I'm sorry, but come ON!

[Ryanh1801]

That's just completly untrue. Did Cheney tell you that?

No this is from a good friend that i have known since i was 8 years old, that is in the marines. He is in a special force unit.

< Starting to think he is the only person on this forum that likes Bush.

 

[olllllo]

No this is from a good friend that i have known since i was 8 years old, that is in the marines. He is in a special force unit.

< Starting to think he is the only person on this forum that likes Bush.

At the time prior to the 911 Attack, there was more al Qaeda in Orlando, FL than there was in Iraq. Obviously recruitment in Baghdad is way up now.

If that's your information source then enjoy your Kool-Aid.

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

Kind of a selfish issue to base your vote on, dontcha think? I know govt isn't the most efficient and wastes a lot of money, but surely there are issues with more depth that would require you to consider as well before making your vote?

I mean, what if the politician wanted to increase taxes, but also wanted to use those tax increases to subsidize homebrewing?
(that's a joke )

No, I don't think its selfish at all. I work hard to earn my income, but when I give so much away I can't crawl out of my school debt, or my credit card debt (racked up in school). I'm giving away 1/3 of the money I make to a government that spends it on bull****

Sidenote: My wife's in the military and does not support the war, but she supports her fellow soldiers. Kind of a trickey situation, but when you meet these guys that go to Iraq, most are just doing their jobs and would be happy for us just to pull out of there.

 

[Pumbaa]

No this is from a good friend that i have known since i was 8 years old, that is in the marines. He is in a special force unit.

< Starting to think he is the only person on this forum that likes Bush.

For me it's not a matter of liking or not liking Bush. TBH he wasnt my first choice when he ran the first time around but he got the nomination and I would vote for Satan before 99% of the Democrats. My problems with Bush are in his lack of fiscal conservativeness, his perpetuation of the Nanny State, and the mishandling of the war. I said before I think we should have completed the job back in Gulf War I so I dont have a problem with us being in Iraq. I do have a problem with politicans on both sides using the war as a political tool and not letting our fighting men win this thing.

Wars arent PC, people die and things get destroyed unfortunately thats the way it works, so lets get over it and finish this thing already. Where we are running into problems is the American people (NOT the military) dont have the balls anymore to do what it takes to win. They want to hold hands and play with kittens when the kittens in reality are lions ready to bite our heads off. The talks of negotiations and diplomacy IMHO are a farse. HTF do you negotiate with someone who is willing to cut your head off with thier own bare hands? We dont need to understand our enemy. We dont need to reason with our enemy. The only thing we need to do is actively seek our enemy out and destroy them.

If innocents get caught in the middle . . . well I'm very sorry about that but if you would have pointed the enemy out and gotten out of the way your loss would have more then likely been much less.

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

See my above post. Seefresh, I now see your view is very mild compared to this.

Reverend JC, I think you are misled about the tax cuts. You are my age (late 20s/early 30s), so you have nothing to worry about regarding this issue. What you need to know is that these are the Sunset Provision of the Estate Tax (aka Death Tax) that expire in 2010 if congress doesn't extend them. As it stands now, there is a tax on one's estate after death (gasp!). What most people don't realize is that only a very small percentage of the population even get hit with this tax. The first $2 million ($4 million for married couples) of assets can be passed on to heirs tax free. In addition, there are many tax strategies to utilize prior to one's death to exclude even more assets from taxation (i.e. gifting, irrevocable trusts, etc.)

We have a progressive tax system. This means that your first dollars of income (currently up to $7,825) are taxed at only 10%. The amount you earn above $7,825 up to $31,850 is taxed at only 15%. And so on up to a max rate of 35% of amounts over $349,700. This goes for everyone!
So, for example, if Seefresh had an annual salary of $161,000, his marginal tax bracket would be 33%, but he would actually pay less than 25% of his income in taxes ($39,200). For simplicity's sake, this doesn't include any other income, taxes, or the exemptions and credits available.

Okay, wake up! :cross: Sorry for the boring details, but I just think that the average voter doesn't even understand how the issue affects him/her.

I know I'll be flamed for this (I know there are a lot of libertarians out there ): taxes are necessary. Of course we don't want to pay them, but try to appreciate the good things that they pay for (i.e. schools, arts, sports, law enforcement, fire dept., roads, to name a few). It's not fair to try to eliminate them. It is fair to keep them reasonable.

Yea right! 161,000? Not a chance. I make about 18000 a year, after taxes that's 12000.... BULLSH##

Don't forget I'm self-employed. I get charged TWICE as much tax as most folks due to being my own boss. Why? I don't know, please explain...

 

[Ryanh1801]

Im confused your location says Germany?

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

I think its scary to elect someone into office that people in their party say we have already lost the war. Don't call someone ignorant that you do not know.

Uhm, sorry junior but...YOU HAVE LOST THE WAR. In fact the US has made terrorism a bonified career now it seems.

