Here's One For The American's - No Disrespect

[Don57]

From the Toronto Sun

http://www.torontosun.com/2011/12/21/dear-america-get-help--your-friends-in-canada-are-worried-about-you

[Bill Cravener]

We do indeed have our share of problems.

From your link: "Where then, do you plan on getting your oil, which you're going to need for decades to come until someone can figure out how to make wind turbine and solar power work on an industrial scale?"

Let's not forget our vast natural gas reserves. Here's but one of them:  http://marcelluscoalition.org/

There is an ever growing conversion from oil to natural gas by companies here in the States to run their vehicles and machinery with an estimate of at least a hundred years of natural gas under our feet.

Anyway, just wanted you to know your friends up here in the Great White North are worried about you.

So am I Don57, so am I. When you look at what the Republican Party is offering us the whole world should be concerned. Currently for a christmas present they are all for letting taxes rise for hard working Americans but refuse to raise taxes on the wealthy even a tiny bit. What a bunch of buffoons they are!!

[jj2007]

As for you Democrats, including you, President Obama, have you gone collectively insane with regard to your energy policies?

Wow, finally a North American newspaper criticising the U.S. for their denial of climate change :cheekygreen:

You don't seem to want our oilsands oil from Alberta, or Mideast oil, or offshore oil, or to drill for oil.

Oops :red

[Don57]

The part that I find curious, is that Canada has a nation per capita debt of $29,625, while that in the US is $47,568. And yet Canada has universal health.

[donkey]

And yet Canada has universal health.

For now, the Conservatives will do their level best to get rid of it claiming the costs are rising too quickly etc... Canada has begun heading down the same path as the US since Harper and his boys took power, we went from consecutive surplus budgets to staggering deficits (from +14$B (2008) to -37$B (2011 projected)). Soon the call for deregulation will be heard and they will once again begin to dismantle safeguards and deregulate the private sector removing the very thing that kept us relatively stable during the downfall of 2008. Already the election financing rules that keep us at least marginally safe from US style buying of elections are under attack, it won't be long before they are gone and the government will be sold to the highest bidder. Don't judge the US too harshly, we'll be in the same place in a few years.

[anunitu]

Damn Donkey,is our(The U.S) crazyness catching???

[dedndave]

the article gives a somewhat narrow view - from the Canadian aspect, of course
they think we were in good shape until 2008 - lol - i have news for them
2008 was when gw bush left office and we finally had to swallow the backlash of all his crap
there are many things wrong with our country, and the article only mentions those that affect Canadians the most   :P
or, at least, the ones that are most visible from a Canadian point of view

[donkey]

Damn Donkey,is our(The U.S) crazyness catching???

I've always found it incredible and disconcerting that a politician can take a policy which has failed over and over again and dupe the population into believing that its the solution to all their problems, deregulation is a good example of that; the financial sector ran out of control so the solution is apparently to remove the controls. The Conservatives here talk a good game about fiscal responsibility however they managed to turn nearly 10 years of budget surpluses into massive deficits, all the while cutting government programs in order cut taxes for the rich. If this sounds familiar to our American friends it should, it isn't the particular country but the neo-con economic principles that are the problem, they have only ever yielded short term wealth for a few in exchange for long term hardship for the many. Harper and his boys up here are following the neo-con doctrine quite nicely: discredit and discontinue as many government services as you can, cut the budgets to below subsistence for what's left in order to slash taxes on the top 1% while shifting the burden to the bottom 99%. Bill Maher said it best when he noticed that the word "rich" has been replaced with "Job creator" in order to make the raping of the middle class more palatable. I love my country, there's no doubt about that but in the last year I've become a bit fearful about the direction it seems to be heading in, especially given the tone this week concerning the federal government living up to their responsibilities in funding mandated programs like health care.

[Bill Cravener]

. . . Currently for a christmas present they are all for letting taxes rise for hard working Americans but refuse to raise taxes on the wealthy even a tiny bit. What a bunch of buffoons they are!!

Update, the buffoons cave in to pressure from their own party.

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/42566

[hutch--]

Spare a thought for us here in OZ, we have a Labor government that is about as popular as Yasser Arafat selling ham sandwiches outside the wailing wall, A conservative opposition that is doing a little better in the polls but has an unpopular leader and the old left masquerading as the Greens desperately trying to usher in the alternative new world order with no legal rights, no private property and an elite administrative class.

[baltoro]

I always enjoy these MASM threads where sensible and completely rational assembly programmers trash the current state of American politics.   
And,...there is an excellent reason why intelligent people like EDGAR or DAVE, or even that curmudgeon, HUTCH, don't run for public office (imagine that they have been cloned as American citizens),...they are clearly NOT INSANE ENOUGH !!!
America is all about POWER,... :eek
What was once industrial power and military dominance and world-class scientific leadership, has degenerated into a ridiculous circus of nebulous political dogma and ego-driven vacuous narcissism. It's quite clear that America has officially become an oligarchy, and the wealthy class maintains their status by merely gridlocking all access to the necessary elements of democracy that guarantee our freedoms.

[dedndave]

well - we were once a great nation
has been going down hill the last 30 or 40 years - accelerated the last 10
eventually, it will be fixed - the questions are how and when

i really can't see it being fixed in a diplomatic way
it's probably going to take some kind of hostile action