So, Mr. Bush is departed from the White House.Of all the things he did, what will you most remember him for? I'll delete nasty posts when I get the chance (so will Elmer's Brother, who has access to my blog workings), so fire away if you must, but know that I invite you to a reasoned, intelligent criticism or appreciation of this man today. We want discussion here, not insult and belittlement. He oversaw an amazingly civil and dignified transfer of power in every way, even the personal. What are your thoughts? I didn't always agree with him, that's for sure, but I thought it might be nice to get your opinions.
I wish him, Laura, and their daughters all the best. He kept us safe, he stood by his guns. He was terribly maligned and deserves a nice long rest.
God bless Mr. Bush, and God bless America.
z
95 comments:
I believe he held firm to his convictions in taking down Saddam. I appreciated his faith in the American people after 9/11, and his determination to never cower in fear to the terrorists.
One of my main frustrations was this: How could he be so tough in the war on terror, i.e. wiretapping, etc( which I'm fine with and I support), yet be so lax on illegal immigrant / border control? The way I see it, they boil down to the same issues: homeland security.
Well, damn. Pinky stole my fire, so I'll just say, "Yeah, what she said!"
Well, Greywolfe, Pinky sure DID get it right!
I think there are a lot of reasons we don't understand about why Bush was SO lax on illegal immigration.
A theory I've heard for a few years is that the CIA warned our gov't that Mexico's about to 'blow' with disgruntled citizens, etc., and that we'd better take in people now or they'd suddenly overcome us with hundreds of thousands.
Well, the irony is we've got 12 million now and the news is MX might blow any day NOW!! Man, the irony,...IF that's true at all.
I just want my country back. And, I see little hope of that any time soon.
On the positive side, I will remember him for his enormous grace under pressure when the Libs constantly attacked him; for standing firm on his beliefs and never wavering, even when his poll numbers were down; for keeping America safe from harm; for staring evil down and spitting in its eye.
On the not-so-positive side, I'll remember him for being wishy washy on the illegal immigration issue; for being a poor communicator o lot of the time.
I would add President Bush took every method legally available to protect and defend America and the American people, and he fought to maintain those methods in the face of constant challenges to his Constitutional authority to do so.
He kept us safe at the expense of political expedience, and his own popularity. He understood we are at war, and acted accordingly.
Today, President Obama weakened that defense with the executive orders he announced. He sent a signal to the world, and the enemy, he would cave to the politically correct voices of compromise, and in so doing he compromised our safety as well.
Given these events I think we can see the glaring difference between the higher calling to protect and defend the country at all costs on the one hand, and political capitulation on the other.
For this reason alone, I so appreciate and honor President Bush who in many ways sacrificed himself for our country, and was a true soldier. I can see already, he will be missed more than anyone realized a short time ago.
Today, we are less safe than we were merely five days ago.
God bless you President Bush, in this, you answered the call and did it out of a sense of duty and love of country.
Pris
I think Bush has been excellent on life issues, including the appointment of SCOTUS justices who practice judicial restraint. From what we can tell now, even Reagan would be jealous of Bush's record on judges. And getting labeled an enemy of science for forbidding federal funding of embryonic stem cell harvesting--I think you'd be hard pressed to find a candidate from either party willing to take that stand.
-Tio Bowser
I appreciated the way he ignored Chavez which infuriated His Highness Hugo!
I always was glad to see his photo as I walked into the Embassy. It made me feel like I was home to see him there. Having just returned form the US Embassy...I see Obama and Biden on the wall and it makes me feel insecure.
Bush was a nice, faithful and trusting guy. It was both his great strength AND failing, since the opposition exploited this fact and did NOTHING in "good faith".
This unto itself would have been fine had the Vice President not completely abrogated his political responsibilities as Administration attack dog. The Party suffered grievous damage as a result of Cheney's foreign policy focus, and so the party spent eight years playing "defense" on the domestic front instead of attacking its' enemies and holding them politically in check.
I was pleased when he announced those large ocean preserves in the Pacific just a short time ago. There had to be one good act in this administration.
Yes Jungle Mom let's thank him for trying to stage a coup in Venezuela, failing and making a bad situation worse. A talent he had in spades.
Let's thank him for the Terri Schiavo case. Having the head of the Senate get up and pretend to make a complicated neurological diagnosis from a two minute videotape.
Or let's thank him for Monica Goodling and the wholesale politicizing of the U.S. Attorney's office. Just one of his many moves to circumvent checks and balances while his supports continually mumbled about the Constitution he was subverting.
Making the term "weapons of mass destruction" a common place. Not that many know what they are. But we became a nation of biochemists in a few months as well as a nation of Islamic scholars in an equally short time.
"No Child Left Behind" now there's a winner.
Alberto Gonzales
Complete failure of the Afghan campaign and moving near civil war into Pakistan. A country with nukes.
Let's not forget the economy. Yessir, the "free market" never fails and when it does spectacularly the right hasn't the honesty to admit it.
Increased censorship and eavesdropping on citizens and the press without warrant by the NSA. bin Laden's still free, are you?
Decline in home ownership and real wages.
Rising teen pregnancy and "Abstinence only"
The global gag rule
Executive Order 13233
Enron ....
I'll have to stop but it sure was a wonderful eight years.
Except for one these are excellent posts and Pris I cannot really add anything to top yours. MSNBC is reporting today that Obama has effectively ended the 'war on terror'!
He has nullified every legal verdict and opinion handed down on the war on terror all the way back to 9-11. Furthermore, all our secret prisons and interrogation centers have been closed effectively immediately including Gitmo, albeit is given a year... and as many are screaming, there is NO plan in place to deal with the Gitmo.
Abortion!... you want abortion no questions asked? You got it! All funding for family planning services in other countries which required abstinence to be emphasised have alreadly been axed by this guy and he has promised to sign the soon to arrive Freedom of Choice Act which you can be sure our present Congress will pass! Late term abortion will become the new fad.
The little guy or gal wanted nothing more than a chance to love and be loved but the President of the United States has proudly decreed its brains will be sucked out of its skull or it will scald to death by saline injection! God help us now!
These are some of the reasons I miss George Bush already... unlike most, I had no problem with his folksy style of talking... look what you got now! Not even one week into his reign and its nothing but bowing to the terrorists and advancing abortion rights to its ultimate expression!
All but Ducky will be moved by this incredibly ironic... advertisement sponsored by www.catholicVote.org
Its a 41 second youtube.com video that says it all regarding Obama and his infanticide loving congress! Please give it a view.
thanks, Rick
I mean this irony at its cruelist!
Thanks for the input, everyone....sadly, we are FAR less safe than we were before now. I would have thought that's the biggest difference between Bush and Obama.
