CK-1 said:
I'm not for Republicans or Democrats. During this Bush Administration I have seen more corruption than any other Admin. I can remember. You can post speeches, videos.. etc to prove your point, but fact is gas prices hit a all time record high, heating bills will hit records hights this winter, we are fighting a War that didn't need to be fought.
Some would say, "Hurricanes caused the high gas prices". Ok, but gas prices were rising anyway before the storms even formed. The American People are outraged with gas prices while Big Oil profits. If your a Boss and see your employee's upset, you will automatically do something to help. This Admin. suggests we drill in Alaska somewhere.. What is that going to do?.. just prices down a few cents for a week. People are just fed up!!.
Went to War in Iraq.. did it prove anything?.. You have millions of dollars uncounted for in construction contracts. Soldiers killed daily, for what.. because Saddam was considered a terrorist?. People are now realizing we need a exit plan for our troops.
CK!!! How the heck did we get from Bush reforming the intelligence agencies as a result of lying about pre-war intelligene to Big Oil profits and hurricanes??? You just got finished blasting folks on this forum for talking about one thing then slipping to another... but look at what you're doing. Please try to stay on point and justify your allegations or don't waste our time making them. You state that I can "post speeches, videos.. etc to prove your point...", and you're right. I can prove my point, and I'm asking you for the proofs of your points but you keep slipping off to other issues. Do you have no faith in your claims? If so, why make them?
I am 100% in agreement with you on high oil prices. The American people got their azzes gouged off. I'm sick and tired of hearing that same line on the news today... "oil prices went up today due to the fear of..." If you want to raise oil prices due to a terrorist attack, or insurgents blowing up refineries, or hurricanes, etc., fine. But let's cut the speculation based on never ending "fears" or "worries" about stuff that hasn't happened. And oil execs can spin all they want about limited profits, but $10,000,000,000 in profit over a single quarter is still $10,000,000,000 no matter how much you try to say you were pricing things fairly, and it gets worse when things are priced unfairly... but that's another string's worth of debate with fromtexas.
Drilling in Alaska is just the start. Estimates are that there's just as much oil in the western states, gulf of Mexico, and Alaska as there is in the Middle East, and pulling that oil out will end our dependence on foreign oil quick, fast, and in a hurry... at least much faster than waiting for alternative energy cars to become practical from a performance AND affordability perspective. Also, showing OPEC that we're really serious about expanding our domestic oil production, and reducing our purchases from them, will drive down their prices even before the first extra barrel of oil gets pumped on US soil. I can't wait for the day that I turn on the news and hear "OPEC lowered their prices again today as a result of fears that increased domestic production in the US will further drive down demand for their product." So, we can enjoy the graces of cheap gasoline and heating while we await the delivery of our hydrogen cell cars... but we can't do squat but suffer with the Dems slowing things down.
Lastly, our soldiers are getting killed daily in order to establish a peace in the Middle East, just as some of our fathers and many of our grandfathers died to bring peace to Europe and much of Asia. Yes, we can toss up a government and a defense force or two like we did in Europe after WWI, and in about 10 years we'll be back fighting another war. If we should have learned anything after WWII it's that you can't count on indigenous peoples learning to resolve their differences on their own. Folks who have grown up around death and mayhem will always gravitate to it as adults. We have to keep these folks out of power until folks who have grown up in peace are old enough to take over, and that takes decades, not years or months.
By the way, I've heard a lot of Dem lawmakers running away from the idea of exit plans and timelines. Even Nancy Pilosi was moderating her stance on that issue because she knows it's a bad idea. The only Dems who are really for those things are fools like Kennedy and Kerry, and once they wake up and smell the coffee they'll start denying they were ever for them. I like what the Republicans came up with. No timelines or exit plans, just well-defined benchmarks that have to be achieved in no given time to determine when the US will withdraw troops. That way we can know if we're going in the right direction, and the insurgents know that we're not going to leave until the job is done.
Bottom line"
