Shortly after his reelection, George Bush bragged that he had bags full of political capital for his second term. But Bush both miscounted the political coins in his pocket and blew his wad on some bad gambles, such as the war in Iraq and Social Security privatization. Then he lost more with the bad luck, largely of his own making,… return to article
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Reader Comments (73)Page 1 of 1 pagesSounds like someone preaching to the choir. I suspect that after the 2006 elections, Twain’s “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated” will haunt the Democrats.
Posted by Jay Cline on Dec 29, 2005 at 10:41 AM One thing the Democrats need to do to defeat the Republican machine is to figure out how to answer the Repugnican charge of Gov’t. stealing your money.
Don’t defend taxes, BUT DO explain them. It’s simple
*without tax we wouldn’t have roads, schools, hospitals, no police, no fireman. No protective regulations that ensure a safe working environment, or that you must be fired with cause. Taxes pay for the maintenence of the infrastructure required to keep this country #1. Not one thing that makes this country great was possible without paying taxes. Even the wealthy owe their wealth to exploitation of laws and regulations that created a stable envioronment to invest and spend there money. Could Bill Gates have built microsoft if copyright laws in the USA were poorly enforced due to lack of funding. Would the software industry even exist if it weren’t for the Gov’t. paying for such enforcement via taxes.
The Gov’t. ensures our elderly are taken care of via medicare. The Gov’t. takes care of our parks, and protects us.
The cuts Repugnicans have made are starting to have their effect on those essential functions. Nat’l parks are in a state of decay. Seniors struggle more and more to meet basic health costs.Schools degenerate year after year.
Tying taxes to very real, essential, comfort providing things in everyone’s life Dems. could reverse this issue and portray the Repugnicans as parasites bent on extracting wealth for the wealthy at the cost of destroying this nation.
Europeans get it. Few Europeans complain about taxes, because they know what they get. This doesn’t mean they are happy, but they are not deluded and ignorantlycomplaining like so many Americans, who think tax money is money shot down a black hole.
Of course this has to be expressed in catchy, soundbites. Like the Repug vote to cut funding for Nat’l parks meant Jashica Jones first and only trip to Yellowstone proved fatal when she fell through a unrepaired walkway. Unrepaired because for the 7th year in a row, Yellowstone received less money than Pat Robertson’s 700 club received in tax breaks.
The heartbreaking story of Gov’t. failing us big and small (Katrina) are out there, and most can be tied to lack of funding. Dems. need to tie them together NOW, and stick the tag of blame where it belongs.
Otherwise the Repugnicans will have no problem creating a big lie to blame them. It’s happened before, it will happen again
Posted by johnnyincentx on Dec 29, 2005 at 12:06 PM There certainly is a political environment throughout the country that both sides of the aisle have jumped on, that is the buying of votes with tax rebates.
In Florida, with a no-state-income-tax policy enshrined in the state constitution, fair weather roads are a mess. In Minnesota, we all know that without state financing of the annual spring repair of roads assaulted by the annual thaw, we’d have no transportation at all in a few short years.
Unfortunately, even Minnesotans are not immune to the biannual buy-the-vote road show.
Rebates were initially used (in the current round of political history) to force Congress to stop wasting money on grossly inefficient government bureaucracies. But, all that happened was that programs were scaled back. They are still grossly ineffiecient, but we aren’t throwing as much money down that black hole.
No real effort, short of Bush’s attempt to sell his Social Security Reform, has been made to actually rebuild more effective models.
Posted by Jay Cline on Dec 29, 2005 at 1:20 PM Please PROVE or GIVE some evidence of the Government being “GROSSLY INEFFICIENT.”
All I have ever seen put forth is various Defense Dept. purchases, and ironically that is the one part of Gov’t. that does NOT get cut.
Too often I"ve found the evidence easy to discredit, but because people are so eager to believe that this is true, they don’t ask even simple questions.
I remember the Defense Dept. hammer that contractors billed the Military over $100. The same hammer could be bought at a hardware store for only a few $$$. No one followed up and this little lie became fact. Unfortunately it was not. The cost of the hammer reflected the Military’s demand that it meet specific requirements, and that it be tested to ensure that it meet those requirements. This meant the manufacturer could NOT just sell off the shelf hammers to the Military. Instead they had to create a new one from scratch, keeping the military’s special needs in mind and test it. After all was said and done this was figured into the price.
BUT LET’S SAY it was truly a bogus purchase, one that could have been made at True Value.
How come no one jumps on the seller for blatently ripping off our government?
How come he’s not accused of being unpatriotic for ripping off our military. No it’s always the same blame Gov’t.
Before you come up with examples, be sure and add 20% to the supposed price of something other than the Gov’t. doing performing a function. That 20% is to reflect PROFIT. No private company does work without profit.
This is something people in Texas are learning slowly but surely. Recently after another round of steep utiltiy price increases, some savvy Texans got hold of the stockholder statements sent by those utility companies to ther shareholders. They were floored when they read things like “thanks to the 40% increase in rates XXX company was able to surpass last year’s 20% return on expenditures......”
The newsletters also said things like “thanks to near total control of the revenue stream and assessments, we can assure all investors of a stable and healthy margin of profit for the forseable future.”
In otherwords Texans are finding out they’re PRIVATE utility companies have turned into money sucking hogs worse than any Gov’t.
Gov’t. may be inneficcient, but it does NOT have to make a profit.
Gov’t is pro-active in terms of infrastructure. Private Business ONLY reacts when there is a profit to be made.
Profit is an extremely poor way to meet the needs of the country are met in a timely and equitable manner.
Large corporations are risk averse. They only invest when a profit is sure. Many of the the functions and responsibilities of Gov’t. are NOT ever going to be profitable.
Gov’t. also has to take into regards the general public’s belief of right and wrong, and often will spend quite a bit of money on something to make it right, even though it is not really worth the price. These things a private business would NEVER do if put in the Gov’ts. place.
Things like managing endangered species
Developing vaccines instead of super-expensive meds.Gov’t. does NOT pick and choose. Gov’t. takes care of the neediest and the most helpless. Things private business would NEVER touch, because there is no money to be made.
Yet no one talks about how such functions and costs affect the picture when they are averaged. in with all other functions and costs expenditures the #s make Gov’t. Without explanation the final numbers make Gov’t. seem much more inneffient than it is.
To say the Gov’t. is grossly inefficient is soooo easy, but it’s just the opposite if one demands irrefutable proof.
Often merely putting the “fact, example” into context reveals the falseness of the assumption. Which is usually grounded in a person’s bias, and totally subjective.
I mean has anyone asked Repugnican Ted Stevens if the billion dollar bridge to nowhere is worth the money he thinks we should spend on it?
Posted by johnnyincentx on Dec 29, 2005 at 3:34 PM http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=gao+inefficient+bureaucracy&btnG G=Google+Search
The first one that pops up, a GAO study on how to implement the reorganization in 1995 of the federal government in the wake of the efforts to force the government as I described, is interesting.
http://archive.gao.gov/t2pbat1/154275.pdf
It goes into some detail on how the federal bureaucracy, by its own nature, becomes inefficient.
