BUSHISM of the day

"Obviously, the violence in Baghdad is still terrible, and therefore there needs to be more troops." --President Bush, NYTimes, 26 July 2006

Okay, Dubya. Here's my question for you: where was this sentiment in 2003 when most of the brass at the Pentagon, Tommy Franks, Colin Powell, and Richard Armitage were saying publicly that in order to invade and successfully control Iraq there would need to be AT LEAST 250, 000 troops on the ground? In fact, most of the experts were saying we would need closer to 350,000. Where were you when your SecDef was arguing the experts down to 125,000? Why did you not speak up then to say that we would need more troops to successfully control Iraq, to prevent looting, to keep the electrical grid up, and to stave off the inevitable insurgent attacks by disgruntled Sunni Baathists? Looks like another Bush flip-flop. Where were your big ideas when this country really needed them?

Stop letting Rumsfeld and Cheney run the country. Step up and fulfill your duties as President. Listen to those who have been there -- like your own FATHER! Like your former SecState, Colin Powell, whom you essentially ran off the job because Rumsfeld and Cheney told you to. You are a sad excuse for President of the United States.

An interesting little tidbit from 'News of the Weird' by Chuck Shepherd

General Motors executives, trying to explain the dwindling stock market value of the company, have repeatedly complained of oppressive pension benefits owed under United Auto Workers contracts; however, according to a June Wall Street Journal investigation, GM's fund for worker pensions is "overstuffed with cash," while its fund for executive pensions is $1.4 billion in the red and getting worse. [Reuters, 6-22-06] [Wall Street Journal, 6-23-06]

Under the subheading 'Chutzpah!', Mr. Shepherd placed the above quotation. My reactions to this short paragraph are two-fold. First, does this really qualify as news of the weird? And, second, does this really surprise anybody who really understands how modern corporate economic policy works in this country today?


Should we classify information like this as weird news, or should this little blurb actually go on the front page of the newspaper? I find it ironic that the modern corporate world wants to blame their troubles on the working class, who earn 1/300 of the average CEO salary, while ignoring the complicity of Boards in escalating CEO salaries to an unmanageable level. Haven't we been hearing about this escalating problem for several years now? Shouldn't one of these corporate boards at some point ask itself why a high-profile CEO (who is not responsible for producing any of the corporation's goods or services) make an average salary that is 300 times the salary of the average worker (who IS responsible for producing the corporation's goods and services)?

The Republican party wants to argue that Americans as a whole have become dependent on the entitlement programs provided by the federal government. When liberals argue, however, that corporate America has become dependent on the government largesse for tax breaks, institutionalized subsidies, and other forms of corporate welfare we are derided for failing to understand the importance of propping up these huge salaries for CEOs.

Perhaps it is time for corporate America to police its own actions in paying out these huge sums of money to individuals who, with a few exceptions, have largely failed to uphold their promises of fat profits and smaller production costs. When a baseball team signs a free agent for a large sum of money, they generally expect that player to continue to be successful on the field. It seems that corporate boards, however, pay large sums of money to CEOs who have not previously performed up to expectations. What has so greatly influenced these boards to fail in their feduciary duty to the company, and to the American ideal of SUCCESS bringing great rewards?

Thoughts On The Republican Dream: A Poem

your american dream?

ten thousand dead
people unfed

mothers crying
children dying

save the unborn
forget the new born

OH, and keep those gays from getting married

HATE -- BIGOTRY -- CLASS WARFARE

we gotta get rich
i love that coulter bitch

morality only has two issues
just give those poor folks a box of tissues

why can't everyone be like me
living off of daddy's money

i don't really have to work
but watch me fuck these minimum-wage clerks

i want my aristocracy
why don't we try theocracy?

if you idiots would just listen to me
the whole world would be more free

your american dream?

Paranoia

Do you think it is crazy for me to think the government is eavesdropping on my phone calls? Every time I pick up my phone to make a call, before I hear a dial tone, I hear a double click. It reminds me of the sound my old analog answering machine would make as it began to record. I know what you are thinking, "Why in god's name would the government eavesdrop on me?" THAT is an excellent question. After all, why would the government eavesdrop on any citizen of the United States?

