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
• 
I try to avoid any conversations in politics because, although conservative, I don’t always agree with the Republican party. It’s just I disagree with the Democrats more often.
As for the village idiot… I think it’s safe to say that there are fanatics out there, and they aren’t limited to one party. They do, however, diminish genuine arguments for a purpose as a whole, in my opinion, because everything becomes a priority response… and therefore nothing is less than highly important. Which isn’t true. So the result is people don’t listen to you anymore.
Hence why there are village idiots: they feel they’re being ignored, so they just raise the level of their voice, and the stupidity of their claims… and just like that, a troll is born.
And of all things, I can’t say much on politics, because anyone watching 10 minutes of CNN once a week can probably out-argue me on several issues.
But I can say this:
I’ve met a couple of “those Iraqis.” The question was asked of them if things are as bleak as the news reports.. and they are not. Good things have happened to Iraqis, despite what media tells us.
The two people I spoke with were happy, and smiling ear to ear. Granted, they were visitors here in Hawaii, here on University of Hawaii business: I’d smile too if I were not in a country where bombs were going off everywhere for a change.
But there were genuine atrocities going on in Iraq. Was it right? Was it wrong? I don’t know. There are a million sides to it. It’s done. It seems to have been the right thing to do. Only history will tell us the truth, when we look back on this one day.
And Peter, you and I will forever disagree about Bush Jr. You’re pretty convinced we’ve got an idiot in office. I can’t say I’ve agreed with everything he’s done, but I think it’s also fair to say no president in recent memory has had to deal with the unique state of affairs that must now exist in this country.
Who’s to say what other presidents would have done had they been currently serving when 9-11 occured. I personally could think of no job I’d rather not have at that particular moment.
So, yes, I think Bush Jr. is doing a fine job under extreme circumstances. No, he’s not perfect. Yes, we can do better. (As long as it’s not hypocrites like John Kerry, we can do much better.)
Now I’ve said too much. Or not enough. But I’ve said my peace. (Not that anyone will read it down here on the 100+ posting on a note to the village idiot, but it’s late, I’m tired, and recently unemployed again, so why the heck not.)
And no, I don’t blame Bush Jr. for my unemployment. I blame the new management that came in and wanted to hire all his buddies and friends, and relieved me of my duties based not on performance, but because – literally – he didn’t like me. No. I blame management for that.
…Hm. I gotta stop my caffeine intake. It’s getting me carried away.
That’s my 2 cents.
There will be no refunds.
RLR
As a non-US citizen I can easily answer the question about whether Bush’s actions have damaged individual lives. Yes. His actions have caused everyone outside your country to view you and every other American in a worse light.
You are seen as bullies telling other countries how to run their elections when your own are so blatently fixed, liars who started a war that had no factual basis. Your good will in other countries has dropped considerably. And if you think that does not affect every single person in your country then you are a fool.
What I want to know is, when are we going to see your final thoughts on the season finale of “Smallville” 🙂 [or have I missed that post?]
“Man, arguing with X-Ray is like arguing with a drunk person.”
Boss had a sign on his wall for a while which fits nicely here:
– Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.
“As for the village idiot… I think it’s safe to say that there are fanatics out there, and they aren’t limited to one party. They do, however, diminish genuine arguments for a purpose as a whole, in my opinion, because everything becomes a priority response… and therefore nothing is less than highly important. Which isn’t true. So the result is people don’t listen to you anymore.”
Here Here!
Don’t judge us all by some people’s extrememe idiocy.
And as far as that guy:
Didn’t he ever hear the old saying, “you catch more flies with sugar”? He’s not going to win with his tactic. It just pushes people further into their beliefs, and makes his own beliefs look bad.
There’s no defense against your relentless misrepresentation of the truth.
After Reagan cut taxes he raised them again.
Yes, there’s a recovery which — thanks to the massive borrowing paying for tax cuts the wealthy benefitted disproportionately from — is being funnelled almost exclusively to the rich.
The reason the wealthy should pay more is because they benefit most from the status quo. 9/10 of the court system is accessible only to corporation and the very wealthy. The reason Bruce Willis should pay disproportionatly more is because he benefits disproportionately from the little extra cash in the hands of the average consumer than the average laborer benefits — flatten the f*cking beauracracy the rich benefit disproportionately from before you flatten the f*cking taxes.