When people misunderstand EVERY point, and mischaracterize to suit their agenda like Ducky did here, we have to realize why Obama won. People just do not know the facts.
Even Sharpton said he had to agree with Bush on NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND.
Pinning ENRON on Bush is as silly as pinning ENRON on Ken Lay. (read, Ducky)
Rick, I wonder how long it'll take our media to realize that the "errrrsss..and uuuuhhhhhssss..." of Obama off script are as inarticulate as Bush ever was and, I have to admit, I had got to the point it was hard for me to listen to Mr. Bush.
It's probably one of the biggest things I WON'T miss.
No sir, z, the administrations rush to deregulation had NOTHING to do with Enron. Come on buy a vowel, get a clue, something.
I will miss President Bush. He wasn't perfect, but he kept the country safe.
I think he caved in to the liberals on immigration and some spending issues because they threatened to cut off the war funding, hence he made some Faustian deals.
Still, I never once thought that President Bush didn't love the same America that I love.
I don't get that vibe from BO.
Liberal paranoia knows no bounds...
Yes Jungle Mom let's thank him for trying to stage a coup in Venezuela, failing and making a bad situation worse.
Nice fantasy. Now try and separate fantasies from realities, mr. ducky. The USA had ZERO to do with the so-called coup.
If you've evidence to the contrary, kindly produce it or forever put a clamp on that noxious bill of yours and keep your delusional fantasies to yourself.
Cube, he doesn't love America! How COULD he? He's just in the midst of making us less safe, he's so eager to show we've been wrong, after all Bush did (agreeing to his request for a presidential luncheon, allowing the Obamas into the WH before other presidential families were able to, months of transition assistance, etc.) he couldn't bring himself to show the country respect for the office by watching Bush's last speech to the country and barely acknowledged him in the inauguration speech!
They wanted HIM OUT.
Plus, how do you have an American president who's singled out the Conservative press for disdain, even pointing out journalists' names!? This represents US?!
Complete failure of the Afghan campaign and moving near civil war into Pakistan. A country with nukes.
A strategy adopted and now ESCALATED by his successor... so who's the REAL boob, duckmeister?
Well Farmer, I'm glad to see you agree that Obama is about to screw the pooch on this one.
See you in the streets?
When he said "Islam is a religion of peace." I threw a book at our television when he said this. I was mortally STUNNED.
I am happy Bush is gone. His legacy was depressing. He was Chamberlain on acid. He was an apologist, and in my opinion, heralded in a very weak presidency.
He just wasn't tough enough. His ROE for the armed forces sucked. One of our sorriest presidents ever. No wonder the left denigrated him so. I was very ashamed. Conservatism should bow its head in shame. This guy was a real ass clown.
See you in the streets?
Never in wartime you won't, duckmeister. Let LBJ be LBJ, I always say.
this nation will miss "leadership" very quickly!
Without even getting into the actual accuracy of the latest bit of wingnut porn about how 61 released Gitmo detainees supposedly returned to take up arms against the US, can anyone explain how this is supposed to represent a failure of Obama's policies? He didn't let them go. Liberal bloggers didn't let them go. The ACLU didn't let them go.
And if George Bush has "kept us safe," what exactly is it that these terrorists have done?
So releasing another 60 MUST be just peachy, eh, ducky?
Z, what's up with the Kenya connection piece? You fooled me again. :)
The little guy or gal wanted nothing more than a chance to love and be loved but the President of the United States has proudly decreed its brains will be sucked out of its skull or it will scald to death by saline injection! God help us now!
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Give it a rest Rick. What would you have a women do who is carrying a fetus with severe hydrocephalus? Carry the child to term even if it means a risk to her and the child will be so severely brain damaged it won't even be self aware?
Sorry, a woman and her doctor should be allowed to make that decision.
Or how about a brain stem fetus or one with the brain developed outside the skull.
It's all well and good to spout the "little guy or little gal" stuff but it ain't that simple.
So now there is drug injection to kill the fetus before the procedure. Doesn't seem like anything is resolved and it doesn't sound as if women are letting you make choices for them that belong exactly to them.
lets see what the BDS ers have to say now that Hussein has the reins!!
what about the other 99.6% of abortions that are not done for the health of the mother or for rape or incest Duhkkky?
in other words duhkkky the cases you mentioned barely make statistical anamolies when it comes the number of abortions performed. The left always brings up those cases knowing full well that the number is such a small fraction of abortions performed that if thought about logically constitutes throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Ducky MIGHT have a point besides the one (or two?) on his cranium if there were any legal guidelines specifying that the unborn child must have hydrocephaly or other severe abnormality to qualify for death by brain dissolution or saline scalding.
True, women are holding on to their right to murder their unborn children, although when the spell of the pro-choice propaganda is lifted and they realize murder is exactly what abortion is, they are not so happy about it.
Elmo, I'm talking about the so called "partial birth" abortions.
You know, the instances when you right wingers think a women walks into a doctor's office seventh months pregnant, slaps her forehead and says "Doh, I knew there was something I forgot to do."
Don't box outside your weight.
Thank you Elmo.... did any of you check out catholicVote.org's 40 second video. Ducky, did you?
Is it not ironic in the cruelest sense that someone who fits the so-called perfect excuse for an abortion ends up becoming President of the United States? Michael Phelps (8 Olympic Gold medals, 7 World Records) mother could have used the same excuse. When will realize we are not God?
I really liked George W and voted for him twice, but I was absolutely dumbfounded as to why he would tout our friendship with Israel and then sell $20 billion of advanced weaponry to nations that are avowed enemies of Israel, (and us if they had the chance!). I wrote letters to the White House and all our congressional reps/senators over that one.
I saw him as a man of integrity for the most part who restored honor to the office. I also loved Laura Bush - she had tons of grace.
Nice to see ducky over here stirring everyone up with his irrelevant crap.
I love that George Bush made (and still makes) the duckling molt. It's just fun to watch and laugh at!!! Thank you, George!
Ducky,
You really don't know what went down over here do you? Must be nice to remain in ignorant bliss. The only one who says the US was involved is the mad man Chavez, the people know it wasn't so. We were there, but don't believe us. I am sure your propaganda is much more reliable than eye witnesses.
I find it rather comical that Chavez has already declared Obama to be the new enemy.
It seems as though Chavez, in customary fashion, is intent on upping the verbal confrontation, this time with the Obama.
"There is still time" for Obama to correct his views, the Venezuelan leader said, but he added: "No one should say that I threw the first stone at Obama. He threw it at me."
The Venezuelan leader said that Obama is following orders from dark forces inside "the empire," as he refers to the United States. "If he doesn't obey the orders of the empire, they'll kill him," Chávez said, without offering details or proof.
Does that make Obama 'Darth Vadar'?????
