I was shaky on the war in Iraq when it started, but I was in college at the time-- and in AF-ROTC-- and I was given no right to speak my mind about it. I knew what could go right and I knew what could go horribly wrong.
I really don't understand why people are so up in arms over the economy. They keep saying "this is the worst the economy has been since the Great Depression."
We had eight years of Bush and Cheney, but now you get mad! You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President. You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed energy company officials to dictate energy policy. You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got ousted. You didn't get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.
As Mr. Paul Harvey used to say... You didn't get mad ...when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us; when we spent over 600 billion (and counting) on said illegal war; when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq; when you found out we were torturing people; when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.
You didn't get mad when... we didn't catch Bin Laden; you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed; we let a major US city drown; we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich, ; using reconciliation; a trillion dollars of our tax dollars were redirected to insurance companies for Medicare, an advantage which cost 20 percent more for basically the same services that Medicare provides.
You didn't get mad when the deficit hit a trillion dollar mark, and our debt hit the thirteen trillion dollar mark. You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans - oh hell no!
I would like to express my appreciation to a dear, close friend who sent me this material. I cannot claim authorship, but I completely agree with what has been said. Chew on it awhile...
Let's say you purchase a new home in a development with restrictive covenants and a HOA (Home owners association) with yearly dues of $600.00 and you've been paying said dues for the past two years.
Let's say there are 100 dues paying homeowners.
Let's say the developer is in control of the dues and responsible for maintenance and up keep until the development is 100% owner occupied.
Let's say before the development is 100% owner occupied the developer goes bankrupt because the bank isn't making mortgage loans, or because the bank foreclosed on the developer because of the economy and the meltdown of the mortgage industry.
What happens to the Home owners, the HOA and the dues?
Well what do you know, former Homeland Insecurity Director Tom Ridges is singing like a bird in his newly released book and says Bush, Dick and Rummy ( aka the a$$e$ of evil) used Terra Lerts for political gain. I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!
You mean to tell me the Terra Lerts were used to terrorize the American people for political gain? You mean to tell me the red, yellow, orange and green color coded Terra Lerts were well, lies? Tell me it's not so!
And why pray tell are we just finding out finding out the orange Terra Lert didn't mean run and hide and the red Terra Lert didn't mean run for your life? Why isn't the media covering this 24/7? Are we safe yet? Are your ducks taped? I thought we were fighting them over there so we wouldn't have to fight them over here?
Hi all!
Postings and comments will be light for the next couple of days due to a lack of internet (bummer)and cable TeeVee access. Remember the good old days when it didn't take weeks to change your service from one location to another? Remember when there was competition instead of a monoply regarding cable access (countrycat)?Did you know some areas of the county don't access to broadband? But I digress.
"Conservative ACTIVIST vow to keep up the fight against President Obama's healthcare reform bill"! Say's MSNBC blond bimbo talking tevee pundit head Alex Twit. She needs to look in the mirror so she can see just how stoopid she sounds. It's not "President Obama's healthcare reform bill" Alex, It's the American people's healthcare reform bill. It's what the MAJORITY of the American people mandated on November 8, 2008.
WTF is this "Conservative ACTIVIST" bull crap? Where were these so called "conservative ACTIVIST" when Bush and Dick sent our sons and daughters to Iraq to look for WMD that was NOT THERE and without an exit plan? Where were these "conservative activist" when Bush and Dick raided the surplus to give their rich cronies a tax break? Where were these "conservative activist" when Bush and Dick outted an undercover CIA agent? Why weren't they yelling "we want our country back" when Bush and Dick were spying on Americans without a warrant and passing the Patriot act?
I'll tell you where the "conservatist activist" were. They were protesting against the war protestors and calling those that didn't agree with the war or Bush and Dicks' policies dirty, commo, pinky, fags, girley men, birkenstok wearing, volvo driving, long haired, peaceniks, latte drinking, arugla eating, traitors who didn't support the troops or love our country who should leave and go live in France and take anti American George Sorors with them. They were waiving their rights while waving their flags and slapping yellow support our troops magnets made in China on their SUV's.