Under Clinton we had prosperity and a budget surplus — what is your f*cking problem with that?
When poor people vote for George Bush, yes, they are like a prostitute knifing a guy for stopping her pimp from beating her. They are voting for massive borrowing leveraged their own middle-class savings that benefits the wealthy — they are voting against their own self-interest.
And why? All I saw was Bush campaigning on measuring strength by dominance. Dominance in the middle east, dominance over women, dominance to systematically flush black votes — “Hey, we aren’t helpless! We Are strong! We dominate things!”
There is no libertarian or conservative canon that justifies painting a fixed market as fair. X-Ray, your neediness is sickening.
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?
Ashcroft using the Patriot act to investigate a brothel for laundering drug money, when the reason for the Patriot act is supposed to be to fight terrorism.
“Yet he doesn’t seem to have any compassion for Bush.”
Forgive me (and PAD) if we don’t feel sorry for a rich kid who’s had everything in life handed to him an a silver platter.
“Ashcroft using the Patriot act to investigate a brothel for laundering drug money, when the reason for the Patriot act is supposed to be to fight terrorism.”
Wow, only *half* the truth… Huh, surprising from a liberal. The laundered money was suspected of being funneled for a bloody terrorist org, for heaven’s sake! Hence, Ashcroft’s correct use of the Patriot act.
“Forgive me (and PAD) if we don’t feel sorry for a rich kid who’s had everything in life handed to him an a silver platter.”
And Kerry was a poor kid who struggled tooth and nail to become the rich adult he is? Please. It’s funny how liberals use wealth as a disqualifier for whether or not someone deserves compassion (unless, of course, the wealth are liberal). Hopefully you’ll never become rich and successful, or your poor children will be utterly without the compassion of others.
X-ray, your not alone. I just don’t have the time, or the debating skills to contribute. Good show, though.
Later,
Chip
How has Bush changed my life? Well… his no child left behind laws have made it much harder for schools to recieve the funding they desperately need. This has lead to thousands of teacher lay offs including my wife. This comes directly because of a policy that bush put in place. It was the center of his domestic agenda for much of his first four years. His economic policies have lead to a jobless recovery which is bad news for me since I lost my job 2 years ago. Bush’s policies directly and indirectly made an impact on that situation. Bush has cut funding for countless programs to fund his war with Iraq. This has also affected me and millions of other people.
The problem isn’t just Bush either. It is the Republican controlled House, Senate, Governorships, state Legislatures fault too.
It seems to me that the big neo-con scam can be summarized as: painting need as strength.
Corporations benefit disproportionately from the loose change jangling in everyones’ pockets — but they’d just as soon leave it all to the consumer to maintain the stability they benefit disproportionately from.
It isn’t that Bush sucks. Republicans are painting need as strength. How much domination does anyone need? Where does it all end?
1This is some funny stuff. I had to stop reading it several times since my giggles were bugging my office-mates. I don’t really have any issues with Bush’s actions as president. I had issues with the election in 00, sure… but more cause people didn’t raise a bigger fuss. I just don’t like him as a person. I find him to be an idiot. I find him to lack various social graces and worry about having a president who lacks diplomatic skills. Personally, I would love to know what would’ve been diff about 9/11 with Gore in office. Or how Kerry would’ve done. But, hëll, I wonder the smae things about any of the other candidates. We are locked into this course of reality. Ðámņ. I don’t necessarily hate bush… except when he is making a speech about something I give a crap about cause I will listen to it and cringe. But I think the same about that Diane Reems (sp) on NPR… she has some GREAT guests but listening to her speak makes my head twitch. Gore could induce a coma into a kid with ADHD. Kerry I liked… but just for his presence. There are so many people involved in politics that to credit or blame just one person for major policy changes seems silly. I don’t like politicians. I don’t trust politicians. But, yay us, that is our system of government. As for the war, I blame the administration. Our government body as a WHOLE. I don’t blame Bush for anything beyond sounding like a twit whenever he talks about it. And you know, he could be reading Hawking to the press and would still sound like a moron so maybe it’s just his voice. Jeb doesn’t SOUND stupid, certainly. Until you hear what he is saying. Oh, and yes… met them both (benefits of dating a teacher during election year). Was unimpressed with both. But you know… nothing made me more worried about Bush than to sit there with a group of teachers as he spoke about education and hearing all the ones around me mumbling. Especially my girlfriend… a nice, sweet elementary school, reading recovery teacher at a VERY “urban” school… and it’s the perfect quote to close my bit on this:
“What a load of sh!t… stupid muther fu@#er”
Take care all… But keep this up. I’ll have to check back tomorrow… this is some funny stuff.
So X-Ray went on to post and post without once addressing what I asked him. Must be nice to have so much time on your hand. Shout and derail all the concerns of the people… but never make an actual point.
The economy improved 14 quarters in a row? Let’s take a look a little further back and see what it did then since Bush has been in for much more than 14 quarters. Oh yeah complete economic collapse… pretty hard to go up from the very bottom of the barrel. Way to go, Bush!
Well I’m done with this moron as well. You keep up the “good show” X-Ray. Watch your military president continue to run right over the soldiers and pay them enough so that they qualify for food stamps, never let them come home from Iraq, and then look there like a learning disabled monkey when suddenly recruitment into the army takes a nose dive.
Genius, pure genius,
Leader
“After Reagan cut taxes he raised them again.”
Impossible. Only Congress can raise taxes!
“Under Clinton we had prosperity and a budget surplus — what is your f*cking problem with that?”
You mean under a Republican congress, f*cker!
“When poor people vote for George Bush, yes, they are like a prostitute knifing a guy for stopping her pimp from beating her.”
Yes, Republicans never “win,’ they only trick idiots into voting for them. Keep thinking that.
“Kerry I liked… but just for his presence.”
Oh God. You mean his “sad-tree”-like presence?
“Let’s take a look a little further back and see what it did then since Bush has been in for much more than 14 quarters. Oh yeah complete economic collapse…”
Wow, THIS liberal has a crystal ball! He knows the future!
What is it?
What else?
BUSH SUCKS!
Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.
Your neediness is sickening.
Oh, how I miss the days of shrouding.
I sincerely hope this entire post is deleted, and any further post by the troll ignored (as it was in the beginning).
But for a simple addendum to “how the Republican US Administration fûçkëd up big time”, my little experience: as non-US citizen, I now actively try not to buy anything that is US-produced, unless it’s from “sane” industries I personally “whitelist” (like Ben&Jerry or Tor Books). Microsoft? Erased from my pc, now running an european Linux version. Nike? Sorry, only italian shoes here, much cheaper on this side of the pond. iPod? naah, this Nokia phone does it for me. Car? Renault does it for me. Gadgets? all taiwanese for me, thanks. TV and movies? British production can be the best… what was that??? oh, it’s the U.S. foreign debt balance skyrocketing. God morning X-Ray, your ášš is now 0wned by a chinese opium smuggler… and he wants your SUV.
To Giacomo: But you still POST MESSAGES in the evil USA don’t you? This is supporting the evil tyrant Bush! You must move at once.
1Stop it! You guys are killing me! :))
“It reminds me of how Godzilla movies are great because they’re so bad.”
Hey. Let’s not let this acimony hurt the innocent. Godzilla rules. Someday, someone will make a movie that has both Godzilla AND flesh eating zombies and I, frankly, will have to commit ritual suicide once it’s over, because what will I have left to look forward to?
Ummmmm …. “The RETURN of Godzilla and the Flesh Eating Zombies!”
All things considered, with the amount of scrutiny going on, maybe someone should be a lobbyist and then learn the truth behind politics, right?
“The transcript shows that Kerry’s freshman-year average was 71.”
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/06/07/yale_grades_portray_kerry_as_a_lackluster_student/
…
Yes, keep posting here — after trying to pressure people who disagree with you to abandon their casualness — without addressing your own need, your dependence, on inconsistency.
Dude there’s no libertarian or conservative canon that justifies painting a fixed market as fair. That’s just neediness.
I gave up long ago trying to hold a discussion with those still on the kool-aid. Here’s just an example…watch how the eventual response will come up with some way to differentiate this:
Sure, Clinton was president when we bombed a factory that turned out to produce aspirin. And according to X-ray, that makes Clinton personally responsible. Whether that’s factually accurate or not is irrelevant.
