NO Media Bias!

[OGShocker]

Originally posted by Lake Pirate
In my world there is balance. I told you full out at the beginning of this thread that every rag has an agenda so you must consider the source. I offered you an alternative viewpoint to Drudge which would have to be biased to be alternative...and you're shocked?
When was the last time Drudge linked a President of the United States to Hitler? You site had NO problem doing so to this President. This is HATE SPEECH. Are you so blind that you cannot see the difference?
Let me guess... when you were a kid someone told you being a Republican meant you were successful and smart so you've voted blindly ever since? [/QUOTE]
You would be wrong again.
These words brought me to my happy place. I was four years old. I have heard them all my life. I remember sitting with my family (all democrats) and seeing this face, this man, on our little black and white TV. I did not understand what he was saying. I did not know who he was. When I was old enough to understand (16) for me. I heard these words again. They forever changed me.I am a republican but more over I am a Federalist.
I'll tell you who's words these are later.
I am going to talk of controversial things. I make no apology for this.
It's time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, "We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self government."
This idea? that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.
You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream-the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, "The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits."
The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.
Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, "What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power." But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.
Yet any time you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we're denounced as being opposed to their humanitarian goals. It seems impossible to legitimately debate their solutions with the assumption that all of us share the desire to help the less fortunate. They tell us we're always "against," never "for" anything.
We are for a provision that destitution should not follow unemployment by reason of old age, and to that end we have accepted Social Security as a step toward meeting the problem. However, we are against those entrusted with this program when they practice deception regarding its fiscal shortcomings, when they charge that any criticism of the program means that we want to end payments....
We are for aiding our allies by sharing our material blessings with nations which share our fundamental beliefs, but we are against doling out money government to government, creating bureaucracy, if not socialism, all over the world.
We need true tax reform that will at least make a start toward I restoring for our children the American Dream that wealth is denied to no one, that each individual has the right to fly as high as his strength and ability will take him.... But we can not have such reform while our tax policy is engineered by people who view the tax as a means of achieving changes in our social structure....
Have we the courage and the will to face up to the immorality and discrimination of the progressive tax, and demand a return to traditional proportionate taxation? . . . Today in our country the tax collector's share is 37 cents of -very dollar earned. Freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp.
Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? Realize that the doctor's fight against socialized medicine is your fight. We can't socialize the doctors without socializing the patients. Recognize that government invasion of public power is eventually an assault upon your own business. If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he'll eat you last.
If all of this seems like a great deal of trouble, think what's at stake. We are faced with the most evil enemy mankind has known in his long climb from the swamp to the stars. There can be no security anywhere in the free world if there is no fiscal and economic stability within the United States. Those who ask us to trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state are architects of a policy of accommodation.
They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right. Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits-not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."
You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.
Sorry for the use of so much Bandwidth

[Lake Pirate]

That is a nice speech but remember.... a politicians words have little to do with their actions. There are good and bad within both parties. Essentially our generation has corrupted the two party system. It's no longer about a vision for America. It's about success for the party...at any cost. To blindly vote the agenda of a particular party in this day and age to me...is unamerican. Good luck with your hatred of liberals and your incessant need to think you are smarter because you are a die hard conservative.

[OGShocker]

RP,
That speech was given by Ronald W. Reagan in 1964.
I have no room in my life for hate. I do have a vision that is different that yours.
Enjoy your time here on the Hot Boat forums. I think you'll fit in just fine.
OGS

[Lake Pirate]

And another pretty speech. Unfortunately words don't carry the weight they should in today's society. The problem isn't government and it isn't subversives. It is us, the baby boomers. For the return of decent government and shared goals for America the responsibility lies with Generation "X." We had our chance and we blew it. We are the religious zealots. We are the oppressive Christian right. We are the bamboozling government. We are the tight assed politically correct. We sucked when given the chance to make our mark. The dissention in politics we have caused is irrepairable. The next generation must take the helm and start all over. Pretend we never existed and rebuild the government and the american attitude toward government if there is going to be hope for the future of this country. The Hippies (the now generation), The yuppies and all the rest of us are the worst of american political history.

[Dave C]

bickering about this is pointless.
I read a lot of different publications/points of view, usually on the same story. Its interesting to see how the author inputs their opinion.
List of my usual sources (and what I consider their orientation, yours may differ).
KPFA - far left (good conspiracy theories)
SF Chronicle, also far left.
NPR - left of center.
Rush- right
Michael Savage - right
NY times - yes, left
WSJ - right.
Reuters - left of center.
Drudge - right.
etc., etc.

[Dr. Eagle]

Originally posted by Lake Pirate
And another pretty speech. Unfortunately words don't carry the weight they should in today's society. The problem isn't government and it isn't subversives. It is us, the baby boomers. For the return of decent government and shared goals for America the responsibility lies with Generation "X." We had our chance and we blew it. We are the religious zealots. We are the oppressive Christian right. We are the bamboozling government. We are the tight assed politically correct. We sucked when given the chance to make our mark. The dissention in politics we have caused is irrepairable. The next generation must take the helm and start all over. Pretend we never existed and rebuild the government and the american attitude toward government if there is going to be hope for the future of this country. The Hippies (the now generation), The yuppies and all the rest of us are the worst of american political history.
I would say speak for yourself. I am an agnostic, so Religious Right? I am a conservative politically, yes but that has to do with my thought that Government is just as insidious as evil corporations, or other most other societal issues.
I think your gloom and doom represent what is wrong with America.

[Lake Pirate]

Actually I am not all gloom and doom. This thread represents the gap that exists between the average american voter. The left is way too left and the right is way too right. They hate each other and are willing to do almost anything to destroy or beat the other party. In my opinion there is almost a civil war going on within the government, with itself. On the bright side... I see hope within our children. History dictates they will almost always do the opposite of their parents. Hopefully, that means they will scrap all the bullshit lines we have drawn in the sand and recreate what our forefathers meant for America. How's that for optimism?

[OGShocker]

There is another pretty speech.

[Dr. Eagle]

Originally posted by Lake Pirate
Actually I am not all gloom and doom. This thread represents the gap that exists between the average american voter. The left is way too left and the right is way too right. They hate each other and are willing to do almost anything to destroy or beat the other party. In my opinion there is almost a civil war going on within the government, with itself. On the bright side... I see hope within our children. History dictates they will almost always do the opposite of their parents. Hopefully, that means they will scrap all the bullshit lines we have drawn in the sand and recreate what our forefathers meant for America. How's that for optimism?
You are right about the gap between the left and right. The depth of division has deepend in the last 10 -12 years. However I see the left as the more divisive force. Why?
The conventional is always necessarily wrong. Nothing that is in place now is right or good enough.
In California, the Republicans have tried and tried to negotiate with the Democrats and because of such a majority the democrats took the tack that they didn't need to.
Hence we are in a hole here...
Honestly, I prefer a government deadlocked to a large extent because then they don't get much done. When they do get things done, they usually do things that remove our freedoms a little at a time. Gun laws, noise regulations, emissions regulations, restrictive zoning, you name it... they hinder our freedoms.
Honestly, I could see a civil war in this country in the next 20 years... if things don't improve. It means people have to work together.

[Lake Pirate]

At least I write my own speeches.
I couldn't agree more Dr Eagle. I have been spun into the defender of the left on this thread when in fact, it couldn't be further from the truth. As I said, I voted for Reagan and would again today. About the only thing I'm totally against is blind allegiance whether t be left or right. There aren't many free thinkers amongst our generation (quite ironically) and I guess that's what I am defending. The right to think independantly.