Nancy Pelosi, Henry Waxman, Charles Rangle, Barney Frank, and President Obama are resident evil and the devil incarnate! They took us to war based on dead wrong intellingence. They raided the surplus. They created debt as far as the eye can see. Over 4000 American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq because of them. They appointed Heck of a job Brownie to head FEMA whose incompetence led to suffering and dying after Katrina. They outsourced jobs overseas and left our boarder unprotected. They spied on the American people without a warrant. They outted an under cover CIA agent. They are just plain evil I tell you. The nerve of them wanting to provide evil healthcare to the unisured. It's just evil to want Americans to have jobs so they can provide for their families. And how evil is it to want children to have access to a quality education? They are the root of all evil and they must be stopped before they pull the country out of the ditch!
Thank goodness we have elected officials like Bobby "not so" Bright, Wayne Parker Griffith and the rest of the Blue DOGS to fight them at every turn! They'll see to it we don't have no stinking access to healthcare. And who needs a stupid job anyway? Children don't need to learn how to read, write and do arithmatic to be successful, ask Bush.
republicans can't handle the truth, they would RATHER believe a lie.
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint. President Barack H. Obama 1/20/2009
I would like to make note there were over 2 million people at the inauguration of President Barack Obama and not 1 arrest. Not one protest. There were no so called "first amendment zones". No police brutality. The people were safe and free. God Bless America
Today is the beginning of the end of our long national nightmare. Two more days and we'll be free at last from the culture of corruption and cronynism. Free at last from Karl Rove politics and Scooter Libby justice. Free at last from a government that is not accountable to we the people. Free at last from a government that can lie to the American people without impunity. If we could be free of the white wing MSM media things would be perfect.
There are some who feel we should just get over the last eight years and move on. But is it really possible to move forward without looking back? Can we just forget all that's happened during the last eight years? Can we get over the fact we were lied to? Despite what we've been told, is there a such thing as the perfect crime? What about the rule of law? Are we a nation of laws or a nation of men? Can we forget and forgive? Should we?
I understand that many feel we should just move on. They worry that addressing these actions by the Bush administration will divert precious energy from the serious challenges facing our nation. I understand the power of that impulse. Indeed, I want to move on as well -- there are so many things that I would rather work on than further review of Bush's presidency. But in my view it would not be responsible to start our journey forward without first knowing exactly where we are.
We cannot rebuild the appropriate balance between the branches of government without fully understanding how that relationship has been distorted. Likewise, we cannot set an appropriate baseline for future presidential conduct without documenting and correcting the presidential excesses that have just occurred.
Congressman Conyers appeared the Ed Shultz Show on Air America Friday. He said he intends to ask President Elect Obama and Attorney General designate Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecuter to investigate the Bush mis administration. If we can have a special prosecutor for a consentual sex act, surely we can have one for this (my words not Conyers). It's not about payback or retailiation. It's about justice, justice for all, not just for some.
I just wrote and emailed this to a few dozen friends around the world. Then I figured it was worthy of a Front Page post here at Left in Alabama. Only change is my embedding, rather than linking, the Olbermann thing.
Dear All,
Of course, hopefully this won't be "the last word" on the Bush Regime, which spent 8 years lurching between shocking incompetence and shameless criminality. The Hague should have the last word on this, though I'm certainly not holding my breath for that to transpire -- of course we've all learned, in small and large ways, that sometimes the "bad guys" do win. Alas, for the tantalizing-but-vain dream of instant karma . . .
At any rate, on Election Day '08 the "bad guys" didn't win and come next Tuesday, we'll all be celebrating that and, then, getting down to the business -- along with the new President -- of getting things back on track. It should be noted with irony that John McCain spoke his most eloquent and moving words during his concession speech, wherein regarding Barack Obama he said:
"These are difficult times for our country, and I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face. I urge all Americans -- (applause) -- I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together..."
