The Next President of the USA will be?

[Medhb]

It's kinda similar here, except once you earn over a £25,000 (or something like that) you have to pay your fees back. Once you start Uni you're given a loan of xx thousand pounds (depends on what degree you're doing), then when you leave you pay it back once you earn over the above wagebracket. Most students seem to cope well, though the majority piss their loans away on booze and other crap.

The only thing that would positively stop me from living in America is no NHS. I don't know how you can cope. Am I right in thinking that healthcare in America isn't free? Not even a visit to your GP? It's absurd that they seem to put a price on your health.

I'm lucky, my firm has good health coverage so I only have to pay $300 a month out of my pocket. But of course I still have to pay a copay for all office visits which is usually $20-$30 dollars. This does not cover dental or vision. I have dental but it has a cap on it so you better take damn good care of your teeth still because if I had to get extensive work I would probably have to pay for it. Vision is a joke, they'll give me about $100 for glasses. I have prescription coverage and I use a mail order service so my medications are reasonable unless they don't have generic equivalents, then they can be quite pricey. Plus, they don't approve all drugs so if you happen to be prescribed a drug that 'they' don't approve you have to pay for it yourself. I had one last year that was $450.

That is $3,600 a year plus office visits and medications.

However, when I was in the hospital it didn't cost me a penny and the hospital I was in was top notch. Though when I saw what they charged the insurance I was appalled. If I would have had to pay that I would have had to taken out a very, very sizable loan.

For others who don't work for a company that offers health insurance then purchasing health care insurance is so expensive that many families can't afford to purchase it. So they don't have any of the benefits I mentioned above, therefore, they don't take their children to the Dr. when most of us would, they can't afford the prescription medications, or the office visits. God forbid they EVER need to go to the hospital!

And the elderly who rely on medicaid, I don't think that program is too bad. My father in law is 'lucky' that he was a veteran because they do help with some of the prescription medications and other things.

Also, it was on the news last week that an elderly homeless man died in the emergency room after waiting 36 hours. No insurance, no service....

[longdistancewinner]

I'm lucky, my firm has good health coverage so I only have to pay $300 a month out of my pocket. But of course I still have to pay a copay for all office visits which is usually $20-$30 dollars. This does not cover dental or vision. I have dental but it has a cap on it so you better take damn good care of your teeth still because if I had to get extensive work I would probably have to pay for it. Vision is a joke, they'll give me about $100 for glasses. I have prescription coverage and I use a mail order service so my medications are reasonable unless they don't have generic equivalents, then they can be quite pricey. Plus, they don't approve all drugs so if you happen to be prescribed a drug that 'they' don't approve you have to pay for it yourself. I had one last year that was $450.

That is $3,600 a year plus office visits and medications.

However, when I was in the hospital it didn't cost me a penny and the hospital I was in was top notch. Though when I saw what they charged the insurance I was appalled. If I would have had to pay that I would have had to taken out a very, very sizable loan.

For others who don't work for a company that offers health insurance then purchasing health care insurance is so expensive that many families can't afford to purchase it. So they don't have any of the benefits I mentioned above, therefore, they don't take their children to the Dr. when most of us would, they can't afford the prescription medications, or the office visits. God forbid they EVER need to go to the hospital!

And the elderly who rely on medicaid, I don't think that program is too bad. My father in law is 'lucky' that he was a veteran because they do help with some of the prescription medications and other things.

Also, it was on the news last week that an elderly homeless man died in the emergency room after waiting 36 hours. No insurance, no service....

In Britain we only pay if we want to go private, say, through someone like BUPA, and some people do if they don't want to wait. Private healthcare is usually considered the best, you get it through a good job (and it also covers everyone else in your family). Some places will charge you through the roof, but you only pay a tiny amount and that goes from your pay.

For everyone else it's the National Health Service - NHS.

Everything, save the opticians (it's a free consultation, but you pay for the glasses), is free. The only thing you pay for is medication, and if you have a lot of medication, and are exempt from certain circumstances, you don't have to pay for them. And if you're prescribed a particularly drug, no one but the doctor has any say in it.

You don't pay for medication if you're:

* are 60 or over

* are under 16

* are 16-18 and in full-time education

* are pregnant, or have had a baby in the previous 12 months and have a valid exemption certificate

* have a listed medical condition and have a valid exemption certificate

* have a continuing physical disability which means you cannot go out without help from another person and have a valid exemption certificate

* hold a valid war pension exemption certificate and the prescription is for your accepted disablement

* are an NHS inpatient

* unemployed

I needed counselling, and whilst it was offered through the NHS, the most effective treatment was through private healthcare. The NHS is pretty shocking when it comes to mental health, it's almost like they don't consider it an actual illness, and because I'm young, they treated me very flippantly. That's my only reservation about the NHS.

