Godwin invoked, thread closed.

I am indeed clueless, Peter! I have tried in vain to compare our little tyrant to Stalin, and Hitler, or even this unfortunate fellow Sadaam, and I know that I must be a fool, for our little tyrant doesn't seem nearly as bad as those people. Surely I am missing something. But, as I am a fool, I can do nothing but dumbly wait for the full advent of the Bush-driven holocaust that so many intelligent people are assuring me is already happening.

It seems to me that he must work hard and fast to bring this about, however...he has only a few years left at most before, as I understand it, he must step down. But he is vicious, and ruthless! He must be, for so many intelligent people have told me so. Perhaps he will find a way to subvert that process, by declaring some kind of emergency to which sheep such as myself will silently assent. Perhaps that is his devious plan! But...how can this be, if he is as stupid as so many intelligent people have said? Perhaps he is not stupid...perhaps his cunning and craft is so deep, that he has hidden his true guile...perhaps our underestimation of him will be our undoing! That must be the case.

But, as I am so foolish, you must ignore me and my prattling. Surely, there are many others far wiser than I, who will stop this little tyrant before he can realize his overwhelming ambitions.

One party's tax cut is another party's fiscal irresponsibility. It's a push. But I agree the Dems need a concept and it is the economy. They should remind voters how good it was four years ago. Ask them which they'd rather have: the boom party or the boom-boom party.

None of this is going to matter if the Democrats keep refusing to find a common POSITIVE alternative message to send to voters. One thing that Reagan, Clinton and even Shrub managed to do is paint themselves as leaders who were going to take direct action towards a goal. Never mind that much of that was just rhetoric and jingoism -- it sells. Acting like a Greek chorus to moan about what a dufus Shrub is does nothing to convince voters to seek an alternative when no positive alternative is available. The list shows clear targets to go after -- Americans are out of work so find ways to get them back to work, Americans are afraid of terrorists so do something REAL to stop them and so on. Regardless of why Shrub is popular, the simple fact is that he IS and so to stop him a Democratic candidate must not only point out Shrub's shortcomings, the candidate must USURP that popularity by delivering the kind of message that Americans want to hear -- not what you think they should hear.

For example, tax cuts sell, so instead of trying to explain why they hurt a bad economy, why not push an equally crazy, but more appealing tax cut like a $2000 cash rebate to EVERY American? Obviously $2000 is chump change to the rich, but to middle-America that's a pot of gold. Paint it as REAL relief for struggling Americans and since EVERY American gets it, you aren't "singling out the successful" or other such neocon-code for taxing the rich. Frankly, I haven't done the math, but I'll bet an immediate $2000 rebate to every tax-paying adult will cost less in the long run than the tax cut proposed by Shrub. After all, a 1% reduction in the rate Bill Gates pays would be equivalent to thousands of $2000 checks and who do you think people would vote for if given the two alternatives?

For every article criticising Shrub these days, there seem to be a shedload pointing out how hes not a bad man, he's not stupid and in fact he's probably God's gift to the planet.

Doesn't convince anybody outside the US.

This guy and his controllers are the most dangerous force to be seen in world politics for a long, long time. Inside a few years, he's managed to turn his biggest failure (Sept. 11th) into a 'crusade', all the time wrapping the American people in Old Glory - anything can be justified in the US these days as long as it's 'patriotic'. It's as worrying as hell to anyone who doesn't take the oath to the the stars and stripes every day, so that counts most of the world's population.

I'm glad to see that there are still US citizens that know what the score is, they see that US democracy is now being buried beneath a tidal wave of 'patriotism' and draconian laws. I'm a bit pissed that the loudest voices on the subject seem to be the neocons and chickenhawks, but there you go, that's democracy for you, even these idiots get to attempt censorship when their puppet is in the white house.

To Ian Wood, do you really think that people so corrupt and morally bankrupt should be left in charge until 2008? Are you serious? ONLY 2008? You have no clue, really, do you? Take your head out of your hamburger for a few minutes and look around at the other 4/5ths of the world....I don't think they agree with you...

Oh no! He's a tyrant! He'll kill millions! He'll billet jackbooted thugs in our houses! He'll build gulags in Montana and disappear millions of dissidents! Look out!

Oh, wait.

He can only stay in office until 2008. Never mind.

But wait! He's a dumb-ass! Look out!

Christ, what a waste of bits.

Edited by author 05-15-2003 05:00 PM
"* First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner."

It would be a Republican wet dream if they could get Democrats to make an issue out of the execution of Timothy McVeigh. Bush probably knew about the Oklahoma City bombing and let that happen too in order to enrich his wealthy friends.

Edited by author 05-15-2003 04:25 PM
Yeah, well that sounds a lot like this certain country called 'Germany' in '1934' at the hands of a 'Adolf H......

[ERR 182: Godwin's Law triggered: THREAD CLOSED]

I'd have to take issue with #2. I'm sorry, but the "surplus" is the biggest consensual hallucination ever foisted on the American people by the Democrats or the Republicans. Talk about taking two very close points and extrapolating an exponential curve -- it makes the dotcom mania look like sound economics.

"Hey, we're up half a trillion next year. In 12 years, we'll be swimming in it.". "Oops, we have a war. Now we'll be in grevious debt 12 years hence". I'm sorry, trying to make predictions like that have more to do with predictions in the national enquirer than anything scientific. And politicans are to blame here, not just the Dems and the GOP.

Edited by author 05-15-2003 03:08 PM
The following link is for an abstract of the article re: Bush's alleged AWOL.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html...08CDDA80994D8404482

Excerpts of this artcle are available via various political websites if you don't want to pay. It was only by chance that I stumbled across the info myself.