Before moving on, though, let's allow The Economist, and Keith Olbermann, to put a lid on what's transpired over the past tumultuous 8 years:
After reading and watching this, go ahead and take a shower to wash it all off, and, then, faces to the wind, and to the Future. And enjoy January 20th. Very, very much.
WASHINGTON - Lilly Ledbetter, the Jacksonville woman who spoke at the Democratic National Convention last year and is the namesake of federal legislation regarding employment rights, will be a special guest on the train carrying President-elect Barack Obama to his inauguration.
Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden will take a whistle stop tour along the east coast before arriving in Washington for the Jan. 20 inauguration, and Ledbetter will be one of about 40 invited guests on the train.
Ah, those pro-life red states. Mississippi now has highest birthrate among teens. Reckon it's got anything do with the fact Bush and Company closed all the planned parenthood clinics and used the money to tell teenage girls if they don't want to get pregnant don't have sex with boys?
Some experts have blamed the national increase on increased federal funding for abstinence-only health education that does not teach teens how to use condoms and other contraception. They said that would explain why teen birth rate increases have been detected across much of the country and not just in a few spots.
Owens, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, focused on the case of Horace Huntley, a long-time UAB history professor. Huntley has sued the university, claiming discriminatory treatment based on race.
Writing for Daily Kos, the girl expresses her gratitude to the Iraqi Journalist who threw both his shoes at pResident Bush for her early Christmas gift.
Okay, I got what I wanted for Christmas.
A few days ago I wrote a diary about having George W. Bush brought to my house tied up in a red bow (just like Clark Griswold's boss in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation) so he could explain to me exactly why he's ruined my son's Christmas - as well as his safety, security and his environment.
So while I didn't get to personally shove my Christmas tree up George W.'s ass, watching the shoes whiz by his head was almost as good. In fact, it was better because I didn't actually have to stomach seeing George W's actual ass.
And because I didn't actually have to suffer being tackled to the ground, dragged off and end up being taken into custody without my shoes.
Kos says if CNN Talking TeeVee Head John King is asking Obama to prove a negative and if he wants to play the guilt by state association game have at it. I didn't know John King was from Idaho.
John King is from Idaho, which makes me wonder if he has ever had a tryst with Larry Craig, who is also from Idaho. Don’t you see the obvious connection? They are both from Idaho, just like Obama and Balgojevich are BOTH FROM CHICAGO. It is right there in front of your eyes, folks! Will John King be able to prove he has never had sex with Larry Craig in a bathroom stall? We need answers!
Oliver Willis is wondering if he can call republicans traitors and accuse them of undermining the Commander in Chief when they go after President Elect Obama like they did him? A commenter says NO way.
No. No you will not. Going after Obama will be a sign of fair-minded patriotism, and Obama will not be the Commander In Chief — as a Democrat, he cannot properly hold that title.
Instead he will be relabeled “Destroyer of the Military” just like Bill Clinton was so harshly blamed for the tiny force and base reductions started by Bush Sr., because, hey, obviously it was just craaaaazy to think that after the Soviet Union collapsed we could maybe save some money on WWII era nonfunctional bases.
The African American Political Pundit weighs in on the Carolyn Kennedy and wonders if race and class will make her questions her the next U.S. Senator.
Speaking of qualified black persons being at the bottom of the list my favorite conservative blog Flashpoint agrees with Charles Barkley that race was the reason Turner Gill was not hired as head coach at Auburn.
There was no animus toward Chizik. Who can blame him? If you ran your company into the ground and then one of your competitors offered you their vacant CEO position at double the salary you would take it too. No, something clearly is amiss in the upper echelons of Auburn and its board for this hiring decision to be made.