Ducky, you said "You know, the instances when you right wingers think a women walks into a doctor's office seventh months pregnant, slaps her forehead and says "Doh, I knew there was something I forgot to do.Don't box outside your weight."
"box outside your weight?" Ducky, you bring up severe hydrocephalus as if that were the norm for every abortion and you say ELBRO is boxing outside HIS WEIGHT? !!!
Hilarious!!
And then you suggest those 61 terrorists didn't fight and kill our troops,,...HOW? YOu know better than the pentagon? I want to know where you're getting your incredible information! WOW!!(LOL!)
Yehudi, I think Laura Bush was one of, if not THE, BEST First Ladies America ever got lucky enough to have. Talk about class and grace under fire. How she didn't kick some teeth in over the treatment her husband got the last few years is amazing to me. I'm hoping she finally writes that book she's said she'll write and tell how it felt, how they've destroyed respect for the office..etc.
Even OBAMA, the dope in there now, went to DINNER at the time his president was speaking to the American people for the last time!
It's unbelievable.
He has ZERO respect for the office HE holds now...it's awful.
Ducky,
I'm going to try to stay calm here.
Like ElBro said, you talk about birth defects being the main excuse for abortions. Come on.
I'll ask you a rhetorical question:
Have you ever attended an infant loss support group?
Those mothers and fathers (yes, even single mothers) lost their children to hydrocephalus, spina bifida, Down's Syndrome, Turner's Syndrome, Trisomy 13, and a host of other genetic malformations that are "incompatible with life". I've met hundreds of moms who DID carry their babies to term, knowing of their malformations. Yes, the babies died soon after birth, but they gave their babies the dignity of birth, and life. I've never once met a woman who nearly died giving birth to her special baby (knowing ahead of time of the malformation).
This decision is not for everyone. But please, please do NOT belittle the lives of these children. They are fully human. Their lives serve a purpose. In fact, sometimes they accomplish more in their small time (hours??) on earth than some adults who live long, long lives.
I'll stop there.
Don't box outside your weight.
Duhkkky,
for the class please explain the difference between Pan Arabism vs Pan Islamism.
Go.
Bush will go down in history as a great president and human being. He never got down in the gutter with the rest of them, he let it run off his back, and stayed faithful to his beliefs and convictions. I wish him and his family well. I pass throuigh Crawford every so often, but never get close enough to the ranch when he's there. Maybe now Ill have a better chance to meet him one day.
You know, the instances when you right wingers think a women walks into a doctor's office seventh months pregnant, slaps her forehead and says "Doh, I knew there was something I forgot to do."
The fact duhkkky that most abortions are for the convenience of the mother makes this statement much more true than you're willing to admit.
Planned Parenthood and Margaret Sanger are responsible for 13 million black babies being aborted since Roe v. Wade. If that doesn't bother you that a whole generation of African Americans have been murdered as a result of Sangers racist views should bother you. I'm quite surprised that someone this doesn't both someone like yourself (considering you're a Catholic)
Whether it's partial abortion or not makes little difference, the vast majority of abortions are done not for the reasons you listed.
Btw duhkkky when I had a vasectomy there were plenty of rules and laws concerning that.
I had to be at least 32, have a minimum of 2 children, I had to wait at least one month from the initial appointment and I needed my wife's permission.
and to think I wasn't murdering a little child in the process.
So you're 'a woman can do what she wants with her body' hardly holds up when you can't even sell your kidney if you wanted.
and no...I don't expect you to carry on this conversation either.
Grandma J....thanks for coming by! And Yes, I SURE DO HOPE you can meet the Bushes. I am really wishing them some fun and LESS WORRY~!
You got the impression Mr. Bush was weighed down every day by the horrible news in his intel, you get the impression the same horrible news is what propels obama to go down and say HI to the press corps in his first few days.
Better to butter them up and control what they say you're doing than actually DO something, I guess!?
Elbro..SO well said. But, Ducky's GONE.
But, Ducky's GONE.
surprise.
If that doesn't bother you that a whole generation of African Americans have been murdered as a result of Sangers racist views should bother you. I'm quite surprised that someone this doesn't both someone like yourself (considering you're a Catholic)
I was half asleep when I wrote this. Let me try again.
If that doesn't bother you that a whole generation of African Americans have been murdered as a result of Sangers racist views then you're really hopeless. I'm quite surprised that someone like Sanger and Planned Parenthood doesn't bother someone like yourself (considering you're a Catholic)
Elbro, the left has never wanted it known that their leftist sister, Sanger, WAS a racist and that abortion was aimed at our Black Americans. It makes me weepy just writing that. But it's TRUE and I'm glad you have the courage to inform.
Racism has always been the political tool of the left. Just ask Robert Byrd and the KKK.
So Ducky turns out to be just another empty suit...a poser, pretending to be provocative.
I guess your keeping things short, led me to believe that you actually had something of substance behind your liberal convictions...at least for awhile.
Apparently not.
Let’s count the erroneous statements eh?
(1) “let's thank him for trying to stage a coup in Venezuela, failing and making a bad situation worse. “
There was NO coup attempt, backed by the U.S., against Hugo Chavez. The April 11th, 2002 PROTEST - it wasn’t a coup attempt but a protest - against Chavez.
Chavez had Venezuelan Army snipers shoot and kill some of the demonstrators. April 11, 2002 – coup?...NO. Protest? ...YES.
(2) “Let's thank him for the Terri Schiavo case.”
The Terri Schiavo case was an abomination for “right to die” supporters, of which, I’m one!
That case resulted in subsequent laws that now bar “estranged relatives” (and philandering husbands who’ve moved on and set up house with a paramour ARE INDEED “estranged”) from involving themselves in the affairs of former family members. N fact, Michael Schiavo, the estranged husband (and bigamist) of Terri Schindler, who’d moved on with another woman, had numerous reasons (other than her own best interests) to want Terri Schindler dead. Mike Schiavo’s actions actually set back the “right to die” movement a generation or more. There are, today, fewer supporters of the right to die in America than there were before that case. Thanks Mike!
(3) “let's thank him for Monica Goodling and the wholesale politicizing of the U.S. Attorney's office.”
ALL U.S. Attorney’s serve at the pleasure of the President, as they are under the control of the Executive Branch.
(4) "No Child Left Behind" now there's a winner.”
The NCLB Act was a b-partisan fiasco that Bush signed onto. There’s no reason that American education can’t be REFOCUSED on standardized test taking WITHOUT additional costs.
(5) “Complete failure of the Afghan campaign and moving near civil war into Pakistan. A country with nukes.”
The Afghan campaign has been fought effectively by a global coalition in the most rugged terrain and under the worst possible conditions.