Because as long as we allow this administration to erode our civil liberties, the government can apparently do any damn thing it likes.

Courage? Oh, COME ON!

I am so freaking tired of hearing how courageous Dubya was last week because he spent five hours in Baghdad. Give me a break! I heard an interview with a Marine in Ramadi who said (and I paraphrase): You know, when an IED goes off in Baghdad, it is front page news. It makes all of the television news programs. Here in Ramadi, we deal with seven IEDs every day. Does the media report those? When we take out forty insurgents, does that make the front page? NO. This is the reality of Iraq right now.

We didn't see pictures of Dubya travelling around Iraq, did we? Hell, we didn't even see him travelling around Baghdad. He arrived in secret, stayed five hours, and left in secret. Yeah, that's courage!

Courage is knowing that you will be dealing with seven IEDs every day, but knowing that you have to perform your duty any way. Courage is driving convoys around Iraq even though you know you have a giant bull's eye painted on your door. Let's talk about REAL courage from now on.

Illegal Immigration

In thinking about the concerns with illegal immigration, I have to ask myself, "What is all the bother about?" I understand that taxpayers would rather not be paying for illegals to have public services provided for them; however, it is also my understanding that illegals have paid a substantial amount of taxes themselves. One figure that I saw indicated as much as $10 billion paid to states in taxes by illegal immigrants. Are the rest of us really 'supporting' illegals, or are they paying their fair share as well.

Many arguments center around the necessity of illegals to provide labor that others of us are not willing to take on. Should we really expect people to risk their lives to enter this country so that we can have the basest forms of labor provided without concern? Of course, the opposing argument is that if the federal government would raise the minimum wage (which has not been raised in nearly TEN years), then we would not have to rely on illegals to fill labor jobs. If the wages were better, there would be greater competition for the work. Republicans, who are leading the battle to send illegals home and to keep them out of the country, are split on the need for illegals to enter the country. If illegals can provide cheap labor for business, then why should the minimum wage be raised?

The President has proposed a guest worker program, but as Fareed Zacharia points out in this weeks' Newsweek, similar programs have not worked in Europe (in particular Germany) because the 'guest workers' have no promise of eventual citizenship in the European countries for which they have left their families in order to work. The United States should expect nothing more of any guest worker program here. Why should people leave their families to make a home in another country where they struggle to learn the language without the promise of someday becoming a citizen of that country and having the opportunity to bring their families here to join them. We must give everyone who comes to this country to work an equal opportunity to achieve citizenship, freedom, and equal consideration for services.

But it all comes back to the notion, "What is the big concern all of a sudden?" Give Mexicans the same rights as Canadians -- free passage to and from Mexico to work or live. Treat law-abiding visitors with respect and appreciation for the work they provide this nation, and give them the freedom to chose a life of freedom, liberty, honor, and wealth here in the United States.

Freakonomics

If you haven't picked up this book by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, please check it out. Levitt is an Economist at U of Chicago, but he is like no Economist you have ever encountered. A recurring theme of the book is that 'morality is what we ought to do, and economics is what we actually do.' He looks at situations as various as teachers cheating for their students on standardized tests and sumo wrestlers cheating to let each other win matches to how legalized abortion helped to reduce crime rates in the 1990s and real estate agents hold out for better offers when they sell their own properties than when they sell other peoples' properties.

The authors introduce diverse concepts that (although they claim to not have a theme) are all related by one unifying theme -- the power of mathematics and statistics, in the form of econometrics, to tease out patterns and commonalities among seemingly diverse topics.

Pick up this book or at least peruse the website linked into the title of this post.

Why does Hamas victory in Palestine come as a surprise?

Three years ago, I watched a report on a television news program that discussed the significant positive contribution that Hamas was making to the Palestinian people. Many communities were turning to Hamas for social assistance and for opportunities to move forward. These people were choosing Hamas, a known terrorist organization, over the more acceptable Palestinian Authority and its political arm, Fatah, largely because Hamas was actually able to get things done. There was no infighting and the leadership seemed to have the Palestinian people constantly in mind when making decisions, unlike the PA who seemed to have a greater political agenda.

