A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
Guess I wasn’t imagining things when I reported a sense of fear and trembling rippling through the conservative confab I attended last weekend.
All those skittish Republican pols must have been anticipating last night’s rather stunning numbers coming out of the most recent CBS News poll:
Mr. Bush's overall job rating has fallen to 34 percent, down from 42 percent last month. Fifty-nine percent disapprove of the job the president is doing.
For the first time in this poll, most Americans say the president does not care much about people like themselves. Fifty-one percent now think he doesn't care, compared to 47 percent last fall.
Just 30 percent approve of how Mr. Bush is handling the Iraq war, another all-time low.
By two to one, the poll finds Americans think U.S. efforts to bring stability to Iraq are going badly – the worst assessment yet of progress in Iraq.
Even on fighting terrorism, which has long been a strong suit for Mr. Bush, his ratings dropped lower than ever. Half of Americans say they disapprove of how he's handling the war on terror, while 43 percent approve.
And, oh yes, Deadeye Dick Cheney’s approval ratings are now down to a Yeltsin-like 18%. Whoa.
These guys are surely getting their come-uppance. Even Francis Fukuyama and Bill Kristol and Bill Buckley are publicly trashing them. I wrote back in September that the Age of Bush had washed away with Katrina. A lot of people resisted that notion, a lot of people on the left. They had become so accustomed to bemoaning the encroaching Republican darkness -- that purely denuciatory mode so completely relieved them of any pro-active responsibilities, they simply didn’t want to accept that Bush had already crashed.
So here we are with Dubya at 34%. Is that low enough for y’all to concede that he’s finished? Or do we have to get into single digits? How much closer do we have to get to 2008 before we here more of a clear counter-offer and lot less pissin’ and moanin’?
February 28th, 2006 at 12:52 am
Sorry for trolling, but you might check comment two on the ace of spades blog. I have no idea if the numbers are correct, but the poll is pointless if they are. This is the end of my trolling, but KVDH should consider ditching the chewbacca defense, it hurts the Dem’s.
February 28th, 2006 at 12:54 am
the ace of spades blog regarding the cbs poll. (I don’t know why anyone would even consider challenging the stalwarts at CBS but…)
the troll has left the building (seriouslar)
February 28th, 2006 at 7:28 am
My friend’s daughter is being deployed to Iraq. This is just terrible and senseless, but it is being replayed all over our country. I am sick about this, because I have no power alone to do anything about it. Together we can make a difference. Now that Bush’s approval rating on the handling of Iraq is only at 30%, we need to push Murtha’s plan:
To immediately redeploy U.S. troops consistent with the safety of U.S. forces.
To create a quick reaction force in the region.
To create an over- the- horizon presence of Marines.
To diplomatically pursue security and stability in Iraq
The people need to “speak up†against continuing this war. It is over. Iraq is close to or in a civil war. A civil war is not our fight. Please write to everyone you can think of and push them to end this madness. We need to bring our troops home before we lose anymore of our true treasure – our men and women.
February 28th, 2006 at 8:07 am
Forget 2008. Let’s see how these low poll numbers translate come this November. How much more Republican s**t will this country swallow before the voters actually do something?
February 28th, 2006 at 9:02 am
Bill Clinton registers for the draft on September 08, 1964, accepting all contractual conditions of registering for the draft.
Selective Service Number 326 46 228.
Bill Clinton classified 2-S on November 17, 1964.
Bill Clinton reclassified 1-A on March 20, 1968.
Bill Clinton ordered to report for induction on July 28, 1969.
Bill Clinton refuses to report and is not inducted into the military.
Bill Clinton reclassified 1-D after enlisting in the United States Army
Reserves on August 07, 1969, under authority of Col. E. Holmes.
Clinton signs enlistment papers and takes oath of enlistment.
Bill Clinton fails to report to his duty station at the University of
Arkansas ROTC, September 1969.
Bill Clinton reclassified 1-A on October 30, 1969, as enlistment with Army
Reserves is revoked by Colonel E. Holmes and Clinton now AWOL and subject to arrest under Public Law 90-40 (2)(a) a registrant who has failed to report… remains liable for induction.
Bill Clinton’s birth date lottery number is 311, drawn December 1, 1969, but anyone who has already been ordered to report for induction is INELIGIBLE!
Bill Clinton runs for Congress (1974), while a fugitive from justice under Public Law 90-40.
Bill Clinton runs for Arkansas Attorney General (1976), while a fugitive from justice.
Bill Clinton receives pardon on January 21,1977, from President Carter.
Bill Clinton is the FIRST PARDONED FEDERAL FELON ever to serve as President of the United States.
All these facts come from Freedom of Information requests, public laws, and various books that have been published, and have not been refuted by Clinton.
After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, President Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.
After the 1995 bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed five U.S. military personnel; Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.
After the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 and injured 200 U.S. military personnel; Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.
After the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa, which killed 224 and injured 5,000; Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.
After the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 and injured 39 U.S. sailors; Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.
Maybe if Clinton had kept those promises, an estimated 3,000 people in New York and Washington, DC that are now dead would be alive today.
AN INTERESTING QUESTION:
This question was raised on a Philly radio call-in show. Without casting stones, it is a legitimate question.
There are two men, both extremely wealthy. One develops relatively cheap software and gives billions of dollars to charity.
The other sponsors terrorism. That being the case, why was it that the Clinton Administration spent more money chasing down Bill Gates over the eight years in office, than Osama bin Laden?
THINK ABOUT IT!
It is a strange turn of events. Hillary gets $8 Million for her forth coming memoir. Bill gets about $12 Million for his memoir yet to be written.
This from two people who spent 8 years being unable to recall anything about past events while under oath.
Sincerely,
Cdr. Hamilton McWhorter USN (ret)
P.S. Please forward this to as many people as you can! We don’t want this woman to even THINK of running for President.
February 28th, 2006 at 9:35 am
What’s the purpose of this fiction?
February 28th, 2006 at 9:46 am
I’m on a Marine mailing thingy.
I like to peak in the mind of right-wingers and their epistemological moral compass.
Why is it that military folks of color are less likely to believe all that right-wing crap that floats around the services?
February 28th, 2006 at 10:02 am
Col. McWhorter is a 93-year old World War II hero. His name began appearing on that bit of insane spam about a year after it first started circulating.
Bill always pissed me off as Prez and I loathe Hillary, but whenever I’m confronted with the depths of this bizarre, unhinged Clintonphobia I get a strange desire to vote for one of them. Bruce Bartlett, the “renegade” Reaganite conservative who just wrote a book excoriating Bush as a phony and was fired from a right-wing think tank for it was on our local NPR talk show for an hour yesterday. It was interesting, in that he kept praising Bill Clinton. He said that if Hillary ran on a “Bill Clinton’s 3rd Term” platform she could win. I’m not so sure about that, but it was an interesting premise. He also said that, although he’s not happy about it, universal health care is inevitable because it’s the only way to hold down the costs of a broken system.
February 28th, 2006 at 10:09 am
Incidentally, as the hopes and dreams of the wacky right continue to implode and wither, there’s going to be more and more crazy stuff coming from their corner. O)f course the media will be blamed for the failures in Iraq. It’s gonna get real ugly because these are some pretty pathetic specimens. We’ll see some combination of cannibalism amongst their ranks (like Wild Bill Kristol claiming that the war hasn’t been seriously prosecuted), lashing out at the media and, increasingly, the spectre of Hillary as a lightening rod for their various pathologies.
February 28th, 2006 at 10:14 am
reg -
Some questions:
Why do you loathe Hillary?
Did Bartlett give a reason for unhappiness over the inevitability of universal health care (given the admission it would be more cost-effective)? If it was due to a philosophical attachment to small govt, it’s interesting that this attachment nearly trumps concern for efficiency, fiscal prudence etc.
That it would trump the the egalitarian concern for universal availability goes without saying.
February 28th, 2006 at 10:38 am
I don’t loathe either one. I had several contacts with Clinton as president and he did everything I asked him to. particularly on the natural resource policy fron which is my area. Perhaps that’s why he listened. At any rate it was better than blatantly doing the opposite like this joker does. It’s night and day to me. That and you get a personal reply, not a letter from an intern should you write the WH. That’s the difference between a servant of the people and a faux monarch.
Go ahead flame away. But the evidence is in the vault. Fact.
February 28th, 2006 at 10:50 am
I resent her role in botching the health care plan back in the day, among other things. The whole concoction was trying to play every end against the middle and still didn’t work. More to the point, I just don’t like her persona. Chalk it up to what you will. I wouldn’t mind a bit of triangulation on a range of issues if she showed some backbone and commitment on just one and used it to rally the country on some principle. I do think she’s an effective Senator and would probably make a fairly decent President in the Bill mold (which keeps looking better and better in hindsight) but I really don’t want to deal with the Clintonphobia crap all over again and I’m embarrassed that the Democrats might not be able to come up with a stronger candidate, which will translate into even more resentment of Hillary on my part. Bill was just as slippery, but he has a personality and force of intellect that makes you forget that you’re being treated to bullshit. It doesn’t come across as patronizing bullshit. Few contemporary pols don’t suffer by comparison, but with Hillary it’s just that much more apparent. “Loathe” is probably too strong a word, but she rubs me the wrong way.
Bartlett is a small government, private enterprise guy. But he’s honest enough to realize how screwed up the health care system is and that universal coverage is probably the only way out of a “worst of both worlds” reality typified by Bush’s crazy prescription drug bill.
February 28th, 2006 at 11:01 am
Robert Reich was on my local NPR for the hour after Bartlett, and it reminded me - regardless of all of the criticisms that one can muster of the Clinton Presidency - of just how good that administration was at it’s best and that we’d be lucky to have that level of competence, depth and rationality in our leadership today. Absolutely correct that it’s like night and day. The Clinton “scandals” were mostly manufactured bullshit and Bill’s worst moment wasn’t as profoundly dishonest or disgusting as Bush is when he’s down on his knees and deluded that God is talking to him.
February 28th, 2006 at 11:14 am
Mike -
You’re gone, but:
The poll is definitely Democrat-heavy. And perhaps more to the point, independent-heavy. But is it possible that a genuine random sample of Americans right now is simply turning up fewer Republicans and more “independents” and Democrats? Stated another way, is it possible that the lower presence of Republicans in the poll is simply another way of stating the poll’s results?
Or is it simply unacceptable to have that pronounced an imbalance between parties? is it not reflected in other current polls?
February 28th, 2006 at 11:16 am
If the poll is as flawed as it seems, this post is based mostly on a non-story. (The poll being the non-story; not the other bits Marc brings up.)
February 28th, 2006 at 11:27 am
I won’t be happy and won’t feel safe until Bush’s poll number are below 10. 30% still believe that he is handling Iraq well. 30% is a lot of people, who can cause a lot of trouble. Needless to say, Marc, I hope YOU are right, about Bush being finished. Except we do have a few more years of him to deal with, and a lot can happen in a few years.
February 28th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
I think most real Americans realize that Iraq is “The Culture of Life,” in action, because “Freedom is on the March”!
amen.
February 28th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
“This is the end of my trolling, but KVDH should consider ditching the chewbacca defense, it hurts the Dem’s.”
Can somebody translate the above, most importantly ‘KVDH’ and ‘chewbacca’. I hate to admit it but I’m not even sure how ‘trolling’ differs from ‘visiting’ a site. It sounds kind of sinister. Should I be concerned for my children’s future?
February 28th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
marc -
Fukuyama’s been off the plantation for some time now, and to the extent that he’s decipherable, so has Buckley. The Buckley piece you link to is a pretty mild diss - he’s given Bush worse in the past, but may feel sorry for him now. Still, in general I think you’re right on Bush’s viability. I was reluctant to agree right after Katrina; thought they could still demagogue their way back off the canvas — figured if they could win the ‘04 election with things already looking pratty damn bleak, there wasn’t much that reality could do to them - at least short of a financial crack-up caused by a ballooning deficit . But that was a few big screw-ups ago.
February 28th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
Evets…. Still dunno about KVDH….but I googled “the chebacca defense” and was startled to find there’re a bunch of entries. Here’s from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewbacca_Defense
Clearly we’re not watching enough South Park.
(I won’t tell if you won’t that neither of us knew. It makes one feel so…. unhip.)
February 28th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
“The poll is flawed,” is a common cry. That’s the one the right-blogs are going with today, but it’s based on a an inherent wingervillian CBS MSM bias.
February 28th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
Here’s the poll that really matters:
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1075
The right-wing bloggers who, obviously, don’t support the troops, have been given the Purple Finger in recent Middle East elections and had to watch their beloved Bush continue his meltdown as he sides with a Jew-baiting oiligarchy on port security are pretty much stuck with standing tall under a “We Are All Danes Now !” banner. Stirring stuff. History, as a consolation prize, will no doubt judge them to at least have been on the right side of the cartoon wars.
(KVDH is Marc’s “Boss” - Katrina van den Heuvel…doncha think ????)
February 28th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
rosedog -
Thanks for the sleuthing. BTW - I think the word ‘unhip’ may now be unhip, which of course makes it deeply hip (unlike ‘cool’ which no longer is).
February 28th, 2006 at 2:34 pm
reg-
You must be right about KVDH - almost scary you figured that out. I was sure it was YMHA in Latvian.
February 28th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
It doesn’t matter if that poll is flawed…probably is. The decline in Bush’s approval registered among self-identified Republicans and self-identified conservatives is ten points since the last one not so long ago. We can argue about how flawed the CBS Poll is, but the pro-Bush crowd would be better served if they dealt with the reality of how flawed the guy they’ve been selling to the country as some kind of moral paragon and strategic genius these past six years obviously is. “Bush-haters” who were struck by this man’s shallowness and incompetence have been right the whole time, like those of us who doubted that the Iraq war was either necessary or likely to be a cakewalk were right. But let’s concern ourselves with sampling errors on a CBS poll if we want to get to the bottom of what’s wrong with the direction of the country, the state of our leadership and what Americans are concerned about at this juncture.
(Not meant as a dig at you Paul. Just a general observation on the way the usual Pajamas suspects are handling this.)
February 28th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
If 72% of U.S. troops in Iraq want to withdraw at least within a year, don’t you think it’s incumbent upon this administration to replace them with troops who actually support the troops. I don’t mean the bogus “sunshine patriot” troops in Iraq. I mean the troops on the Internet. I would suggest that LGF, Captain’s Quarters, Roger L. Simon, The Corner, Weekly Standard, Michelle Malkin, et. al. make a concerted effort to find volunteers from among the ranks of their readers to form a “We Are All Danes Now !” brigade to step up and replace these defeatist slackers who refuse to stem the Islamic tide. As Wild Bill Kristol reminded us, there hasn’t been a serious effort in Iraq for the last three yhears. After all, the Army is one of those big government programs that nobody in their right mind could assume would be effective or that conservatives should be supporting anyway. No wonder the operation is failing. Privatization of the Iraq war is the only hope left. Surely there are a hundred thousand or so able-bodied folk from the ranks of the righteous who can step up to volunteer. The whole effort could be paid for with PayPal buttons on selected sites. There isn’t much time left. Get busy. Time to replace the legacy military from the only reliable front left - the right-wing blogosphere. If the Viet Cong could fight in their pajamas, why not the good folks at LGF ????
February 28th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
One more thing - I would suggest that each Blogger Battalion choose one of the Danish cartoons as a battle flag. That would give the bastards pause and make them realize they are finally facing off with the real deal. Hooooohaaaah!!!!!!
February 28th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
Internationalism in Action - Hitchens stirring defense of the Danes has now been translated into Norwegian. This thing is becoming a steamroller. The West might yet survive the Islamic onslaught.
http://contexploration.net/mag/2006/02/christopher_hitchens_stoett_da.html
February 28th, 2006 at 3:42 pm
Essential reading (not a joke):
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18771
Of course the shitheads are going to do their best to blame us…
February 28th, 2006 at 4:13 pm
reg -
Speaking of privatization - did you read Naomi Klein’s piece in Harper’s (about a yr ago) arguing that privatization and capitalist creative destruction were the unplanned plan all along, that only in chaos could a robust free market gain traction. Thus Bremer’s weird boast that his chief accomplishment as hegemon was lowering the marginal tax rate.
Her argument wasn’t entirely convincing then and isn’t even now. I just don’t believe this administration is competent enough to successfully organize this sort of chaos.
February 28th, 2006 at 4:24 pm
I tend to agree with you that the opposition to the war gave the Bushniks more credit than they deserved. These are some very weird people (do some background checking on Douglas Feith if you really want a window into just what unhinged creeps we’re dealing with). The notion that one would even bring up marginal tax rates in the context of Iraq is incredible. I doubt that a single one of the war planners knew of Ayatollah Sistani before we went in - or even in the immediate aftermath. This is the guy on whom all their hope now hangs and he’s undoubtedly got a greater fondness for Tehran than the Beltway Boys. Incredible. I had a bad feeling about this mess from day one, but I have to say that I’ve actually been sort of shocked by how clueless they really are.
February 28th, 2006 at 4:50 pm
Screw polls…how’s this as a bellweather for the Bushniks. 150 used or remaindered copies of John Podhoretz’ mommy, Midge Decter’s adoring “Rumsfeld: A Personal Portrait” are available on Amazon starting at $0.01.
February 28th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
Eh gad the dreaded used book price index. No one comes back from a penny.
February 28th, 2006 at 7:22 pm
If any of you guys have played competitive sports you know that the GAME IS NEVER OVER UNTIL THE LAST POINT IS PLAYED—never take anything for granted.
As far as the Democratic Party is concerned—that is a sad lot! What people who back Hillary fail to grasp, is that she will NOT win a general election. I don’t “love†the Democrats but, I’m sick of seeing them commit hari-kari. Hilary will repel a majority of the moderates (who cares) BUT, she will also drive away a small but very important chunk of the liberal and left base.
There are more people who DO NOT vote than Do vote—why; because they are totally disenchanted with our disingenuous corrupt political system. We all know without campaign reform nothing will change—by the time a candidate collects a 500 million dollar war chest they have become a “whore supreme.â€
As far as “chewbacca†and demented logic– politicians and pundits are masters—George Lakeoff, a linguistic anthropologist discuses how language and phrases are used over and over again to confuse the public and cause them to become hypnotized into a catatonic state of acceptance—language and illogical analogies have been useful for the right wing—they know how to appeal to a simpleton nationalistic religious base who have the reading level of a sixth grader.
Below is my latest outrage regarding the Bush Administration:
DRUNK ON BOURBON STREET
Is it a Mardi Gras, Martyr Gras or is it just the Bourbon Street blues—but whatever it is; it certainly is aerie to see a celebratory drunken cavalcade whooping it up in a costumed parade, while only a block away lies utter devastation—hey, we must be talking about New Orleans.
92 Hotels in the greater New Orleans area had contracts to accept residents displaced from their homes, they had been issued hotel vouchers paid for by FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency). The Decatur Hotel Group, which owns the Cotton Exchange Hotel and others only allowed tenants to stay until the FEMA deadline of February 6, 2006—they needed rooms for tourists who were coming down to celebrate the Mardi Gras. What better way to say “how you doing†to the folks in New Orleans, then to have the survivors of Katrina evicted from FEMA housing so tourists can party and enjoy the Mardi gras. The Decatur Hotel Group receives payment from FEMA for 1800 rooms in 11 hotels, however, it is estimated that the Decatur Hotel Group might be receiving FEMA vouchers for another 81 hotels.
11,000 FEMA trailers are rotting in Arkansas mud! Mobile homes worth hundreds of millions of dollars are deteriorating in a muddy field in Arkansas and may never be used to house victims of Hurricane Katrina because of a dispute over where to install them. Only about 2,700 of the 25,000 mobile homes ordered at a cost of $850 million have been installed, and at least 10,000 are sitting in Hope, Arkansas. Though about 55,000 Louisiana families are still waiting for a manufactured housing unit, the mobile homes may never be used because FEMA regulations prohibit them from being installed in flood-prone coastal areas. Now who could make this up—it sounds like a sardonic fictionalized comedic tale describing unabashed incompetence. YES, New Orleans is a flood prone area—THAT’S WHY THERE WAS A FLOOD!
Trailers are temporary housing—a place to live until permanent structures is rebuilt. The trailers were bought and paid for; so send those damn things to Louisiana and give those homeless evicted people a place to live! 850 million tax dollars are sitting and rusting in the mud—could someone please tell Michael Chertoff to back his bags and leave!
The response to Hurricane Katrina was “a national failure” and “an abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare,” according to REPUBLICAN reports, and now THIS FAILURE is further compounded by forcing survivors who have nothing, to fend for themselves while trailers sit and sink in the Arkansas mud—HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT; our government SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT THE SOCIAL WELL-BEING OF ALL U.S. CITIZENS IS THE TRUE HALLMARK WHICH REPRESENTS A REAL DEMOCRACY. MILITARY ATTEMPTS TO DEMOCRATIZE IRAQ RING HOLLOW IF OUR OWN CITIZENS ARE LEFT TO DIE IN THE STREETS OF NEW ORLEANS.
February 28th, 2006 at 8:24 pm
Logicians call this chewbacca thing “singing the bull to sleep.” It’s a rhetorical technique that happens between the horns of a dilemma; a stall tactic. I’m afraid housing in a free market democracy is not a human right any more than healthcare is. Not without changes. You’re deep in the heart of “all the traffic can bear country” around here. Figure out a way for yourself or sink as many have. I’m against this scroogerie, only describing what we have to date. It’s ever evolving, so there’s hope.
February 28th, 2006 at 9:21 pm
The Democratic Party’s next implosion in the presidential contest will be an inevitable fact if Hillary Rodham Clinton is the nominee of that Party. But I agree that every other candidate in the Democratic Party pool of potential candidates will have an uphill battle in defeating the media’s hand-picked-frontrunner Clinton 2008, particularly given the money she has been able to pimp from corporate America and her limousine liberal friends in Hollywood and on the sociallite circuit.
Hillary Clinton and her husband showed me their true colors in 1992 when they flew back to Arkansas to proudly preside over the execution of a brain damaged black man by the name of Ricky Lee Rector. As Rector was led into the executioner’s chamber, he asked staff to save his pecan pie for him when he got back. But, alas, our media rather chose to focus on Bill’s extra marital hanky panky instead of the fact that he facilitated and exploited a retarded man’s death for political (and thus, financial) gain.
And then of course there was Hillary deciding to have none other than her friends in the health insurance industry work with her in 1993-94 on a bill designed to deal with….the health insurance industry (kind of like how her husband, but more often his successor regularly had/have corporate polluters come in to the oval office to help them deal with….pollution). Thus, instead of a single payer universal health care plan eliminating all insurance companies, Hillary instead throws her friends in the insurance industry a humongous cash cow (known as an “employer mandate” to provide insurance).
And then of course, we have the botched and corrupt trade deals which have resulted in millions of jobs leaving the United States, the telecommunications act of 1996 which Bill Clinton pushed, and Ralph Nader and even Bob Dole called “corporate welfare,” and one piece of corporate welfare legislation after another.
And then of course Clinton happily signs into law and campaigns on so-called “Welfare Reform,” even though Clinton and his friends in the Republican Party did nothing to solve the real welfare problem in America - only succeeding in putting millions of children and their parents in poverty.
Of course, who could forget an AIDS bill in honor of Ryan White that would have provided $100,000 to AIDS victims who contracted AIDS from blood transfusions before blood was checked for that beginning in 1985. The bill was almost universally supported in the congress, and Jesse Helms of all people co-sponsored it. Bill Clinton vetoed the bill, again as he did in the Ricky Ray Rector case, to make himself look macho.
In 2008, I would be able to live comfortably with Russ Feingold and even possibly John Edwards as the Democratic nominee. There are some others too (excluding Leiberman).
But - if Hillary Clinton receives the nod for the nomination, I will devote every waking minute of my leisure time aiding the Green Party nominee for president. No apologies, either.
February 28th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Oh what a personality that Clinton had. Jeff Foxworthy events at the white house. White House t-shirts for Monica Lewinsky, to match her expensive gifts to him. And who can forget…Fleetwood Mac. SIGH! What a man!
Yes, I ’spose like a lot of you it might be hard for me to turn my back on the Clintons again - after all, the Clinton’s “force of personality and intellect” might make me forget about everything that I hold sacred as a true Democrat….not!
February 28th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
“I will devote every waking minute of my leisure time aiding the Green Party nominee for president. No apologies, either.”
And like last time it will be a waste. But then that’s the life an uncompromising kamikazi. Poof there goes another rubber tree plant. Bye beye.
February 28th, 2006 at 11:10 pm
Oh, yeah. Monica Lewinsky’s “expensive gifts” to Bill Clinton. I forgot. The horror. The horror.
February 28th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
While a lot of the anti-Clinton litany above covers familiar territory where I also found Clinton maddening, I have to take issue with the false notion that families were simply thrown into poverty under Clinton. The Clinton years saw less poverty, not more and at least some of that trend was attributable to administration policies. And - while the welfare reform that passed is chock full of problems over the long term that still need to be addressed - the welfare system was screwed up and badly needed reform at the level of long-term dependents. The Beltway Democrats’ failure to do anything about it - not to mention liberal complacency and sentimentality - handed an issue to the GOP for exploitation. Even at my most “leftist”, I always believed that a welfare system that allowed people to become completely disconnected from work was fundamentally wrong. The welfare system as it actually existed was more a product of the Nixon administration’s cynicism than the “war on poverty” of LBJ.
I opposed the welfare reform bill as it stood, but in all honesty it hasn’t been anywhere near the disaster most of the critics on the left predicted and as a general concept moving people from welfare to work is absolutely the correct thing to do.
February 28th, 2006 at 11:59 pm
David C - your bit about Clinton vetoing Ryan White is bogus.
http://www.thebody.com/aac/may2096.html
That funding increased dramatically under Clinton.
I think you’re a good example of leftwing Clintonphobia - almost as rabid and irrational as the right wing version.
March 1st, 2006 at 8:46 am
Here is some of my winning formulae for the Demo crates. I offer this valuable wisdom because we no longer seem to have a ‘balance’ of power and an Executive Branch almost out of control, ie; breaking of laws by their ‘reinterpretation’, selling of our country, its manufacturing infrastructure, its vital ports, its obsession with ’secrecy’ and MOST IMPORTANT throwing its employees onto the world market of slave labor and working conditions.
1. There is a huge underlying dissatisfaction and concern with workers in this country. Support them with a strong stand on FAIR trade, not trade that uses and abuses its workers and steals and copies our patents with unenforced trade laws designed to protect our workers and businesses. THIS IS A DEMOCRATIC ISSUE AND YOU’VE ABANDONED IT IN FAVOR OF CLINTON’S FREE-BUT-NOT-FAIR TRADE!
2. Stop talking about the culturally and socially devise issues like Abortion and Gay Rights. This doesn’t mean you don’t believe in them, it means stop making noise about them. Stop using them as lines in your sand for political battles. They’re losers.
3. (out of time but more to come on Health Care, Social Programs, and THE WAR, so hold your breaths
Hope this helps and not hurts.
March 1st, 2006 at 9:06 am
“I think you’re a good example of leftwing Clintonphobia - almost as rabid and irrational as the right wing version.”
Exactly. Impaled the left “horn.”
March 1st, 2006 at 9:39 am
Whole lotta shakin’ going on? You haven’t seen anything…yet:
http://www.shockabsorber.co.uk/bounceometer/shock.html
March 1st, 2006 at 12:27 pm
Reg, the source of my information regarding Clinton vetoing the Ryan White thing is Doug Ireland from the Nation, who published an article in that magazine a number of years ago regarding Clinton’s veto of the bill. Ask him.
March 1st, 2006 at 12:49 pm
From reg’s link:
“AIDS advocates are hailing as a victory President Clinton’s signing this morning of legislation that reauthorizes the Ryan White CARE Act through the year 2000.”
Wherever your counterclaim comes from it’s false. You aren’t entitled to your own facts.
March 1st, 2006 at 12:53 pm
Reg, I checked out your link at The Body but it has no mention of the legislation that was co-sponsored in the late 1990’s that I was referring to. Your link is an older article than the Doug Ireland article in the Nation magazine that appeared around 1999 that described Clinton’s vetoing of legislation co-sponsored on bipartisan lines by scads of people, including, ironically, by Jesse Helms; that would have provided $100, 000 dollars (I believe it may have been less than that) to patients contaminated with AIDS through blood transfusions conducted before mandatory testing took place beginning in the mid-1980’s.