People have been known to die whilst being left unattended, but that's because the hospital will claim a 'shortage of beds'. The main problem regarding hospitals is cleanliness. And that appears to be toughening up.

[THE FIRST LEDZEP]

McCain Wins

[Rock N' Rollin' Man]

I'm pulling for McCain now that Hillary isn't in the race anymore. I consider my self an independent leaning to the left which was why I wanted Hillary to win, she being closest to the center and aligned with my views.

Now I'm going for McCain, knowing his long portfolio fighting for the American people. He has put his country first and I don't mean other politicians don't put there country first. Obama, I just don't know anything that he has done of significance in terms of pushing for reform.

Borack Obama says McCain has voted with Bush 90% of the time while Obama has voted democratic 97% of the time. Some say McCain is too much of the same but that is completly invalid because he has gone against his party in major issues. That is just partisan spin.

Now I do respect Obama but in these times I believe in my opinion the country needs a John McCain.

People shouldn't vote for someone just because someone is a democrat or republican as our founding father George Washignton warned us about and as Abraham Lincoln said " A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

[Medhb]

I'm pulling for McCain now that Hillary isn't in the race anymore. I consider my self an independent leaning to the left which was why I wanted Hillary to win, she being closest to the center and aligned with my views.

Now I'm going for McCain, knowing his long portfolio fighting for the American people. He has put his country first and I don't mean other politicians don't put there country first. Obama, I just don't know anything that he has done of significance in terms of pushing for reform.

Borack Obama says McCain has voted with Bush 90% of the time while Obama has voted democratic 97% of the time. Some say McCain is too much of the same but that is completly invalid because he has gone against his party in major issues. That is just partisan spin.

Now I do respect Obama but in these times I believe in my opinion the country needs a John McCain.

People shouldn't vote for someone just because someone is a democrat or republican as our founding father George Washignton warned us about and as Abraham Lincoln said " A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

I totally agree with the bolded statement.

[allthekingshorses]

I'm pulling for McCain now that Hillary isn't in the race anymore. I consider my self an independent leaning to the left which was why I wanted Hillary to win, she being closest to the center and aligned with my views.

Now I'm going for McCain, knowing his long portfolio fighting for the American people. He has put his country first and I don't mean other politicians don't put there country first. Obama, I just don't know anything that he has done of significance in terms of pushing for reform.

Borack Obama says McCain has voted with Bush 90% of the time while Obama has voted democratic 97% of the time. Some say McCain is too much of the same but that is completly invalid because he has gone against his party in major issues. That is just partisan spin.

Now I do respect Obama but in these times I believe in my opinion the country needs a John McCain.

People shouldn't vote for someone just because someone is a democrat or republican as our founding father George Washignton warned us about and as Abraham Lincoln said " A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

"Federal Ethics Reform: Obama and Senator Feingold (D-WI) took on both parties and proposed ethics legislation that was described as the "gold standard" for reform. It was because of their leadership that ending subsidized corporate jet travel, mandating disclosure of lobbyists' bundling of contributions, and enacting strong new restrictions of lobbyist-sponsored trips became part of the final ethics bill that was signed into law. The Washington Post wrote in an editorial, "The final package is the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet."

Google for Government: Americans have the right to know how their tax dollars are spent, but that information has been hidden from public view for too long. That's why Barack Obama and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) passed a law to create a Google-like search engine to allow regular people to approximately track federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and loans online. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "It would enable the public to see where federal money goes and how it is spent. It's a brilliant idea."

Illinois Reform: In 1998, Obama joined forces with former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon (D-IL) to pass the toughest campaign finance law in Illinois history. The legislation banned the personal use of campaign money by Illinois legislators and banned most gifts from lobbyists. Before the law was passed, one organization ranked Illinois worst among 50 states for its campaign finance regulations.

A High Standard: Unlike other candidates Obama's campaign refuses to accept contributions from Washington lobbyists and political action committees. "

[Del Zeppnile]

In Australia if you earn between $34,000 and $80,000, you pay 30% tax, if you earn between $75g and $150, you pay 40%, and if you earn over $180 you pay 45% tax...

That sounds pretty depressing.

I guess some people actually like being bent over and taking it full up.

Don't they sparkles?