Bush was CiC when he made the personal decision to instigate a war in Iraq. That makes him personally responsible for the entire war, and all it’s consequences. The justification for going to war was because Iraq had WMDs, and was going to provide them to terrorists so they could use them against the US. Today, we know there were no WMDs, there was no capability to produce WMDs, and all the “evidence” the made Powell parade before the world turns out to be the Bush equivilent of…aspirin production. So all the vilification X-ray heaps on Clinton, by X-ray’s own logic, should be heaped on Bush tenfold. Sure, Clinton’s mistake cost innocent lives…but how many more innocent lives have been attached to Bush’s mistake? How many more to come in the future?
Yes, there’s a recovery which — thanks to the massive borrowing paying for tax cuts the wealthy benefitted disproportionately from — is being funnelled almost exclusively to the rich.
That’s because the taxes are PAID dispropotionately by the rich. Look at the distribution of person income taxes: the bottom 50% of households only pay 5% of the personal income tax. Any tax cut HAS to be disproportionate because of the current design of the code. Simple math – even for Democrats 🙂
I’ll give you an example. The median household income is about $42,000. Our household is about double that. We don’t itemize our deductions, but use the standard ones. However, the tax code is so skewed towards the upper end, that my actual income tax rate last year was 8% of my income. If that’s what happens to someone earning double the median income, then I think it’s safe to say that a lot of people below me aren’t paying much into the federal coffers/
Do even French drivers tout French cars? Needy– Nice try x-ray.
Wow, only *half* the truth… Huh, surprising from a liberal. The laundered money was suspected of being funneled for a bloody terrorist org, for heaven’s sake! Hence, Ashcroft’s correct use of the Patriot act.
Well, at least they suspected the money of being funnelled.
That’s better than those two girls in NYC got.
But then, the position of the Dept of Homeland Security these days is to make it sound like everything supports terrorism: money laundering, Islamic non-profit organizations, computer piracy.
The list is endless when you have an Administration that prefers to keep the list that way.
I just don’t have the time, or the debating skills to contribute. Good show, though.
Maybe we should give him a cookie? A vegetable could present better (and more accurate) points than X-Ray.
Steve Forbes had a tax plan where for a family of 4, taxation didn’t start until earnings reached $36,000. It’s funny how your “simple math” is predatory and his wasn’t.
As I said before:
To paint neediness as strength in this manner shelters predatory behavior. It’s the systematic harvesting of middle-class savings. It’s sickening.
STEVE FORBES SUCKS!
To paint neediness as strength in this manner shelters predatory behavior. It’s the systematic harvesting of middle-class savings. It’s sickening.
I also don’t see how you can call it an “harvesting of the middle class” when more and more of the burden is being pushed higher up the income charts. The rich are paying more of the burden than they ever have historically. My concern about this can be summed up by this classic quote:
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.”
As it is, with nearly 50% of the population paying not income taxes (and therefore no real stake other than what they can get out of the federal government), we are fast going down the path of fiscal collapse. The Baby Boom retirement – because of its huge demographic influence on Washington policy – will be the most significant fiscal event for the next quarter century. If we don’t do a better job now, we won’t have much of an economy for the next generation.
To The Other Blogger-
Stop trying to cloud the issue with facts!
BUSH SUCKS!
…but not in proportion to their skyrocketing salaries.
Consider CEO salaries quintupling in the last 20 years. Are CEO contributing 5 times more than they were 20 years ago, as compared to regular salaries?
To flatten the tax while the top 1% of earners salaries have broken away from the pack — they’re benefitting from a stability the middle-class is paying for. It’s neediness painted as strength — and it’s sickening.
When I say middle-class taxes are being harvested, that’s how the record-breaking debt will have to be paid off — not out of Paris Hilton’s obscene petty-cash reserves, but out of middle-class savings.
Shelter predatory behavior all you like, that doesn’t mean we have to call it anything other than it really is.
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.”
Or, when translated to the American Democratic Republic, the top 1% will spend a good deal of their untaxed income on propaganda and related publicity supporting candidates that share their goal of further insulating that untaxed income (or better put, attacking those candidates that want to ennact a tax burden that bears some resemblance to fairness), thereby duping the voting majority into electing the “wrong” people.