“I think you’re a good example of leftwing Clintonphobia - almost as rabid and irrational as the right wing version.”
Reg, I respect your opinion highly because you strike me as one of the more intelligent posters here, who backs his opinions up with fact.
However, with all due respect, I don’t have a phobia of the Clintons. I don’t fear or hate anyone, particularly the Clintons, who do strike me as good parents to their wonderful daughter Chelsea. When she was attacked by Rush Limbaugh in 1993 as being a “dog,” I was so incensed at this attack that I helped head up a petition drive which resulted in Florida Orange Juice pulling out of their sponsorship of his show.
I do, however, hate many of the policies that came out of the Clinton years.
Furthermore, I don’t know how you can say that I am “rabid and irrational,” Reg, when you don’t even know me. I hope the Democrats win back the White House in 2008. I really hope that they do.
But don’t you think, Reg, that there is a point at which you have to put your foot down and stand up for your principles as a true Democrat? Doesn’t the fact that Republicans have been winning election after election by sticking to their principles and pushing the envelope further with each successful stride tell you something? Hello?
Democrats can do a hell of a lot better than Hillary Clinton, even if that means defecting to the Green Party.
March 1st, 2006 at 1:08 pm
Reg, I have to also take issue with the suggestion that Clinton’s overall record on AIDS is great (a suggestion which you didn’t make, to your credit):
BILL CLINTON’S HIV/AIDS RECORD OF SHAME!
“We cannot forgive, and must never forget”
.
Clinton signed into law the HIV Immigration Ban and Travel Restrictions in 1993, authorizing the deportation of HIV-infected non US citizens, and imposing a ten-day limit on US travel for HIV+ foreign nationals - which is why these conferences are no longer held in the US. (Nickles amendment to the NIH Reauthorization Bill).
Clinton fired his Surgeon General, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, who suggested that masturbation be discussed as a safe sex alternative, in response to a question at a World AIDS Day event held the United Nations. The dismissal of Dr. Elders, known as the ‘Condom Queen,’ resulted in a chilling effect on US HIV prevention efforts, ending prospects of wide spread distribution of latex condoms and water-based lubricants targeting populations who remain at-risk.
Clinton betrayed his promise for an AIDS ‘Manhattan Project,’ made as a candidate in 1992, to launch an all-out, coordinated research effort for an AIDS cure. Once elected to the White House, Clinton abandoned that promise, and the hopes of millions around the world who are still waiting and dying for a cure for AIDS.
Clinton failed to deliver an ‘AIDS Czar,’ despite his campaign commitment to create a powerful position, like the ‘Drug Czar,’ to lead the US efforts against the deadly AIDS pandemic. Instead, Clinton appointed a series of low-level, powerless ‘policy coordinators’, all of whom lacked sufficient power and authority achieve significant progress in the world-wide effort to end AIDS.
Clinton sold out to the Insurance Industry, leaving the United States still to be the ONLY INDUSTRIALISED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WITHOUT NATIONAL HEALTHCARE! 50 MILLION CITIZENS IN THE USA WITHOUT HEALTHCARE!!
Clinton refused to lift the federal funding ban for clean needle exchange programs, despite overwhelming evidence that these programs are highly effective in reducing HIV transmission among injection drug users and their partners. As a result, countless men, women and children have become needlessly infected with HIV, condemned to a lingering and horrific death.
Clinton neglected the global fight against AIDS, and failed to direct adequate resources, allocating a paltry $100 million for Africa’s AIDS orphans. Since leaving the White House, however, Clinton has suggested the US spend $2.5 billion to fight AIDS internationally - something the Clinton Administration never did in eight budgets submitted to Congress, despite huge surpluses.
http://www.actupny.org/reports/bcn/BCNclinton.html
March 1st, 2006 at 1:15 pm
It should be noted that George W. Bush has allocated far more money internationally than Clinton did, as Clinton often found himself to the RIGHT of many Republicans in congress with respect to the appropriation of funds to fight AIDS globally.
I will also keep looking for the Doug Ireland article about Clinton’s quash of the money for AIDS patients who got the disease from blood transfusions. I may email Doug Ireland if I have to.
Hey if anyone remembers reading this Nation article too, please let me know if you remember what year and month this appeared and I will dig it out of my Nation stacks so that I can post the entire article on here for Reg’s benefit.
March 1st, 2006 at 1:46 pm
Last November, I also had a chance to go to the American Film Institute’s annual festival. One of the films I saw was called “Factor 8: the Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal.”
Made by an Arkansas native, the film detailed how Governor Clinton and the state profited from selling the contaminated blood of Arkansas prison inmates, despite the fact that prison authorities knew that the blood being extracted and put into banks was contaminated. Although there had been rumblings about this, Clinton and the HMO that he turned prison health services over to (headed by a political crony of Clinton’s who spearheaded one of his re-election campaigns) continued to rely on this program, according to some insiders, to alleviate costs to the state by providing a steady flow of revenue to the coffers…
At the expense of over 3000 people who were eventually contaminated by the blood from the Arkansas prison inmates (1997 figures, the most recent).
Perhaps this is why Clinton was so against AIDS victims who got their disease through blood transfusions getting compensation. The issue apparently hit close to home.
March 1st, 2006 at 2:23 pm
One last thing, Reg. Even the Salvation Army - hardly a “liberal” organization - reports that according to many of their people on the ground, “welfare reform” has not brought the poor out of poverty. Here is the link:
http://www.salvationarmy-usaeast.org/goodnews/goodnews/issues/2003_3/10.htm
Of course, I will admit that the article above is not scientific, rather, it is based on the informed opinions of Salvation Army coordinators on the ground.
But keep in mind, Reg, that once a welfare mom and her children are kicked off of welfare - as millions have since 1996 because of the 2 year limit on benefits; no one keeps track of that mom and her children anymore. So no one really knows, including you, Reg.
We do know, however, that according to the United Conference of Catholic Bishops, the number of abortions among families on assistance has increased 14 percent. The link is below:
http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/welfare.htm
Of course, maybe this is what is meant when some Democrats say that welfare reform has been “a success,” since there has been a spike in the number of abortions.
March 1st, 2006 at 3:10 pm
“Here are some of my winning formulae for the Demo crates. I offer this valuable wisdom because we no longer seem to have a ‘balance’ of power and an Executive Branch almost out of control, i.e.; breaking of laws by their ‘reinterpretation’, selling of our country, its manufacturing infrastructure, its vital ports, its obsession with ’secrecy’ and MOST IMPORTANT throwing its employees onto the world market of slave labor and working conditions.
. There is a huge underlying dissatisfaction and concern with workers in this country. Support them with a strong stand on FAIR trade, not trade that uses and abuses its workers and steals and copies our patents with unenforced trade laws designed to protect our workers and businesses
In 2008, I would be able to live comfortably with Russ Feingold and even possibly John Edwards as the Democratic nominee. There are some others too (excluding Leiberman). “
David and Jim—I COULDN’T AGREE WITH YOU MORE! IT’S NOT THAT WE ARE CLINTONPHOBIC, WE ARE SLEAZEPHOBIC– THE THOUGHT OF MR. & MRS. SLEAZE IN THE WHITEHOUSE IS UTTERLY REVULTING.