Members of the United Auto Workers at a monthly benefit meeting. (Photo: Getty Images)
I am an American worker, and you are damn right I want the wealth to be shared and spread. I am talking about the wealth my hard work helped to create, but was taken from me by George Bush's base, the very rich, or as I know them, my corporate bosses. For the past eight years I have watched W.'s and McCain's (Country Club First) base grab the largest share of our country's wealth. Where did they take it from? They took it from my family's pocketbook, and my co-workers' families' pocketbooks. They stole the wealth that I was trying to build for me and my family when they stripped my pension plan from me and told me to invest in a 401k. Then they stole most of that 401k and other workers' 401k savings with this economic meltdown. This was a massive transfer of wealth from the workers' pockets into the already stuffed pockets of the rich. My retirement savings and my coworkers' savings all across America have been looted by the corporate bosses, who just got bailed out while we got left out. Again!
Every four years, as Americans, we face a duty and a privilege. We walk into a voting booth and decide the direction our great nation will take. We elect a president and vice president and we elect legislators in the Senate and in the House of Representatives. Every election year we hear that this is the most important election since...whenever.
Well, here it comes again. I am writing to suggest that this is indeed the most important election since Abraham Lincoln's second term. In that fateful year, the republic affirmed the action Lincoln had taken to defend the inseparability of the union, an endorsement of a doctrine of indivisiblilty and unity. A defeat for Lincoln would have meant either a retreat from the concept of one nation, or a headlong rush into draconian punishments heaped on the South for its actions. But Lincoln won and even though he died for his ideals, the nation did survive, and survives to this day.
You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Nigger, nigger, nigger,’ By 1968, you can’t say ‘nigger’ — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things, and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites.” --Lee Atwater, 1981 Interview with a political science professor
The truth is that Hispanics came here as conquerors. African-Americans came here as slaves. Hispanics consider themselves above blacks. They won't vote for a black president."
This is just in the last 48 hour news cycle.
Black people continue to be the designated scapegoats for all that is wrong with America.
NPR discussed how GOP methods leave Democrats utterly defenseless. This is a point of pride for conservatives, "They don't even defend themselves." Why can't liberals fight back? My own thinking on why the Atwater, and now the Rove, strategy is so effective is that calling something racist requires an explanation when the racism is veiled. There is no public forum to unpack the prejudice from subtle buzz phrases like "states rights" and "forced bussing" and "catching spears." Liberals hear these things and want a dialetic; conservatives want votes.
And before anyone starts screaming about Godwin's Law and the Jewish persecution of Kristallnacht... THIS IS ABOUT ECONOMICS. As was Kristallnacht, as Tek's essay explains.
I have taken the liberty of editing Tek's piece for spelling, grammar, syntax and punctuation, and emphasising elements of the essay I feel are important to the historical parallel. I've also reproduced only that part of the essay I believe relevant to the argument.
I thought Bush said his tax cut for the rich was going to create millions of new jobs and grow our economy? The GOP thinks that war is an economic plan.
I just heard Bush's "big announcement" re the economy today. It lasted almost two minutes and basically said "I'm not asleep. I've been doing stuff. I don't understand what it was, but I've been doing it."
I think we'd all be more "comforted" if he had just acknowledged that he's a moron and his advisors are all ideological, compromised hacks. At least then the country wouldn't be expecting any help from this failed adminstration and we could face the reality of what's happened and what the future is going to look like for the rest of our lives.
These people have destroyed our country. Destroyed. I say stake 'em out to an ant hill and cover 'em with honey. Or at the very least try them for treason. Maybe they'd offer a mental defect defense and we could lock them up.
Too venomous? I'm sorry. My dog is a more inspirational leader.
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No. No you will not. Going after Obama will be a sign of fair-minded patriotism, and Obama will not be the Commander In Chief — as a Democrat, he cannot properly hold that title.
Instead he will be relabeled “Destroyer of the Military” just like Bill Clinton was so harshly blamed for the tiny force and base reductions started by Bush Sr., because, hey, obviously it was just craaaaazy to think that after the Soviet Union collapsed we could maybe save some money on WWII era nonfunctional bases.