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Post by Mike on Feb 13, 2006 15:30:04 GMT -5
As it turns out they weren't actually hunting for the bird, they were hunting the man - Dan Quayle, who successfully escaped into Mexico ;D shouldn't that be Mexicoe? Tomato, Tomatoe, or Tomatohead? Chad, I always wondered what it would be like if Quayle had been elected President. Now I know. Mexico chased him back across the river. ;D
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Post by Scott Hays on Feb 13, 2006 19:01:57 GMT -5
Mr. Quail could not spel, and at times misspeaked himself because either of a lack for education, the failure of the educational establishment to educate him, nerves, or just piss ass sillynes. When he runed away toe Mexicoe, he stubed his big to on a patatoe (easyer to say tater) and that's why they run him back here. Least ways, that's what I heard.
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Post by Mike on Feb 14, 2006 15:16:04 GMT -5
At least we're paying for our own demise. The Fleecing and Flogging of Americans
The Cold Warriors of old were seasoned practitioners of the fine art of propaganda. But their overblown manipulation and intimidation of the media would never pass muster in today's hyper-clogged information age.
Don't get me wrong; manipulation and intimidation still occur. They just take on more subtle -- and, as a result, more insidious -- appearances.
This White House is a new master of the form, and they have found a way to pay for their deception. They are quietly picking the back pockets of U.S. taxpayers to turn around and sell Bush’s political product back to . . . U.S. taxpayers.
The tab for the fleecing and flogging of Americans comes to at least $1.6 billion. That's the amount seven Bush administration agencies spent from 2003 through mid-2005 on hundreds of contracts with advertising agencies, PR firms, and individuals, according to a Government Accountability Office report released yesterday.
The GAO report carefully itemizes this administration’s preference for pre-packaged reporting at the expense of real news and information – in a scheme to make U.S. taxpayers pay for their own deception.
The report found that White House public relations spending goes well beyond the practices of any prior administration. The contracts included $2.5 million to present the Army's strategy in the global war on terrorism; $86 million to explain the new Medicare prescription drug benefit in a bilingual ad campaign; and a $6.3 million agreement to help the Department of Homeland Security educate Americans about how to respond to terrorist attacks.
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phils
New Member
Posts: 7
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Post by phils on Feb 16, 2006 23:21:37 GMT -5
Mike...rock on..and now....LFwebmaster get the hook now...
Any ya'll a pizza ?
As in pizza -s = republican.
Do yourself a favor and leave the country now.
Thx, Some a-hole.
Clayton-Murphy 2008
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Post by featphoto on Feb 17, 2006 8:47:18 GMT -5
Mike...rock on..and now....LFwebmaster get the hook now... Any ya'll a pizza ? As in pizza -s = republican. Do yourself a favor and leave the country now. Thx, Some a-hole. oh, you don't need to wait for the webmaster ... I definitely lean left-of-center, but I have friends on all political fronts; I may disagree with them on many things, but I'm still glad they're part of my country. you & I are the same age ... we lived through the "America: love it or leave it" attitude of the '60s and '70s while a lot of us were trying to stop a war. that kind of attitude had no place in this country then, and has no place now. if that's truly your view (instead of an attempt at humor or pot-stirring), then it is you who should leave ... the rest of us will stay behind and continue to try to make this a better place.
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Post by Mike on Feb 17, 2006 11:50:22 GMT -5
USA National Security for sale: $6.8 Billion(This is some ridiculous shit right here!) By Jeremy Pelofsky WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. Democratic senators said on Friday they would introduce legislation aimed at blocking Dubai Ports World from buying a company that operates several U.S. shipping ports because of security concerns.
Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Hillary Clinton of New York said they would offer a measure to ban companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from acquiring U.S. port operations.
"We wouldn't turn the border patrol or the customs service over to a foreign government, and we can't afford to turn our ports over to one either," Menendez said in a statement.
P&O, the company Dubai Ports World plans to buy for $6.8 billion, is already foreign-owned but the concern is that the purchaser is backed by the United Arab Emirates government.
The UAE company would gain control over the management of major U.S. ports in New York and New Jersey, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Miami, sparking national security concerns.
"I will be working with Senator Menendez to introduce legislation that will prohibit the sale of ports to foreign governments," Clinton said in a statement.
Officials with the United Arab Emirates Embassy in Washington could not be immediately reached for comment.Yep..."Amarika, Love it or Sell it!"
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BillL
Full Member
RIGHT ON !!!!
Posts: 172
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Post by BillL on Feb 17, 2006 12:31:25 GMT -5
Mike...rock on..and now....LFwebmaster get the hook now...
Any ya'll a pizza ?
As in pizza -s = republican.
Do yourself a favor and leave the country now.
Well, I, for one, couldn't agree more. Anyone that doesn't think exactly as I do should leave this country. I'm tired of having to debate everything and compromising my beliefs for the sake of Democracy. Screw everybody and follow me....hey, you guys aren't following...come on....keep up...I'm not going to wait too much longer...let's go.