No one mentioned Clinton’s Barbarous war in Yugoslavia–covered up my MSM.
http://www.libertysoft.com/liberty/features/76steele.ht
March 1st, 2006 at 3:12 pm
By all means conduct a anti-Clinton campaign. The wingnuts can use your help “singing the bull to sleep.” The historical record is rife with those accsuing those of doing something with not doing enough. Especially since this is his area of focus now, but that’s probably not good enough either.
March 1st, 2006 at 3:15 pm
Barbarous! Any interferance in foreign countries,in this case to help muslims is barabarous, and covered up to some. No mention of those committing the acts in the first place. I can see why.
March 1st, 2006 at 5:19 pm
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Yugoslavia/BillClintonsWar_Yugo.html
March 1st, 2006 at 5:20 pm
reg — That article in the New York Review is devastating. Bush deserves the numbers he has created for himself. You’re right it is essential reading.
March 1st, 2006 at 5:37 pm
Bush is going to happy if he sees 34% again:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content//video/2006/03/01/VI2006030101864.html
March 1st, 2006 at 6:05 pm
I don’t think “welfare reform” has been an unalloyed success - just that so far as I can tell it hasn’t been as disastrous as even I feared, which I think points to problems that existed in the old system. I don’t believe in simply throwing people out of the system - but I don’t believe the system should constitute a dole. That was the essence of Nixon’s “welfare reform” - in reaction to LBJ’s somewhat more proactive “war on poverty” - and I think that there was a nefarious aspect to it - both politically and socially.
As for the Clinton/Ryan White thing, I can find no evidence for it. From what I could glean from the link, it seemed that Jesse Helms was behind at least some of the attempt to limit the bill. As for Clintonphobia, I’m on record as “loathing” Hillary Clinton, but the way I read your reaction to her, it seems to go even past that. Assuming that I have my own phobias, the Green Party is undoubtedly somewhere in there.
March 1st, 2006 at 6:15 pm
“The CPA’s performance on economic matters was abysmal. It never came close to restoring electricity to pre-war levels. In spite of billions spent on Iraq’s oil industry, the CPA’s ambitious plans to boost Iraq’s oil production failed, and in December 2005, exports fell to half the pre-war level.
The CPA was never able to spend the billions Congress appropriated for reconstruction; nor could it properly account for $8.8 billion in Iraqi funds entrusted to its care. In his book, Bremer blames Washington red tape for delays in spending reconstruction funds. This is only part of the story. The White House and Pentagon wanted ideologically reliable Americans to take power in Iraq, not career bureaucrats they could not control.
To carry out the CPA’s work, Washington sent to Baghdad a steady stream of American conservatives, mainly young people with no relevant expertise, no previous experience in the Middle East, and no knowledge of the region. Some were assigned to the budget office, but knew nothing about budgeting or federal procurement procedures; they spent money slowly and without proper accounting. While Bremer is generous in sharing credit with his personal staff, he says nothing about these recruits.
Nor does he mention staff members who have written critically about the CPA, like the senior governance specialist Larry Diamond or the constitutional adviser Noah Feldman.[*]
With regard to the CPA’s accounting lapses, Bremer asserts that it is unfair to expect normal recordkeeping in a war zone. The CPA’s inspector general, in a shocking recent report, describes a situation that went beyond the occasional lapse.
Millions of dollars were kept in shrink-wrapped “bricks” of hundred-dollar bills scattered about the CPA offices, often neither guarded nor locked up. Records were not kept. A soldier assigned to assist the Iraqi boxing team gambled away the funds he was given. No one could tell whether he had lost $20,000 or $60,000, since no one kept a record of how much money he had received.â€
The above excerpt from “The Mess†by Peter Galbraith is really disturbing—our government elected to invade Iraq and the outcome is a total disaster—Over one hundred thousand Iraqi civilians are dead, over 3,000 American soldiers killed, 18,000 soldiers seriously injured and billions of tax dollars squandered—for what?
In one bloody half hour in Baghdad yesterday morning, three explosions in predominantly Shia neighborhoods killed at least 32 people and wounded about 80. Late last night, police reported at least 16 people killed in a blast near a Shia mosque and market north of Baghdad.
Earlier, police found the bodies of nine men, including a Shia tribal leader, who were bound, gagged and shot in Diyala province, north-east of the capital. The death toll for the week so far is more than 400.
It is clear that if it were up to the troops, the US would be out of Iraq by the end of the year. In a poll of troops in Iraqi bases, conducted by Zogby International, 72% said the US should withdraw in 2006; more than a third of those said the troops should leave immediately. Just over one in five agreed with the president that they should stay in Iraq “as long as needed”.
Another striking element of the poll was the opinion of US soldiers over why they were there. Only a quarter thought their role was establishing a democracy “that can be a model for the Arab world”. Nearly 86% said it was “to retaliate for Saddam’s role in the 9/11 attacks”, a role proved to have been non-existent.
There is ONE thing that Bush’s administration is good at–propaganda—but even that is wearing thin with his base.
________________________________________
March 1st, 2006 at 6:30 pm
“As for Clintonphobia, I’m on record as “loathing†Hillary Clinton, but the way I read your reaction to her, it seems to go even past that.”– Reg
Reg, “past that?” Try “not even to that.” Unlike you, I don’t even “loathe” Hillary Clinton.
March 1st, 2006 at 6:34 pm
nor do I even loathe her husband, even though, as I said earlier, the man is quite tacky. I mean, giving complimentary white house beefy t-shirts to the lady you are having an affair with? Tacky.
March 1st, 2006 at 6:58 pm
Having an affair? Wasn’t it more like a quick 10 minutes between a hall adjacent to the Oval Office that was not being videotaped.
Hilary may not bake cookies but she certainly stands by her man–talk about someone who can keep her eyes on the prize.
March 1st, 2006 at 7:37 pm
I agree. A BJ isn’t an affair. Othewise, the centuries-old institution of “affairs” is in a sad state of decline and we’re on that slippery slope of where “is” can mean damn near anything. And while you’re being tacky, why not toss in a tee shirt ?
March 1st, 2006 at 8:51 pm
It’s amazing how a BJ can erase so much history, much of it constructive progress.
CPA?
March 1st, 2006 at 9:17 pm
Well, if we are dealing in semantics here…..
The New Merriam-Webster Dictionary (1989) defines an affair as:
1. : something that relates to or involves one: CONCERN
2. : a romantic or sexual attachment of limited duration
I stand by my original linguistics.
March 1st, 2006 at 10:57 pm
This is totally off topic but Dennis perrin searing analysis of the dubai debacle is a testomony to political and moral clarity
The lib-Dem arm flapping over the Dubai Ports deal is one of the more opportunistic, cynical and asinine displays of late, which is to say that it’s perfectly in line with what passes for American political discourse. The libs are dying to prove how “anti-terror” they are, how they, unlike the GOP, are the “real” guardians of American lives and property. From Daily Kos to Air America to Hillary Clinton to lib bloggers, trolls and squawkers in between, “Portgate” is all the rage, an opportunity to flex their fantasy muscles and jump on the Arab-bashing bandwagon. And just to make sure that this present state of mind is clearly understood by all the Right People, DNC Chairman Howard Dean, Mr. Progressive himself, while speaking before the Jewish Council for Public Affairs yesterday, said, “Today we see the specter, as reported in the Jerusalem Post, of a company who is about to take over American ports, which actively continues today to boycott Israel.”
