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Post by Scott Hays on Mar 15, 2006 23:15:50 GMT -5
Tom Harkin stood up with Feingold today, and became a co-sponsor.
Feingold, himself, was the only Democrat to vote with the Republicans to open hearings on Bill Clinton ... hearings that (1) caused Feingold considerable grief amongst fellow Democrats and (2) ultimately led to impeachment proceedings.
Not a single Congressman ... not one ... has come forward and said that what the President has done/is doing is legal. They are all spinelss hacks and ought to be voted out of office. Every single last one of them ... even the "good" ones in each and every one of our own districts (because that's the way it always works ... with representatives in Congress and with schools -- they are both all rotten to the core; except mine!). To hold hearings to determine whether censure is warranted, to try to discuss what is right and what is wrong, seems to me to be the very core of what Congress should be about.
Not these guys!
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Post by Mike on Mar 16, 2006 1:07:32 GMT -5
Hey Scott...look at we did here in my little home town of Arlington. Diane Patrick is a Republican (and yes, I had a Republican yard sign in my yard. My wife put it there), but Grusendorf was one of "those" republicans...a real connected turd! He's gone!!!
'Heads need to roll' Star-Telegram Voters in District 94 did themselves proud in the March 7 elections. All public school employees in Texas owe them a debt of gratitude for selecting Diane Patrick over incumbent state Rep. Kent Grusendorf. Grusendorf, chairman of the House Public Education Committee, had his chance to overhaul the way public education in Texas is funded, and he failed miserably. His push to go forward with school vouchers while education and educators are miserably underfunded was not met with deaf ears. Let this be a warning to other professional politicians. The average taxpayer in this state is fed up with your lack of leadership. Let's not stop with what the voters in District 94 have begun. Heads need to roll. It has started in Arlington and, it is hoped, will not end until it reaches the Governor's Mansion. Before voting for any incumbent in the Texas Legislature, look at the legislator's voting record. If it's a record of service to all residents of this state and not to just special-interest groups with fat wallets, then leave that person in office. If not, do what the responsible voters of District 94 did. People who care can make a difference.
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Post by Scott Hays on Mar 16, 2006 11:20:21 GMT -5
Hey Scott...look at we did here in my little home town of Arlington. Diane Patrick is a Republican (and yes, I had a Republican yard sign in my yard. My wife put it there), but Grusendorf was one of "those" republicans...a real connected turd! He's gone!!! 'Heads need to roll' Star-Telegram Voters in District 94 did themselves proud in the March 7 elections. All public school employees in Texas owe them a debt of gratitude for selecting Diane Patrick over incumbent state Rep. Kent Grusendorf. Grusendorf, chairman of the House Public Education Committee, had his chance to overhaul the way public education in Texas is funded, and he failed miserably. His push to go forward with school vouchers while education and educators are miserably underfunded was not met with deaf ears. Let this be a warning to other professional politicians. The average taxpayer in this state is fed up with your lack of leadership.
...
Before voting for any incumbent in the Texas Legislature, look at the legislator's voting record. If it's a record of service to all residents of this state and not to just special-interest groups with fat wallets, then leave that person in office. If not, do what the responsible voters of District 94 did. People who care can make a difference. Right on! Not only are "vouchers" not the answer to the funding woes of public education, but it is people like this Kent Grusendorf who actively promote legislation designed to make public education worse than it already is (or block reforms that might actually improve it) just so their constituents can get the public to send their children to private schools. Good work ... even if it meant supporting a Republican. Here that Bill? Good Republicans are okay in our book!
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Post by Mike on Mar 16, 2006 19:40:03 GMT -5
I can't remember where now, but I read a report where the CIA was stating exactly this before we "invaded". It was one of his "rewrites" cause it just didn't fit Cheney's agenda. Saddam Hussein maintained pretense of chemical arms to prevent Israeli attack By Shmuel Rosner WASHINGTON - Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein pretended to have chemical weapons because, among other reasons, he feared that Israel might attack if it discovered he did not. This is revealed in a recently declassified internal report by the American military.
The report was compiled from many dozens of interviews with senior Iraqi officials and hundreds of documents captured by the American forces during and after the war. "...after the war..."?
