You wish Ron Paul to just sit in a corner, while you state that corporations are a huge problem in USA. How do you combine those two statements? Doesn’t John Perkins, The Economic Hit Man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTbdnNgqfs8&feature=related

show quite convincingly that Ron Paul was the only presidential candidate who proposed to bring that problem to an end?

Ah, the I want to go back to what the USA did before 9/11?

Well…and that pre 9/11 policy worked so well….

And that european war called WW2 was so unnecessary.

And that Yugo war was so unnecessary.

Corporations and corporate power are a huge problem in this country, but that doesn’t mean that everyone with only a marginal voice was deliberately railroaded by corporations. Some people are just nutjobs. Paul can go sit in a corner with Chomsky and there they can grumble about how the man is keeping them down.

Researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society found some remarkable family connections for the three presidential candidates — Democratic rivals Obama and Clinton, and Republican John McCain.

Clinton, who is of French-Canadian descent on her mother’s side, is also a distant cousin of singers Madonna, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette. Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, can call six U.S. presidents, including George W. Bush, his cousins. McCain is a sixth cousin of first lady Laura Bush.

“You’d think with all that singing talent in the family she’d be able to carry a tune,” Clinton’s senior adviser Philippe Reines said. “But now it makes much more sense how she snagged a Grammy.”

Clinton won for best spoken word Grammy in 1997 for “It Takes a Village.” Obama also won a Grammy in that category this year for the audio version of his book, “The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream.”

Genealogist Christopher Child said that while the candidates often focus on pointing out differences between them, their ancestry shows they are more alike than they think.

“It shows that lots of different people can be related, people you wouldn’t necessarily expect,” Child said.

Obama has a prolific presidential lineage that features Democrats and Republicans. His distant cousins include President George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry S. Truman and James Madison. Other Obama cousins include Vice President Dick Cheney, British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill and Civil War General Robert E. Lee.

Obama often jokes about his cousin Cheney at campaign appearances.

“His kinships are across the political spectrum,” Child said.

Child has spent the last three years tracing the candidates’ genealogy, along with senior research scholar Gary Boyd Roberts, author of the 1989 book, “Ancestors of American Presidents.”

Clinton’s distant cousins include beatnik author Jack Kerouac and Camilla Parker-Bowles, wife of Prince Charles of England.

McCain’s ancestry was more difficult to trace because records on his relatives were not as complete as records for the families of Obama and Clinton, Child said.

Obama and President Bush are 10th cousins, once removed, linked by Samuel Hinkley of Cape Cod, who died in 1662.

Pitt and Obama are ninth cousins, linked by Edwin Hickman, who died in Virginia in 1769. Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, declined to comment on the senator’s ancestry.

Clinton and Jolie are ninth cousins, twice removed, both related to Jean Cusson who died in St. Sulpice, Quebec, in 1718.

The New England Historic Genealogical Society, founded in 1845, is the oldest and largest nonprofit genealogical organization in the country.

I’d have to agree on this. I lurked here every day for a year, and still not really gaining anything new or special about Finland. I see an occasional news item time to time, and even then some of the blog post don’t discuss the relationship of Finland to other countries.

With all respects, I know this blog is about Phil, an “American living in Finland” and all, but try to post more about Finland. Pictures, places, people, events…

Just trying to provide some feedback. I get enough of this whole election drama at home.

Just be glad you don’t live in Finland—then you’d have absurdly high VAT tax AND absurdly high-income tax AND absurdly high indirect taxes (government monopolies, cartels, dubious anti-EU car registration tax schemes). Be thankful that it’s just a quick visit for you.

Get rid of your income tax in the US, and boost individual savings of the middle and lower-middle classes already. Geez! —same goes for Finland.

And the ‘racism…’ Yes, I’ve read all about it. Uh huh.

I’ll admit that I don’t share some of his personal views on social issues. I’m more of a centrist than a right-winger, in terms of my view on life. Perhaps I’m closer to Gravel in that regard. But which candidate represents 100% of your views? —IMO, either of these two are better than any of the others.

In any case, I’m very satisfied that RP keeps his personal views of his politics—which he seems to have done so far. Unless you know something that I don’t?