Ignoring the topic, since feeding trolls is a no-no (I suppose I agree with some of it, but not the way it’s presented) I would like to revisit a couple of the responses:
Closed Caption was required by law??? (I do love learning knew things…) Isn’t that a violation of free speech to legislate this? Making someone speak is a violation of free speech as surely as denying someone speech. I can see how it would be nice for the deaf (and I’m deaf in one ear, so I can relate) but it shouldn’t be manditory.
And why should the rich be punished? If you don’t like the “status quo” being disadvanteous to you, get out of the status quo. Being poor is a voluntary condition. Educate yourself in finances and anyone can become wealthy (build up your asset column and reduce your liability column… it’s a slow start, but a strong finish, believe me). This is America: ANYONE CAN BE RICH IF THEY WANT TO BE AND ARE WILLING TO EDUCATE THEMSELVES! I’ve changed just a few of the things I’ve been doing (reduce frivolous spending, pay off debt, build asset column) and I’m making three times what I made just a few years ago and I’m now debt free. Believe me, if I can do it, all of you, who seem far more intelligent than I, can do the same.
If you’re struggling, you have no one to blame but yourself. It isn’t the government’s job to bail you out, nor should it be.
Oh wow, I just ranted. Sorry about that…
Rock on all, DNFTT (I hope I’m not one…)
“Closed Caption was required by law??? (I do love learning knew things…) Isn’t that a violation of free speech to legislate this? “
I don’t know the specifics, but I would guess that the CC requirement was in exchange for being able to broadcast over the Federally-licensed airwaves. If you wanted to make your own videotape/DVD, you didn’t have to CC your program, but if you wanted to transmit it over the air, you had to.
Somebody please correct me if I’m wrong.
awww, but the trolls are so cute when you feed them…
Robbnn, I was about to dive headfirst back into the “being poor is a voluntary condition” discussion, but the whole prior argument came back to me. So I’ll just sum-up, by saying basically I agree with you, that given enough patience and hard work, anyone *should* be able to rise out of poverty, *if* they are able to avoid some of the uncontrollable pitfalls that can lead to economic ruin (injury/illness and uninsured accident being the two biggest). Without those kinds of events, I agree that, if you’re poor, it’s probably your own fault. Or if not (say you’re born into such a condition) then you’re still there through your own lack of action to rise above it.
Which is all well and good, but still makes it really sucky, not to mention sorta unfair, for those that win the gene pool lotto and get born to parents with millions of annual disposable income.
Legislated closed captioning doesn’t tread on free speech…so long as it doesn’t state what the content of the captioning has to be. It’s more a way to prevent discrimination of the deaf, I believe.
Good points, Bobb. Hadn’t thought about the Federal Airwaves slant (wouldn’t you have to CC what’s being said out loud, though?). It may discriminate against the deaf, but the reverse discriminates against companies that can’t afford to CC shows (presuming it’s an expensive process). I prefer it voluntary, but your logic trumps mine.
And absolutely on the unavoidable pitfalls. I do agree with that (my son was born dead and in Intensive Care for weeks after he was revived. The bill was astronomical even with insurance. Took years to dig out from that, though most of my debt was stupid stuff).
Taxes aren’t punishment. They are the resource by which freedom is sheltered and stability is maintained.
The reason the wealthy should pay disproportionately more is because they benefit disproportionately from the status quo. More of the loose change in our pockets goes to Paris Hilton than to laborers.
That’s why protecting middle-class savings is fair and harvesting it by making the middle-class pay to maintain the status quo — disproportionate to the benefit they receive — is predatory.
“I also don’t see how you can call it an “harvesting of the middle class” when more and more of the burden is being pushed higher up the income charts.”
I love this so much. It’s so easy to shoot down. the R’s argue that the middle class aren’t taking a hit under Bush because the tax burden is being pushed up the charts onto the richest Americans. But, show them the hard numbers that say that Bush’s tax breaks go far more towards the pockets of the richest Americans and you get told, often by the same person, that it’s only fair that they get more breaks since they pay more.
So, the R take on the subject is that the tax burden on the rich is growing more and more every day while being reduced by Bush in the interest of a fair tax system. Up is down, black is white, greed is good and words no longer mean anything.