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Post by Mike on Mar 16, 2006 19:51:00 GMT -5
Oh my..... That's $9,000,000,000,000.00! Senate Votes to Raise Debt Limit Mar 16 11:51 AM US/Eastern By ANDREW TAYLOR Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON The Senate voted Thursday to allow the national debt to swell to nearly $9 trillion, preventing a first-ever default on U.S. Treasury notes.
The bill passed by a 52-48 vote. The increase to $9 trillion represents about $30,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. The bill now goes to President Bush for his signature.
The measure allows the government to pay for the war in Iraq and finance Medicare and other big federal programs without raising taxes. It passed hours before the House was expected to approve another $91 billion to fund the war in Iraq and provide more aid to hurricane victims.
The partisan vote also came as the Senate continued debate on a $2.8 trillion budget blueprint for the upcoming fiscal year that would produce a $359 billion deficit for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
The debt limit will increase by $781 billion. It's the fourth such move _ increasing the debt limit by a total of $3 trillion _ since Bush took office five years ago.
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Post by Mike on Mar 16, 2006 20:15:25 GMT -5
Ever feel like someone is always watching you? You will.... Your drivers license will no longer be state regulated...nope...big brother, comrade. Weren't we discussin the Patriot Act a while back? BillL? From what I understand it's actually a tracking chip in your Federal ID (drivers license, ect). I just hope they're not already planning to shoot it into our necks or something! These guys are moving faster and faster, before the sheep figure it out. ;D Why the 'Real ID' Act is a real messBy Anita Ramasastry FindLaw columnist Special to CNN.com
Friday, August 12, 2005; Posted: 2:36 p.m. EDT (18:36 GMT)
Unlike the USA Patriot Act and other politically sensitive pieces of legislation, Real ID has not made many headlines. Last fall, it was voted down. But then it was reintroduced, and tacked onto the 2005 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Defense, the Global War on Terror and Tsunami Relief. (Real ID hence superseded conflicting portions of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.)
It would have been a serious political liability for a congressperson to vote against funding for the war on terror and tsunami relief. So it is not surprising that there were no debates, hearings or public vettings of the act.
Hearings might have revealed that Real ID is going to create many headaches and nightmares for U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents and state governments, which already labor under an unfunded mandate.
More than 600 organizations have expressed concern over the Real ID Act. Organizations such as the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, the American Library Association the Association for Computing Machinery, the National Council of State Legislatures, the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the National Governors Association are among them.Check it out: www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/08/12/ramasastry.ids/
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Post by jashley on Mar 16, 2006 20:46:33 GMT -5
Hoy Hoy All, I hate all of you who got to go to Jamaica. Not really but it helped to get all of that envy off of my chest. Hope you all had a good time. Party line vote to increase the deficit to $ 9 Trillion (I had to write it, my computer doesn't have that many 0's. Of course the party line vote had democrats voting for it and republicans against. No? Are we living in bizzaro world? So much for democrats having a backbone (for not screaming louder) and for republicans having any desire to uphold their long held principles of responsible government. Even me, opponent of the Iraq war from day 1 was surprised by the latest accounting of the dollar cost of the war. Drum roll please. Nearly 1 Trillion dollars. This is the war the administration told us was going to be the first war in history to pay for itself. Were we the stupid ones for buying that bs or is this the first administration that can make a 1 TRILLION DOLLAR (and counting) mistake. Now while the country is in a financial crisis and the big 5 oil companies are recording record profits the government has decided that we will no longer charge the above oil companies any royalties on oil pumped on federal land. And since as I have mentioned before we have recently allowed oil exploration on all federal wilderness areas we have completed the gift of all of our federally owned (read the people's) oil to five multi-billion dollar corporations. So much for a free market huh' Bill. I wonder if smaller oil companies are going to be allowed to get their snout (whoops I meant nose) into the feeding trough. I wonder if they think it's a fair playing field when they have to compete against companies getting their raw materials for free. I guess the $49 billion gift these same companies got in the first "Energy Bill" wasn't enough. Isn't the role of subsidies for industry supposed to be there to