Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Actual left/right wing discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (361)	9/8/2006 11:04:04 AM
From: TimF	Respond to of 10087

Wealthy? Yes. Definitely. Massively more wealthy than most nations. Social Security and Medicare should be accounted for but they aren't really debt. The massive spending these programs will incur will result in direct debt, and can't be casually dismissed, but promises of future government spending do not mean the country is currently poor. The average household's debt might be $84k, but the average household's assets are greater then $84k. America's total national income is the highest in the world (by a noticeable margin over any other countries), its per capita income is near the highest whether you adjust for different currencies by straight exchange rates or purchasing power parity, and even if you adjust for the amount spent on debt service. To consider China (who's per capita income is dwarfed by the US, and who's total capital stock is also dwarfed by the US's) to be wealthier than the US is just silly.

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (361)	9/8/2006 11:29:32 AM
From: one_less	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10087

UHH ohh... Senate panel to issue Iraq intel report By JIM ABRAMS Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Senate analysis of intelligence-gathering activities leading up to the invasion of Iraq is certain to rekindle an election-year debate on the justification of going to war. The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, said the report will confirm that "the Bush administration's case for war in Iraq was fundamentally misleading." The report to be released by the committee Friday focuses on two much-studied issues: the influence of the anti-Saddam exile group Iraqi National Congress in shaping U.S. intelligence estimates, and a comparison of prewar estimates and postwar findings about Iraq's weapons programs and links to terrorism. But its release comes at a time when President Bush is speaking out on the importance of victory in Iraq to the war on terrorism, and Democrats are trying to recapture control of Congress by emphasizing the failings of the president's Iraq policy. Republicans on the committee declined comment on the report Thursday, but they were expected to play down the role of the Iraqi National Congress and its leader, Ahmed Chalabi, in shaping U.S. policy toward Saddam Hussein and the decision to go to war in March 2003. The intelligence committee issued a portion of its analysis, labeled Phase I, on prewar intelligence shortcomings in July 2004. But concluding work on Phase II of the study has been more problematic, because of partisan divisions over how senior policymakers used intelligence in arguing for the need to drive Saddam from power. Last November, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada forced the Senate into a rare closed-door session to discuss the delay in coming out with the new data. The 400-page report to be released Friday covers only two of the five topics outlined under Phase II. Much of the information - on the intelligence supplied by the INC and Chalabi and the overestimation of Saddam's WMD threat - has been documented in numerous studies. But Rockefeller said the report would show how the "administration pursued a deceptive strategy, abusing intelligence reporting that the intelligence community had already warned was uncorroborated, unreliable and in some critical circumstances fabricated." Rockefeller said a third segment, on the prewar intelligence assessment of postwar Iraq, could be issued later this month. But there was no set date for issuing the last two parts of Phase II, including a look at the politically divisive issue of whether policymakers manipulated intelligence reports to set the stage for war. "We continue our work on the remaining part of our Phase II inquiry," said Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan.