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McPalin new FL stump promise: Will SHARE THE WEALTH of

Posted By: OS drilling revenues with Tallahassee....sm on 2008-10-29
In Reply to: SP's energy policies demonstrate - 4 important principles....sm

McSocialist: Drill baby drill, my friends, my friends, my friends, my friends. Alternative nuclear energy safety: Blah, blah,, blah, blah!. Yeah, baby!


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If we can't share the wealth, we can at least share a laugh...nm
x
obama's share the wealth plan

So Obama believes we should spread the wealth around. Here are his charitable contributions:


Obama_tax_returns_2


Too bad he wasn't spreading his wealth around these past years. Oh well he did give 800,000.00 to ACORN. You know them don't you? Do you suppose this is his idea of spreading the wealth?


Share the wealth -- Karl Marx...
as usual, take from those who have worked hard, achieved something and made something of themselves and give to those who are lazy and irresponsible and who think they are entitled just because life hasn't been fair to them. What an incentive for a great country.
McSocialist promises to SHARE THE WEALTH from offshore drilling revenues

At least he and SP seem to be on the same page today.  SP:  "...and Alaska - we're set up, unlike other states in the union, where it's collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs"....boasting to a reporter of having been able to send a check for $1,200 to every man, woman and child in the state since, quote "Alaska is sometimes described as America's socialist state, because of its collective ownership of resources.”


 


It's not McPalin, . . .
its the Palin-McCain ticket. She said so herself!
Uh, that's McPalin, sam
It's a euphemism for McCain-Palin. Do try to read a little more carefully. sam.

The only difference between McCain and Bush is that McCain's a worse war monger than Bush was. Palin was an afterthought, but she sure brought in a lot of votes for Obama.
So, it was okay for the uber-right-wing neocons to elect Bush and nominate McPalin?

Now THAT's tripe.........or should I say, our country has been disemboweled and that's why Obama won the election......no matter who voted for him in the MAJORITY.


Do you promise?.....nm
nm
You will, I promise you! nm
xxx
I promise you
that no matter how many drugs are floating around out there, I'm still not going to use any. It doesn't mean I approve of other people's use of them. Homosexuals can sodomize themselves silly. It doesn't mean I'm going to feel all warm and cozy for them and tell my children, "Look isn't that special?" Approval of sin makes a mockery of God.
He can promise the world now....
just like Clinton did. Then he will sit down with advisors who will tell him in a kind way what are you, nuts, there is no money. And he will have to come on TV and blame it all on the Republicans and that is why you won't get your tax cuts. Then he will turn right around and increase taxes on the wealthy who aren't near as wealthy anymore since the crash happened, more jobs will be lost, and we will go from recession to depression.

I don't think he will mean to cripple the country...but it will be crippled nonetheless.

I promise you, you will not wear us down.
Many may change their minds if you settle down somewhat and work, until the next vote, to present your argument.

However, you will not wear down or exhaust the will of those who are as passionate about upholding their values as you do yours.

Once again....another broken promise by the big O.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/11/12/obama_softens_ban_on_hiring_lobbyists/


 


So much for the change Obama promised to bring.  Sounds to me like it is the same old political bullcrap of the rules not applying to certain people.  Why bother saying stuff when you know you can't or won't do it?


Only if you actually PART this time, as you promise to do.

But then again, you've repeatedly proven your fondness for the truth, so I think it's safe to say that you're not going anywhere.  Out of all your posts, though, this one was just too precious to ignore.


As far as lumping me in the same category as GT and Observer, pardon me while I get all misty-eyed because this is probably the nicest thing you've ever said to me.  By telling me that, you're telling me that I'm a person who sees things clearly and realistically.  You're telling me that I have compassion for people who are in dire need of compassion these days.  You're telling me that I don't worship a false idol like you do.  You're telling me that I can see through the soulless, heartless, brainless moron whose boots you would gladly lick as you kneel to worship him.  You're telling me that I support our troops because I value their lives and only feel their lives should be placed in jeopardy when absolutely necessary to defend this country and not for a war borne out of lies and deceit by a president who most likely packed away his plans to attack Iraq in the box marked Personal and brought them with him when he relocated to the White House.  You're telling me that I have the insight, wisdom and intelligence to recognize when I'm being lied to and that I have the courage to vocally object to it, rather than make excuses for a man who only truly cares about rich people. 


Best of all, you're lumping me with two other posters whose views I thoroughly respect and am always eager to read, people with brains and consciences and hearts. 


So right when I become all misty-eyed at the wonderful compliment you've paid me, you say you're going to leave.


I suppose I can take solace in knowing that it's just another of your many, many lies, that you're probably just one of the many voices in MT's head, and I hope she doesn't kill you when she finds out you've complimented me, although I thoroughly understand the mounting panic and frustration those of your ilk must be feeling.


I hope you have a delightful evening, and once again, thank you so much for the wonderful compliment. 


 


I promise if you learn to spell. nm

How can he break a promise when he is not POTUS yet? nm
x
He's not a promise keeper yet. Don't jump the gun.

These press conferences are to let everyone know who's going to be in his cabinet and to reiterate that he had no contact with Blago. Why does he keep saying this? He supposedly is going to release documents "next week" that will prove it. So, I will wait until next week.


I just read an article by Morton Kondracke in the local newspaper where his health plan cost may top $3 TRILLION. That's almost as bad as the bailout plus. Where does he think this money is going to come from? THAT's the question I want answered.


All his other lofty promises, too. All will cost money. Who's going to pay?  He can't tax the businesses as they are the key to jobs and, if he does that, the jobs will be gone. He can't tax the working people because, if he does that, he's backing out on his promise plus the working people can't take any more taxes.


With unemployment at such high rates and more every day, how long do you think unemployment benefits will last? Already Michigan and another state have 0 balances in their unemployment benefit chest. The governor of PA (Rendell) stated he only has enough employment benefits in the coffer to last 6 months IF there are no more people opening a claim. Without people working, they aren't paying taxes. Without tax money, the government can't provide benefits. Even SS is at risk to run out before the stated time mentioned a year or 2 ago.


So tell me, will he wave a magic wand and the money will appear? Probably, which will lower our dollar purchasing power and put us more into debt.


It's time for people to wake up. The depression is here. The reason the O read about FDR is to try and figure out what to do, but FDR didn't have a crisis such as this. This is above and beyond anything that ever happened. 


 


That was McCain's campaign promise...
McCain promised "line-by-line", Obama promised "reform." Also, it is against the constitution (via Supreme Court) for the president to "line-by-line" - they can only sign or veto - that's it.
No dog? ANOTHER campaign promise broken?
I guess we shouldn't be too surprised that the "tax cuts for 95% of Americans" will "not likely survive a budget battle with Democrats on Capitol Hill".

That's good, Obama. Some leadership! And blame it on the legislature. That's your MO, isn't it,Obama? Blame everything on everyone else.

You love to have your cake and eat it too, don't you, you pathetic L O S E R.
Yet another campaign promise broken..... sm



This originally included pictures, but apparently they would not post here.

 

A Boeing 757 and a fleet of armored cars for Michelle’s sight seeing tour!



Michelle One




On Sunday, President Obama flew back to the United States on Air Force One. His wife, two daughters and her mother did a bit of shopping in Paris before taking their own Boeing 757 (C-32) over to London to do some sight seeing.



We all remember Obama’s admonishment to corporate CEO’s in February:



“You can’t get corporate jets, you can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers dime.”



Apparently that doesn’t apply to his wife.



The London Times opened it’s description of Michelle’s visit this way:




Motorcycle outriders, armoured Chevrolets and bullet-headed men in raincoats criss-crossed London yesterday as Michelle Obama and her daughters spent a second day on an unofficial visit to the capital.



The Times went on to describe that when Michelle and the girls arrived at Westminster Abbey, the building was closed to tourists with people already in told to “wait against the wall.” An American visiting the Abbey said “Right then I knew it was probably someone from our ‘royal family’.”

 




Michelle’s motorcade shut down the London street above as the First Lady of the World and her children go for Fish and Chips at a pub in Mayfair . The entourage inside the restaurant was 15 people while dozens more wait outside. Include the dozens of Air Force personnel to fly and service the plane, embassy personnel and other staff and we are talking about a serious expenditure of tax payer dollars.



Meanwhile, millions of Americans have lost their jobs and won’t be able to take their family on a summer holiday. Despite their circumstances they’ll still be expected to fork over the tax dollars to pay for Michelle’s trip!