As for the pollution issue, in all honesty, I recently heard these statistics on the radio. Admittedly, not the most credible citation, but no less so than a made up resume found on the internet. *wink*

Oh, and let's not forget Clinton's resume:

-Got head in the Oval Office.
-(Repeat #1 for every room in the Whitehouse)
-Implicated in murder
-Committed purgery
-Somehow attributed to economic boom, yet NOTHING he did can explain this.
-Spent more time defending his illegal/immoral/etc activities than actually doing anything.
-Got attacked twice by AlQueda, did nothing about it.

Man, I can make a LONG-ass list about that one...

Since we're attributing things to GWB that he has no control over (like the deficit that he inherited), let's not forget:

-He crashed into the World Trade center and pentagon.
-He blew up the Space Shuttle.
-He spread SARS around the globe.
-He suicide bombed Israel many times.
-He bankrupted K-Mart

He had as much to do with MY list as he did the original list. I guess everyone forgets that the recession started under Clinton, Clinton's boom period started under Bush Sr, and none of which is relevant since the president had nothing to do with the economic boom/bust cycle anyway.

Oh, and Bush also caused the DC sniper shootings. Don't forget about that one...

What about CLINTON. That Clinton was bad. He had intern sex and then he lied about it (WHICH HE SHOULD NOT DO HE IS THE PRESIDENT NO LIES!!!1)!!! If you made a Clinton resume it would burn your hands when you held it because Clinton was so bad. So quite bashing on GW Bush Our Commander in Chief & YOUR President! Bush loves God! GOD!! (Remember HIM? The source of all morallity, creator of the universe? I didnt think so) Lefties can't stand that Bush is Good because all they want is welfare for lazy people and more terorists. (ADMIT IT YOU LOVE SADDAM!!) Clinton was the true evil and as for the whole 2000 thing you need to get over it cuz that was in the past. GWBush in 2004, 2008, 2012, 20016!!

Why can't we admit or at least all agree that the reason Bush doesn't do press conferences (and yes, people watch them) is because he is unintelligent and unable to speak more than a few simple words at a time.

Saying "No one watches them anyway, who cares" is pretty weak. Love or hate the man, he can barely speak English - and we should care about that.

Gee, Frank, I bet Tony Blair would make room for ya up in there. Cory's not the one who needs the shrink. I hope you develop an identity of your own one day.

* Attacked and took over two countries.
<< ONE ATTACKED US FIRST, THE SECOND ATTACKED OUR ALLY KUWAIT AND VIOLATED SURRENDER TERMS>>
* Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury.
<<THE TREASURY IS NOT BANKRUPT. THE US DOLLAR IS THE MOST WIDELY ACCEPTED CURRENCY IN THE WORLD AND WE KICK ASS WITH IT. THE SURPLUS WAS ENTIRELY DEPENDENT UPON A BOOMING ECONOMY, WHICH BEGAN CRASHING UNDER CLINTON>>
* Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.
<<IN REAL TERMS NO, THIS IS NOT A BIG DEFICIT RELATIVE TO GDP. DEFICITS OF THE 80S WERE LARGER>>
* Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.
<<WHY IS THIS BAD? WOULD YOU PREFER DEBTOR'S PRISON?>>
* Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market. <<NASDAQ CRASHED IN APRIL 2000>>
* First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.
<<SO WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE WITH MCVEIGH?>>
* First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record. <<HOW DO YOU KNOW?>>
* First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history. <<CORY YOU NEED A VACATION>>
* After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in US history. <<SO THIS WAS BUSH'S FAULT? THIS IS BEYOND PARTISAN, IT'S REALLY HATEFUL. SEE A SHRINK>>
* Set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips than any other president in US history. <<SOURCE?>>
* In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job. <<DURING A RECESSION, WAR, CLINTON-ERA CORPORATE SCANDALS, AND STOCK MARKET FREEFALL -- GIVE THE GUY A BREAK>>
* Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in US history. <<SOURCE?>>
* Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12 month period. <<SOURCE?>>
* Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history. <<SOURCE?>>
* Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television. <<NO ONE WATCHES THEM SO WHY DO THEM>>
* Signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in US history. <<WHERE IS YOUR SOURCE FOR THIS???>>
* Presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed. <<CALIFORNIA'S 90% SELF-INFLICTED INCOMPETENCE AND 10% GOUGING BY THE UTILITIES. GRAY DAVIS PLAYED POLITICS AND MADE IT WORSE, COSTING US BILLIONS.>>

Per Capita pollution is a more meaningful stat then absolute rank.

I do know that California, ranked with other states, is somewhere in the mid to high forties for per-capita energy consumption; Texas is in the top five. (Hawaii is lowest, as I recall, Alaska highest. Both understandable.)

Yes, Paul, Cory only looks like a shill for the Democrats. He actually fronts for a sinister conspiracy of Canadian SF authors who

LOST CONNECTION

He amended the constitution? That's has to be a first without official ratification by the states.

Only "look like?"

27, do you have a citation for either of those stats?

Cory this is weak. You look like a shill for the Democratic Party.

Can't say that I'm a tighty-righty... but I just wanted to mention that some of the info included in this "resume" is untrue. IE: California is still the most polluted state and the top 3 (at least) most polluted cities are all in California.

I can't vouch for the rest of the content of this resume, but when I heard that the pollution accomplishment was somewhat bogus, it made me wonder about the rest of it. I believe the whole AWOL business has been proven untrue as well.

Oh Cory, the Tighty-Righties will roast you for this one!

Heh. Just a garden-variety typo, I'm afraid.

Your Freudian slip is great.