God, I don’t want to do this. I so wanted to be done with Tweedle Dee the Wonder Dummy. But, this line of R argument has long been a fave of mine to shoot down and so many of them just mindlessly spew this one out. Maybe I can let this one slip by by addressing it to everyone who uses this and not just at Tweedle.
“You liberals sang the same song about Reagan’s tax cuts.”
“”After Reagan cut taxes he raised them again.”
Impossible. Only Congress can raise taxes!
“Under Clinton we had prosperity and a budget surplus — what is your f*cking problem with that?”
You mean under a Republican congress, f*cker!”
Reagan wasn’t a bad guy. I’ll even admit to liking him a bit. But the R’s seem to want to build a religion around him. Like God, Reagan can do no wrong. Like god, he needs a counterpart. In the new religion it is Clinton that can do no right and takes on the role of the Devil.
But, as with many religions, you can’t look at it with the eye of logic. All credit for all good in the 80’s must be Reagan’s. The evil D’s held congress in their satanic grip and used that power to inflict great pain upon the U.S. only to be stopped by Reagan the mighty.
But, when the 90’s came-a-calling, we had the roles reversed. Clinton was the prez with a G.O.P. filled congress. And so the story goes that the evil Devil Clinton set out to destroy the U.S. but was thwarted at every turn by the warrior angels of the G.O.P. congress.
So, in the gospel of the R faithful we have the Prez being the power and source of all good(unless he’s a D)and the congress is the source of evil (unless they’re being run by the R’s.)
Also, Reagan the prez was a tax cutter and spurred the economy upward (not counting the number of factories that closed, jobs that were lost and people who became homeless in the 80’s) but Clinton gets no credit for the economy or tax breaks since only congress can cut taxes or do other good things like that (unless they’re D’s.)
Translation: Many, but not all, R’s want to be able to change their stands on things based only on what letter goes before the name of the man or woman that they are discussing.
Homeland security is a great example. It was created and fought for by the D’s. The R’s were against it. Bush hated it. Then a bit of polling was done and, poof, it became something that the R’s wanted and all their merry supporters did an about face and acted like it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Not only that, but the common myth then became that it was an R creation that had to be fought tooth and nail over with the D’s to get it going. The continuation of that myth was helped along a great deal when Bush perverted it into something that most D’s really were against.
See, it doesn’t matter to so many of them anymore if the logic of the argument that they use butts heads with the logic they used in their other arguments. Just so long as Bush is right, Reagan is God and all D’s are evil.
The truth is closer to this:
It’s a very good thing to have the congress and the senate in the hands of one party and the Prez being of the other. It kept things from going too far to the left or right for years and the two forces pulled each other closer to the center.
The 70’s saw the D’s hold too much power and some things didn’t go so well. I don’t know what would happen right now if they were all controled by D’s, but we can all see what has happened with all three branches being in the the contro of the R’s. Pork spending is threw the roof to the point that the people in charge of the purse (R’s) are bleeding it dry, the budget has ballooned, the debt has been blown up to new and greater heights then ever before and we’ve put the country in a weaker position.
How?
Well, for one thing we have the debt problem. We just went to the world bank and got even more of our debt covered by, of all countries, China. At this point, China owns our ášš. If that country that so many R’s paint as evil and a future superpower enemy ever wanted to call in all the debt load they have on us it would destroy our economy in a week. It took less the five years to go from paying down the debts we owed and making our country stronger to being even more in debt to the countries that our present leaders call evil.
We’ve stretched our military thin by allowing foolish actions to rule over good judgement.
we’ve abused our military. Not by sending them to Iraq for a questionable war(well, not just that.) Nooooo. The same people screaming, “support our troops” are the same ones cutting the troops benifits, cutting their danger pay, cutting Vet benifits, extending and extending and over extending tours of duty, giving our troops bad orders and then letting them be the fall guys, not getting the troops what they need to do their job right and sticking it to them if they come home injured. And you wonder why enlistment & re-enlistment is down? I love my country but even I would balk at signing up to work for bosses that would screw me over that many ways so bad.