Bill L <ending sarcasm>
Raises hand to indicate a conservative leaning ideology, and also a friend of Hankus Magnus, photographer, big dude and all around good egg.
(well, actually I'm more Civil Libertarian but whatever)
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Post by Mike on Feb 17, 2006 23:50:24 GMT -5
(well, actually I'm more Civil Libertarian but whatever) I've been evolving now for a while but I'm now fully declared...A Yellow Dog Independent!!! As Kinky sez, "republicans and democrats are starting to look like the same guy admiring himself in the mirror!" Independent Party: Friedman/Nelson = Texas Governors race this year. McCain/Powell = US Presidential race 2008. Think about it! Oh yeah I almost forgot....Bill, you're a trouble maker! ;D Where ya been? I think Jashley is MIA again too.
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Post by big little brother on Feb 18, 2006 6:59:44 GMT -5
Policially speaking, I usually attempt to occupy the center. As a result, I am sometimes accused of equivocating, but I am not sure that I am. I really do have convictions, but they might be wrong.... ;D ;D
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BillL
Full Member
RIGHT ON !!!!
Posts: 172
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Post by BillL on Feb 18, 2006 9:51:46 GMT -5
Policially speaking, I usually attempt to occupy the center. As a result, I am sometimes accused of equivocating, but I am not sure that I am. I really do have convictions, but they might be wrong.... At least you're not indecisive... Bill, you're a trouble maker! Where ya been?Just waiting in the wings. Besides, all of the recent news has been difficult for guys like me to comment. It will be nice to have a real conservative elected to the big office in '08. Then again, I doubt that'll happen. It'll be some no back bone Republican (especially if Hillary runs). Bill L
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Post by Mike on Feb 19, 2006 13:46:12 GMT -5
Oh...well since Chertoff and Homeland Insecurity are managing the deal, I feel much better! NOT!!! Sell US port operations to the Arabs...BRILLIENT!!! Chertoff says Dubai port deal includes safeguards Sun Feb 19, 2006 11:35 AM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The homeland security chief said on Sunday a deal for a Dubai-based company to manage major U.S. ports would include security safeguards, but a Republican senator urged a probe and called the Bush administration "tone deaf politically" for approving it. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the Bush administration had approved the sale of British firm P&O, which manages six U.S. ports including New York, to Dubai Ports World after a classified review and the deal would include safeguards to protect U.S. national security.
"You can be assured that before a deal is approved we put safeguards in place, assurances in place, that make everybody comfortable that we are where we need to be from a national security viewpoint," Chertoff said on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."
But Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said it was a mistake for the administration to approve the sale and called on Congress to investigate it.
"It's unbelievably tone deaf politically at this point in our history, four years after 9/11, to entertain the idea of turning port security over to a company based in the UAE who avows to destroy Israel," Graham said on "Fox News Sunday."
"I don't think now is the time to outsource major port security to a foreign-based company," he said.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, said she would support legislation to block foreign companies from buying port facilities.
"I'm going to support legislation to say 'No more, No way.' We have to have American companies running our own ports ... Our infrastructure is at risk," she said on CBS's "Face the Nation."[glow=red,2,300]IMPEACH BUSH NOW!!!!! HE IS THE ENEMY![/glow]
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Post by Mike on Feb 19, 2006 15:43:45 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANK!!!![/glow]
Now don't be runnin around in your birthday suit tho. It's cold up there (i'll bet ya knew that)...hell, it's cold down here!
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Post by featphoto on Feb 19, 2006 20:20:26 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANK!!!![/glow] Now don't be runnin around in your birthday suit tho. It's cold up there (i'll bet ya knew that)...hell, it's cold down here! thanks to all ... best b'day gift was the go-ahead from my darlin' dearest (and long suffering non-concert goer) to book for NOLA Jazz Fest in May ... got a room for 4 nights (5/4 - 5/8) flight down ... now, to get from now 'till then ...
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Post by chadgumbo on Feb 19, 2006 23:26:34 GMT -5
Hank, Allow me to chime in a day late. Happy birthday! And many more! I must have been too glued to the curling competition in Italy yesterday. Hope you had a good one! -
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Post by Scott Hays on Feb 20, 2006 12:36:04 GMT -5
And another late birthday greeting to hank(us) ... have a great time in NOLA, and snap commemorative photos for those of us who can't make it. However, there is a quiet rumble of lining up for the Eureka Springs, Arkansas show in September -- out here on the left coast people are starting to plan making it a mini-featfan excursion short of Jamaica!
Now ... on with my regularly scheduled program:
So I am now back from Jamaica and a short mini-featfan excursion in the Pacific Northwet, and ready to jump with both feat on any and all who continue to insist on supporting the corporate fascist state being shoved down our throats by Shrub and his handlers. Here are just a few of my questions that I would like any honest, self-respecting Republican to answer (and even a few who possess neither of the aforementioned qualities).
