The Republicans old tag line on Democrats in government is that we spend money like drunken sailors. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has used that term ad nausea when referring to the Mississippi House of Representatives. So for a Republican president to say that Wall Street was drunk with a hangover is especially telling.
Without a major power point presentation or rattling off a gaggle of statistics, Bush summed up the troubles the American economy is facing with a humorous analogy, well I say humorous because the people attending the fundraiser seemed amused. However, to the households in America that are facing foreclosure, that cannot afford health care and are coping with higher gasoline and food prices, the situation the �drunks� on Wall Street have put them on, is anything but humorous.
Yet, the GOP wants to continue to tote the water for the drunken Wall Street crowd. Like most of our friends that may imbibe too much, we make sure that they get home without incident and then laugh about it at a later time. That is exactly the strategy the GOP wants to do with this economic crisis, by limiting the damage through continued tax credits to the wealthy and expansion of their government deregulation philosophy.
What Bush should be sensitive to is that a drunk has the potential to do damage to more people than him or herself. In the case of Wall Street, their drunken lust for capital has had a devastating effect on people they will never interact with, nor do they care about. They raise the cost of oil per barrel to cover their losses on subprime loans that were used to fund 401Ks and pensions, meanwhile a person in Mississippi may lose his home, his retirement and his ability to go to and from work based on those actions.
The Wall Street crowd tells everyone not to worry, we have everything under control. Haven�t you heard an alcoholic say that before someone that really cares gets them into rehab? I contend it is time for Wall Street to go into a Greed Anonymous program, closely monitored by a Federal Government that does not want to stymie capitalism, but must gain control of a business community that has not shown Adam Smith�s hands-off theory, highlighted in his tome �The Wealth of Nations�, in its best light.
But according to McCain�s economic team, which consists of, by the way, a woman who once was in the class of CEOs that make more in 10 minutes than their employees in a year until she spied on her own board members and, now formally, a economist who invested in an adult movie and then supported Ed Meese in his crusade against pornography, my commentary is nothing more than whining. The economy is not that bad (translated, �Dude I�m not that wasted.�), they will contend.
In my opinion, we cannot continue to elect people (insert Republicans) that have that mentality any more. In my campaign speeches, I have said that this election is a battle between Wall Street versus Main Street. I am glad that President Bush has made that more crystal clear.
Source: Religioscope
Author: Richard Cimino
While there have been allegations in the past of government investigation of mosques on issues relating to terrorism, the recent report, first featured in the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper, is said to be the first confirmation that surveillance is taking place.
An article in the Los Angeles Times (May 29) reports that information about the alleged spying surfaced in a case about classified files concerning terrorism that were stolen from a secure office used by military and civilian law enforcement officials at Camp Pendleton. Some of these classified records referred to the surveillance of Muslim communities in Southern California, specifically, the Islamic Center of San Diego. The records alleged that the mosque had been monitored as part of a federal surveillance program targeting Muslim groups, according to the Union-Tribune article. Read More »
Source: Salon
Author: Juan Cole
The U.S. Justice Department is considering a change in the grounds on which the FBI can investigate citizens and legal residents of the United States. Till now, DOJ guidelines have required the FBI to have some evidence of wrongdoing before it opens an investigation. The impending new rules, which would be implemented later this summer, allow bureau agents to establish a terrorist profile or pattern of behavior and attributes and, on the basis of that profile, start investigating an individual or group. Agents would be permitted to ask "open-ended questions" concerning the activities of Muslim Americans and Arab-Americans. A person's travel and occupation, as well as race or ethnicity, could be grounds for opening a national security investigation.
The rumored changes have provoked protests from Muslim American and Arab-American groups. The Council on American Islamic Relations, among the more effective lobbies for Muslim Americans' civil liberties, immediately denounced the plan, as did James Zogby, the president of the Arab-American Institute. Said Zogby, "There are millions of Americans who, under the reported new parameters, could become subject to arbitrary and subjective ethnic and religious profiling." Zogby, who noted that the Bush administration's history with profiling is not reassuring, warned that all Americans would suffer from a weakening of civil liberties. Read More »
This time it's Thomas Jefferson's words that are on the chopping block... Read More »
-Nick Danger
up Fort Meade and two other military bases where the EPA says dumped chemicals pose "imminent and substantial" dangers to public health and the environment.
