So much for bi-partisan efforts eh?  When a Republican crosses the line, it's proof that Obama appeals to all people and serves as evidence that the Republican party is broken.  But when a Democrat crosses the line, he must be a turncoat mother fucker who must be out for some devious reason.

Exactly.  People have been ecouraged to keep up with the Jonses.  When I was in limbo a couple years ago before this whole Army thing corrected itself, I was working a gig as a customer service representative for a major American cable company.  Some guy called in because we had cut his cable for not paying his bill.  Now anyone who has cable knows there are different plans of cable with the be all end all being the platinum package that runs about $150 a month.  This dipshit hadn't paid in two months abd was upset that we had cut him off.  He began to lecture me on even though he was poor, he had a RIGHT to the same cable that rich people got.

This is the underlying sense of entitlement that American people have been led to believe they have a right to.  It's not hard work or effort that determines quality of lilfe; simply existing means you should be happy and have every luxury life can afford.  I'm not sitting on a soap box either.  When I was in college I got my first credit card.  It soon went from a 300$ credit limit to $15,000.  And guess what, I used every god damn cent of credit to buy whatever my heart desried.  Tabs were on me, every video game, ate out all the time, basically any whim I had or everything I wanted I bought.  Since my family is straight middle class and I refuse to ask others to pay for my dipshit choices, I took out loans to pay off my credit card.  The absurdity in such behavior is self evident.  But I was in college with no money and wanted to live in style and not within my means; I wanted to keep up with all the kids who weren't on scholarships and had mommy and daddy to pay all their bills.  So once I graduated and the loan payments were due, I had to man up and pay the price for my years of reckless behavior.  For the first 18 months I was in the Army I lived off beef ravioli and grilled cheese to stay within my budget.  I couldn't afford to go out on weekends with my peers because I didn't have the money to do it.   Luckily I've come out on the other side of it and have plenty of disposable income and hopefully with be completely debt free in the next year.

My point is not what a dipshit I was/am.  But how it takes a financial crisis to jolt people into reality.  As long as someone is there to bail you out; you're never going to learn.  That is exactly what is running like a cancer throughout our society.  This mentality of I deserve this or that simply because I want it is crippling us.  This politically correct babble and refusal to call a spade a spade is preventing the issues at hand from really being addressed.  People need to fuck up and drown to learn from their mistakes.  The US Economy needs a serious hit and to be knocked the fuck out for a few minutes.  When it comes to, it will see what it needs to do and correct its behavior.  Simply delaying the inevitable by reinforcing bad behavior and policy is not going to do us any good.

Rather than point blame at other people or political parties, every American needs to have a serious come to Jesus and decide that they're not going to live a lifestyle they can't afford.

The answer to all of this is simple and is already in motion.  How did we get out of the last depression?

I wonder where we might go this time......

Time to instill some pride and values back into the western world.  A generation of sloths and leaches are going to go to an 8-week motivational seminar for the phony tough and the crazy brave - then off to a land that looks much like mars at night.

This is good.  America needs this to happen to show that liberal economic and social programs destroy an economy.  This isn't proof of the free market collapsing, its proof that government medling in the market and forcing companies to give money to poor families with no collateral is poor fiscal policy.  This is going to send a much needed jolt to people to wake the fuck up and start living within their means.  It's going to teach people that they alone are responsible for their welfare and can't delude themselves into thinking the government will be there when it comes time to pay the piper.

The Republicans are right on this.  Even if their reason for doing it is political posturing, the outcome is still correct.  We need to ride this out and let the market correct itself and kick the government yoke.  Adding more fuel to the fire that was created by government intervention isn't going to help us.

In the all the critic commentary on the downfall of GN'R, songs like Estranged are often referenced for the bloating and indulgence GN'R resorted to.  Now don't get me wrong, I love Estranged and think it's one of their greatest songs; but I am a GN'R fan.  The opening single to Chinese Democracy needs to be something that is to the point and rocks.  Something that non-GN'R fans will like and be intrigued by.  Going with If The World as their first single is a huge mistake IMO.  It's not going to strike a chord with the masses and will immediately turn people off to GN'R.