With regards to Ted Stevens’ bridge to nowhere, how much of that pork bill went to Democratic congressman?
Please. Do your own homework. It ain’t that tough.
Posted by Jay Cline on Dec 29, 2005 at 4:41 PM Jay:
There is a huge difference between “grossly inefficient and “inefficient.”
If you meant the latter, hey I agree on that point. Where we’d probably disagree is the remedy.
Inefficient as he uses it is devoid of the wholesale dismissive judgment your comments entail. His use is not synonymous with incompetent.
In fact one simple way to dramatically improve Gov’t. efficiency is to eliminate the Federal system and replace it with one central Gov’t. Eliminating the multiplicity of Gov’ts striving to achieve the same thing would save billions.
If Gov’t. were run like a business, this would probably be the first order of the day. GM did that with it’s various car lines years back. Hey people lost jobs, local economy went into a tailspin. But a Gov’t. run like a business wouldn’t have to consider such things.
If Gov’t were run like a business whole chunks of this country would be sold to the highest bidder, because the parts that remain would be far more profitable without them. Let someone else try to make a profit from running Appalachia or the Deep South.
Ah but I digress back to your point.
I think though you purposely added “grossly” because that is how you feel. Here are definitions of the words as you used them.
Inefficient: not producing the desired effect with a minimum use of energy, time, etc.;
gross: glaring; flagrant; very bad “gross miscalculation”By simply adding an adverb you nullify the truth in the original solo use of the word.
And so the one of the basic technique of the big-lie spinners of Repugs is exposed. Claim a simple truth by dressing it up in your biases and judgment and then present it as the truth unadorned.
When questioned point back to the original truth and hope they do not read it. Just reading the first two pages quickly told me I would NOT find proof or backing for your INTERPRETATION AND SPIN.
Such a broad all-encompassing generalization has NO meaning when referring to such a complex, multi-layered structure as the Gov’t of this nation. It’s only designed to mislead by stirring passions and confusing the issue.
IF it were “grossly inefficient” I doubt if Bowsher would even make a recommendation to fix it. There would be no point. Such a description is more fitting of a 3rd. world country, but you know that.
Finally there are aspects of Government that are superbly efficient, and those aspects are what truly expose the lie when one tries to describe the Gov’t as “grossly inefficient” as you tried.
If I were naive, I’d guess you must have forgot to do your homework in English Language comprehension. In reality though you distort the facts on purpose to bend them to your own goals.
Posted by johnnyincentx on Dec 29, 2005 at 11:16 PM So your lack of good roads in Minn. is proof of Gov’t. waste? Your answer is to cut Gov’t. funding? Wow, Maybe they’re a mess because that’s all the state can afford.
You know I’m not going to argue. I believe you. I’ll give you that one.
So let’s do what the smart money says is the solution.
PRIVATISE YOUR ROADS!!!! LET BIG BUSINESS - Bechtel, or Kellog Brown and Root take care of your state’s transportation needs. :)
You’ll finally get your weather roads in no time. You won’t complain when they cost 2x as much, because with private companies you always get what you pay for (like Enron and Tyco and the Oil Companies)
You’ll be GLAD to pay more to ensure such efficient companies make a fair profit of approx. 20% or more. Hey corporate America is honest and caring.
Maybe some day you might have reason to doubt their sincerity, when a price seems to high, but resign yourself to helplessness, because you can’t vote them out of office.
Since profit is the motivation of corporate America, you’ll turn a blind eye to Corp. America writing and signing the Gov’t. up to pay for blatently overpriced services and goods.
This will happen, because in the rush to privative, people forgot that Gov’t. employees are not born contract specialists.
This will happen (as it has in Texas and Iraq) because You will not make them answer the hard questions you ask of Gov’.t Because they’re a private business they are ALWAYS HONEST! The Pursuit of Profit always makes a business do the right thing
Oh and when you finally take a ride on your new all-weather roads courtesy of Big Business make sure and take some cash to pay hefty tolls,
Oh you forgot, one key to business survival is creating sources of ONGOING PROFIT. Only a toll road would do that.
FINALLY - As far as Gov’t. waste. Repugs slammed Dems. for waste.
They were elected by many BECAUSE it was thought they’d change it.It turns out they are even worse.
To point to Dems. past waste as a justification is beyond stupid and ridiculous. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Are you really that much of a libertarian moron?
In the end my goal is not to convince you of anything. I prefer those that think so blindly and inflexibly like you stay on the other side. You are far better as an opponent than as an ally.
Posted by johnnyincentx on Dec 29, 2005 at 11:28 PM As part of the Great society program, President Johnson passed the Welfare provisions. From the 1970s until the 1990s, when welfare was essentially ended, the total cost of the program was $6 trillion, which is approximately equal to the current national debt. The only outward results of the welfare program was the break-up of poor familiies, because there were more benefits if there was no husband around, and more illigitimate children meant higher benefits. So it cost $6 trillion to destroy a substantial portion of American families, and we will be paying a social cost from the welfare program for the next three or four generations.
In spite of the Dim’s crying and whining, the economy has taken off like a rocket since Bush passed the tax cuts. That means higher employment and higher tax receipts not only for the USA, but also for the individual states.
But that is OK. The Dims have a pathological need to complain and be unhappy. I understand. Knock yourselves out.
Posted by scorp on Dec 29, 2005 at 11:30 PM Johnny,
It does seem to be a common tactic on this website to magnify the trivial and trivialize the obvious.
1) I am neither a libertarian nor a moron.
2) My point about the good roads in Minnesota is that we have recognized the need to pay for them while in Florida, even though the weather is mild and does not damage the roads as they do here, in Florida is where the really bad roads exist.
Because they won’t pay for them.
How you turned that around 180 degrees is beyond me.
3) I am not a libertarian; I do not believe in privatization of basic government services. You must have concluded that from your faulty analysis as I described in point 2.
4) Grossly inefficient or merely inefficient? As you quote from the dictionary,
Inefficient: not producing the desired effect with a minimum use of energy, time, etc.;
Yep. That sounds like what the Republicans were, and are, trying to fix. Not getting the desired effect with the limited money available.
A noble goal.
5. The whole point of my posting was that rebates were initially used to force the gov’t to do the same with less money, ie force it to find ways to become more efficient.
My point was that the gov’t didn’t do that; they took the easy way out and just cut back, becoming more ineffective, and arguably more inefficient.
My point was that both parties have jumped on the rebate bandwagon for purely selfish motivations - buying the vote.
It ain’t just a ‘Repug’ vice. The Dims (thanks, scorp) do it to, with just as much enthusiasm.
Posted by Jay Cline on Dec 30, 2005 at 9:51 AM Oh ya, 2005 has been a disaster for Bush ... our country is just terrible. lol ...
I guess you forgot that we have had 30 straight months of job gains in America ... 4.4 million new jobs created since March 2003. Unemployment is around 5%, and the unemployment averages were higher in the 70’s, 80’s or 90’s.