help our struggling industries??? Again we are in bizzarro world: where up is down and right is wrong. President Jr's approval ratings at an all time low of 37%. Largest military offensive in Iraq since 2003. Terrorist threat discovered in CA. Somehow I think the above 3 things go together in the current administration's playbook and somehow I don't think their appearance on consecutive news days is a coincidence. Our fears are being used to manipulate us and I wonder how long that is going to take to p*ss us all off. I too like some Republicans. I believe it's Chuck Rangel a senator or rep from out west seems to have some sense. I hesitate to put this in because I may be confusing two different people the other one I hate. the list of good Republicans has diminished since J McCain no longer qualifies due to his kissing of the *ss of the man who said that his military service had made him so crazy he shouldn't be elected to any office. Isn't sweet how the boys have kissed and made up? I have been trying since the beginning of this administration to get an understanding of what side of an argument they are going to support. Not even whether it is right or wrong but what side is it going to be? The answer is in and it is 100% to 0%. This administration believes that the rich guy is always right. Now I know that rich people are inherently more intelligent than us peons and their causes are more noble and damn they have proven that they are just better people than the rest of us by the very fact that they have become rich, and yes that includes inherited wealth because we all know that character is transmitted in the bloodline and our government has come to the conclusion that it's better to be on the side of the winners. Think about it, Jr has supported Dr's and pharmaceutical cos. against patients, credit card co's and banks against their customers, rich people's tax cuts against the middle class and poor, big oil against the people's best interest, corporations against our right to clean air and any rich country against the poor countries in a region (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and UAE against everyone else in the region for example). In 2006 I think to be honest the republicans should run on a ticket (and yes it fits on a bumper sticker) Support the Rich they ARE better than you. And I have to give a big Amen to Molly and Scott and Mike. The democrats need to quite being such pussies and say what they believe is right and not worry so much about being nice. The time for nice (in politics) is long past. We need more impeach Bush stickers and more Kinky for President stickers. Good to talk with you all, I'll spare everyone and shut up now. Peace j
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Post by Mike on Mar 17, 2006 22:52:40 GMT -5
It's from some kind of blog, but it's an "interesting" little quiz about the Bush family, and the facts check out. #'s 2, 10, 11, and 18 are a real thought provokers! (in the answer to #18, there are links to a couple of interesting and revealing articles about Dubya) www.romm.org/bushquiz.html#qninePS-If Hank reads this...relax, no one is suggesting something as far fetched as a...conspiracy in this country.
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Post by featphoto on Mar 17, 2006 23:39:18 GMT -5
PS-If Hank reads this...relax, no one is suggesting something as far fetched as a...conspiracy in this country. oh please ... now you're just being boring ...
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Post by Scott Hays on Mar 18, 2006 14:05:39 GMT -5
I can't remember where now, but I read a report where the CIA was stating exactly this before we "invaded". It was one of his "rewrites" cause it just didn't fit Cheney's agenda. Saddam Hussein maintained pretense of chemical arms to prevent Israeli attack By Shmuel Rosner WASHINGTON - Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein pretended to have chemical weapons because, among other reasons, he feared that Israel might attack if it discovered he did not. This is revealed in a recently declassified internal report by the American military.
The report was compiled from many dozens of interviews with senior Iraqi officials and hundreds of documents captured by the American forces during and after the war. "...after the war..."? Don't need to remember anything ... the images of Israelis hunkered down because of the feared incoming Iraqi SCUD missiles (that never arrived), the HUGE media fear-mongering about their imminent explosions (and the 24-7 coverage of ... nothing more than rumor) during the FIRST Gulf War should have been ample evidence for anyone with a memory and/or attention span of greater than 20 minutes to realize the existence of wmds was only ONE of the lies fabricated by Perle, Wolfowitz, Cheney and Rummy. I certainly remembered those images (as well as the "barrage" of missiles that struck Saudi Arabia) when I got into heated email arguments with fascist pigs before the invasion took place (not to mention the supposed link between Osama bin Laden and Saddam). Let's see ... before the war began, I was in San Francisco when 150,000 people shut the town center down in protest of a war that hadn't even started. Let's see how many turn out this weekend!