So, on the whole, I would say that I have a much greater like for the two sides to be kicking each other towards the middle ground sooooo much better then having one power mad, power drunk and stupid group of people, as we have now, in charge of everything. And I can’t even begin to understand how so many conservatives are supporting the R’s and Bush right now when everything that they’re doing, not what they’re saying but what they’re doing, is a slap in the face to everything that conservatives claim to stand for (thus the voting against your best interests concept.)
Being poor is a voluntary condition.
Yeah, all those bášŧárdš who are now poor and being turned out of their homes because of medical hardships…
Hëll, to make it worse, we’ll just make sure it’s harder for them to file for bankruptcy, as the Republicans have done.
Those evil áššhølëš.
“I can’t even begin to understand how so many conservatives are supporting the R’s and Bush … what they’re doing, is a slap in the face to everything that conservatives claim to stand for.”
Let me explain it to you!
Step One: Stop pushing the idea that every Republican voter is either tricked, hypnotized or forced to vote Republican. Accept the fact that it is possible to vote for a Republican as a result of one’s own free and informed choice. Realize that maybe — just maybe — conservatives know how to define their own interests better than you, a liberal, think you do.
I’d go on to the next step, but I doubt you could EVER get past step one! Certainly your party has not, as is proven by the many hysterical responses in this one thread alone.
“It reminds me of how Godzilla movies are great because they’re so bad.”
“Hey. Let’s not let this acimony hurt the innocent. Godzilla rules. Someday, someone will make a movie that has both Godzilla AND flesh eating zombies and I, frankly, will have to commit ritual suicide once it’s over, because what will I have left to look forward to?”
BUCKAROO BANZAI VS. GODZILLA AND THE FLESH EATING ZOMBIES? One of these days, I’m going to get really tired of waiting and just go ahead and make BAMBI II: THE REVENGE myself.
james lynch wrote :
Terrific, no thoughts on the finales of LOST and ALIAS, but (soon to be) hundreds of posts about the latest political pìššìņg contest. Joy.
I so agree w/ you. lets all agree to disagree & be done w/ it.
Joe V.
Bush’s reelection campaigned can be summarized as “We will know America is strong from our dominance.”
The poor who voted for Bush voted against their own self-interest — like a prostitute knifing a guy for stopping her pimp from beating her.
So what’s the big, f*cking mystery?
. And I can’t even begin to understand how so many conservatives are supporting the R’s and Bush right now when everything that they’re doing, not what they’re saying but what they’re doing, is a slap in the face to everything that conservatives claim to stand for (thus the voting against your best interests concept.)
You’re assuming that we like everything they are doing. I, for one, really couldn’t stand the Medicare reform because every entitlement costs more than the so-called projections. Having said that, the Democrats in Congress have zero credibility on fiscal restraint. When they get some, I might consider voting for one.
I agree with Randall Kirby. This X-Ray guy isn’t interesting enough to argue with for this long.
PAD said “exponentially” when it was not strictly true? So what? There’s not a person here who hasn’t used exaggeration.
Just ignore him.
regarding all the tax comments. lets ALL pay 15 % and be done w/ this whole fûçkìņg argument.
also , for those of you that want everyone to get free government health care for everyone remember you get what you pay for (unless it’s on E-Bay)and well, free health care for 250 million americans equals more taxes. by the way, since canada has such a great system of health care, please notice that canada has a high tax system.
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/individuals/faq/taxrates-e.html
Federal tax rates for 2005 are:
16% on the first $35,595 of taxable income;
22% on the next $35,595 of taxable income;
26% on the next $44,549 of taxable income; and
29% of taxable income over $115,739.
this is just federal canadian tax.
ouch.
joe v.
I don’t know the specifics, but I would guess that the CC requirement was in exchange for being able to broadcast over the Federally-licensed airwaves. If you wanted to make your own videotape/DVD, you didn’t have to CC your program, but if you wanted to transmit it over the air, you had to.
Somebody please correct me if I’m wrong.
No, you’re exactly right. Most FCC regulations historically have been premised on the idea that broadcasting frequencies are a limited resource that are doled out by the government, because that’s the only way to have clear broadcasts instead of dozens of wildcat broadcasters jamming each other (inadvertently or not). Weirdly, although cable would seem to be completely out of this scheme– cable networks are subscription-based and, for all practical purposes, infinite– the courts have routinely upheld the FCC’s authority over cable providers. Go figure.