Our economy is doing this great despite 9/11, two wars, and two summers in a row with hurricanes that we haven’t seen the 50’s and 60’s. Real disposable personal income has increased by nearly $1,900 per capita. Homeownership has reached an all-time high. More than African Americans Productivity is growing at the fastest rate in nearly 40 years.
I also guess you forgot about that the Coalition tranferred sovereighty to Iraq on June 28, 2004. Then in January 2005, Iraqis went to the polls and elected leaders for a transitional government. 3 elections that Iraq had in 2005. Then Iraqis adopted the most progressive democratic constitution in the Arab world. Then in December 2005, Iraqis voted to choose a new government under their constitution.
The United States has helped Iraqis conduct nearly 3,000 renovation projects at schools, train more than 30,000 teachers, distribute more than 8 million textbooks, rebuild irrigation infrastructure to help more than 400,000 rural Iraqis, and improve drinking water for more than 3 million people. The Coalition has helped Iraqis introduce a new currency, reopen their stock exchange, and extend $21 million in micro-credit and small business loans. As a result of these efforts and Iraq’s newfound freedom, more than 30,000 new Iraqi businesses have registered since liberation, and according to a recent survey, more than three-quarters of Iraqi business owners anticipate growth in the economy over the next two years.
Iraq now has over 120 Army and Police combat battalions in the fight. Each battalions has between 350 to 800 Iraqi forces. 80 battalions work alongside Coalition forces and 40 battalions now control their space with some support.
You also mentioned that America saw the widespread poverty in New Orleans during Katrina. Yes, New Orleans is one of the poorest cities in America, and why is this? Is it Bush’s fault that New Orleans is so poor? Is it the Republicans fault that New Orleans is so poor?
Let’s look at some facts about New Orleans and Louisiana.
* New Orleans hasn’t had a Republican Mayor is over 100 years ... every Mayor has been a Democrat. (oh, but’s the Republicans fault. lol ...)
* Louisiana NEVER had a Republican Senator until 2004. Every Senator has been a Democratic until 2004. (oh, but’s the Republicans fault. lol ...)
* Every Governor in Louisiana has been a Democrat except for 3. Louisiana has only had 3 Republicans Govs, and they only served 1-term. And this one is funny, twice the GOP Governors were voted out, they voted Democrat Edwin Edwards back into office. Edwards has been indicted more times than any politician in the history of America. Edwards and his son are now serving a 10-year federal prison sentence for bribery. (oh, but’s the Republicans fault. lol ...)
I guess the difference between liberals and conservatives is this: Liberals look at the glass half empty and conservatives look at the glass half empty.
Keep up the good work, it’s makes for a good laugh.
Posted by tina1 on Dec 30, 2005 at 11:36 AM tina1
4.4 million new jobs created since March 2003.
Thanx for reminding me. Four million jobs is the number of jobs created in Old Europe since the 1970s. That is why the Europes are unemployed and the Europes’ economies are stagnant and in shambles. But don’t tell the Dims, we don’t want to destroy their little fantasies.
Posted by scorp on Dec 30, 2005 at 12:11 PM Yeah, we gained a lot in manufacturing by calling fast food “manufacturing”. Now we just have to find a way to export hot hamburgers and french fries.
BTW, there were over 130,000 engineers in Iraq before we bombed them. They didn’t need our help to build anything. In fact, most of what needed to be repaired was stuff we bombed. Iraqi school children could have painted their schools, they didn’t need Bectel to do it. Fixing (at exhorbitant costs) stuff we broke and expecting credit for that is sick.
Why is their this tacit assumption that 9/11 did grave damage to our economy? How is it that we can plow down Iraqi cities and claim to be doing them favors at the same time that we claim that 9/11 hurt our economy?
And now, the cronies have the fifth largest port in the world, and there are so many contractors and subcontractors that the people who actually do the work of cleaning up the messes aren’t getting paid.
Where’s the gratitude?
Posted by wileywitch on Jan 1, 2006 at 3:09 AM Well, dang it, dubya. They can’t quite take credit for rebuilding Eye-rak unless someone (never mind who) destroys it to begin with. And here’s where the Dynamic Trio (the Caped Conservative Crusader or Sylvester “Suffffrin’ Succcatash” the Cat or “tiny tina” Tweety Bird) pipes up to blame it on the liberal Democrats, and praise the conservative Republicans for defending us from the fasc - I mean, comm - er, terrorists.
First you outsource the industry. Then you outsource the people “rendered” unemployed by industrial “flight”.
Posted by Major Major on Jan 1, 2006 at 6:31 PM Sooner or later, we’re going to have to start producing things---durable goods. Planned obse--- (my gawd, how do you spell that?!) obsolescence has run its natural course. We are now obsolete.
What’s saddest, I think, is that we worked so hard to get here.
Mercy.
Posted by wileywitch on Jan 1, 2006 at 10:26 PM Hey wileywitch,
How can we produce “things---durable goods” with unions?
Look at the United Auto Workers Union ... they guarantee pay and benefits to union members whose jobs were eliminated due to technological progress or plant restructurings ... that’s crazy. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why GM, Ford and Chrysler are barely surviving and Nissan, Honda and Toyota are setting record sales and profits.
Toyota currently has (7) plants in the USA and (1) under construction in San Antonio, TX. The Texas plant will be finished in 2006 and they will built the Tundra trucks. That plant will have about 2,000 workers. Toyota has 37,351 employees in N.A.
Here is a snapshot of a few Toyota plants in America.
* Georgetown, KY (6,934 employees) - average salary $69,916* Princeton, IN (4,656 employees) - average salary $65,035
* Fremont, CA (5,715 employees) - average salary $73,875
Everytime I bring up this point about Honda, Nissan and Toyota building plants in America ... I always hear “but they don’t pay their workers a good wage”. Well, the average wage at the plants listed above looks decent for someone who doesn’t have a degree.
Oh ya ... all of these plants are NON-Union. Not only are they not union ... but the workers DON’T want the union. They are doing fine without a greedy union.
Posted by tina1 on Jan 2, 2006 at 2:28 AM The plant in San Antonio, Texas will employ 1800 assembly line workers, which is 90% of the entire workforce. Toyota pays them $15 - $20 an hour. If we assume that the annual average wage for a full-time, non-temporary Toyota assembly line worker is $50,000 (including over-time), then the breakdown for management staff, according to your own figures, is as follows:
*Georgetown, KY (693 management staff) - average salary $249,275
*Princeton, IN (466 management staff) - average salary $275,749
*Fremont, CA (571 management staff) - average salry $364,633
I understand that having a degree should improve your prospects for employment, but the greedy people, in my humble opinion, are more likely management staff than the union stiffs who do most of the work.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that your priorities are totally fucked up.
Posted by Major Major on Jan 2, 2006 at 4:59 PM Ya ... your a liberal. Your anti-corporation, negative attitude gives it away.
From 1993 to 1997 I lived in Franklin TN., which is close to the Nissan plant in Smyrna TN and the Saturn plant in Spring Hill TN. Nissan is non-union and Saturn is UAW.
