Yes, you all know who he is. I will now respond to the two questions he’s been howlingly repeating because, y’know…why not? And the rub of it is, he probably won’t understand either answer.
Response number one: The fact that I have not disagreed with his assessment of my veracity is not an indicator that what he says has worth. Rather, it’s an indicator of my belief that his opinion of me is, in fact, worthless.
Response number two: He has demanded to know how any of our individual lives are hurt or worsened because of the actions of George W. Bush…a man who needlessly launched a war that’s resulted in the deaths of 1600+ Americans and thousands upon thousands of innocent Iraqis. The answer is quite simple:
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of they friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
–John Donne
And thus am I Donne with the clod.
PAD
• 
Just one way in which GW Bush has made my life worse or more difficult? All right, then. Just one.
George W Bush made a priority of, pushed for, and got, multiple tax cuts that have significantly destabilized the economy of the country he leads. For example, he got behind the elimination of tax on corporate dividends, despite the fact that nearly two thirds of all such dividends are paid out to the wealthiest 5% of the population, and the top 0.2 percent of tax filers receive nearly as much from that one tax cut as the bottom 90 percent of filers combined.
By altering public policy to further enrich rich people, who studies show, by the way, don’t go out and spend the additional monies they receive from this benefit (so spare me the trickle-down, supply-side crapola), George W Bush has made a significant contribution to the debt problems of this country, decreased the nation’s borrowing power, and in turn decreased the buying power of his citizenry. Oh, and anyone with kids and a conscience now gets to wake up every morning with the knowledge that his or her kids will be taking on this unsustainable debt burden in the future, but that’s really just an added bonus to the just one way.
Go ahead and tell me how it’s not his fault. Go ahead and say how GWB has the best interests of the entire country at heart with this sort of foray into fiscal planning. Go ahead and show everyone just one way that the Bush tax cuts are not hurting this country.
Long-time lurker; intermittent fan of PAD’s work. (Haven’t read it all, but what I’ve read I’ve liked.)
Hey, X-Ray.
I don’t always agree with PAD’s views. But you seem to be forgetting something. You’re a GUEST here, as am I, as are all the other people posting here. A Web site, or a blog, is a person’s “home” on the Web. When you log on, you are entering their “home.” You are a guest, and PAD is your host. ANd when you’re a guest in someone’s home, you’re supposed to behave yourself — to act with some measure of decorum and politeness to your host. I wouldn’t walk into your home and call you a liar — often and repeatedly.
PAD, on behalf of your other guests, I apologize for X-Ray/Peter Porker and his/her lack of understanding of the basic rules of functioning in society. Rule number one being: There’s never an excuse for rudeness.
Off-topic, though, this brings an idea to mind:
“Marvel Knights” Peter Porker.
Possibilities, no?
“George W Bush made a priority of, pushed for, and got, multiple tax cuts that have significantly destabilized the economy of the country he leads.”
Oh yes, it’s been absolute HÊLL living in an economy that has expanded steadily for 14 consecutive quarters, and has exceeded 3 percent growth for 8 straight quarters.
Next?
The economy has been expanding for 14 consecutive quarters? Now THAT’S something I want to see proof of. If by expanding you mean the billionaires of America getting richer while the poor stays poor, then I agree.
Dear LDW,
Where is your apology to ME, on behalf of Mr. David, for his calling me everything from a clod to an idiot and worse, and for his being a liar? If being insulting and telling lies is OK in your “house,” I don’t want to go there.
Chip Stark,
“You gotta think anybody coming up with this stuff has got to be a closet Satan Worshipper. All his supporters thumping their Bibles are just like X-Ray here.”
And it’s outrageous generalizations like this that have you being much closer to X-Ray in your thought processes than you think.
“Their hatred in the only thing that sustains them.”
People like X-Ray? Maybe. Most conservatives? Believe it or not, most conservatives just have a different viewpoint than yours. If you cannot accept that these are reasonable people who have a different viewpoint on what is correct and can help people, then you are not quite as enlightened as you think.
Brian,
“You conservatives know what compassion is, right?”
See, that would be like me saying,’You liberals know what merit and hard work are right?’
But that would be bad form.
Just because you’re mad at a specific poster doesn’t mean you have to paint others who disagree with you with a broad brush.
“It’s that thing W. claims to have but really doesn’t.”
Please. There is no way you can prove this conclusively one way or the other. Just because you don’t like the man doesn’t mean you know him.
Tim Robertson,
“we do have writer’s blogs in which both the liberal and fanatic, I mean, conservative viewpoints are argued.”
And you take this occasion to show your own intolerance and immaturity. Bush got over 57 million votes. They all made their viewpoints known last November. Kindly deal.
What “proof” would you like that the economy is as I said? Try opening your mind to actual news, not “feelings” and BUSH SUCKS myopia. Try Google. Try reading a newspaper. The facts are the facts. And the facts are thus:
The U.S. economy expanded for 14 consecutive quarters and has exceeded 3 percent growth for 8 straight quarters!
The info is from the US Commerce Dept. You can look it up for yourself. Sorry, I can’t give you a free subscription to the Wall Street Journal.
http://www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html
GSF1 seems to be in operation here.
Just a thought….
I did what you said. Here’s the info I found off of google when I looked at the American economy:
“In the 2005 State of the Union address, Bush said that more Americans are going back to work and that the economy is growing and healthy. The numbers don’t necessarily support this assumption. Job growth over the last 18 months has fallen short of administration predictions by 1,703,000—more than one-third fewer jobs than the president’s Council of Economic Advisers said would be created. Present employment levels show only 119,000 more individuals working than when Bush took office in 2001, which is effectively a decrease in employment rates, as the total civilian labor force grew by more than two million workers in 2004 alone, according to the Department of Labor. Additionally, the most recent data from the Census Bureau show that the average income for middle-class households has dropped by $1,525 since its peak in 2000. The labor force participation rate—the percentage of people either working or looking for work—fell in Jan. 2005 to a seasonally adjusted 65.8 percent, the lowest rate since 1988.
Sources: USA Today, “Fewer Americans participating in labor force or seeking jobs,” Barbara Hagenbaugh, Feb. 6, 2005; Department of Labor, “Employment status of the civilian population by sex and age,” Feb. 2005; Center for American Progress, “American Progress Report: Talking Points,” Feb. 2, 2005; Center for American Progress, “On the January Employment Situation,” Scott Lily, Feb. 4, 2005; “State of the Union,” President Bush, Feb. 2, 2005; Economic Policy Institute, Feb. 4, 2005.”
Keep your Wall Street Journal subscription.
You act as if I made that up! It’s common knowledge
Kind of like the common knowledge that Saddam had WMD.
Oh, wait, he didn’t! Well, šhìŧ, there goes all of my common knowledge for the day.
“Oh yes, it’s been absolute HÊLL living in an economy that has expanded steadily for 14 consecutive quarters, and has exceeded 3 percent growth for 8 straight quarters.
Next?”
Brushing off a fact-based statement with out of context baloney isn’t an answer. Spare me the obfuscation and show me how Bush cutting taxes has not hurt the me as a member of the general populace. No baloney statistics that are skewed by comparison to the post-9/11 downturn. No garbage blustering that conveniently neglects to mention how unemployment remains above 5% and payroll growth has slowed to almost nothing nationwide.
You asked for one way he has hurt me individually, and I am saying that the tax cuts he engineered is one way. Framing it in what you laughably attempt to offer as a rosy picture is not answering. I will say it again: George Bush has hurt the average taxpayer (and I am one of those, so that’s me) by pushing through tax cuts that are primarily beneficial to people who already wealthy. He has contributed to more uneven distribution of wealth, and so contributed to decreased purchasing power of his citzienry. I am part of that citizenry, so I have decreased purchasing power. Address that.
I don’t imagine you have a specific rebuttal, so feel free to go with more of that moronic spin you so adore.
“out of context baloney.”
The issue at hand was tax cuts and the economy., so the current state of the economy is not only relevant, it is central, and quite IN context!
As for “baloney,” all we have are the Commerce Dept. figures — that’s all we’ve ever had. One can call them baloney. But figures this good, for this long, MUST mean something.
