Growing up I thought of the Service Industry as plumbers, electricians and repair persons people who we assume made a decent income but when I hear the term now it is referring to retail or fast food and are not making a living income.

The technical definition seems to be those who offer an intangible product but in todays economy what is the real definition?

Should we be worried that the US Economy is moving in that direction?

He says he wants to lower the tax rates to 20% but what about those who's tax rate are already 15% or 10%?

Today's jobs report is being spun like a merry-go-round. I am not surprised the report is not celebrated by the Republicans but to claim a "Chicago Politics" is typically low.

In the movie And the Band Played on Dr. Curran started his staff meetings with the following statement "What do we think, what do we know, what can we prove". Using the same principal for the two medicare plans I realize I know what I think, but I really know very little and can prove nothing, this will make it very hard to debate the conservatives I live around who will surly vote for Romney/Ryan this November.

I have not heard a single all inclusive explanation of what Obama plans to do. I have heard the Republican criticisms which are all based on a $700M cut. I have heard bits and pieces of the Obama plan and various explanations of the $700M but not a good hard explanation.

What I have heard of the $700M cut are three basic explanations, 1) the $700M is only a shift, that the money taken out of medicare is being applied to the ACA 2) this will be a better way to give the same care to the same people and 3) the part of Medicare which the $700M comes from was a little used and ineffective part of medicare anyway.

What i have heard of the Ryan plan is that it too takes $700M from medicare but rather than shifting the money to other health care options the money goes to the tax cuts wanted by the Republicans. I have also heard that medicare will be changed to a voucher program which will 1) not affect current seniors (thus hoping to not cause a large senior shift to the Democrats), 2) will, at first at least, be an optional program, 3) the vouchers will not be adjusted to inflation of medical cost, so at first it may be a quid pro quo but as time passes will not be sufficient to cover the medical needs of the future seniors.

If what I have heard is true, I don't understand why all of these facts are not combined together and given to the American people in one package.

Does anyone know if what I heard is true or if I am missed anything?

While I think a Romney/Ryan ticket will energize the conservative base, it will only make those who were going to vote for Romney anyway happier about their vote, not sway any away from Obama and may move many from undecided to Obama.

But, this morning I was reminded of some of the nuclear war movies I have seen while thinking of the possibilities of a Romney/Ryan Administration, especially if the Senate went Tea Party.


For those too young to remember them or have chosen to not watch those movies, back in the 80s, during the last saber rattling of the cold war there were several nuclear war movies made, The Day After, Threads and Testament to name a few, all of which showed us the horrors of nuclear war. One thing which most had in common was that the aftermath would be much worst than the actual nuclear war, even to the point of bringing to light that the living may envy the dead. A few like Testament even showed how a suburban community was devastated, even thought it had no effects of the actual nuclear detonations, from the fallout.


A Romney/Ryan Administration I feel would be like a Political Nuclear War. While immediately many would feel the devastation of the war on the poor. Many would loose on day one, heath care would end for the poor, medicaid would be reduced or eliminated, even entire departments such as the EPA may disappear. But, that would be just the actual war, the fallout would still be to come. Just like in Testament many would not feel the utter devastation of the Ryan budget being enacted, the middle class may and without a doubt the rich would get short term boost or be untouched. But, just as in a nuclear war it would be the fallout which all would feel. The Ryan budget actually grows the debt, the current seniors won't feel the devastation from the medicare vouchers with the future medicare users being screwed, pollution would not immediately increase because of the end of the EPA but without check industry would go back to freely polluting the environment.


So, just like in a real nuclear war on day one there would be 100s of 1000s devastated but the real horrors are to come.

I know very little about the LDS church. But, from my own religious background I have been part of the Church of God, Assemblies of God and Baptist, all of which teach in the rapture of the church. I also and most recently been part of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. which does not teach the rapture of the church.

Does the Mormon church teach the Rapture of the church or anything like it?

My at&t uverse has an olympic app. It allows you to see all the channels at once in multi-view. I noticed while Melissa Harris Perry is being preempted CNBC is running "paid programing". I looked up the schedule on the internet and it seems with all of the delayed programing anyway they could have shifted the between channels and delayed a few events to allow those two shows to air, in one hour versions if necessary.

Am I the only one frustrated the way NBC is choosing which networks and programs to preempt?

Several weeks ago I heard on (I think) Diane Rehm a discussion on should Israel attack Iran and if the US should help. While I don't remember all the details and can't find the exact show basically said the following;
If the US lead the attack it would at best set back the Iran nuclear effort by only 2 years.
If Israel attacked only it would at best set back the Iran nuclear effort by 6-18 months.
Any attack on Iran may cause an outright war between Iran and Israel with other countries in the area joining in most likely supporting Iran.
This one scared me. Israel's only real hope of doing lasting harm to Israel would be to do the unthinkable and going nuclear.

Has anyone else heard this nightmare scenario?

Okay, it is an election year. I know things will be taken out of context. We do it, they do it. You know "all's fair in love an war".

But, IMHO, Romney and the RNC has gone to a new low. It is one thing to take something out of context by not including the sentence before and/or after, but to splice words together is going a bit too far. It should also be very easy to rebut, but it still seems to grow roots.

Just to see when the DNC has taken Romney out of context I discovered something surprising to me. They hurt themselves by cutting the full statement more than if they left it as is and ran in a different direction. I will give 4 example;

1. "I am also, unemployed" - Yes he was hearing stories of people who were unemployed and may have been making a joke, but it shows he felt it was something to joke about. Not something someone living on unemployment wants to hear.

2. "I am not concerned about the very poor"- he then states the he isn't concerned for the very rich either he was worried about the 95%. Well if you take the 5% which he isn't worried about and take away the 1 or 2% he think are very rich you are given 3 or 4%, that is all he feels the "safety net" is for. His plans want to fix the safety net by tanking it down.

3. "I like firing people" - he continued to refer to those giving him a service. This could be taken two ways, he is of a wealthy class with "servants" or simply give the real meaning of the speech, he was wanting to bust unions.

4. " I have already released two years, I won't release any more tax returns" (paraphrase) - before the said that he the Democrats would distort the returns, he knows something is being hidden, he followed by saying the 2nd year really has not been released so we won't have that 2nd year till a week or two before the election, so really he has released 1 year.

I think the DNC is doing Romney a favor by taking his speeches out of context, because in context they are even worst.

Now Romney or the RNC has three times taken speeches extremely out of context.

1. "If we continue to talk about the economy we will lose" - that quote was a quote from McCain.

2. "You didn't build that on your own" - we know that was spliced, and Obama was talking about roads.

3. "Our plan worked" - once again he was not only taken out of context but spliced.

Romney and the RNC have stooped to new lows in what is the dirtiest campaign ever.

Okay, I will quit ranting and get off my soapbox.

Okay, Mittens is out of the country. He has insulted the British people and their ability to host the Olympic games causing Prime Minister Cameron and the Mayor of London to publicly call Romney out on his statements. Tonight, he will have his hand out to the bankers who have just been caught rigging the system for contributions to his campaign. I think tonight will go rather well, he knows how to kiss up to big money.
He has two more countries to go. I wonder how to put his "silver foot" in his mouth in Israel and Poland.

Any guesses?