I had friends that worked at both plants and this is what I noticed ----- the friends that worked at Saturn were always bitching about work, always complaining, never happy. And the friends that I knew who worked at Nissan never bitched about work, never complained, were very happy with their job and Nissan in general.
IMAGINE THAT !!!
One fact about a liberal is this: it doesn’t matter what you give a liberal, they are never happy.
I almost feel sorry for liberals ... what a horrible way to live. Always complaining, always bitter, always angry, never happy about anything.
Think about it ... look at Dean, look at Kennedy, look at Pelosi, look at Reid, look at Kerry, look at Gore .... Do you ever see any of them smile? NO, NEVER They always have a scowl on their face. lol ... too funny.
Posted by tina1 on Jan 2, 2006 at 5:50 PM Oops.
I pasted the wrong wage estimate ($41,600) into the last two entries of the spreadsheet formula. The corrected results are:
*Georgetown, KY (693 management staff) - average salary $249,275
*Princeton, IN (466 management staff) - average salary $200,221
*Fremont, CA (571 management staff) - average salary $288,959
Which make the average management salary four to six times the average assembly line wage, instead of four to seven times the wage,
Sorry.
Your priorities are still fucked up.
Posted by Major Major on Jan 2, 2006 at 9:47 PM Major Major--- I feel it in my bones--- I think you would love Catch 22. Joseph Heller. WWII bombadiers. Hilarity.
Just thinking about the Made in Japan of my childhood, compared to the Made in Japan of the eighties. Things can turn around a lot in twenty-five years. Hope we don’t have to start with those little paper umbrellas and plastic swizzlesticks. Nobody needs that crap.
There was a time when everything in Sears was made in the U.S.A. and it was good.
Saw some MS newscasts today, and so once again it occurred to me that we should have a huge public works project to build pipelines and water treatment plants so that we can pump water from flooded regions to regions with draught.
It might even make liberals smile.
I’m smiling. Anyone else? Are you smiling Major Major? I’m still smiling. Are you smiling tina1? If you’re not, then you are in danger of being liberal. Careful now.
Posted by wileywitch on Jan 2, 2006 at 10:33 PM Major Major,
Maybe we should just pay everyone the same, ya, that’s the ticket. Someone who quits high school but gets his GED would make the same amount of money that someone who struggled thru college to get degree and then went to night school to get an MBA.
Maybe we should do away with grades in school, just give everyone an ‘A’ ... that way no one gets their feelings hurt.
You remind me of a joke a heard a long time ago:
AN AMERICAN REPUBLICAN: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So what?
AN AMERICAN DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. You vote people into office who tax your cows, forcing you to sell one to raise money to pay the tax. The people you voted for then take the tax money and buy a cow and give it to your neighbor. You feel righteous.
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.
A SOCIALIST: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
Posted by tina1 on Jan 3, 2006 at 9:02 PM Tina1. You’re never happy. No matter what anyone says you complain. In fact, you go out of your way to find people to complain about and then you complain about their complaining.
Nixon is charming by comparison.
What is your mission in life? You just bitch, and bitch, and bitch, and bitch about this supposedly discrete and homogenous group of people called “liberals”. Since you’ve made them into an institution, perhaps you should capitalize the term--- Liberals and add a little font. Maybe you can copyright it.
You keep building these little strawmen and setting them on fire. You don’t even do a particularly good job of that.
I used to think that joke was kind of funny. You are a drag, a stick in the mud, a wet blanket, and a blowhard.
If you’re smiling while you write your flaming, predictably scribbled posts then that is just downright creepy.
Give it a rest.
Posted by wileywitch on Jan 4, 2006 at 1:00 AM the neo-cons are in so much trouble right now that clintons bj is going to look like a panty raid.Wait till 20 congressmen get indicted from Jack Abramoff.
The corruption inquiry involving Abramoff, potentially one of the most explosive in congressional history, has expanded in recent months to encompass a dozen or so lawmakers, mainly Republicans, and numerous congressional aides and lobbyists suspected of arranging bribes in exchange for legislative work, people involved in the case said.The House speaker, J. Dennis Hastert, Republican of Illinois, said he would donate to charity $69,000 in campaign contributions directed to him by Abramoff, bush is giving back $6,000. If your a neo-con it is ok to rip off the american tax payer if you do it in the name of the lord.
Posted by brian28 on Jan 4, 2006 at 5:04 PM So how did the Abramoff scandal become a neo-con scandal? Somebody is really reaching here…
Posted by Jay Cline on Jan 5, 2006 at 11:22 AM We’ll see brian28. I would like to see Israel put into perspective.
Posted by wileywitch on Jan 5, 2006 at 12:31 PM And furthermore, brian 28, it is so hard to keep up with this busy-body administration---if you know of a good article that describes this mess in detaill, could you throw me a link?
Posted by wileywitch on Jan 6, 2006 at 1:39 PM Tweety.
You posted a clearly misleading message which implied that the average autoworker employed by Toyota is well-paid, insinuating that autoworkers represented by their unions are over-paid. I took your data at face value and demonstrated that the management staff (as indicated by their average salary) at Toyota plants in the US are overpaid. Now you’re whining about how people “who struggled thru college to get [a] degree and then went to night school to get an MBA” deserve to be over-paid. Let’s ignore your assumption that students “struggle” to obtain their ticket to the “American Dream” (I’ve been there and done that and, compared to the nightmare that most people without a degree - and even many of them who got one - must endure, your description of a struggle is grossly over-rated) and simply assume that all of us, not just the managers, deserve to be over-paid. Or that all of us, not just the grunts who do the heavy lifting, deserve to be underpaid.
Finally, and frankly, I’m getting tired of listening to your idiotic metaphorical platitudes with respect to animal husbandry. We’re not cattle or sheep who need to herded and fed and bred to maximize your profit potential.
Blow it out your ass.
Posted by Major Major on Jan 8, 2006 at 5:31 PM The Abramoff scandal is not just a big deal. It could end up being the biggest and most widespread case of corruption to hit the nation?s capitol ever. Bigger than Teapot Dome, Abscam or even Watergate. Because this one adds up to more money, hits more people, and may very well send more politicians to jail. Some 210 members of Congress received campaign contributions from Abramoff. Between 12 and 20 of them are under investigation by the Justice Department for possible bribes.
And make no mistake about it. This is a Republican scandal, from top to bottom. Sure, there are a few Democrats on Abramoff?s list. Every lobbyist, after all, is forced to sprinkle a little money, once in a while, to the opposition. (No Democrat is yet accused of exchanging cash for official acts.) But Abramoff called himself a ??Republican?? lobbyist. He filled his own staff with former aides of Republican members of Congress. He worked closely with uber-Republican lobbyists Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, and Ralph Reed, former director of the Christian Coalition. He gave most of his money to Republicans. And his closest ties were to Republican leaders in the House, Senate and White House.