Ironically enough, Barack Obama has promised to ratchet UP the Afghan war and has even approved some strikes into Pakistan, yes, "moving that country closer to civil war;" “Strikes in Pakistan Underscore Obama’s Options”
New York Times
By Richard A. Oppel Jr.
January 24, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/24/world/asia/24pstan.html?_r=1&hp
(6) “Rising teen pregnancy and "Abstinence only"
Not even close. Teen pregnancy went down in the 1990s when the Gingrich Congress pushed abstinence only programs. They’ve continued to go down since, UNTIL, in 2006 the teenage birth rate rose for the first time in fourteen years. The teen birth rate IS NOT the same as the teen pregnancy rate, of course, and the rise in the teen birth rate could very well be due to other sources, such as a possible decrease in the number of abortions or a decrease in the number of miscarriages, to name a few.
(7) “Enron ....”
Another idiotic statement. Enron, Worldcom, Global Crossings, Tyco, the Arthur Anderson scandal, etc. ALL flourished in the late 1990s and broke in the summer of 2001. They were prosecuted and brought to justice by the Bush Justice Department. Bush himself fought for the Sarbannes-Oxley legislation that (1) kept such scandals, which sprang form from various legal conflicts of interest, from ever happening again and (2) saddled business with one of the costliest pieces of financial regulation ever.
One area we probably agree on is that we apparently BOTH support the repeal, or at least partial repeal of Sarb-Ox. (Joking of course, while I DO, I know that NO libs support anything that is business-friendly)
(8) “Increased censorship and eavesdropping on citizens and the press without warrant by the NSA. bin Laden's still free, are you?”
Stultifyingly dumb.
The Congress recently re-authorized the NSA surveillance program WITH the telecom immunities attached (that cooperation SHOULD come with implied immunity) and passed it, I believe, by an overwhelming margin. That makes it officially and really, really LEGAL
I KNOW that Barack Obama voted in favor of the NSA program AND the telecom immunity along with it.
In fact, funny story (maybe not so funny for you), “The Obama administration fell in line with the Bush administration Thursday when it urged a federal judge to set aside a ruling in a closely watched spy case weighing whether a U.S. president may bypass Congress and establish a program of eavesdropping on Americans without warrants.” FROM: “Obama Sides With Bush in Spy Case” FROM:
Wired Magazine
By David Kravets
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/01/obama-sides-wit.html
(9) “Let's not forget the economy. Yessir, the "free market" never fails and when it does spectacularly the right hasn't the honesty to admit it.”
What an ignoramus!
FIRST the USA has NOT had a “free market" economy since 1912! That’s a FACT. Look it up under Bernard Baruch and J P Morgan, as they’re the ones who moved the country to its current REGULATED market-based economy...the VERY SAME economy that EVERY Western nation, as well as Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan have.
The reason that THAT is the economy of choice in ALL those places is that socialism NEVER WORKS, CANNOT WORK and WILL NEVER WORK...the closest it came to working was under Benito Mussolini in Italy.
Why are Liberal Americans so DUMB?! And why are so many of the dumbest seemingly huddled together in the northeast???
The subprime mortgage mess was caused by two events (1) the re-tooled or turbo-charged CRA that forced banks to make more subprime loans available to low income people (Andy Cuomo called it “Affirmative Action in lending”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivmL-lXNy64) and (2) once the banks were assured that these loans would be guaranteed by the GSEs (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) the banks couldn’t write bad loans fast enough!
That second one was no different than Congress legally requiring shop owners to sell their goods at a lower cost than they were bought for and then guaranteeing the shop owners an even bigger profit on everything they sell below cost!
That’s not mere “over-regulation” that was simply STUPID regulation.
This is so tedious. At any rate, there are two poles at either end of the REGULATED market-based economy. The Supply Side school is the one that advocates a more market-oriented, less regulated economy, while the Keynesian school is that which advocates a more regulated, higher taxes economy with a larger and more generous welfare system.
France, Sweden and Germany are all moving away from their Keynesian economies. America HAD a Keynesian economy from 1964 thru 1980 and it imploded badly under Carter, perhaps the second most ineffective U.S. President after James Buchanan. Remember STAGFLATION? Double digit unemployment, inflation and interest rates? That’s what we had under Carter – the WORST U.S. economy since the Great Depression.
George Bush Sr. (Bush-41) was a Keynesian, just as Nixon (“We are ALL Keynesians now”) was, deriding the Ronald Reagan/Milton Friedman economic plan as “Voodoo Economics.” In FACT, the Misery Index (the inflation rate and the unemployment rate combined) topped out at a record high of 21.9 in 1980 under Carter, improved EVERY YEAR under Reagan’s Supply Side policies!
Ironically enough, Bush-41 was only the second post-WW II U.S. President to preside over double digit Misery Indexes over their entire tenure. Of course his MI (10.2/yearly average) was dwarfed by Carter’s cataclysmic failure (16.4/yearly average).
Clinton returned to Supply Side policies, passing NAFTA in January of 1994 and then after 1995 cooperating more fully with the Supply Side Gingrich Congress than he ever did with the Keynesian Foley Congress.
Bush-43 did just TWO Supply Side things – the across-the-board income tax rate cuts that INCREASED tax revenues every year since and the 5% reduction in the Capital Gains rate, down to 15%, which INCREASED Capital gains revenues ever since. In FACT, those two Supply Side tax cuts increased revenues to such an extent that they masked a LOT of subsequent Keynesian overspending (like the NCLB Act, the prescription drug boondoggle and spending more, adjusted for inflation, than even LBJ did, on social spending), and in fact had halved the deficit by 2006.
So, both our recent history and Western Europe’s shows that Supply Side policies work best and Keynesian ones don’t work well at all.
Again, why are so many Liberals so damned dumb?!
The Terri Schiavo case was an abomination for “right to die” supporters, of which, I’m one!
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Bore me later.
Terri Schiavo's husband according to long established case law was the one to make decisions about his wife's final request.
Now, the right wing got hold of this one and showing their traditional disrespect for any judicial ruling that doesn't go their way decided to turn a woman's death into a media circus.
However, rule of law prevailed and when Schiavo's cranial cavity was cracked it was found to be filled with spinal fluid as medical science said it would be.
She was dead except for her autonomic functions.
However, we will always remember the right wings great moment in this sorry case when Bill Frist (R - Cat killer) stood up and made a complicated neurological diagnosis from three minutes of a years old videotape.
There was NO coup attempt, backed by the U.S., against Hugo Chavez. The April 11th, 2002 PROTEST - it wasn’t a coup attempt but a protest - against Chavez.
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Yeah, that's why Poppy Bush just happened to be in Venezuela 3 times on "sports fishing" vacations just before the coup.
You screwed up in the tradition of Ronnie Raygun in Lebanon. The right shouldn't be allowed near military forces.