Not necessarily that you personally are well off, though. That depends on YOU, does it not? And blaming Bush for your own shortcomings is absurd.
X-ray wrote “As for the rest of your post, you can site irrelevant quotations, but you STILL cannot name one single solitary SPECIFIC way that Bush has made your own life worse!”
Is that so? Go to any airport to board any flight nowadays.
Or how’s about the Patriot Act which gives the government unlimited powers to throw your personal freedoms out the window without needing to give an explanation. Makes the McCarthy Era look positively idyllic.
Or how’s about his stance on stem cell research when we’re on the brink of major breakthroughs that could be stymied as a result?
And those are just three.
But I’d STILL like to go fishin’ with him. Go figure.
“Kind of like the common knowledge that Saddam had WMD. Oh, wait, he didn’t! Well, šhìŧ, there goes all of my common knowledge for the day.”
So all common knowledge is now wrong? Wow, I guess BUSH SUCKS. Don’t you people ever think of anything else?
“Go to any airport to board any flight nowadays.”
Yes, that’s Bush’s fault, nothing to do with 9/11. Oh, but he caused that, right?
“Or how’s about the Patriot Act which gives the government unlimited powers to throw your personal freedoms out the window without needing to give an explanation. Makes the McCarthy Era look positively idyllic.”
Can you give me even ONE specific instance of any aspect of the Patriot Act being misused? Do you even have any idea what the law says?
“How’s about his stance on stem cell research when we’re on the brink of major breakthroughs that could be stymied as a result?”
What stance? You mean providing Federal Stem cell funding for the first time ever? Allowing private industry to do all the stem cell research they want to? Again, do you even know what the policy IS?
“And those are just three.”
Yes, three totally false ones. Got any TRUE ones?
“Or how’s about his stance on stem cell research when we’re on the brink of major breakthroughs that could be stymied as a result?”
What stance? He hasn’t outlawed the research. All he did was say it wouldn’t be government funded. Private business would be the ones making the money off of any discoveries, so they are the ones that should be funding the research. Same with alternate energy fuel engines. Involving the government and it’s money has never made things happen cheaper, in fact it’s probably slowed research down.
The only thing that disappoints me more than these kinds of trollish figures are when respected individuals cave to their attention-craving. There’s a reason there’s the warning: “Don’t feed the trolls.”
PAD, you’re better than this. You can’t argue logic with someone who’s devoid of it.
“The issue at hand was tax cuts and the economy., so the current state of the economy is not only relevant, it is central, and quite IN context!”
Incorrect. The issue at hand was NOT tax cuts and the overall economy. The issue I presented was tax cuts and their relation to the country’s worsening debt problems. If you don’t know the difference between debt in particular and the economy as a whole, we have no foundation for discussion. Which is no surprise.
And if you really think you have a point, your inherent supposition is that so long as the economy is growing, a debt problem that is worsening right along with it is not an issue.
Needless to say, you’ve not answered my original statement.
“As for “baloney,” all we have are the Commerce Dept. figures — that’s all we’ve ever had. One can call them baloney. But figures this good, for this long, MUST mean something.”
That’s equally laughable, particularly coming from someone so dedicated to making people responsible for capital-T truth. I particularly like the disingenuous “this good, for this long” part. For how long? Why, since the post 9/11 crash, of course.
“Not necessarily that you personally are well off, though. That depends on YOU, does it not? And blaming Bush for your own shortcomings is absurd.”
Yeah, that’s what I did. Blamed Bush for my own shortcomings.
Sad that you can’t even answer a direct statement in response to your own weak-ášš challenge with anything but diversion and obfuscation.
But then again, maybe you don’t know any better.
So I’ll say it one last time and then ignore you if you don’t address it specifically. Bush, by pushing through ill-advised tax cuts, has made a significant contribution to this country’s worsening debt problem, a problem that has no end in sight and that directly hurts every taxpaying member of his citzenry.
The only thing that disappoints me more than these kinds of trollish figures are when respected individuals cave to their attention-craving. There’s a reason there’s the warning: “Don’t feed the trolls.”