Even before Abramoff?s guilty plea, President Bush pretended he?d never heard of him. In classic Bushspeak: ??I?m umm-ahhh, you know the, the Ambramamoff ? I?m frankly, I?m not all that familiar what?s going on up there in Capitol Hill,?? he told Fox News. This was just as honest as Bush?s telling reporters, four years ago, he couldn?t remember meeting Enron chairman Ken Lay ? a close family friend and financial supporter, whom Bush had actually nicknamed ??Kenny Boy.??
As first reported on the blog Daily Kos, Bush?s ties to the A-Bomb go way back to when he was governor of Texas, writing letters in support of the North Marianas Island, Abramoff?s client. As president, he met with Marianas Gov. Juan Babauta. Abramoff?s office records clock over 200 meetings with administration officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft and top aides to Vice President Dick Cheney. And Bush appointee David Safavian, head of procurement for the White House, has already been arrested and charged with lying to investigators about his dealings with Abramoff.
The A-Bomb torches every corner of Republican-controlled Washington. And, of course, it comes on top of scandals already swirling around Tom Delay, Bill Frist, Duke Cunningham, Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove.
Remind me. What did candidate George Bush say about bringing honesty and integrity back to the nation?s capitol?
35 rebublicans and 17 democrates in the house.
Just two months ago Randy “Duke” Cunningham, a Republican congressman from San Diego, confessed to accepting $2.4m in bribes and evading more than $1m in taxes. The former navy pilot, whose exploits in Vietnam formed the basis for the film Top Gun, was given a Rolls-Royce, Persian carpets and use of a yacht.
This whiff of sleaze has certainly clung to Republicans. After the indictment of vice-presidential aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Americans believed that Bill Clinton ran a more ethical administration, even after the Monica Lewinsky scandal, than Bush does now. Abramoff’s woes will hardly improve matters.
Posted by brian28 on Jan 8, 2006 at 10:37 PM <a href=http"//www.buzzflash.com/”>buzzflash</a>
<a href="http://www.pastpeak.com/archives/2006/01/dean_crushes_bl.htm">link to transcript</a>
Not more than an hour ago, I watched the video clip of Wolf Blitzer interviewing Howard Dean. Now it’s not working. Dean said unequivocably that NO Democrats were involved. I’m T-totally ticked off at the Democrats, but it would, nevertheless, be comforting if that turns out to be true.
Blitzer’s face totally tells on him. Dean looks cool as a cucumber on ice. If I find a working link to the video I’ll post it here.
Here’s the blogger of the second links’ transcript of Blitzer and Dean on the Abraham bribe scandal:
“UPDATE: Ok, here’s my transcript, but watch the video if you can to get the full effect.”
BLITZER: Should Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, who’s now pleaded guilty to bribery charges among other charges, a Republican lobbyist in Washington — should the Democrats who took money from him give that money to charity or give it back?
DEAN: There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff. Not one. Not one single Democrat. Every person named in this scandal is a Republican, every person under investigation is a Republican, every person indicted is a Republican. This is a Republican finance scandal. There is no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any money, and we’ve looked through all those FEC reports to make sure that’s true.
BLITZER: [Stammering] But through various Abramoff-related organizations, and outfits, a bunch of Democrats did take money that presumably originated with Jack Abramoff.
DEAN: That’s not true either. There’s no evidence for that either, there’s no evidence…
BLITZER: What about Senator, what about, what about, what about Senator Byron Dorgan?
DEAN: Senator Byron Dorgan and some others took money from Indian tribes. They’re not agents of Jack Abramoff. There’s no evidence that I’ve seen that Jack Abramoff directed any contributions to Democrats. I know the Republican National Committee would like to get the Democrats involved in this. They’re scared. They should be scared. They haven’t told the truth, and they have misled the American people, and now it appears they’re stealing from Indian tribes. The Democrats are not involved in this.
BLITZER: [Long pause, apparently getting direction in his earpiece] [Sigh] Unfortunately, we, uh, Mr. Chairman, we’ve got to leave it right there.
“I love how Blitzer says that money donated by Indian tribes “presumably originated with Jack Abramoff,” with absolutely no evidence or basis in fact. Objective journalism at its finest.”
What’s in quotation is the comments made by the blogger on that second link.
Posted by wileywitch on Jan 9, 2006 at 12:13 AM Now I’ve seen your claws and fangs, Major Major.
Nice claws.
Nice fangs.
Posted by wileywitch on Jan 9, 2006 at 12:27 AM Brian,
Yep, it is a Republican scandal this time around to be sure. Glad to see you’ve more properly refocused your sights.
Posted by Jay Cline on Jan 9, 2006 at 9:47 AM Fangs and claws?
You forgot to mention the horns poking from my forehead and the tail hanging from my butt.
Or did you object to my objections to tina1’s caricature of capitalism, her miraculous multiplication of cattle?
Capitalism derives its meaning from the latin root capita, or head, and refers to the ancient custom of trade in animals, or “beasts of burden”. From there it quickly evolved into the slave trade, and all those lovely methods of management for which the Romans and their western descendents were widely known. One of those “methods of management” was the monopolization of knowledge and skill, relegating wealth and power to the relatively few people who mastered the knowledge of trade and cultivated the skills of conquest. The intellectually unfit, the illiterate, were channelled into military service, which supplied the slaves, the workers, who produced the wealth and comforts which their conquerors required.
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
You people constantly carp about the “tyrrany” of modern life. If you’re liberal, you complain about the “tyrrany of fascism”. If you’re conservative, you complain about the “tyrrany of terrorism”. And while we’re arguing about whose tyrrany is more destructive, none of us seems to understand that we’re all living under the tyrrany of intelligence.
Including the intelligent.
Posted by Major Major on Jan 9, 2006 at 5:28 PM “We people constantly carp...”? Is that really fair, Major Major?
I didn’t see you shaking your tail, but I’ll keep my eye out for it.
And, with one tyranny or other, I must say that “capitalism American style” is incorporating to make an immortal institution that can skate around personal responsibility and accountability, patent a gene for “cow” that was discovered through public programs, patent the gene and sue the hell out of anyone breeding cattle and/or require others to pay tribute to said corporation for perpetuating the concept of “cow”.
Posted by wileywitch on Jan 9, 2006 at 5:49 PM MM,
Well, there you go again. Amazing how a liberal can call a cow a jackass and pretend it really isn’t there…
Posted by Jay Cline on Jan 10, 2006 at 11:46 AM [Liberal tax and spend policies] are still grossly ineffiecient, but we aren’t throwing as much money down that black hole.
Oy vey, Jay.
An insult from you is an occasion for celebration.
Posted by Major Major on Jan 10, 2006 at 5:55 PM Throwing taxes down the “black hole” is a trademark Republican conservative hot button buzz phrase, and it’s meant to indicate that welfare programs are wasted on the people who recieve them, namely, people of color. It’s a conscious political appeal to our subconscious racist inclinations.
Posted by Major Major on Jan 10, 2006 at 6:09 PM Of course, “welfare for the rich and free enterprise for the rest of us” is a trademark liberal Democratic buzz phrase, which is meant to imply that government contracts and tax rebates (or subsidies) are wasted on the rich. But wasting money on the rich is a more credible criticism.