1. How can upbeat views of our expanding and improving economy be reconciled with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ payroll jobs data, the extraordinary red ink, and exploding trade deficit?
Perhaps the answer is that every economic development, no matter how detrimental, is spun as if it were good news. For example, Federal budget deficits are spun as letting taxpayers keep and spend more of their own money. Federal tax cuts are seen as ways to increase Federal income. Massive layoffs are spun as evidence that change is so rapid that the work force must constantly upgrade skills and re-educate itself. Declining household income is spun as an inflation fighter that keeps mortgage interest rates low. The worsening US trade deficit is spun as evidence of the fast growth of the US economy: the economy is growing so fast it can’t meet its needs and must rely on imports.
Occasionally, real information escapes the spin machine. The National Association of Manufacturers, one of outsourcing’s greatest boosters, has just released a report, “US Manufacturing Innovation at Risk,” by economists Joel Popkin and Kathryn Kobe. The economists find that US industry’s investment in research and development is not languishing after all. It just appears to be languishing, because it is rapidly being shifted overseas: “Funds provided for foreign-performed R&D have grown by almost 73 percent between 1999 and 2003, with a 36 percent increase in the number of firms funding foreign R&D.” US industry is still investing in R&D after all; it is just not hiring Americans to do the R&D. US manufacturers still make things, only less and less in America with American labor. US manufacturers still hire engineers, only they are foreign ones, not American ones.
2. In what specific and direct ways has this Administration and its Congress or Courts done anything to benefit and/or support the middle class (or lower)?
Please point to any single action (legislation, policy, agency, decision, speech, etc.) that directly improves the quality of life or the well-being of average Americans. Do not point to indirect, trickle down actions … that is just plain crap. Do not point to my safety or security, either … that is even a larger bundle of crap with all sorts of precedents being set for further abuse when something really serious happens, again.
3. In what ways has this Administration demonstrated it was capable of handling any type of situation, from extreme to mundane, without demonstration of bungling ineptitude (not to mention, in other more publicized cases, outright deception) or blatant corruption?
It will be hard for any historian to find an Administration that, quite frankly, is as hell-bent on failure as this one. Issue after issue begs for clumsiness and disgrace. It was given a memo announcing that an attack on the U.S. was imminent, and disregarded it. It failed – on a monumental scale -- to accurately assess conditions in Iraq (wmds, relations between Saddam Hussein and Osama, strength of the opposition to our invasion, protection of the infrastructure, etc. etc). It cannot honestly develop alternative sources of energy. It refuses to recognize changing environmental conditions. After creating the most massive bureaucracy in the history of the world to deal with national emergencies and the threat of terrorism (though excluding those who collect intelligence about the causes of those threats), it monumentally failed to take even simple steps to confront the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. I could go on, but I would like a list of “successes” this Administration has accomplished.
4. How does increasing the national debt and allowing manufacturers to be rewarded for outsourcing, or allowing foreign capital to buy up what remains of our industrial and trade infrastructure, make life better for any but a few Americans?
Okay, the interest on the national debt is now at about $2 billion daily. Each American owes about a $27,000 share in the debt. The United Arab Emirates have been okayed – by this Administration – to buy (from a British company) port operations in six major east coast cities. Ownership of American corporations, though they still carry familiar cozy sitting by the fire American names, are increasingly being bought up by foreign investors with the bonds they hold on our debt. Hell, my old water company – the California American Water Company – was owned by a German company, for gosh saks.
5. How can this frightening national debt be tolerated at the same time that the Administration demands permanent tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans?
If I owe $400,000 for a home and $25,000 for two cars, I don’t quit my job and reduce my income.
6. How does fighting an unnecessary war in an oil-rich part of the world help reduce our dependence on that oil?
Okay … we all pay an income tax, and most pay a sales tax and/or a property tax. Those taxes increasingly go to fighting a war or supporting the infrastructure that supplies that war effort. The war, at least in part, makes doing petroleum business more safe and lucrative for those wealthy enough to invest in that particular line of business. Legislation providing incentives for oil companies to behave in certain ways (or to protect them from having to behave in certain ways), or providing them with tax breaks because we need to keep them solvent and able to do business for our common good all act to make the “private” operation of the petroleum industry pretty much a state-sponsored business. Simultaneously, all of those tax breaks reduce money in the federal coffers, required more and more to pay for the war effort, so that social services must be cut … the tax money usually spent for roads, public health and safety, for education (and the like) – in short, in sustaining and improving our infrastructure as a society – is being diverted to make the world safe for oil. Why not just eliminate all subsidies and protections for that industry, stop the war, and place a $2 or $3 per gallon sales tax on oil … and use the money directly to fund independent research (not oil-company dominated research) into alternative energy sources AND to prop up the social infrastructure?
Any and all takers … answer one or all of the questions. I know this party has apologists, but I bet you will be hard pressed to provide satisfactory answers to any of the questions. But, I am open to dialogue before suggesting that we sweep almost every Republican incumbent out of office next November (not that most Democrats are much better)
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