The actions are part of a standoff between the Pentagon and environmental regulators that has been building during the Bush administration, leaving the EPA in a legal limbo as it addresses growing concerns about contaminants on military bases that are seeping into drinking water aquifers and soil.
Under executive branch policy, the EPA will not sue the Pentagon, as it would a private polluter. Although the law gives final say to EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson in cleanup disputes with other federal agencies, the Pentagon refuses to recognize that provision. Military officials wrote to the Justice Department last month to challenge EPA's authority to issue the orders and asked the Office of Management and Budget to intervene.
Experts in environmental law said the Pentagon's stand is unprecedented.
It appears we have another Bush administration travesty of justice and that it's going nearly unreported in the mainstream media. Why is this story not front and center? Shouldn't we bring this story front and center? The editorial department of your local paper is but a mouseclick away...Let's stand up for our rights and those of all americans as we paint Washington blue in Novemeber!
Nine percent of respondents said the country's economic condition had improved since Bush became president, compared with 75% who said conditions had worsened. Among Republicans, 42% said the country was worse off, while 26% said it was about the same, and 22% thought economic conditions had improved. Many Republicans polled admitted they'd voted for Bush in the past two elections but wouldn't do so again. That's good since he can't run again but how does that translate to Barack Obama?
We have three a three front war the Obama campaign must wage 1) Unify Democrats, 2) attract Independents to the campaign and 3) go behind the Red curtain and secretly enlighten sectors of the disenfranchised to join our ranks. Of course this all must be done with finesse while not appearing to move too far in any one direction or toward any one group or segment of any group while also being careful not to make the slightest mistake in any speech, appointment or otherwise that might be construed as fodder for the cannons of the Republican guard. It's a tall order to be had, but done with grace will take us over the beach-head and through the jungle to our prize.
We find ourselves at a cross roads and the time has come to not wrestle with each other over policy matters but to forge a sharp cohesive tool the campaign would like and desperately needs to cut a swath right through that jungle with ease. The time has come to lay down our egos and set our differences aside to ensure that we win this election. We can find ways to blame the W and hold our breath but the most powerful way to use this weapon...and we've got to come up for air sooner or later, after all we are mammals and thinking ones at that... is to use these poll numbers to unify ourselves as one voice. The time has come to shore up our support for a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress! Mount your steed ladies and gentlemen and crack those whips... Talyho!
Hensley, founded by Cindy McCain's late father, holds federal and state licenses to distribute beer and lobbies regulatory agencies on alcohol issues that involve public health and safety. The Phoenix piquant of pint, has also opposed such groups as Mothers Against Drunk Driving in fighting proposed federal rules requiring alcohol content information on every package of beer, wine and liquor.
Its executives, including John McCain's son Andrew, have written at least 10 letters in recent years to the Treasury Department, have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to a beer industry political action committee, and hold a seat on the board of the politically powerful National Beer Wholesalers Assn.
Hensley has run afoul of health advocacy groups that have tried to rein in appeals to young drinkers. For example, the company distributes caffeinated alcoholic drinks that public health groups say put young and underage consumers at risk by disguising the effects of intoxication.
Doesn't it seem obvious that the involvement of McCain's family in federal regulatory issues could create a conflict of interest for a future McCain administration? According to advocacy groups and political analysts that's just the case. Are we saving this tidbit of good tidings for the general election or just to celebrate our new found brew in the local tap room? As a Senator he's perfected his bob and weave off the highway but on the highway to the white house there could be trouble brewing. Raise your glass cause these suds are
The closer we get to the presidential election the more John McCain looks and acts like George W. Bush. I don't know what his strategy is all about but do we really want another term of the neocons and Bush? I think not! Perhaps, he is banking on another 9/11 or something to shock Americans into the same fear-hold Karl Rove and the rest of the neocon manipulators had on the people...You know that PNAC group (which has since shut down their site...hmmm I wonder why, does rats overboard mean anything?) But, the PNAC in order to unleash their foreign/military campaigns needed a catalyzing event like "a new Pearl Harbor". (neocon quote) 9/11 rode to their rescue. Now they were able to Pied Piper all the little frightened children into the black hole of hell. But their utopian plan did not work out so well. Maybe they need another Pearl Harbor because it seems the little children have lost some of their fear and may need a booster shot. How much more can we take? Obama or Anyone But McBush! Thanks, thinkingblue
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