Posted by Major Major on Jan 10, 2006 at 6:24 PM All of which ties in neatly to the topic of this thread, which is that Republicans are “grossly” more corrupt than Democrats.
Posted by Major Major on Jan 10, 2006 at 6:30 PM Major Major,
First of all, I never said that union “blue collar” type workers should be underpaid. I never said that “white collar” workers should be overpaid. I never said anything about overpaid or underpaid.
This all started with someone who said that we (USA) need to make things, we need to manufacture things.
I said “How can we produce things---durable goods with unions?”
And I’m referring to the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) ... like GM. The UAW has a clause in the hourly factory contract that says if GM has to pay any worker that is laid off until the contract ends ... actually they have to pay them 95% of their wage, and they still have full benefits. The current contract is a 4-year contract and expires sometime in 2007. I think it goes until around Sept. or Nov. of 2007.
That’s Insane !!!!
Totally Insane ... If GM has to lay off 100 workers at a certain plant that makes ... say ... (Tahoes) for example. They still have to pay them !!!!
Now how long would any company stay in business if they have to pay employees that are sitting at home?
Now imagine if GM had to shut down the night shift at a plant, and lay off 1000 workers ... and they never did run the night shift again. And say this happened in Sept of 2005. The contract goes to Sept of 2007 ... so GM would be paying 1000 workers for 2 years while they don’t work ... they just sit at home. It would be like a 2-year vacation for those 1000 workers ... they could go golfing or fishing and GM is paying them.
Now if you think unions should be able to do this ... then you’re the problem. That attitude is one reason why union factories are leaving America.
What other job in America does anything like that? NONE
Let me ask you this: Do you pay someone to cut your lawn? Have you ever been to Nevada or Arizona? Have you ever seen those rock yards people have? No grass .. just rocks for yards.
Now say you live in AZ or NV and you paid someone to cut your grass .. and then the city passed a law saying that to save water you had to replace your grass yard with rocks. Now would you still pay that your lawn cutting guy for the next 2-years?
Lets say when you had grass, you paid the lawn cutter $100 bucks a month. Now you don’t have grass anymore ... you have rocks ... would you still send that guy a $100 check, every month for the next 2-years? HELL NO ....
Or .. if you live in the North, grass doesn’t get cut from Oct to March. Would you give lawn guy $100 every month during the winter? $600 big ones and you never see him for 6 months.
From now on, every UAW worker that lives in a state that snows has to pay his lawn cutting man during the winter months. Lets see how many would do that.
PS - I bet after reading this ... you still don’t get it.
Posted by tina1 on Jan 10, 2006 at 11:41 PM Wow. Since in-home caregivers joined the SEIU, we’ve gotten workman’s compensation, health insurance (for ourselves only) , taxes taken out of our paychecks, and a week of paid vacation a year.
Isn’t that horrible?
Of course, they can’t stop people from working underground for less. Maybe we should encourage immigration, especially illegal immigration to make sure that no one gets payed too much.
You know you can have that burr surgically removed. It’s a day surgery now.
Posted by wileywitch on Jan 10, 2006 at 11:54 PM Of course, the above post is to tina-pay-me-less-you-liberal-socialist-asshole 1.
Posted by wileywitch on Jan 10, 2006 at 11:56 PM MM,
Thanks for clarifying your quote. Not being a member to that party that you so vilify, it was unknown to me.
Happy Birthday. (Let’s see, it must be your 8th or 9th, maybe?)
Posted by Jay Cline on Jan 11, 2006 at 12:52 PM I happen to be a conservative who is not willing to sacrifice the poor and middle class of this country to the gods of globalization. Instead of focusing rants on moribund unions it would be more cogent to examine of the power of the plutocracy in this country. When the top 1% of the population own 40% of the wealth of any nation it is critical to discuss the role of private as well as governmental power.
Posted by Anti-War Conservative on Jan 11, 2006 at 4:02 PM As for Mr Moberg’s article let me add that the GOP witch’s brew of Wall Street, Neo-cons, and Left Behinders has been more toxic for the US and the world than any WMD that could have been found in Iraq.
Posted by Anti-War Conservative on Jan 11, 2006 at 4:21 PM Jay.
Just scroll up to the top of the thread and review your own remarks. I’ve accused you of spouting racist bullshit before (your defense of the Bush administration’s response to the hurricane in NO and your simultaneous villification of the victims of that disaster comes to mind) and your contributions to this thread confirm the conclusion (that you’re a racist). Your typical knee-jerk reaction is to deny or ignore the accusation and ridicule my presumably liberal delusions of grandeur. You and tina1 ought to get together. You’d make a great couple.
If you had simply replied that I’m a counter-racist, I might have more respect for you, since, in the end, we’re all racists. We’re all biologically wired to be racist, sexist, homophobic predatory animals. That’s the flip side of human evolution. We’ve invented wars and revolutions to accomodate and replace the conquest of our natural predators. We attend ceremonial contests to re-affirm the conquest and perpetuate our predatory predisposition.
But we’ve also invented the social and cultural structures which allow us to collectively navigate beyond our predatory preferences, or at least to suppress the more overt manifestations of them. And those ceremonies which perpetuate the predisposition also celebrate our collective ability to transcend them.
We embrace the competition, and ignore the cooperation which makes it all possible.
Posted by Major Major on Jan 11, 2006 at 5:43 PM What is with the liberals blaming Bush and Feds concerning Katina ....
Do you liberals realize that if all of the people in New Orleans were evacuated, we wouldn’t of had all of the problems in New Orleans.
Liberals just don’t get that !!
And who’s responsibility was it to evacuate the people of New Orleans BEFORE Katrina hit? The City & State
Did they do it? NO
Louisiana Hurricane Evacuation and Sheltering Plan
http://www.dtra.mil/press_resources/publications/deskbook/full_text/State_Author rities/La. EOP_Supplement1b.pdf
The best part to read is from (pg 11 to pg 14). The state says that if a CAT 3 Hurricane hits New Orleans that water surge would go over the levees and there would be levee failures. They also say that due to levee failure ... that we can’t use shelters in the New Orleans area, we need to move the people out of New Orleans before the hurricane hits. So, we will use school and city buses to evacuate the people out before the hurricane hits.
This is based on a CAT 3 ... and we knew Katrina was a CAT 5 and neither the City or State followed their own plan.
SO, WHO’S FAULT IS IT?
I think a 5th grader can see that Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin fell asleep at the wheel ... they didn’t do any of what is their own plan.
Another example of why “Liberalism is a Mental Disorder”
Posted by tina1 on Jan 11, 2006 at 10:02 PM Why are liberals obsessed with how much money rich people have?
And why are liberals so obsessed with taking money from the rich and passing it around to everyone else?
Why do liberals always complain about the economy ... and why do they always act like there is no opportunities in America?
It amazes me when I hear someone complain about lack of opportunities in America. If opportunties are lacking, why are so many little motels, convientent stores, video stores, laundries owned by Middle Eastern and Orientals? ... who came to America with virtually nothing.
