My problem with the Dems is that they aren't Progressive enough on many issues -- they are too much like Republicans.

That's my frustration with the party.

Others seem to be frsutrated as well and think voting for McCain will solve (?) their problems with the Democratic Party/

So I don't see how a) voting for McCain solves their problem or b) how not voting for Obama who is much, much more Progressive than McCain solves their problem.

Unless of course the people upset with the Dem Party are upset because the Dems aren't conservative enough.

Ah!

It's the closet Republicans who are the ones who are having a problem with the Dems. No wonder their in the closet! You'd have to have some big balls to still walk around and think the Republican Party is smart, honorable and competent.

Maybe their strategy is to abandon the Republican party (but not their ideals for the Motherland) and then infiltrate the Dem party and drag it hard to the Right?

Otherwise I just can't see the logic in voting for McCain or NOT voting and hoping McCain wins.

Her pie charts are getting annoying.

If she is so beloved -- why didn't she "win" after Super Tuesday as she told everyone she would?

NO ONE LIKES YOU HILLARY!

A lot of people are voting to re-elect Bill Clinton but, seriously lady, no one can stand you.

People are voting for you because:

a) they are female and have stated themselves they feel a moral obligation to get a woman elected President. They don't give a shit about your position on steel tarrifs. They are voting for you because your a chick

b) they all love Bill Clinton and believe (mistakenly believe) that if they re-elect Bill Clinton then magically America will be awesome again just like it was in the 1990's. They don't understand that Bill just happened to be President while the global economy was undergoing a massive expansion -- Bill didn't actually "do" anything to create jobs. He was just there when it happen. But these idiots want Bill back in the White House.

None of these people think Hillary herself would make a good President, they just want either a chick in office or Bill Clinton.

People were taking home equity loans to pay off their credit cards.

Question: Why were their credit cards so high in the first place?

Here the world branches off (sharply) into two schools of thought.

The first one insists (with a black and white certainty of a religious fanatic) that it's all because people are lazy, crazy and simply went on wild spending sprees. Wheeee! As far as the first-schoolers are concerned the overwhelming vast majority of all humanity is basically evil and lazy -- and the debt on these credit cards has to be nothing but luxury items, European vacations, diamonds, gold bars, etc.

The second school of thought takes into account something the first-schoolers absolutely refuse to ackowledge.....falling wages and rising costs of living.

Wages go down, factories relocate to Mexico, temp jobs at $8/hr replace blue collar jobs that used to pay $16/hr and on and on.

Housing costs keep rising. Rents keep rising. Healthcare costs keep rising. GAS keeps rising.

And yet wages remain the same or actually went down!

So how to you bridge the gap? When your rent and your health insurance and gas ALL keep rising but your wages stay exactly the same....where do you get the extra money to keep paying the bills after your paycheck is exhausted?

Credit cards.

It wasn't some wild spending spree by reckless citizens -- the huge rise in credit card debt rose in exact proportions to the rise of cost of living. As healthcare costs, college tuition, gas, groceries and rent all kept steadily increasing so too (in exact proportions) did consumer credit card debt.

This is usually where the first-schoolers (almost ALL Bush Republicans) turn red with rage and start stammering, "No! No! It's because people are evil! Evil! If we don't punish this people...if we don't bankrupt them and foreclose on them and toss them in jail than those evil long-haired hippies will win and America will fall to the commies!"

So which is it? Are 300 million American simply ALL simultaneously buying 2 month long European cruises or do stagnant wages and rising cost of living have a lot more to do with it?

And if this debt isn't really "consumer" debt or "luxury" debt then wouldn't it make a helluva lot of sense to rewrite the god damn bankruptcy laws at this point?

Wouldn't a better way to jumpstart the economy be to make debts easier to discharge (and freeing up people's paychecks so they aren't sending the whole thing to VISA) instead of sending everyone a lousy check for $300?