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Post by Scott Hays on Mar 18, 2006 14:33:01 GMT -5
Hoy Hoy All, I hate all of you who got to go to Jamaica. Not really but it helped to get all of that envy off of my chest. Hope you all had a good time. Thanks ... Helen and I did! And then the fools went ahead and passed bill after bill authorizing almost pornographic levels of spending without making any effort to lop off expenditures here and there, or reinstating the taxes they cut on their favored friends! In fact -- how can we any longer justify running up these huge deficits while continuing to spend more than we take in while simultaneously arguing that ongoing tax cuts are "good"? Actually ... this point could be well-connected to the previous point: We are now moving to being in debt for nine trillion dollars, and most of that debt is owned by foreigners. UAE owns quite a bit of that debt, and I suspect -- on one hand -- that management of American ports was not much more than an offer of collateral on the loan! ("Ooh ... the debt is coming due? What do we have that you might want? Our ports? Cool!). On the other hand, it was all a deal to reward John Snow (past ceo of crx, sold to the carlyle group in which the bush family has large holdings ... and lots of other weasel snouted geezers from our immediate political past are either major investors or sit on the board of directors ... which it "inherited" from grandpa Prescot Bush when the Hamburg-Amerkia Steamship company was swallowed up by Carlyle) and David Sanborn (business partner of Snow in crx and past ceo of Dubai Ports World) with cushy jobs for which they have no more claim to expertise other than the fact that they are rich bastards, and -- as you have said -- "better" than all of usThanks ... but I'm not sure why I (assuming it is I to whom you are referring ... which is either a classic example of a person with a swelled head, or ... well, you say it)
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Post by Mike on Mar 18, 2006 21:28:11 GMT -5
We are now moving to being in debt for nine trillion dollars, and most of that debt is owned by foreigners. UAE owns quite a bit of that debt, and I suspect -- on one hand -- that management of American ports was not much more than an offer of collateral on the loan! ("Ooh ... the debt is coming due? What do we have that you might want? Our ports? Cool!). On the other hand, it was all a deal to reward John Snow (past ceo of crx, sold to the carlyle group in which the bush family has large holdings ... and lots of other weasel snouted geezers from our immediate political past are either major investors or sit on the board of directors ... which it "inherited" from grandpa Prescot Bush when the Hamburg-Amerkia Steamship company was swallowed up by Carlyle) and David Sanborn (business partner of Snow in crx and past ceo of Dubai Ports World) with cushy jobs for which they have no more claim to expertise other than the fact that they are rich bastards, and -- as you have said -- "better" than all of usNext chapter is foreign ownership of American airline companies. If any of this fear mongering has had any truth to it at all...why is Bush etal so hot to sell off two of our most vulnerable points of national security? The ports and the airlines. I look for the day when this administration sez to us..."sorry, we (y'all) owe them so much damn money we have no choice but to turn our (your) country over to them...sorry! But with our new status in the Trilateral Commission (big brother of The Carlyle Group) it's no longer our concern. Good luck citizens of the U.S.! And thanks for the opportunities. ;D"
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Post by Scott Hays on Mar 20, 2006 12:21:13 GMT -5
In response to my post about selling off assets to billionaires,
The Washington Post today reports on a growing trend to contract out intelligence-related jobs to private companies or to individuals, rather than have them done – as has been done historically – by civil service employees or members of the armed services. It cites three examples in the lead to the story, but says there thousands like them at the Pentagon, or within companies that do government work. For example: (1) one private company (AllWorld Language Consultants, Inc) is seeking “experienced military interrogators” – Arabic preferred, but not required – to work in Iraq for $153,500 a year plus bonuses, as listed at Yahoo Hot Jobs, (2) the U.S. Army element of the Multi-National-Force-Iraq is looking for a private contractor to provide airborne surveillance over that country, and (3) Lockheed Martin Corp is seeking a counterintelligence analyst to work for a new intelligence agency – Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) in Colorado Springs.
As Captain America pointed out, I am a (hardly) lifelong bureaucrat, so take offense at the “privatization” of the civil service. Seriously, this administration will privatize anything, if it means that government can spend more money to hire private workers to do the same job a public employee once did and thereby allow a corporation or an individual to earn a profit at public expense.