A good Chinese friend of mine came to America when he was 5 yrs old ... back in 1968. His parents worked at one of their relative Chinese restaurant ... and then his parents opened up their own little restaurant, with about about 5 or 6 tables. His parents worked their butts off and they were able to send all 4 kids to college.
My older brother went to work in a tire plant in Akron after high school back in 1969. My brother didn’t loaf and try to take advantage of the company like a lot of the other union workers did. No, my brother went to management with ideas to save the company money. And guess what ??? He was promoted to a supervisor. This was back in 1971. Now, 35 years later, my brother is in a different industry and he is the General Manager over 10 plants in Florida, he lives in a $700,000 house, drives a Lexus and his wife drives a BMW. He sent both of kids to college and law school. And my brother started out as a union worker in a tire plant at age 19.
Look at Carlos Gutierrez, the Secretary of Commerce for Bush. He came to America from Cuba in 1960 when he was was 7-years old. At age 22 (1975) he started as a Sales Rep with Kellogg. He rose from a Sales Rep to Manager, to Director, to President, and in 1999 he was promoted to CEO.
Seems like America is full of opportunities ... but you have to work for them ....the Gov’t doesn’t hand them out.
Posted by tina1 on Jan 11, 2006 at 10:54 PM Don’t tell me---your ex is a liberal. No---your ex left you for a liberal.
Posted by wileywitch on Jan 12, 2006 at 12:02 AM So that makes .....two...opportunities...no three…
You worry much too much about liberals, tina1. They can do fine without you. And your pweshus wittle pwezuhdent Is not going to dry up and blow away because of liberals.
You aren’t going to do or say a damned thing that will honestly influence people who aren’t on your little red liberal bashing wagon.
Why don’t you call your hard-working friends with their BMWs and Lexuses and have them pick you up and take you out to the spa or the golf course so you can forget about liberals for a while and relax? Take those worry lines and creases from your brow.
Posted by wileywitch on Jan 12, 2006 at 12:05 AM Tina asks… Why are liberals obsessed with how much money rich people have?
Answer… Actually it’s more the power that concentrated wealth confers that almost most people are concerned about. That includes conservatives as well as liberals. Conservatives like Pat Buchanan and Kevin Phillips are some of the sharpest critics of big business and corporate power.
Posted by Anti-War Conservative on Jan 12, 2006 at 8:36 AM Tina asks… And why are liberals so obsessed with taking money from the rich and passing it around to everyone else?
Answer… Most of the tax money that is “passed around” goes to the businesses that are contracted for the military, medical or social services and the infrastructures ( police, roads, etc. ) that we all use on a daily basis. The business classes are the biggest benefactors of this arrangement - because without it they would be unable to produce wealth by themselves. By the way the wealthier are getting even wealthier and not the other way around.
Posted by Anti-War Conservative on Jan 12, 2006 at 9:05 AM Tina asks… Why do liberals always complain about the economy ... and why do they always act like there is no opportunities in America?
Answer… Everyone complains about the economy at some time. During the Clinton years it was the GOP saying that he was making us into a nation of “hamburger flippers” in spite of 23 million new jobs produced over this period. What the GOP meant was the quality of jobs and pay was going down at the time… and they were correct. Right now the same thing is happening - minus Clinton’s job creation.
Posted by Anti-War Conservative on Jan 12, 2006 at 9:20 AM Pause........................................................................ .....................................................................
Posted by Anti-War Conservative on Jan 12, 2006 at 9:24 AM Tina says… It amazes me when I hear someone complain about lack of opportunities in America. If opportunties are lacking, why are so many little motels, convientent stores, video stores, laundries owned by Middle Eastern and Orientals? ... who came to America with virtually nothing.
Answer… All economies are like swiss cheese, some with bigger holes than others. As for the ethnic networks you refer to most of those are owned and subsidized by wealthier interests from their native countries. Banks from India are heavily into Dunkin Donuts for instance - thats why you see so many of them with South Asian ownership and workers. Don’t fool yourself that something comes from nothing… businesses just don’t appear like magic.
Posted by Anti-War Conservative on Jan 12, 2006 at 9:47 AM MM,
you can call me anything you want, yet it only confirms your acknowledgement that you are a racist. I have said nothing one way or the other, except to criticize the politics of NO.
If that makes me a racist, then you need to reexamine your own stereotypes. Obviously, you have not seen a picture of me, nor have I, nor will I publish one, since my ethnicity is of no consequence to my arguments.
btw, which race am I supposed to believe is inferior?
Posted by Jay Cline on Jan 12, 2006 at 9:57 AM MM,
The only prejudice I will affirm and own up to is that liberals have generally proven themselves to be idiots.
But that has nothing to do with race, and everything with their behavior over the past decade or so.
Posted by Jay Cline on Jan 12, 2006 at 9:59 AM Ah, now I get it MM.
Black hole.
Dude, you are overly sensitive. You do know what a black hole is, don’t you?
It is when a gravity well is so intense that not even light can escape.
Using it as a metaphor, it means the same as a bottomless pit.
But, given your demonstrations of pre-adolescent age, it is possible you haven’t encountered that in school yet.
Posted by Jay Cline on Jan 12, 2006 at 12:20 PM I trust you haven’t been traumatized by any pits, have you?
I truly meant no disrespect. If you feel dissed, well, I can’t help with that.
Perhaps an anger management course would help?
Posted by Jay Cline on Jan 12, 2006 at 12:22 PM For someone who pretends to be intelligent, you’re about as dense as the metaphors you employ to obscure your semi-conscious racist attitudes. Ever since Nixon’s “Southern strategy” the Republicans have been playing to the Southern redneck crowd - from Reagan’s “welfare queen” to Bush’s contrived hysteria over Willie Horton to his son’s cultivated Southern accent (y’all) and strenuous bouts with the brush on his Texas ranch. The Republican’s won the election in 2001 with Jeb’s liberal disqualification of thousands of minority voters. They’ve made a fetish of blaming the victims of poverty for the indigence they endure at the expense of tax rebates to the rich. Many of them nearly had a coronary when Carter and Clinton, those good ole’ boys from Georgia and Arkansas, showed them that they could shuck and jive the Southern whites more “efficiently” than their counterparts from Michigan and Maine. Or have you forgotten Bush’s faint-hearted attempts to convince the electorate that pork rinds were his favorite food? You can dance around the “metaphor” as much as you like, but most of us understand that when you criticize the Democrats for “throwing ... money down that black hole” you’re actually referring to liberal spending programs which benefit the indigent, many of whom happen to be “black”.
You and tina1 remind me of the guy “who would rather shit on a freshly-baked cherry pie than share it with anyone outside the tribe”.
Posted by Major Major on Jan 12, 2006 at 6:17 PM Hey Major,
I love how liberals always make up something that isn’t true ... and just keep repeating it as if its true. For example ... the 2000 election .... libs just keep saying that Bush stole the election.
What about the Florida military votes that the Dems got tossed out back in 2000 ... libs always fail to mention that.