France, Sweden and Germany are all moving away from their Keynesian economies. America HAD a Keynesian economy from 1964 thru 1980 and it imploded badly under Carter, perhaps the second most ineffective U.S. President after James Buchanan. Remember STAGFLATION? Double digit unemployment, inflation and interest rates? That’s what we had under Carter – the WORST U.S. economy since the Great Depression.
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Actually we have the worst economy since the depression right now.
Yeah, Carter let inflation go far to long and if he had brought Volker in sooner the recession to squeeze out the bad money wouldn't have been as severe.
The subprime mortgage mess was caused by two events (1) the re-tooled or turbo-charged CRA that forced banks to make more subprime loans available to low income people (Andy Cuomo called it “Affirmative Action in lending”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivmL-lXNy64) and (2) once the banks were assured that these loans would be guaranteed by the GSEs (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) the banks couldn’t write bad loans fast enough!
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Your full of crap.
Are you that dense that you believe CRA mortgage defaults were the cause of wiping out the entire American investment banking activity and many of its conventional banks with it?
For the last time, Fannie failed because it was a public company that had to go out and compete for market share with "well run" unregulated entities like Countrywide.
The crisis occurred because the bubble burst (as anyone but a Randian fool would have realized it would) and housing prices declined. The derivatives tanked and the mark to market assets that had been overpriced by the corrupt ratings agencies to begin with now had to be carried at something near a realistic value.
Yeah, the world financial system went down the toilet because we loaned money to minorities. Catch a clue.
France, Sweden and Germany are all moving away from their Keynesian economies.
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Yeah, so what? Does the fact that economic policy changes over time and conditions mean that ideas are invalid?
Or are you going to argue that you have found the "perfect" economic system?
I'd like to hear it (since you have nothing of the sort) and maybe the best place to start would be what conditions would cause you to consider your system to be in complete Pareto equilibrium or whatever you consider perfection.
(3) “let's thank him for Monica Goodling and the wholesale politicizing of the U.S. Attorney's office.”
ALL U.S. Attorney’s serve at the pleasure of the President, as they are under the control of the Executive Branch.
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Yeah, thanks for that useless aphorism.
Fact is that attorneys were being fired because they would not pursue politically motivated prosecution and that is NOT normal and the firings may have been illegal.
Thanks for the insight into the kind of rule of law you prefer.
Bush-43 did just TWO Supply Side things – the across-the-board income tax rate cuts that INCREASED tax revenues every year since and the 5% reduction in the Capital Gains rate
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So what? Is a scalar increase in tax revenues a sufficient indicator of economic health or is it a measure of capital gains inflow due to the damaging artificial inflation of prices in a bubble economy?
And boy that NAFTA really worked swell didn't it? Combined with St. Ronnie Raygun's amnesty for illegal aliens you sowed the seeds for your own worst nightmare, Spanish speakers in you neighborhood. Nice work.
In short folks remember Bush wasn't just a Republican president, he was THE Republican president.
Bush was the guy who took everything on the GOP platform seriously. He went to bat for every idea that ever got the official elephant nuts seal of approval.
The record that resulted isn't just a measure of Bush's incompetence, it's a measure of just how bad Republican ideas are in practice.
Get a clue Ducky. Bush was the least "Republican" Republican President in decades. He abandon fiscal responsibility which is the first tenet of being a conservative. He was soft on immigration. He wavered in our support of Israel. He sought UN approval. He did not veto pork barrel projects and allowed government to grow. The country at large is still conservative. George broke faith with conservatives he did not advance the causes of conservatives.
He wavered in our support of Israel.
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Huh? Now myself, I think that's good but I'm curious what you think he did that hurt the world's biggest welfare queens.
He attempted to get them to give away THEIR land. By the way, you wouldn't even have a cell phone or voice mail were it not for Israel. And that area of the world wouldn't have electricity or clean water without them either. Of course you want the religion of the pedophile to rule the world so none of this makes a bit of difference to you.
Ducky, stop with the belittling insults...I've asked you before.
You're very supercilious and smug and it doesn't fly here...nobody EVER treats you with this much disdain and I won't have it. Just argue, like they do, stop the cracks, it's ugly and prohibits any real exchange.
You will be 'censored' as you screeched to my readers a few weeks ago if you keep it up.
By the way, Clinton fired ALL the attorneys when he came into office. Bush didn't....he tried for REAL unity, the dope. He didn't whine about every W taken off the computer keyboards, either. If only Bush had been a nasty Democrat with nothing but malice and revenge in his heart, too...maybe he'd have got more of his issues passed successfully.
He is NOT the REAL REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT. He sure did NOT represent me or most of the conservative bloggers, as Papa Frank says, too.
Excuse me ,z, but you threw down the gloves and asked why I hadn't responded to (the now invisible JMK and then you complain I get a little rough in the corners?
Excuse me, Ducky. Responses don't have to include the nasty, belittling tone of your comments lately.
you WON, get over it. The country will be ruined in short enough time, then you can get really bitter in your disappointment that your utopia didn't work after all.
...the now invisible JMK....
Duhkkky please you rarely stick around for more than a hit and run and this is the most I've ever seen you comment on any given post
get over yourself will you
Oh and z. When the supply siders make their trickle down arguments I notice they fail to discuss the fact that tax reductions will also change wage structures.
Now we have been seeing a downward pressure on wages for quite a few years which accelerated during the Bush tax cut years so I wonder if either Elmer or JMK would like to get a little deeper into the supply side swamp.
“Terri Schiavo's husband according to long established case law was the one to make decisions about his wife's final request. (Lame Duck)
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An estranged, now living with another woman (common-law Marriage) is NOT the actual husband. Though laws vary state to state, in most locales, a former spouse (still legally Married) though living with another has no acknowledged Marital rights.
In fact, we no doubt agree that an estranged spouse who has moved on to live with another person, though still legally Married (bigamy) is really morally (though not legally) obligated to refuse, for instance, a life insurance settlement from that estranged spouse, to which they are no longer linked.
The Florida courts made a serious misjudgment in allowing an estranged husband, currently involved in a bigamist relationship (living common-law with another woman, while still Married) a “guardian” over the estranged spouse, whose best interests and his were clearly at odds.
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“Yeah, that's why Poppy Bush just happened to be in Venezuela 3 times on "sports fishing" vacations just before the coup. (Lame Duck)
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AGAIN, there is no evidence, not a single thing that backs up that batshit crazy conspiracy theory.
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“Actually we have the worst economy since the depression right now.
“Yeah, Carter let inflation go far to long and if he had brought Volker in sooner the recession to squeeze out the bad money wouldn't have been as severe.” (Lame Duck)
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This is why I detest discussing things with terminally stupid people. And that’s NOT a “gratuitous insult.” An ignorant person can process information when given to them, stupid people are unable to process new information that runs counter to their own preconceived orthodoxy.