Maybe if you pulled your ass out out of the Bush and saw what the rest of the world has been seeing, you'd already know that. Just because the idea that adding fuel to a fire isn't the best way to put it out, doesn't mean people are anti-troops. Perhaps if you should got your news from sources other than fox news you'd realise how much worse the situation in Iraq and how much more terrorism they have spawned.

Side note: I've become a prick when it comes to this kind of thing. Odds are if you lived next door I'd invite you for a beer, watch a game, but when it comes to politics of life.. I'd burn your ass.

Personally I see one group of rich f*cks vs another group of rich f*cks (insert country here) vying for control of most nations. Though some nations populace seem less ignorant than others. Not for any lack of trying in the politicians part.

And to debuff the "You're not even an American" comment that I'm sure to see... If you go around calling yourself the "Leader of the free world.", you have to expect the rest of the world to make a comment.

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

Im confused your location says Germany?

I live on a American army base. My wife is military. I still have to pay American taxes AND state taxes for my last state of residence.

 

[user 574]

Ok, I personally don't believe the US lost the war. That would imply that Iraq has won? Hardly. It's f'ed up no matter how you look at it. War nowadays is who is the biggest loser; not who won or lost. There hasn't been a war solidly won by the west in the 20th/21st century since WWII when the germans were beat back into their country and the russians finished it. Wars are only won with a brutality that the west doesn't have the guts to perform anymore.

BTW, I believe this war is a f'ed up mess and even worse because there's no "winning" without what would horrify the world. And when we pull out (I totally think we should) the world will be horrified by what the Iraqi's do to themselves. Lose lose situation. Blaming the past has nothing to do with the present and future. But be sure, both parties will continue to toss monkey sh!t at each other.

(can't believe I got sucked into this )

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

(can't believe I got sucked into this )

I feel ya, as soon as taxes were mentioned I couldn't resist. I'm still recovering from last years.

 

[Dude]

You guys are doing a good job of proving why we avoid political discussions here.

How is this thread continuing? I mean sh!t, let's open the gates and let in the underage kids now too.

Screw it, I'm starting a religion thread if this is all of a sudden ok now. I must have missed the memo.

Mods, WTF?

 

[Klainmeister]

Man, didn't know i would be patronized and called a "big boy". And btw, terrible answers Ryan, i think you missed my major points all together. Mods should shut this down.

But back onto the original first post in this thread, this is a good call out on Guiliani's remarks...that is...if anyone ever sees this thread again.

 

[z987k]

Wars are only won with a brutality that the west doesn't have the guts to perform anymore.

Bingo. 1965 Operation rolling thunder: failure 2 reasons, micromanaging from the white hose all the way to the airplane and was we weren't willing to bomb certain targets because Russians might be there aka no balls to do what needs to be done.
Then comes linebacker I & II in 1973. Didn't hold anything back and the military was left to do it's job. It's goals were achieved and it only took 8 years to figure it out. That means we got 3 left before something happens?

I think we just need to go all out on the mother****ers and hold nothing back. Civilians get the **** out of the way you're living in a god damn war zone! I like the idea of carpet bombing even if it's a ww2 tactic.

Now since we're not talking about the "war" on terrorism I won't go any further.

Damn it, I wasn't going to even read this thread.

 

[Evan!]

Wow, just...wow. I mean, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You make one little comment about how Rudy is once again milking 9/11 for his personal political gain, and then you go to sleep, and when you wake up...over 100 comments?

Yes, now I see why we can't introduce any topics that are the least bit controversial (and here I thought that everyone could at least agree that using 9/11 for personal gain is abhorrent). Dude, I agree...how is this thread still open? I mean, I was tossing some stuff in there before the lock yesterday afternoon, and bird was talking about his "itchy thread-locking trigger finger"...but it's still roaring today at over 100 posts. Whew! I'm impressed.

 

[desiderata]

Yea right! 161,000? Not a chance. I make about 18000 a year, after taxes that's 12000.... BULLSH##

Don't forget I'm self-employed. I get charged TWICE as much tax as most folks due to being my own boss. Why? I don't know, please explain...

I'm not an expert on self-employment taxes, but I do know that as far as FICA tax, self-employed have to pay the employer's share as well as the employee's share. But I didn't know that went for all taxes. Out of curiosity, who does your taxes? And when you say that you pay 33%, is that what is withheld (i.e. estimated payments) or is that the actual amount you pay after filing your return?
You're right, that does sound like BS. It's the higher income levels (i.e. 160,000+) that creep into the 33% range.

And, you do know that you get a credit on your U.S. return for any foreign (i.e. German) tax you pay, don't you?

 

[the_bird]

How is this thread continuing? I mean sh!t, let's open the gates and let in the underage kids now too.

Screw it, I'm starting a religion thread if this is all of a sudden ok now. I must have missed the memo.

Mods, WTF?

Can't be everywhere all the time.

Since I can't read this thread without getting pissed off, I can't imagine anyone else can either (on either side of the issue). Closed.

EDIT: Oh, and thanks again for this thread, Evan! I know you didn't want to start a political debate