mathboy - I cannot believe you would be so petty to complain about 1st. graders being called babies. In the eyes of most adults, (obviously you’re not one of them, boy) these young children were just babies in their first year of school. You have the sensitivity of a snail! I feel sorry for someone like you, especially since you seem compelled to call yourself a boy.

The earliest societies on earth had no class hierarchies or even private property. There are still societies like that today, at that level of technology and some that had our social order overtake them who are trying to resist and keep their equal society, e.g., the Native Americans.

The Republicans are the Big Spenders when it comes to the defense budget. Just listen to the rhetoric about how any cuts to the defense budget puts America in harm’s way. Exactly who would be stupid enough to attack the World’s largest military power? The government and the defense contractors had Americans believing the Soviet Union or the Chinese were just waiting for America to make a mistake militarily to attack us! And if we did not spend enormous amounts on military contracts with built in waivers for exceeding the actual budget the Russians would be in N.Y. at the first chance they thought we were weak militarily! The Russians and the Chinese built up defenses against us because they listened to the bullshit coming out of Washington and actually believed WE were waiting to attack them. Does anyone remember the Domino Theory that convinced everyone if Vietnam fell to the Communist the rest of Asia was lost? A war that cost trillions and killed more than 58,000 Americans and an estimated 2,000,000 North Vietnamese! Guess what the country did become Communist and now they are supplying Americans with new Nikes! The insanity has to stop before Americans are forced into Armed revolt against this defunct government. President Eisenhower warned us about the Military Industrial Complex the Republicans now hold in esteem as a sacred cow. As long as a handful of Republican Tea baggers can hold the whole country hostage in agreeing on a Fiscal Budget we will always be a defunct Republic. Yes, having to use armed rebellion against the Government in Washington would be horrific for this country, but the Republicans in their effort to protect their masters who actually run this country with their untold fortunes, may leave us with little choice but to do so in the future. This nation is reaching a point of critical mass, let’s hope and pray we are not forced to use the massive fire power we hold in our hands as civilians. The Dept. of Home Land Security ordered 350,000,000 rounds of anti-personal ammunition. There are over 300,000,000 weapons in the hands of the civilian population. Perhaps the government fears us more than anyone really knows!

Palindromedary - I have a question for you or anyone else who accepts the writings of these individuals on various blogs or newsletters. The first thing I noticed was a disclaimer on the Market Daily News that they are in no way responsible for or support the information written on their web site by various people. Who is checking to validate the conspiracy theories and general info that is written by these individuals claiming what they have stated is factual? They appear to claim the information they provide is factual, yet they do not give any information on how they obtained these so called conspiracy threats or how to verify the information. We all know or should know that the government and corporations have kept information on us from day one. I needed a top secret N.A.T.O. clearance to do the work I performed for the U.S. Air Force in the early 70's.They checked my history from the time I began school and everything about my family for a security clearance at that level. Every time I (we) purchase anything with my credit cards or fill a warranty card the corporation who runs the store knows our buying habits, address and other needed information. The insurance companies know my health through my medical records when they are billed for services. There are no secrets about us in the information age we live in. Anyone who has kept up on what the government is doing realizes the C.I.A. has had its hands in the governments of other nations to promote America's so called best interest. I do not agree we should, but anyone older than 50 is aware of the fact we are an Imperialist country and have been for a century. I accept the fact the government is watching everything in the name of national security and as technology advances they will use that technology for or against our best interests. To think we can roll back the clock to a time when these things were not necessary is just kidding yourself. I do not feel threatened over the fact the wealthy try to control us for their advantage, because that has been going on since the inception of the concept of society. Starting with the earliest societies on Earth they have used information to control other people for their own greed and lust for power. This is not a new concept for mankind. And for the government, corporations and super wealthy their desire to control us by the use of information is not a new phenomenon. Whether we like it or not we will continue to be watched by Big Brother for both good and evil proposes. The important thing is to make sure we are aware of this and to know what they do with this information as best we can. And equally important, we need to know what we read has been fact checked and we do to hastily accept claims from others without verifying these claims first. The ability to not be monitored is no longer in our hands as long as we use technology that gathers and shares information about us in our daily lives. We live in an era where Facebook and Twitter share info about us within seconds of typing it and we seem to have a need to share! And, yet we worry about Big Brother, somewhat ironic wouldn't you say. What would we do without our ability to Google when we want info about something or someone!