PAD, you’re better than this. You can’t argue logic with someone who’s devoid of it.
“Bush, by pushing through ill-advised tax cuts, has made a significant contribution to this country’s worsening debt problem, a problem that has no end in sight and that directly hurts every taxpaying member of his citzenry.”
Your tone is so obnoxious! I think I will ignore you too. Yes, I read what you said. Am I not allowed to discuss the present GREAT state of the economy in response? Does the present state of the economy have NO relation at all to the national debt? It has a direct connection. It IS relevant!
You liberals sang the same song about Reagan’s tax cuts. Decades later, it became obvious that they were highly beneficial for this country’s economy. We did, in fact, “grow” our way out of much of the debt. The budget was balanced under a Republican Congress and Clinton. It was whacked by 9/11 as never before. Now we are well on the road to recovery. Liberals, while offering NO alternatives of any kind, now simply exist to block whatever Bush wants. After all, BUSH SUCKS.
I agree that the debt is a problem, but I don’t see it as an unmanagable or even long-term one. You disagree. And your solution to the problem as you see it is … … ??? I know. BUSH SUCKS.
“PAD, you’re better than this.”
Obviously, he isn’t.
OK, here we go…..
Bush limited stem cell research to the 21 (I believe that’s the correct figure) lines currently available with no new lines being introduced.
Under Bush, important intelligence that could have stymied the 9/11 attacks was ignored. The results are what you live with today, including the (I hate to say it) possibility of Gestapo-like tactics on the part of the government or members thereof if they so choose to exercise that act.
As for the economy, wait until Thursday when Mr Greenspan speaks to the committee. You are headed for an inverted yield curve and the associated financial chaos it will bring. Oh yes, and let’s not forget GM’s announcement today. Looks like that record of consecutive expansions is just starting to contract……if ever so slightly.
Activating lead shroud.
Wow. This guy has got to be the biggest fûçkìņg loser ever. It’s so sad I can’t even get angry at the guy, when rightly I should be.
It’s scary to have unhinged, obsessed stalkers like this guy, though. I do not envy PAD here.
“Gestapo-like tactics … inverted yield curve … associated financial chaos … “
If you really believe all this nonsense, I’d consider moving!
“I do not envy PAD”
We agree!
Look, you’re all supposed to be ignoring me. Stop making every single post about me!
Well…..it’s been more than five minutes since my last posting and look: no pithy responses from X-Ray! Alas, as I leave to enter the land of sweet slumber I have only only the memory of the wind , a faint trilling echoing as it wafts rhythmically through the space between X-Ray’s ears.
G’night y’all.
X-Ray wrote:
“So all common knowledge is now wrong? Wow, I guess BUSH SUCKS. Don’t you people ever think of anything else?”
Um, but isn’t that the same logic you used to determine that, because PAD had apparently lied once (and I stress apparently, since you’re the only one who seems to think so), everything he says with regards to politics is a lie?
“Not necessarily that you personally are well off, though. That depends on YOU, does it not? And blaming Bush for your own shortcomings is absurd.”
Isn’t assuming that someone’s difficulties are necessarily a result of their own shortcomings absurd as well?
Ma’am, just a suggestion: if your purpose is to show liberals the error of their ways, you might want to try and actually engage with what they say. From what I’ve seen, lurking around here, the regular posters who are more conservative or Republican tend to do just that.
If you’re just trying to pick fights, why bother? What are you accomplishing?
Oh, for Pete’s sake.
This guy isn’t interesting enough to be a troll.
Why are you folks arguing with him? He completely ignores any rational arguments you make.
“So all common knowledge is now wrong?”
Seriously. What kind of an argument is that?
Geez. move on, already.
For the people who felt frustrated at the end of LOST…if they gave all the answers, what then? “Okay, we’re clearly in limbo/an alien planet/a massive experiment. Huh.” The mystery certainly has me ready for the next episode!”
Yeah, but I couldhave still done with a few answers. You can set up questions to get veiwers and then answer those while building on the answers to create new questions. All that season ender did was add to the, “what the hëll!?!” list. I’m still going to watch next season becuse I like the show but I really was ticked with it for a day or so.