In FACT, the current economy (7.2% unemployment rate for 2008, 7.5% right now, a 2.4% annual inflation rate for 2008 and low interest rates – a 3.25% Prime Rate) and a Misery Index (the inflation and unemployment rates combined) for 2008 (G W’s last year in office) of 9.61 is palpably better than the one Jimmy Carter presided over, DOUBLE DIGIT unemployment, inflation and interest rates! A four year average annual Misery Index (MI) of 16.2 (the average annual (MI) for W’s 8 years is 8.1...exactly HALF) and in Carter’s last year, he presided over the HIGHEST annual MI post-WW II (since records were kept) with an astounding 21.9 MI!
There’s no comparison between the Carter years and the G W Bush years...according to the economic indicators, the Carter years were pretty much TWICE as miserable for average Americans.
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“Are you that dense that you believe CRA mortgage defaults were the cause of wiping out the entire American investment banking activity and many of its conventional banks with it? (Lame Duck)
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No one mentioned the CRA of 1979. GREAT LAW, in fact.
The turbo-charged CRA that MANDATED banks and mortgage brokers to make more subprime loans available to low income people (81% of those subprime loans went to whites...I LOVE how Leftist racial bigots, like yourself equate low income to “black”...you’re a sniveling scumbag. My wife’s Jamaican and if you’d said that in front of me, I’d punch your god-damned teeth down your throat).
The GSEs DID NOT suffer from “not being able to deal with the competition from private lenders. If THAT were true, then the GSEs had no reason to exist!
No, the GSEs failed because they were used to back up (guarantee, often buying back), the subprime loans made by private banks and mortgage brokers.
The global credit crisis was subsequently caused by those “Government-backed mortgage instruments” exploding, when the DEFAULT rates began to escalate along with the escalating mortgage rates on those loans.
So YEAH, the subprime loans (lending to people who couldn’t pay those loans back) is what triggered the current global credit crisis and that “credit socialism” was championed by Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and a LOT of “Jack Kemp” Republicans who saw “the ownership society” as a way to transform the electorate – “A nation of homeowners is generally a more Conservative nation,” according to Kemp.
I don’t blame the “ownership Republicans” as much as I do the nefarious “Credit socialists.”
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“Yeah, the world financial system went down the toilet because we loaned money to minorities. Catch a clue.” (Lame Duck)
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Typical Left-wing bigot. Southie, right? I see where you’re coming from...I just don’t like it.
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“Does the fact that economic policy changes over time and conditions mean that ideas are invalid?”
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What France, Germany and Sweden’s move toward more Supply Side policies proves is that Keynesianism DOESN’T work!
The same thing was proved here after the ill-fated Keynesian era from 1964 thru 1980!
In FACT, during the prime Supply Side years, when the Gingrich Congress controlled the government’s purse strings and CUT the federal budget for the first time in over 100 years, that period delivered some of the lowest Misery Indexes since WW II;
1995: 8.40
1996: 8.34
1997: 7.28
1998: 6.05 * (LOWEST Misery Index since 1956)
1999: 6.41
2000: 7.35
2001: 7.59
SEVEN YEAR Supply-Side AVERAGE ANNUAL Misery Index = 7.34
Meanwhile, the prime Keynesian years delivered the record worst Misery Indexes since WW II;
1974: 16.67
1975: 17.68
1976: 13.45
1977: 13.55
1978: 13.69
1979: 17.07
1980: 20.76
SEVEN YEAR Keynesian AVERAGE ANNUAL Misery Index = 16.12
There’s simply no way to logically argue in favor of Keynesian policies, or AGAINST Supply Side policies.
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“Fact is that attorneys were being fired because they would not pursue politically motivated prosecution and that is NOT normal and the firings may have been illegal.
“Thanks for the insight into the kind of rule of law you prefer.” (Lame Duck)
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That inane charge was brought to court and found lacking in evidence.
The charge IS bogus.
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So what? Is a scalar increase in tax revenues a sufficient indicator of economic health or is it a measure of capital gains inflow due to the damaging artificial inflation of prices in a bubble economy? (Lame Duck)
Tax RATE CUTS tend to INCREASE REVENUES, that alone PROVES that tax hikes are bad for the economy, while tax rate cuts, down to about the 20% level on income taxes, are GOOD.
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“And boy that NAFTA really worked swell didn't it?” (Lame Duck)
Look up WHEN NAFTA was passed moron.
I believe it was January 1994 – by a Democratic Congress AND a Democrat President (Bill Clinton).
What a marone!
The fact is that the world economy is changing, whether we like it or not and American companies must be able to compete on the world stage, which means we must understand that our competitive advantage is not in low-end manufacturing. It’s in "knowledge work" - producing goods and services which require a high degree of skill and training.
Some estimate that since 1992, nearly 20 million new jobs have been created in the U.S., in part due to the 1994 NAFTA agreement. Total trade between the NAFTA partners -- the U.S., Canada and Mexico -- rose from $293 billion in 1993 to more than $475 billion in 1997, and has increased since. That spells sales and profits for U.S. companies and high paying jobs for American workers.
THAT’S the legacy of NAFTA.
It’s one of the great Supply Side things that the Clinton administration championed and a Democratic-controlled Congress went along with.
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“In short folks remember Bush wasn't just a Republican president, he was THE Republican president.
“Bush was the guy who took everything on the GOP platform seriously. He went to bat for every idea that ever got the official elephant nuts seal of approval.
“The record that resulted isn't just a measure of Bush's incompetence, it's a measure of just how bad Republican ideas are in practice.” (Lame Duck)
Here’s the crowning idiocy from Lame Duck.
G W Bush was a mixed bag, very much like Clinton was. Bush-43 did two very positive things – the Capital Gains rate cut) from 20% to 15% greatly INCREASED Capital Gains revenues and his across-the-board income tax rate cuts greatly INCREASED income tax revenues...and revenues are needed during wartime. Unfortunately he’s also guilty of spending MORE (even adjusted for inflation) on reckless social spending than even LBJ did and his prescription drug boondoggle, the NCLB Act and billions for fighting AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa were all clear examples of wasteful and unnecessary social spending.
He also belatedly engaged in the global War on Terror, a war conducted actively and aggressively by global jihadists against the West in general and America and American interests in particular. Like the Obama administration and ALL my fellow Blue Dog Dems, I support the NSA Surveillance Program and the rest of the Homeland Security Measures that’ve kept America free of jihadist attack, despite hundreds of attempts over the past 2,688 days.
Although he and McCain sought to subject Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to stricter regulation and oversight in 2003 and AGAIN in 2005 (I support their eradication...they really serve no purpose), they failed to get that oversight through even the DeLay Congress, let alone the misguided and ineffective Pelosi-Reid Congress.