I find it ironic that our nation and the world are heading in a direction once described on a political comedy show named, Max Headroom! It fits right into the theory described by Palindromedary on his comments about privacy or the lack of it with the internet. It portrays how Multi-national Corporations run the world and governments through information and acts against citizens that may threaten their financial bottom line. At that time Japan was seen as the sinister center of where these corporations ran everything. Probably because the Japanese corporations were doing so well and jobs were shifting to their country. Now it is China becoming the global powerhouse of production and Japan is losing its monopoly on production to them! So goes the irony of obtaining power and wealth only to lose it to a nation with basically slave labor and free trade agreements that were signed by politically bribed politicians! 30 years ago no one could imagine America being in the condition it now finds itself, because of corrupt politicians and unfair free trade agreements!

Ayn Rand was on Social Security and Medicare in her old age.

This is re entitelements. Perhaps we should be raising not lowering the rate of benefits. Without a discussion which comparies GDP per capita across countries with benefits paid one cannot know whether or not the U.S. payment is niggarly or generous. Also we could raise the bracket on which social security payment is capped. Do we need to raise the cap? Without a detailed discussion of a plan with assumptions about cost vs. rate etc we have no way to proceed. In the absence of a detailed rational discussion of alternatives proposals and potential financing along with assumptions about who should pay what this discussion is worse than useless. How can one democratically choose anything if the issues are presented via assertions, not analysis.

I'm sick of John Crybaby Boner, the Orange Tan Man.I don't want to hear his whiney, crying voice anymore.We need a more sober minority whip.Retire and enjoy that Merlot.

"Unclebob"- As Thom and others have pointed out time & again, it's a problem of WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION and PRIORITIES more than simply SPENDING. If you hang onto the "spending" part, you've bought into the bogus corporate message hammered at us on a daily basis. What is truly unsustainable is the Pentagon budget and tax cuts for Plutocrats, which, as much as anything, are where the "overspending" has been directed; not so-called "entitlements". - Aliceinwonderland

How do we eliminate the deficit and national debt? Here are the numbers:

Increasing the top ordinary income tax rate by only 3.5% to 39.5% on marginal income over 250K ( Obama's proposal ) would generate about $70 billion a year; but letting it rise from there to 70% over 400K ( the pre-Reagan top marginal rate ) would generate about $700 billion a year.


 And applying this 70% marginal rate to any combination of all forms of income over 400K ( including stock grants, options, dividends and capital gains ) would generate hundreds of billions a year more.
 The result would be a budget surplus.

And since the richest 1% now have a net worth of about 20 trillion dollars, an effective 
( loophole free ) top estate tax rate of 90% on marginal wealth over 50 million dollars 
( the pre-Reagan top rate was 77% over 10 million ) would generate enough revenue within a generation to eliminate our national debt.

And the richest 1% would still be the richest 1%.

The name callers were in the minority, Financial District 1 percenters and their shills. By far, most people were with us. Even the police were with us. It was more the Great Depression all over again than it was the'60s all over again.

There were, in fact, many homeless people because what people don't realize is that, like the Great Depression, Occupy is an unemployed people's movement. One of the banners I saw being made on brown box cardboard with a magic marker in the early days at La Salle and Jackson was "Lost my job and found an occupation" right next to "If the 1% are job creators they sure suck at it".

The hippies were there with us too, with everybody else. We were "the cowboys, the hippies, the rebels and the yanks". We were America all got together again.

I speak in the past tense because we squandered some of that good will and solidarity with reckless, destructive behavior.

Quote ken ware:"The Dept. of Home Land Security ordered 350,000,000 rounds of anti-personal ammunition. There are over 300,000,000 weapons in the hands of the civilian population. Perhaps the government fears us more than anyone really knows!"

It certainly seems to have worked for the Tea Baggers..who have influenced the Republican Party. Some Republicans say that they don't even recognize their Republican Party anymore because of the Tea Baggers influence. And they haven't yet had an armed rebellion...just a lot of noise. But, I agree with you...an armed rebellion by anyone is the last thing any of us want to see. That would be insane. But, unfortunately, history has had it's insane moments.