“Bush limited stem cell research to the 21 (I believe that’s the correct figure) lines currently available with no new lines being introduced.”
Actually, Joe, as http://www.factcheck.org, The National Academy of Sciences, medical pros and just about everyone else pointed out, the number was less then that. I believe the number of viable lines was around 11-15. Fun bit is, Bush kept claiming that it was closer to 50 or 60 something. He was told a number of times that that was wrong and still kept saying it. It was printed and broadcast dámņëd near everywhere (but Bush himself states that he won’t read a newspaper) and he just kept on going with false facts. Just another Bush lie to add to the list.
BUSH SUCKS!
Run! Run! The deleting has begun!
Make that FIVE. The delete counts as one!
Here’s an article that may prove of benefit here. If you take the time to read it, read all of it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/national/class/HYPER-FINAL.html?ei=5090&en=f1af44c9cec8c79e&ex=1275624000&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
a couple quotes:
“President Bush said during the third election debate last October that most of the tax cuts went to low- and middle-income Americans. In fact, most – 53 percent – will go to people with incomes in the top 10 percent over the first 15 years of the cuts, which began in 2001 and would have to be reauthorized in 2010. And more than 15 percent will go just to the top 0.1 percent, those 145,000 taxpayers.”
“The Bush administration says that the tax cuts have actually made the income tax system more progressive, shifting the burden slightly more to those with higher incomes. Still, an Internal Revenue Service study found that the only taxpayers whose share of taxes declined in 2001 and 2002 were those in the top 0.1 percent.”
So what are you saying, that the tax cuts went mostly to the people who pay the most taxes? THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!
Make that FIVE. The delete counts as one!
What’s your endpoint with all this? So PAD paid attention to you big deleting your posts and saying you’re acting like an annoyance. Big deal.
Did you go off and read the whole article? I know, it won’t matter if you do. But in the name of informed discussion…
“What’s your endpoint with all this?”
Man, are you dense. It’s so obvious!
There is something rather sad about petulantly referring to anyone who seems to disagree with you as stupid or idiotic.
Of course, the last time I tried to make a political point here- though why history is now a matter of political affiliation is beyond me- I was informed that soviet spies in the highest levels of government were unimportant, because Senator McCarthy allegedly hassled a leftist playwrite (the soviet spy specifically in question was Assistant Secretary of State Alger Hiss, but one oughtn’t leave out Vice President Henry Wallace, Deputy Administrator of the Board of Economic Warfare Lauchlin Currie, Chief of Staff to the head of the Office of Strategic Services (the precursor to the CIA) Duncan Lee, etc.). Of course, the sting from PAD’s rejoinder was lessened when he referred to Senator McCarthy as being part of a House committee, but let’s not dwell. Petty name calling only exposed the weakness of your your rhetorical posture, such as the jibe that President Bush speaks the ‘language of fear’ from a individual who just before the election warned we’d all most likely be drafted if Bush won (also children would be starved, Social Security destroyed by a 0.3% voluntary personal account, old people pushed down stairs, as well as various other calamities utterly unrelated to fear… )
At any rate, childish taunting and mockery is the last resort of an undefensible position. Thusly, I feel confident that DNC Chairman Howard Dean is doing your cause more harm than good by calling all Republicans “evil,” “brain dead,” reminding us that he “hates” Republicans at least in part for having “never worked an honest day in their life,” and unable to get attract minorities to show up “unless they’re the cleaning staff,” (by the way, 40% of Hispanics voted for Bush in 2004).
Also, you do know that our current president is the first in history to fund stem cell research, yes? And that despite former Senator Edwards despicable claims to the contrary, had Senator Kerry won the election, Christopher Reeve and those with physical spinal damage would not have “gotten up out of their chairs and walked.” Certain degenerative nerve disorders may theoretically be reversed with future technology involving stem cells therapies (which are also found in the umbelical casing, among other places not necessitating the harvesting of a human infant), but gross trauma is gross trauma, regardless of how much ‘blank slate’ material is available.