Here is something to read about the 2000 election concerning Florida >>>>>>
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/horowitz120500.aspAnd what about the Miami Mayor election back in 1998 ... funny that you never hear Liberals bring this up. Most people haven’t even heard about the Democrat voting scandal in Miami for the election of Mayor in 1998. THE DEMOCRATS GOT BUSTED !!!!
Here is the link >>>>>> http://www.gradewinner.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n10_v14/ai_20391681
And what about this story ... the trial of the Democrat tire slashers which just started this week >>>>>
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1555072/posts
Posted by tina1 on Jan 12, 2006 at 11:51 PM Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,liberals.....and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...for example....blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah election.
Blah blah blah, blah blah blah....blah BLAH.
Here....blah, blah election 2,000>>>>>> http:..www.whogives afck?.com
And blah, blah blah blah blahblahblahblahblahbla hblabhablahblahblahblahblahblah bblahabla bhblahlb ahbhalbhlahbbhbhlahDEMOCRATS!!!
Here is the link >>>>>>>>http://www.Idontgiveafck.com
And furthermore, blah, blah, raspberries, raspberries, blah, blah.
And blah, blah blah blah blahblahblah blahblahbla hblabhablahblahblahb>>>>>>
http://www.republicansonacid.com
Posted by wileywitch on Jan 13, 2006 at 1:20 AM Yo Major,
Why are you so upset that “Southern States” are all RED? Is the GOP not suppose to target certain voters? Isn’t that just called campaining?
with the GOP strategy during elections? Should the GOP just back and do nothing?
You take a shot at Bush and the pork rinds. I guess you forgot about John Kerry playing “goose hunter” in Ohio ... that was classic. And Funny >>>
http://espn.go.com/outdoors/conservation/s/c_fea_Kerry_hunt_goose_votes.htmlAnd what about that John Kerry TV ad that said: “200,000 veterans cut off from health system.” It cites the Department of Veterans Affairs as the source. BUT THE STATEMENT WAS FALSE !!! In fact, no veterans had benefits cut off under Bush. Quite the contrary, spending for veterans benefits had grown 27% since Bush took office in 2000, and the ranks of veterans drawing benefits have increased by more than 1 million.
Do you want to hear something really funny ... remember the 2000 Gore/Bush election. If Gore would of won his own state of Tennessee ... GORE WOULD OF BEEN PRESIDENT ... IT WOULDN’T OF MATTERED WHAT HAPPENED IN FLORIDA.
How did Gore not win his own state?
Did you know that Gore’s father was born in Tennessee? Not only was Al Gore’s Dad born in Tennessee, but Gore’s Dad lived in Tennessee his whole life. Gore’s Dad was a Democratic Senator for Tennessee from 1953 - 1971.
Gore’s Dad died in 1998 and is buried in Carthage, Tenn. Could you imagine if he was still alive in 2000 and saw that his son didn’t even win Tennessee ...
Oh ya, I know how you liberals like to associate Bush and the GOP with Oil Companies. But, did know that Al Gore’s Dad was a lawyer for Occidental Petroleum Co. and became vice president and member of the board of directors.
Also, did Edwards win North Carolina in 2004? NO
Posted by tina1 on Jan 13, 2006 at 1:42 AM Jesus, Tweety, you’re just chock full of helpful tidbits of anecdotal political trivia. I completely agree with your observation that “spending for veterans benefits had grown 27% since Bush took office in 2000, and the ranks of veterans drawing benefits have increased by more than 1 million.” In fact, the costs of the war in Iraq will eventually reach two trillion dollars, due to the medical costs required to treat the military casualties. That you would cite the statistic to buttress your support of the Chickenhawk-in-Chief is a breath-taking indication of your pathological patriotism.
Posted by Major Major on Jan 13, 2006 at 6:29 AM For someone who pretends to be intelligent, you’re about as dense as the chip on your shoulders you employ to obscure your semi-conscious fascist attitudes. Ever since the Dimwit’s “Political correctness strategy” the Dimwits have been playing to the liberal Eastern knee-jerk crowd - from brainwashing pogroms of “sensitivity retraining” to the contrived hysteria over the Moral Majority to Kerry’s faux courage under fire. The Democrat have lost election after election with their blind (and false) adherence to a philosophy that the electorate is stupid and have been scared into submission. They’ve made a fetish of blaming the free market for creating victims of poverty. Many of them nearly had a coronary when Miller and Lieberman showed them that they could walk away from Democratic lunacy and see the world for what it really is. Or have you forgotten that the latest transportation pork bill is laden with as much Dim pork as Republican? You can dance around your feigned “offense” as much as you like, but most of us understand that “throwing ... money down that black hole” means throwing it down a bottomless pit, and that those liberal spending programs, which is worse than pork and is as a criminal offense in buying votes as any tax cut, actually perpetuates the lower class into marginal subsistence akin to political slavery, many of whom happen to be “white”.
I have too much respect for wiley to rope her into an alliance with you, even though I find her personal attacks on tina1 akin to your attacks on me, and they are just about as ineffective and purile.
Posted by Jay Cline on Jan 13, 2006 at 9:35 AM Imitation is the highest form of praise, Sylvester.
Posted by Major Major on Jan 13, 2006 at 11:53 AM Could we have a show of hands from all the democrats on this thread?
Posted by wileywitch on Jan 14, 2006 at 12:20 AM The Republicans are full of mythological metaphors. They believe in the strong, silent male leader, the Old Testament patriarch who frees his people from slavery and leads them to the promised land, hacking their way through the wilderness and fighting the godless savages who demonically impede their desperate progress and threaten their very survival. It’s the myth of every settler state which ever invaded another land to defeat and subdue or extirminate its original inhabitants and occupy its territory for their own, dressed up in religious or political ideology to justify the morally indefensible atrocities they commit to establish and consolidate the conquest. It’s an ancient, squalid narrative tricked out in the moral clothing of racial superiority.
Posted by Major Major on Jan 14, 2006 at 11:46 AM Such an anthropological view doesn’t make the myth any less destructive, but it’s an interesting interpretation in its own right.
Posted by wileywitch on Jan 14, 2006 at 1:34 PM MM,
Your incredible knowledge of the diversity of those who call themselves Republicans underwhelms me.
Posted by Jay Cline on Jan 19, 2006 at 11:34 AM I saw this little bit in that bastion of conservative media, the Washington Post, about Reid’s apology to the Republicans, but the piece didn’t go into details about who those Democrats are that it says are getting caught up in the Abramoff scandal.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/19/AR2006011902459. .html
Since this is a left-of-center blog, I was wondering if anyone here know who the Post is referring to?
brian28 seems to be plugged in on this issue…
The Abramoff investigation threatens to ensnare at least a half dozen members of Congress of both parties and Bush administration officials. Abramoff, who has admitted to conspiring to defraud his Indian tribe clients, has pleaded guilty to corruption-related charges and is cooperating with prosecutors.
With the midterm elections 10 months away, Democrats have tried to link Abramoff to Republicans, the main recipients of his largesse.
Posted by Jay Cline on Jan 20, 2006 at 9:50 AM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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