Well, I guess the Israeli state will have to squeeze by on the measly billions the US pumps into its coffers every year.
Of course, this rabid yowling has nothing to do with “national security” and everything to do with taking full advantage of a political opening, using the very xenophobic weapons that are part of the reactionary arsenal. Not only does this remind us that the War on Terror is a crock, it emphasizes all too well that no real opposition to the corporate status quo exists, at least in the ownership parties. Instead of examining the business-as-usual aspect of the Dubai Ports deal, and how the American ruling elite and their political lackeys benefit from such global financial arrangements, liberals prefer to fan nativist flames for domestic political gain, especially in a mid-term election year. Over the past few days, lib radio talker Ed Schultz has giggled and guffawed about how the Dems are poised to re-take the House and Senate this November, and how the Dubai debacle is one of the driving forces behind this potential electoral swing. In other words, the Arab booga-booga can work both ways and for the same purposes — power, influence and control.
But what is truly amusing in all this pretend uproar is the heroic posture of those who don’t want to deal with a state boasting “terrorist” ties. Whatever involvement the United Arab Emirates has in aiding terrorism, it doesn’t approach the violent level of, say, Israel, or Turkey, or Colombia, or even — gasp! — the United States. Yet you’ll never hear mainstream libs making this much noise over arms sales to these and other countries. Indeed, when the Clinton admin sold the UAE 80 F-l6 Block 60 fighters in 1998, I don’t recall any outrage from the lib corner or concerns that their idol Bill Clinton was aiding and abetting “terrorism,” and this was at the very moment when the UAE recognized the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, one of the criminal indictments that libs today are hurling at that oil nation while attacking the ports deal. (Arms sales was just one of the chummy features of Clinton’s friendship with the UAE.) And should the Dems do well this November and win the presidency in ‘08, does anyone seriously believe that business dealings with the sheikdoms will be radically altered or eliminated altogether? Please.
“Portgate” is yet another domestic political ruse that says nothing about the global corporate power structure that makes such deals inevitable, nor about what truly constitutes terrorism in the here & now. It’s simple, sleazy fear mongering, another reminder that the Dems and their lib mouthpieces have the same contempt for the populace as do GOP reactionaries.
March 2nd, 2006 at 5:31 am
One would have hoped out of all these words Amed, you would have at least one to say against those who recruit, train, and wire up young Arabs as live firing pins for mass murder bombing of the masses.
Maybe there is still reason for xenophobia.
March 2nd, 2006 at 7:52 am
“Instead of examining the business-as-usual aspect of the Dubai Ports deal, and how the American ruling elite and their political lackeys benefit from such global financial arrangements, liberals prefer to fan nativist flames for domestic political gain, especially in a mid-term election year.â€
Ahmed,
Welcome to the planet earth—IT IS ALL ABOUT MAKING MONEY—there is no such thing as loyalty to the American people or our country—MONEY AND PROFIT THROUGH GLOBALIZATION is the only thing that counts. Slave labor in every third world country to make multinational corporations billionaires at the expense of the middle and working-class is the only objective and the legislation to carry out these traitorous policies ate enacted by both the DEMOCRACTS AND REPUBLICANS
RED WHITE AND BLUE; NOT OWNED BY YOU!
There are so many myths bandied about—myth one–China is a communist country—NO, NO, NO IT IS A CAPITALIST/DICTATORSHIP—myth two globalization will help to create democracies in other countries —NO, NO, NO globalization just means imperialism, one country occupies another for its resources and cheap labor—third myth—U.S. Workers and the U.S. economy will benefit from globalization—NO, NO, NO IF YOU BELIEVE THIS MYTH, YOU MUST ALSO BELIEVE THAT 1 + 1= 3!
The Outstanding Public Debt as of 19 Feb 2006:
$ 8,246,576,254,977.39
The estimated population of the United States is 298,568,137
so each citizen’s share of this debt is $27,620.42.
The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$2.21 billion per day since September 30, 2005!
The effect of globalization on the U.S. economy is seen in our soaring deficit which is created by increased imports and diminished exports. The U.S. Federal Reserve hides this mess with their ENRON accounting techniques–they balance our U.S. checkbook by only counting deposits; the paltry amount of goods exported and neglects counting our withdrawals–the staggering amount of goods the U.S. Imports. By the time our debt explodes into a “million little pieces†or lies our devastated economy will substantially damage all American workers, and workers in all countries that have been subjected to our exploitative globalization policies.
The U.S. Treasury last Thursday acted to avoid hitting the national debt limit and said it’s “imperative†that Congress raise the debt ceiling by the middle of March. The Treasury is suspending reinvestment in the so-called “G-Fund,” an investment vehicle for a federal employees’ retirement system. The action will free up $65.266 billion, without this action we would reach the debt limit today. Congress and the Bush administration have been negotiating an increase in the current $8.18 trillion debt limit. On Wednesday Treasury said it would suspend sales of state and local government non-marketable securities.
The U.S. government has “blessed†a sale that gives Dubai control over the operations of six of our busiest ports: New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia. “Dubai Ports World†is owned and operated by the government of the United Arab Emirates.
WE ARE IN SO MUCH DEBT THAT THE U.S. WILL NO LONGER BE OWNED BY THE U.S.
Sheik Mohammed ibn Rashid al Maktum, United Arab Emirates Defense Minister and Crown Prince for the emirate of Dubai, often dined with Osama bin Laden. The CIA notes the UAE acts as a nexus of illicit drug “transshipment†and, due to its position as a major financial center, is important to many organizations for their money laundering activities.
If we are giving the United Arab Emirates easy access to one of our soft spots—major American ports; is there really a threat of terrorism or is that just some made-up propaganda to keep us fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
So maybe we are not that concerned about security problems if tankers in the port of New York could be shut down for weeks and remove billions from our economy; or if problems in the port of Philadelphia could shut down the port and interrupt material and munitions shipments to our soldiers fighting in Iraq; or if problems with a tanker in the port of New Jersey could halt oil shipments to the New Jersey refineries and send gas prices rocketing upwards. So maybe, the long war on terrorism has ended and nobody in the government thought it was necessary to notify the American people; OR MAYBE WE ARE IN SO MUCH DEBT THAT WE DONâ€T CARE WHERE THE MONEY COMES FROM!
THE LITTLE RED BOOK OR IS IT THE BIG DEBT BOOK?
The trade deficit with China, reached $202 billion in 2005, it was responsible for the entire increase in the United States’ non-oil trade deficit. The trade deficit in manufactured products increased $46 billion, to $655 billion (an 8% increase).