And remind me again how cutting taxes so people had more money to spend (including the top few percentiles who own business and hire the rest of us) hurt the economy? Are you sure you’re thinking this all the way through? And just what do you think would happen to the GNP if a rogue nation state deployed wave after wave of biological attacks against us? Who really thinks that after gassing the Iranians, Kurds and a goodish chunk of his own people with WMDs, Saddam just up and swore off the stuff forever? Or that Oday and Qusay were any better?
Just a thought…
Cal, sorry, but I don’t read anything in the NY Times. They hate conservatives and their “news” is totally biased.
Did they mention that a whopping 80% of ALL Federal income taxes are paid by the TOP 20% of income earners?
You can’t cut taxes for people who don’t PAY taxes!
Hey, this “sober voice of reason” guy knows his stuff!
Posted by X-Ray at June 8, 2005 02:24 AM
So what are you saying, that the tax cuts went mostly to the people who pay the most taxes? THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!
Actually, mostly the people who pay the least taxes in terms of income, etc.
I trust you are going to be happy with the picture on your new Internal Passport, whose mandating if not actual issuance i see as a real possibility by the end of this Administration.
As to how this administration has harmed me personally — its activities have resulted in attitudes abroad that make it anywhere from much less pleasant to downright dangerous for US citizens to travel abroad.
None of which, by the way, goes to show that PAD is liar. The childish name-calling remark is direted in both direction (in case I hadn’t made that clear).
My name is Chris Daugherity, if anyone cares. ‘sober voice of reason’ is a personal joke.
I can cite how bush has made my life worse! First some back ground how my current health insurance works. For a certin amount during the year we have a small co-pay. Then the insurance cuts off for about 3000.00 which if we exceed the previous cap is our responsibility. After the 3000.00 the insrance picks up again. There is a second cap where it does this again, but I don’t know the amounts for it. Now we finished paying for the birth of my son in march, last years responsibility. My wife had a sleep study done that required severl days of hospital stay in Feb. This study exceeded our cap for the year ans we ended up oweing the hospital 1800.00. Before we would have worked out a payment plan with the billing office as much as we could afford. currently we could afford between 200 and 250 a month. thus having the bill paid off in 7 to 9 months. Thanks to bush wanting to crack down on bankruptcy, and the change in the fileing of it suddenly none of the medical billing offices here will work out a billing plan. We were told we have 120 days to šhìŧ out 1800.00 of face collections. Thus we have now spent the last month and a half living like paulpers and have paid just over half of it. I don’t remember the exact percentage but I believe it was in the 90’s, but most bantruptcy’s are the result of insurmountable medical debt. As the onion put it in one of thier opinion polls “Thay will teach people not to have medical emergencies!”
Jeff Coney
http://www.hedgehoggames.com
“Of course, the sting from PAD’s rejoinder was lessened when he referred to Senator McCarthy as being part of a House committee, but let’s not dwell.”
Superb idea. You choose not to dwell on my accidentally referring to HUAC when I meant to refer to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and I won’t dwell on the fact that you can’t spell the simple word “playwright.”
PAD
Man, are you dense. It’s so obvious!
You know what, just indulge me. What’s your point? What, cosmicially speaking and all, does this little tantrum of yours matter?
PAD: Keep putting the boot in, some of us love ya for it 🙂
Speaking as a european
Bush as made me a hëll of a lot more afriad than i was before
Bush as shown nothing but comptent for the will of the united nations the moment it became clear he could not win a the second vote justifying the war he decided the UN was irelevant and tht he would invade anyway amusingly siting “upholing the will of the UN as one of his reasons” dispite 2 members of the security council threatening to veto it.
so why dose this make me scared well the UN for all extents and purpurses intended to say NO to the war just has most nations citazens if not there governments … but hey none of those NO’s mattered and that’s what’s scarey
when you lose the ability to say no that’s when freedom ends
ask yourself this question is there any government in the world who can so NO to bush or the usa for that matter let alone the democratically ellected (stooges) of iraq
now i understand the benefits of been a superpower and always getting yourway i don’t think for a second that france & great britain wern’t as bad when they ruled the world but the point is 200 years down the line surly we should have evolved beyond the concept that might makes right and we should be applying some of the principles we all believe in such as freedom liberty & democriscy