Like many “Moderate Republicans” who supported the status quo on illegal immigration (keep’em coming and keep’em illegal and hungry for work) because most Country Club republicans support CHEAP LABOR as being good for the overall economy.
Yeah, that pissed off Conservatives, BUT the Democrats were unable to take advantage of that, given the Liberal-wing’s inane view that “more poorer immigrants equals more Liberal democratic votes.”
Hasn’t turned out that way. Some 90% of the immigrants to America are devout Catholics, who tend to be socially Conservative, so while I can begrudgingly respect “Country Club Republicans” for supporting their own best interests, I can’t respect dumb Liberals who don’t even realize that there are no “cheap votes” to be gotten from their stand.
In fact, illegal immigration does more harm than “outsourcing” and “foreign industries running non-Union shops in the U.S.” to LOWER the wage floor for American workers.
Leave it to Liberal Democrats to pay lip-service to “America’s workers” while supporting things that hurt that constituency at every turn.
I generally try to avoid this kind of vitriol, but in your case Lame Duck, it’s not just that you’re dumb, it’s that you’re so pompously dumb.
It’s that pompous stupidity that’s so insufferable.
"The turbo-charged CRA OF 1995 that MANDATED banks and mortgage brokers to make more subprime loans available to low income people...WAS responsible for the current subprime mess.
The Florida courts made a serious misjudgment in allowing an estranged husband, currently involved in a bigamist relationship...
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Why, because they didn't jibe with your sense of morality? Tough.
The case went to court several times and Michael Schiavo prevailed.
Now, this is the spot in our program when the far right reminds us that we are a nation of laws. FTW
Look up WHEN NAFTA was passed moron.
I believe it was January 1994 – by a Democratic Congress AND a Democrat President (Bill Clinton).
What a marone!
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You assume that anyone on the left considers Clinton a liberal. He was very conservative economically and brought us wonderful people like Rubin and owe Clinton loved him some Alan Greenspan who admitted that laissez-faire tinkle down system you advocate crapped the bed.
The turbo-charged CRA that MANDATED banks and mortgage brokers to make more subprime loans available to low income people (81% of those subprime loans went to whites...
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Exactly, these are the relaxed standard loans that Alan Greenspan could have regulated (the Fed had the power and didn't).
What's a low income person? Most of these loans were given out to middle and upper class individuals.
He also belatedly engaged in the global War on Terror, a war conducted actively and aggressively by global jihadists against the West in general and America and American interests in particular.
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The War on Terror is a brand. It was a damn ad campaign designed to comfort the poor scared right wingers who thought the crack Iraqi spec-ops were going to night drop and put botulism in their Wheaties.
You have no more idea than a bag of hammers how extensive al-Qaeda is or whether it in fact represented a threat.
However we did catch a break in Iraq when the wahabists proved too extreme for the Sunnis and they preferred to have us buy them off to keep order against the extremists.
Generally the victims of Arab extremism are other Arabs but anyway, we screwed up in Iraq and we screwed up in Afghanistan because we don't seem to understand that Muslims don't like occupying forces.
FIRST the USA has NOT had a “free market" economy since 1912! That’s a FACT. Look it up under Bernard Baruch and J P Morgan, as they’re the ones who moved the country to its current REGULATED market-based economy...the VERY SAME economy that EVERY Western nation, as well as Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan have.
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Yes, that's technically true although over the last couple decades we have certainly been removing as many regulations as possible.
I don't know why the laissez-faire crowd doesn't move to the Libertarian paradise - Afghanistan, but then laissez-faire has never worked anywhere it's been tried
I support the NSA Surveillance Program and the rest of the Homeland Security Measures that’ve kept America free of jihadist attack, despite hundreds of attempts over the past 2,688 days.
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Prove it.
Now you may want to wax poetic about the great times during the Bush years but remember
Home ownership went down
Wages went down
Unemployment is likely to hit double digits and exceed anything we've seen for decades including Carter.
And don't forget debt - that's the one you like to overlook. Personal and government debt is at a very dangerous level as a percentage of GDP as is the balance of payments.
Yeah, we lived great during the Raygun, Carter, Bush years - by pulling out a credit card and now we have NO idea how bad this is going to be. Your argument would be more effective if you factored debt in to your misery index.
For the first time in history the average home owner equity has approached zero. Deep yogurt that.
Leave it to Liberal Democrats to pay lip-service to “America’s workers” while supporting things that hurt that constituency at every turn.
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So now you are laying the immigration problem on the left?
First off I though St. Ronnie Raygun fixed everything with his amnesty.
Second, why did the rate explode again under Bush II. It became much higher under the Republican. Just curious.
The GSEs DID NOT suffer from “not being able to deal with the competition from private lenders. If THAT were true, then the GSEs had no reason to exist!
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The hell they didn't. Competition was effecting executive bonuses and the stock price.
In order to keep those up the GSE's took on riskier product.
The issue here is that there was never any reason to privatize the GSE's.
Some estimate that since 1992, nearly 20 million new jobs have been created in the U.S., in part due to the 1994 NAFTA agreement.
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That's less than the number to handle people entering the work force. Yeah, the 20 million number sounds good to the suckers but in fact it sucks the gas pipe.
That spells sales and profits for U.S. companies and high paying jobs for American workers.
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Yeah, high paying jobs as Walmart greeters. Bore me later.
How much did we actually spend on AIDS relief in Africa? A few billion.
That wouldn't even cover Cheney's tips or the graft Halliburton grabbed in a month in the useless Iraq fiasco.
It wasn't a large sum and if we hadn't had the global gag rule it would have been more effective. As it is people are living. Culture of life and all that you hypocrite.
Hundreds of thousands of lives in Africa that you just toss off and then you get all crazy about Terri Schiavo when her cranial cavity is filled with spinal fluid and she's clinically brain dead.
You've got some fine priorities.
There’s no comparison between the Carter years and the G W Bush years...according to the economic indicators, the Carter years were pretty much TWICE as miserable for average Americans.
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Hey bobo, I said that Carter should have taken the action he eventually took earlier.
He was in a circumstance he didn't understand and brought in Volker later than he could have.
It's like Bush, he was in an economic situation he didn't understand and now has us in a situation that we may not know how to get out of. I'm comforted that Obama brought in Volker as an adviser but you really have to stop pushing your "misery index" as if that's the sufficient description.
Elbro, the left has never wanted it known that their leftist sister, Sanger, WAS a racist and that abortion was aimed at our Black Americans.
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Everyone and his brother knows about Sanger (well maybe not some on the right).
I do know of many outside the KKK who hold her views. Maybe you know some on the right.