Total U.S. imports of goods and services reached $2 trillion in 2005 for the first time, 57% more than the $1.3 trillion in exports. To keep the trade deficit from widening further, the growth rate of exports must exceed the growth rate of imports by 57%. Last year, import growth (13%) exceeded export growth (10%), and imports expanded by $228 billion, almost twice as much as the increase in exports of $120 billion. Net imports as a share of GDP have increased for 10 consecutive years in a row (since 1995). If imports continue to grow at a 13% rate, the trade deficit will decline only if exports grow faster than 20%, which would be double their 2005 growth rate. In the absence of a dramatic and sustained slowdown in U.S. growth, exports can grow more than half again as fast as imports only with a substantial reduction in the value of the U.S. dollar.
The dollar must fall by at least an additional 30% to 40%, or more, to achieve the needed increase in export growth relative to imports. Imports grow rapidly and export growth slows when the dollar is increasing in value. Increases in the value of the dollar make imports cheap and U.S. exports more expensive on world markets. When the dollar appreciates, the rate of growth of imports typically surpasses the growth of exports. Deficits can also be reduced by large, sustained falls in the dollar, as occurred between 1985 and 1991 when the dollar lost 26% of its value, which caused exports to grow faster than imports between 1987 and 1991, resulting in a large decline in the trade deficit.
AND GUESS WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THE AMERICAN WORKER? WORKERS WILL HAVE TO WORK LIKE DOGS—THEY WILL PRODUCE MORE AND MORE AND MAKE LESS AND LESS! AND YOU CAN THANK ALL THE POLITICIANS, REPULICANS AND DEMOCRATS ALIKE, WHOSE ECONOMIC POLICIES SINCE THE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION HAS BEEN SETUP SOLEY TO BENEFIT BIG BUSINESS AND CORPORATE AMERICA!
THE IDEA BEHIND globalization was to make the American worker on par with all other workers internationally, so that eventually your wages and benefits would be similar to workers wages in China and India. Don’t fret this won’t effect the lifestyles of CEO’S, they will still live quite well, but of course, it will be at your expense!
SO WHAT ASSESTS WILL WE SELL TO CHINA? MAYBE THEY ARE INTERESTED IN BUYING THE WHITE HOUSE, THE U.S. CAPITOL OR THE PENTAGON? WHY NOT BUY ALL THE FEDERAL BUILDINGS, SINCE EVERYONE INSIDE OF THEM, HAVE ALREADY SOLD THEIR SOULS TO BIG BUSINESS! LET’S PUBLICLY AUCTION ALL AMERICAN ASSESTS TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER! ISN’T THAT WHAT OUR CURRENT GOVERNMENT BELIEVES ANYWAY, THAT ALL FEDERAL PROGRAMS SHOULD BE PRIVATIZED?
GLOBILIZATION HAS NOT MADE CHINA A DEMOCRACY—IT IS ONE OF THE LARGEST DICTATORSHIPS IN THE WORLD!
Last week there were Senate hearings about Google, Yahoo and Microsoft and how they are being used by the Chinese government to suppress Chinese citizens. Most of main stream media was absorbed with Cheney’s hunting mishap, so this news story was swept under the Oval Office carpet.
At a congressional hearing Wednesday in Washington, legislators grilled executives from Google, Yahoo., Microsoft, and Cisco Systems Inc. about their role in helping China filter information or track down those who believe in free speech. Reporters without Borders, a Paris-based advocacy group, say 49 Chinese are known to be in prison for “posting on the Internet articles and criticism of the authorities.” There could be other, unknown cases. Asked at the hearing how many times Yahoo had turned in e-mail users to government authorities, Michael Callahan, a Yahoo lawyer and company executive, said Chinese law prohibited revealing such information—I guess, Michael now works for the Chinese Government.
Yahoo complied with a Chinese demand for e-mail information about journalist Shi Tao, who was convicted for e-mailing information about the government and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. China doesn’t make public the list of pages it blocks or filters, but Internet experts abroad say they number in the tens of thousands.
Most of the cyber-dissidents have been sentenced to jail by the Chinese authorities for posting comments on forums, creating websites, and for sending e-mails overseas. The official Chinese news media have often published reports on the arrest of Web users to impose fear on the Chinese audience. A Shanghai man was sentenced to a four-year jail term for trying to post a critical essay on the website of the People’s Daily. It was a pro-democracy essay on the People’s Daily Web page; there are many people who are in prison for posting things on the Internet.
China estimates that about 110 million of its people are using the Internet, second only to the number of Web users in the United States. But there is a “digital apartheid†that controls what anyone can say on the Chinese Internet. China is the world’s largest prison for journalists and cyber-dissidents. Most authoritarian regimes try to control what their citizens read and do on-line, but China is far and away the world champion. . . . It’s one of the few countries that have managed to block all material critical of the regime, while at the same time expanding Internet facilities.
SO THOSE BILLIONAIRE YUPPIES WHO OWN GOOGLE, MICROSOFT AND YAHOO AND ARE CONSIDERED SO HIP AND SO COOL, DON’T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT ANTHING EXCEPT THEIR BILLION DOLLAR EMPIRES! THEY LOOK FOR CHEAP RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN CHINESE GRAD SCHOOLS, SO THAT THEY DON’T HAVE TO PAY AMERICAN WORKERS A DECENT WAGE, AND THEN THEY USE THEIR SOFTWARE TO REPRESS CHINESE FREEDOM FIGHTERS.
IT’S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE U.S. CITIZENS WILL SHARE THE SAME FATE AS THE CHINESE CYBER-DISSIDENTS!
WILL OUR FINANCIAL DEBT TO CHINA CAUSE US TO FORSAKE OUR DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES?
Debts and lies are generally mixed together. Francois Rabelais
Crooked schemes will end by overwhelming their authors and coadjutors in disgrace, and… he alone who walks strict and upright, and who, in matters of opinion, will be contented that others should be as free as himself, and acquiesce when his opinion is fairly overruled, will attain his object in the end.” –Thomas Jefferson
March 2nd, 2006 at 7:59 am
“a romantic or sexual attachment of limited duration I stand by my original linguistics.”
David,
Yes, that sounds correct; so I guess when someone gets caught for prostitution they can just say I’m innocent, we were only having an affair.
March 2nd, 2006 at 9:30 am
“Whatever involvement the United Arab Emirates has in aiding terrorism, it doesn’t approach the violent level of, say, Israel, or Turkey, or Colombia, or even — gasp! — the United States.”
These are the relativistic rantings of an insane person, blinded by race and minority rage.
Perhaps for Cummings affairs “can” be defined as two to five minutes depending on mood?
March 2nd, 2006 at 6:47 pm
David Cummings,
On the subject of AIDS, Bush and condoms, here’s what Doug Ireland wrote on the subject:
Jeez, even C. Everett Koop was willing to let his personal belief play second fiddle to saving lives. Bush certainly isn’t.
March 2nd, 2006 at 9:59 pm
And that is the night and day difference between Bush and Clinton. Anyone who can’t see it is legally blind.
March 4th, 2006 at 6:48 am
Gee, if gay activists were really concerned with ending AIDS they would have closed gay bathhouses where the dreadful disease incubated back in the 70’s whereby preventing it from infecting mainstream gays but ‘right-to-privacy’ and protecting behavior at all costs was more important than ending the spread of AIDS.
March 4th, 2006 at 9:51 am
Right and since they didn’t even know what it was this would be evident because? They should seen the error of their ways?
July 12th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
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July 23rd, 2006 at 2:24 pm
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