[allthekingshorses]

What do you think about obama's friends Frank Raines and Jim Johnson, both former C.E.O.s of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Both made over 90 million dollars in the past few years by doctoring the books to show that the two operations were far more solvent than they were. Obama is the second biggest recipient of funds from those two after Senator Chris Dodd. obama showed Lots of reform there.

How much money has been contributed to Obama's campaign???

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac campaign contributions to Obama equal $126,349 since being elected to the Senate in 2004.

Jim Johnson Vetted Vice Presidential candidates for the Obama Campaign.

Shall we move on to Rick Davis, the campaign chief executive officer of John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign? Oh wait, former campaign chief executive officer, he had to resign last month didn't he, after the whole lobbiest thing and $15,000 per month from Freddie Mac.

[I have got a horsey]

Well the post-convention bump has definately worn off for McCain, and this is even after Palin has come on board, the polls are once again settling down to where they were before, with Obama about 5 to 7 points in the lead

[Medhb]

Well the post-convention bump has definately worn off for McCain, and this is even after Palin has come on board, the polls are once again settling down to where they were before, with Obama about 5 to 7 points in the lead

All is 'right' with the world

[Mr. Da-Lo]

All is 'right' with the world

I think I'll post just to post to... ahhh obama is the shining light of the world, he will cure all our ills....with all that wonderful experience he has....

[Medhb]

I think I'll post just to post to... ahhh obama is the shining light of the world, he will cure all our ills....with all that wonderful experience he has....

No one is capable of that but I'm pretty confident that instead of digging the hole deeper and deeper he will bring a new perspective to the issues we've been unable to address, but exasperated over the last 8 years. I'm looking foward to bringing America back to the Super Power it was once looked upon as.

You don't need hole digging experience for this job so......

Edit for missing vowels - I think I need a new keyboard

[Pb Derigable]

A presidential debate, the Chicago Way

John Kass

October 5, 2008

Going into Tuesday's presidential debate, the campaign of Republican John McCain still suffers from the lousy economy and that Bush hanging ponderously from his neck.

With that going against him, he's running uphill, trying to remind Americans that he challenged his own party, and the Democrats, on corruption. Because of McCain's opposition to politicians who feed from the public trough, there is a road open to him Tuesday. It's the Chicago Way.

Obama definitely does not want to go there. It would be a forced march for him. Obama's gauzy references to Chicago involve baseball and where he met Michelle and those blissful hours he spent as a community organizer. What he doesn't want discussed is his evolution from independent Democrat to potential White House enabler of the corrupt Chicago Democratic machine.

The Chicago Way is a road the Beltway media establishment dare not travel. It must frighten them. It conflicts with their fairy tale about Obama as reformer, and they're much too busy rummaging through garbage cans in Alaska to bother about Chicago's political alleys.

John Kass John Kass Bio | E-mail | Recent columns

But any child in Illinois knows the Chicago Way leads through the most politically corrupt city in America, in a politically corrupt state, where muscle trumps reason, where Democratic warlords brazenly promote their offspring into public office, where even souls are offered up for sale.

The national media have never wanted to understand, much less expose, political corruption here, or examine how Obama prospered under the Daley machine's guidance. A trip down the Chicago Way would force them to re-examine their ridiculous narrative that sets Obama as a political reformer riding a white horse, or is that a winged unicorn?

A tour of the Chicago Way isn't without risks for McCain. Though his supporters would say it puts Obama in proper context, Democrats would certainly cry "guilt by association." Yet the national urgency to view Obama as a political life-form several evolutionary rungs above Chicago's common political hacks is not only a mistake, it's disingenuous. So on Tuesday night, McCain might ask:

How, for example, could change agent Obama endorse the boss of the Chicago machine, Mayor Richard Daley, after Daley's friends and drinking buddies, white guys with mob connections, received $100 million in city affirmative action contracts, a crime that sent one of them to federal prison?

The mayor said there is no such thing as a machine. Does Obama truly believe there is no machine that runs Chicago and Cook County? Then he should declare it. And, if so, then how does he explain the Daley hacks sitting in federal prison for rigging thousands of city jobs?

McCain could ask about the machine trolls Obama endorsed per Daley's direction. And what of Obama's own political mentor, the legendary city sewer inspector/Illinois Senate President Emil Jones (D-ComEd), who upon retirement will convert almost $600,000 in campaign cash and stuff it into his pockets, and begin cashing a fat public pension, as his son, Emil III, takes Daddy's place in the legislature, courtesy of the Democratic bosses.

Is this the change we've been waiting for?