Why are we suddenly surprised, then, that Hamas won the first democratic election in Palestine? Why does this information come as such a shocking factor to the current President and his administration? Perhaps it is because we do not really understand the Middle East at all. Maybe the neo-conservative movement never had a grasp on the realities of the world. Maybe the major players in the Bush administration are too wrapped up in ideology to accept reality.

The argument can be made that the United States should not deal with Hamas because of their history of terrorism, and of their desire to see Israel destroyed. I would argue that we cannot end the relationship with the Palestinians, that we started building after the death of Yasser Arafat, because of this sudden democratic shift to the leadership of Hamas. Certainly we must walk a careful line with Hamas, but we cannot disregard the peace process, especially now that the leadership of Israel is also in flux.

Elect Tim Kaine Governor of Virginia

In the Kingsport Times-News' endorsement of Jerry Kilgore for Governor of Virginia, the discussion focused on Mr. Kilgore's record as Attorney General and his "strong law-and-order credentials." Mr. Kilgore's credentials as Attorney General do not stop there. He entered office at a time when Virginia's economy was at its worst in decades, and Mr. Kilgore did everything he could do to thwart the attempts by Governor Warner and Lt. Governor Kaine to improve the economic situation of the Commonwealth. Mr. Kilgore opposed all of the initiatives that eventually led Virginia out of near-bankruptcy while Lt. Governor Kaine fought hard to see Gov. Warner's proposals enacted.

If we look carefully at Mr. Kilgore's current economic proposals for the Commonwealth, there are two issues that must be addressed: privatizing the Virginia Retirement System; and, shifting the tax burden from the state level to the local level. Let us consider each of these in turn.

By choosing to privatize the VRS, much as the national Republican Party would like to privatize Social Security, Mr. Kilgore would offer a large percentage of workers in our region an unacceptable reduction in retirement benefits. For the southwestern region of Virginia, privatizing the VRS would impact all state and local government employees who pay into the VRS, in particular teachers in the public schools of the region. In some localities, the public school system is the largest single employer. Privatizing the VRS would have far-reaching and lasting negative impact for all of Southwestern Virginia.

Mr. Kilgore would like to place the taxation burden on localities. He conceals his true intentions by "pledg[ing] to give localities the ability, through referendum, to decide taxation issues for themselves" while planning to reduce state taxes by substantial margins (although I have yet to see in writing his complete taxation 'relief' plan). By 'offering' localities the ability to "decide taxation issues for themselves," Mr. Kilgore has essentially said to the people of Southwestern Virginia that they are on their own. State taxation funds will no longer be available to localities to help offset the costs of operating schools, landfills, sheriff's offices, prosecutor's offices, and other local necessities. The entire tax burden (at least substantially MORE of the tax burden) will shift to local Boards of Supervisors. Do you think your property taxes are high now? Just wait until Mr. Kilgore is elected Governor and see how high they climb! Does he honestly expect Southwestern Virginia to believe that shifting the tax burden back on us will be good for our communities? Does he really expect us to buy his argument that a Kilgore governorship will be good for the counties and localities of Southwestern Virginia?

Mr. Kilgore's "law-and-order credentials" certainly qualify him to be a local sheriff, but nothing he has done as Attorney General (in his brief stint in that office) can recommend him to be Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. There is only one choice on November 8 for Virginians, but more especially for Southwestern Virginians. That choice will keep our economy strong and keep money in the state coffers (not give it back to the wealthiest of us). That choice will be the man who protects retirement and maintains a fair taxation balance between state and local government. That choice is the man who has helped to lead Virginia out of dire economic straits, and who will continue the successful policies of his predecessor. That choice is TIM KAINE for Governor on November 8.

BUSHISM of the Day

"Those of us who spent time in the agricultural sector and in the heartland, we understand how unfair the death penalty is." ---Omaha, NE; 28 February 2001

I did not realize there was such a strong correlation between the heartland and the death penalty.

