everyone should know about it. i also dont think the government should be deciding either way whether same sex marriages should be allowed or not. i disagree with the whole concept people have to go to the government and ask for permission to get married to begin with let alone a whole group of people wanting the government to endorse their marriage and make it a federal law. the government really shouldnt be setting social standards, they take our money AND has the power to tell people how to live? sounds like a government run amok, a government in need of a lot of downsizing.

there are so many more things to discuss....but i cant list them all inthis post...i'll post again later.