McCain could ask about Obama's real estate fairy, the convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko, who is now apparently cooperating with federal investigators probing the dealings of Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who also campaigned as a reformer. Rezko is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 28. How was the Rezko-Obama real estate deal, the one that Obama himself described as "boneheaded," never made a subject of a Senate Ethics Committee investigation?

McCain also might offer up some straight talk about his own involvement in the Keating 5 scandal two decades ago -- and how he was dishonored by that, and whether the shame changed his views on political corruption.

Hillary Clinton tried to link Obama to Chicago's politics during her party's primaries, but she was shouted down. Back then, at a Tribune editorial board meeting, I asked Obama about his place in Chicago's corrupt history.

"I think that all of you have been following my career for some time," he said. "I think I have done a good job in rising in this environment without being entangled in some of the traditional problems of Chicago politics. I know there are those, like John Kass, who would like me to decry Chicago politics more frequently."

Just the corrupt parts, I said.

"I'll leave that to his editorial commentary," Obama continued, "but I think it's fair to say that I have conducted myself in my public office with great care and high ethical standards."

Is Obama corrupt, the way the caricature of Chicago-style corruption is often drawn, with some beefeater alderman reeking of gin, stuffing an envelope into his breast pocket? No, though he came close with Rezko in that smelly deal for the purchase of Obama's home.

But Obama looked the other way in order to prosper and assiduously avoided conflict with the machine to the point of embrace. In this, he offered Americans a glimpse at the real man inside that nice suit, the Chicago Way.

[Electrophile]

Both McCain and Obama held rallies in Anchorage, Alaska. Hardly anyone showed up to McCain's event. Why? They were all at the Obama rally.

In Alaska.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

[THE FIRST LEDZEP]

more lies

[~tangerine~]

Both McCain and Obama held rallies in Anchorage, Alaska. Hardly anyone showed up to McCain's event. Why? They were all at the Obama rally.

In Alaska.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Well makes sense, since they know Sarah Palin and are probably voting against her

[allthekingshorses]

Yes, lets do. How about the major media avoiding asking obama some serious questions about his ties with the known Anti American terroist Willian Ayres?? I know, you will say that it is old news kind of like his pathetic ties with one of the biggest racist in America. You know......The "non" Reverend Wright.

Oh I see, we are going to skip over Rick Davis too. No guts.

And please to tell us what Obama's relations with Ayers were. I don't really care if it's old news... if you want to state some facts here, by all means...

So let's hear it srplane... what do you got?

[Mr. Da-Lo]

Obama claims to barely know him, even though the idea of him even running for senate sprang from the mans house. Ayers sponsored a fund raiser for Obama in his home...wouldn't Obama want to know were the hands that feed him were before?

Also how could he just shed Rev. Wright stories so quickly... Media cover up? I certainly have heard quite alot about a moose shot by an AK state trooper illegally... but barely anything at all about the church Obama attended for decades...hmmmm

[Electrophile]

Keep grasping at straws.

[Mr. Da-Lo]

pick a straw...any straw I dare you.

I have an enormously firm grip

[allthekingshorses]

Obama claims to barely know him, even though the idea of him even running for senate sprang from the mans house. Ayers sponsored a fund raiser for Obama in his home...wouldn't Obama want to know were the hands that feed him were before?

Also how could he just shed Rev. Wright stories so quickly... Media cover up? I certainly have heard quite alot about a moose shot by an AK state trooper illegally... but barely anything at all about the church Obama attended for decades...hmmmm

Where were you about 5 or 6 months ago? The only way you could have missed all the Obama bashing was to not be watching any news at all. You couldn't watch the news without seeing Rev. Wright talk about God Damn America.

As far as Ayers, I think it's safe to say that they aren't best friends like some people would like to believe.

Being on a board with someone and having a fundraiser does not make 2 people good friends. I know a lot of people in my town that I know just because we work together on this or that. It doesn't mean I have other relationships with them besides the projects we work on.

Now, on to other fun topics...

See if you can handle watching this....

www.KeatingEconomics.com

[THE FIRST LEDZEP]

It has been alleged that Obama is a Muslim.

Possibly associated with members of Al Qaeda.

So why are Democrats trying to get this guy elected President

[wanna be drummer]

It has been alleged that Obama is a Muslim.

Possibly associated with members of Al Qaeda.

So why are Democrats trying to get this guy elected President

Can you prove any of that?

[THE FIRST LEDZEP]

Just read the posted facts

The rest is your choice

[wanna be drummer]

Just read the posted facts

The rest is your choice

That's the problem. 99% of your posts don't contain facts. They don't contain anything really.