BUSHISM of the Day

"Didn't we already give them a break at the top?"
---To economic advisors urging the elimination of taxes on dividends, as quoted by Paul O'Neill; 26 November 2002


Did he actually own up to the upper-class tax break, or is it just my misunderestimation of his commentary?

BUSHISM of the Day

Asked what he imagined reporters eat, then-Governor Bush replied, "Brie and cheese." ---23 August 2001

BUSHISMs of the Day

"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." ---Saginaw, MI, 29 September 2000


"I must confess. It did confuse some of the folks at the Crawford, Texas, coffee shop when I was traveling around the country with Theodore Kennedy." ---13 May 2002

Yes, I suppose it would since no one knows who Theodore Kennedy is. Do you mean Edward (Ted) Kennedy (Senior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts) by any chance, Mr. President?


"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family." ---27 January 2000

See this link for some more fun times with Mr. Bush and his 'speechalist'.


"I also understand how tender the free enterprise system can be." ---9 July 2002

Is it kind and loving also?

BUSHISM of the Day

"Unfairly but truthfully, our party has been tagged as being against things. Anti-immigrant, for example. And we're not a party of anti-immigrants. Quite the opposite. We're a party that welcomes people." ---1 July 2000

BUSHISM of the Day

"We need to counter the shock wave of the evildoer by having individual rate cuts accelerated and by thinking about tax rebates." ---4 October 2001


I had not really recognized how quickly Bush's administration was working to use Sept 11, 2001 to its political advantage until I read this quote. We can counter the evildoer by giving people tax rebates. Who needs to ask the nation for sacrifices in the face of danger when we can go about Republican business as usual and give the rich all of their (sweat-free) money back to them while placing a heavier tax burden on the middle class, and selling all of our debt to the one great nation-state that remains a military threat to this nation? Is it no wonder that the number of people living below the poverty line in the U.S. increased by nearly four million people last year? The policies of Reagan-Bush have proven once again that 'trickle-down' economics is a fallacy, and that all they do is decrease the size of the middle class. It is policies like these that Karl Marx had in mind that would lead to the elimination of the middle class and the eventual overthrow of the bourgeousie by the proletariat. Our world has never seen a truly Marxist state, but give Bush and his ilk enough time and we will.

BUSHISM of the Day

"But the true threats to stability and peace are these nations that are not very transparent, that hide behind the -- that don't let people in to take a look and see what they're up to. They're very kind of authoritarian regimes. The true threat is whether or not one of these people decide, peak of anger, try to hold us hostage, ourselves; the Israelis, for example, to whom we'll defend, offer our defenses; the South Koreans." ---Media roundtable, Washington D.C., 13 March 2001


Okay, some commentary on this Bush quote: Mr. Bush claims that the true threats are regimes that hide their true intentions, that mask their true actions in the public sphere, that keep people in the dark about their policies. It takes one to know one, Mr. Bush! A government that tries to work behind close doors without full disclosure to its citizens can very well be a threat to peace and stability throughout the world. Under the Bush Doctrine, the United States is one of these countries.

I can't even comment on anything else from this quote because I don't really understand it. Anyone?

BUSHISM of the Day

"Let me put it to you this way, I am not a revengeful person." ---Time magazine, 25 December 2000

BUSHISM of the Day

"I admit it, I am not one of the great linguists." --To Tom Brokaw, Inside the Real West Wing, 23 January 2001

Quote of the Day

"To be poor in America was to be invisible, but not after this week, not after those images of the bedraggled masses at the Superdome, convention center and airport. No one can claim that the post-Reagan orthodoxy of low taxes and small government, which does wonders for the extremely rich, also inevitably does wonders for the extremely poor. What was that about a rising tide lifting all boats? What if you don't have a boat?"

- Eugene Robinson, columnist for The Washington Post

BUSHISM of the Day

"I want you to know that farmers are not going to be secondary thoughts to a Bush administration. They will be in the forethought of our thinking." ---10 August 2000


Right up front, there, in the front row. That's right...no more worrying about the second row of up front, no indeed. Front row...right up front. When we think we are thinking about thinking we think about upfront thoughts first. Any questions?