By using contract employees, government agencies lose control over the people doing the sensitive work. The element of profit that is being inserted has nothing to do with a “free market” economy, since it is the government that is providing the margin of profit (and usually without putting said contracts out to competitive bidding). Additionally, a related concern has to do with the civil service or the military investing time and money in the training of people and getting them the requisite security clearances, only to have them for better pay offered by the private contractors – often for the very same job they once did for less money. You can only imagine how politics, favoritism, cronyism, and corruption easily enter the process – especially in this adminstration.
Even John Negroponte – the Death Squad Father (er, Director of National Intelligence) – has become a little concerned, and has begun a quiet investigation.
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Post by Mike on Mar 21, 2006 0:20:16 GMT -5
Now daze I find myself waiting to hear an announcement that our Border Patrol and Immigration Services have been sold to the Mexican government! ;D
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Post by jashley on Mar 21, 2006 20:02:00 GMT -5
Hoy Hoy All,
Scott, The amen was for calling the democrats p*ssies. I couldn't agree more. I was a big fan of Hillary's until she began trying to make the case that she is a tough broad by backing the Iraq war, and now she is attacking free speech by supporting legislation to ban flag burning. Jeez if all of our politicians are successful finding the "middle" how are we going to have any choice when it comes election time. We need all views in our political system for it to work even those from the wacky fringes. I miss the hippie Hillary. Was it you Scott who said that Jimmy Carter was the last president to tell us the truth? I couldn't agree more. And what did it get him but mocked and vilified. History has already proven this wacko right in a number of areas from alternative energy to how to fight the cold war. I believe that as time goes on historians and everyone else are going to recognize Jimmy as one of our greatest presidents. Hunter Thompson was one of the first to recognize the greatness of Jimmy and I'll admit I was late to catch on, once again Hunter proved to be one of the most astute political analysts of our time and he of course was another wacko. WE NEED THE WACKOS.
IRAN
Immediate fears that they are building a nuclear bomb. They do not have a Democratic society. Repression of free speech and religion. No regard for woman's rights. Starting to sound familiar. The best estimates for Iran's ability to manufacture a nuclear bomb are that it will take them AT LEAST 10 years to be able to come up with a viable nuclear device. The reason that the freedoms we consider necessary are that we got rid of the shah and made it possible for the mullahs to assume control of the country. These lies and half truths are so similar to the rational for the invasion of Iraq I am starting to fear that we are building ourselves up for an invasion of Iran. Any thoughts on this???
You mentioned Sec. Snow. I understand that he sold CSX to the Carlyle group, probably backed by Arab money and he brokered the sale of the ports to the UAE. I know that any talk of a conspiracy is met with huge gales of laughter and I am not suggesting such. But the cast of characters involved in multi-billion dollar government deals seems to be getting smaller and smaller. When no one could come up with an American buyer for our ports the first name mentioned: Halliburton. What a surprise. No formal conspiracy needed, just a group of good friends dividing the country up among themselves.
I have been listening to Jr justify his decision to invade Iraq the past few days. Does this man know the difference between a lie and the truth? He is still denying that he connected Iraq to Al-Quida before the invasion even though he is on tape doing so. His state of the union address clearly tried to make the connection. I find it hard to believe that there isn't a way to remove a president whose lies (not mistakes, you don't keep lying to cover a mistake) have resulted in the death of almost 2500 of our children. It will take decades for the country to recover form the mistakes of this administration. So much for a president not being able to do much damage Bill.
Things we don't know. How many unemployed people we have in our country (we only know how many are collecting unemployment insurance, once you have exhausted your benefits you aren't counted. If you have an unemployment rate of 5% with an average time to find employment at 12 months when benefits are exhausted in 6 months your true unemployment rate would be double the governments figure). How many innocent Iraqi's died in the invasion of Iraq. How much the war has costs (it's true no one in the government can come up with an accurate figure). What evidence the administration used to come up with their rational for war (we only have seen their conclusions and selected intelligence that supposedly supported their position).
So we really don't know what our government is doing or why they are doing it or what it is costing. Open debate in our political system is dying or dead. A smaller and smaller group of people is controlling the wealth of our country. I LOVE America; I wonder if we will ever see it again.
By the way Scott, Hamas was telling everyone who would listen (including Time magazine) that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. The next time anyone tries to tell you that everyone was saying that Saddam had these weapons tell them it's just another of Jr.'s lies.
Peace j
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