And she was much more concerned with contraception which is simply not a controversial topic in very many corners these days.
Typical Left-wing bigot. Southie, right? I see where you’re coming from...I just don’t like it.
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Southie? You mean my home.
I was born in Alabam but dad had to move back to the family homestead because the locals thought he was a red.
Anyway, what the bleep do you know about Southie (I'm from Charlestown).
Again, Ducky,...Sanger was "much more concerned about contraception?"
Does that negate the FACT that she felt Black Americans would be better off aborted? Help me out here.
Is THIS what the left does?
WHAT in the WORLD?
First ACORN isn't crooked because it's involved in voter REGISTRATION fraud, not VOTER FRAUD! And now Sanger's not SO bad because she was concerned with contraception? HUH?
uh duhkkky
Margaret Sanger spoke of sterilizing those she designated as "unfit," a plan she said would be the "salvation of American civilization.: And she also spoke of those who were "irresponsible and reckless," among whom she included those " whose religious scruples prevent their exercising control over their numbers." She further contended that "there is no doubt in the minds of all thinking people that the procreation of this group should be stopped." That many Americans of African origin constituted a segment of Sanger considered "unfit" cannot be easily refuted.
While Planned Parenthood's current apologists try to place some distance between the eugenics and birth control movements, history definitively says otherwise. The eugenic theme figured prominently in the Birth Control Review, which Sanger founded in 1917. She published such articles as "Some Moral Aspects of Eugenics" (June 1920), "The Eugenic Conscience" (February 1921), "The purpose of Eugenics" (December 1924), "Birth Control and Positive Eugenics" (July 1925), "Birth Control: The True Eugenics" (August 1928), and many others.
You do realize that eugenics was the justification Hitler used to get rid of Jews?
Would you call that birth control?
"How much did we actually spend on AIDS relief in Africa? A few billion." (Lame Duck)
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$12 BILLION...beyond the monies we funnel into the UN (UNICEF and all that) to do the same thing.
That's NOT an appropriate use for U.S. government funds.
And Halliburton is a major stock owned by virtually ALL of the pension funds around the country...so why do you hate Municipal workers so much?
You'll have to take my word for the fact that I support the NSA Surveillance program.
Take it from me BOTH Barack Obama AND Rahm Emanuel support it too.
"That's less than the number to handle people entering the work force. Yeah, the 20 million number sounds good to the suckers but in fact it sucks the gas pipe." (Lame Duck)
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Americans DON'T want those crumby factory jobs, even IF we could find a way to make them pay well.
Besides, we can't afford them, when others around the world are willing to do that work cheaper.
Bill Clinton and that 1994 Democrat-controlled Congress did the RIGHT thing in passing NAFTA and helping America usher in the inevitable global economy.
"Hey bobo, I said that Carter should have taken the action he eventually took earlier." (Lame Duck)
NONSENSE!
Carter presided over the WORST economy since the Great Depression every last economic indicator shows that and the ALL important Misery Index (the index that most correlates how well the economy is treating the American people) Carter's tenure was an unmitigated disaster brought on by the same Keynesian policies that brought on the current one - massive government overspending (like Nixon and Carter, G W Bush OVERSPENT, spending even more adjusted for inflation, than LBJ on reckless social spending) nand wrong-headed regulation (like the turbo-charged CRA of 1995 that mandated more subprime loans to low income Americans).
Just a recap:
1. My opponent paints Michael Schiavo as an adulterer. Now Terri Schiavo was in a coma for about 15 years and Michael attended to her for many of those years and did finally co habit with somebody.
If that offends mu opponents moral code then all I can say is that he clearly has never been tested and he is also spinning the issue.
2. On the U.S. Attorney firings my opponent says nothing has been proven. Yes, largely because the administration has ignored Senate hearing subpoenas. John Conyer subpoenaed Rove again today. Think Carl will show respect for the Senate this time?
3. What about tax increases? Big SSI increase that hit the middle class under St. Ronnie Raygun. Alternative minimum tax under Raygun? Tax increases under Clinton didn't seem to generate much of an increase in his precious "misery index" and also decreased deficits.
4. Just what is "supply side". As most reactionaries use the term it seems to mean simply that all economic problems can be addressed by tax decreases. I say that is facile on it's face but the term isn't clear.
Food for thought
my opponent states that Bush was pretty much just sitting on his hands when the Venezuelan coup was attempted.
Now the "evidence" is slim one way or another but I think this is adequate to show we have little reason to categorically state The Dauphin was not involved
Americans DON'T want those crumby factory jobs, even IF we could find a way to make them pay well.
Besides, we can't afford them, when others around the world are willing to do that work cheaper.
Bill Clinton and that 1994 Democrat-controlled Congress did the RIGHT thing in passing NAFTA and helping America usher in the inevitable global economy.
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Please note that this complete non sequitor was in reply to his initial claim that supply side (aka tinkle down) economics was a monster job creator.
In fact it didn't create jobs at a sufficient level to accommodate entries into the work force.
The only reason it didn't create higher unemployment figures is that a lot of folks just gave up and went into the underground economy or prison.
Prison has been one excellent Republican device for growing the economy and keeping down unemployment.
Ok, pitch till you win.
Prosperity is just around the corner
Gets a little dicey when it's Merrill Lynch talking about a depression
Any comment?
Ducky, believe it or not it's not Republicans who've erred from needing to build prisons, it's bad guys filling them.
WHEN are you guys going to wake UP?
"Please note that this complete non sequitor was in reply to his initial claim that supply side (aka tinkle down) economics was a monster job creator." (Lame Duck)
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No it wasn't....proving you're an idiot.
It was a rexsponse to the inane claim that "NAFTA was bad for the U.S. economy."
The quted report read "NAFTA is credited with producing as many as 20 MILLION new American jobs that WOULDN'T have existed without...BETTER jobs, many of them going to some of America's newest citizens - well educated folks from places like the Middle East, Asia and Russia.
America's workforce remains one of the most productive in the world. I've ALWAYS said, "Most American men have strong backs. They're built to work and they LOVE to work hard....you almost can't overwork an American."
I built decks from 1983 - 1994 (or, more aptly, I paid workers $100/day no benefits, etc) to bang nails and build decks, put in pools, etc and it worked out great.
During that period I hired Americans (many firefighters and others looking for some side work) and business was good....ALL BECAUSE "Americans LOVE to get out in the sun and work hard."
Free Trade IS NOT...NOT to be confused with Supply Side policies (lower tax rates eqalu higher tax revenues, less government is better all around, etc)....TWO entrely different animals.
Clinton and a Democratic Congress (January 1994) PASSED NAFTA and expanded GATT.....it doesn't matter how much or how little GOP support those things had, they are now and forever, "Democratic policies."
Go, GO Globalism!
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