 

tell the Hollywood crowd that...they always promise to leave, and never go....nm

More like Clinton's broken promise to cut our taxes

That little campaign platform that he would cut our taxes (middle income) when elected.  Within days after being elected he raised our taxes to the highest ever in record history.


Also, according the to U.S. Treasury website that tracks the national debt, there was never a surplus because the debt rose every year.  I know a lot of people don't like to hear that, but that is just the facts in black and white


During Clinton the National Debt was:






















































Fiscal
Year
Year
Ending
National Debt Deficit
FY1993  09/30/1993  $4.411488 trillion  
FY1994  09/30/1994  $4.692749 trillion  $281.26 billion
FY1995  09/29/1995  $4.973982 trillion  $281.23 billion
FY1996  09/30/1996  $5.224810 trillion  $250.83 billion
FY1997  09/30/1997  $5.413146 trillion  $188.34 billion
FY1998  09/30/1998  $5.526193 trillion  $113.05 billion
FY1999  09/30/1999  $5.656270 trillion  $130.08 billion
FY2000  09/29/2000  $5.674178 trillion  $17.91 billion
FY2001  09/28/2001  $5.807463 trillion  $133.29 billion


As you can clearly see, in no year did the national debt go down, nor did Clinton leave President Bush with a budget surplus that he subsequently turned into a deficit.  Its true the budget was "almost" balanced in 2000, but it never reached zero, let alone a positive number.  Also, the growing deficit started in the Clinton budget, not the first year of the Bush admin.


To understand what happened requires understanding two concepts of what makes up the national debt.  Therefore I will attach a link that explains this.


I do know a lot of people really liked Bill Clinton as a President.  No doubt about that.  He had charisma and was very mesmerizing to listen to him speak, but you just can't toss out facts.


http://www.letxa.com/articles/16


P.S., this article states you can access the US Treasury website to see for yourself.


Obama already trying to back out of his promise of change.

By Tim Reid, The Times of London


Barack Obama's senior advisers have drawn up plans to lower expectations for his presidency if he wins next week's election, amid concerns that many of his euphoric supporters are harboring unrealistic hopes of what he can achieve.


The sudden financial crisis and the prospect of a deep and painful recession have increased the urgency inside the Obama team to bring people down to earth, after a campaign in which his soaring rhetoric and promises of "hope" and "change" are now confronted with the reality of a stricken economy.


One senior adviser told The Times that the first few weeks of the transition, immediately after the election, were critical, "so there's not a vast mood swing from exhilaration and euphoria to despair."


The aide said that Obama himself was the first to realize that expectations risked being inflated.


And what about the promise Bush gave, I think about capturing him?
Well, we saw how far that went. By-by Bush.
Here we go again....another campaign promise bites the dust...

Obama Not Closing Door on Possible Health Tax


Referring to proposals to tax workers who get expensive insurance policies, Obama, who campaigned against the tax last year, said, "I don't want to prejudge what they're doing."


The unions are going to flip over that one...taxing of benefits.  Benefits are the backbones of unions and their power over their members.  Has it finally sunk in people...you cannot believe a word this man says.  He lies as easily as the rest of us breathe.  And the amazing thing is....it works for him.  Blinded by the obamalight.  lol.


Bush Breaks Nation's Promise to Veterans

This isn’t new (it’s from May), but it’s the first I saw it. I found it interesting but not surprising.  Our Veterans deserve much better.


The source is: http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.aspx?c=klLWJcP7H&b=727693&printmode=1


VETERANS
Bush Breaks Nation's Promise to Veterans


Appearing yesterday at the Arlington National Cemetery to honor generations of sacrifices by American servicemen and women, President Bush said, "At our national cemetery, we take comfort from knowing that the men and women who are serving freedom's cause understand their purpose and its price." Yet the reality has been that the administration that most recently has sent those men and women to fight for freedom's cause has failed for live up to government's age-old promise to "care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan."


BUSH'S 2006 VA BUDGET HITS VETERANS HARD: President Bush's 2006 budget proposal included legislation that would raise veterans' premiums more than 100 percent on prescription drugs and add an annual $250 enrollment fee for veterans who want care for conditions not directly caused by military service and who generally earn more than $25,000 a year. The administration has recommended these same proposals in each of the past few years, only to have them beaten back by Congress each time. The user fee would increase costs for nearly 2 million veterans nationwide.


WAR VETERANS EXCLUDED FROM COST OF WAR ON TERROR: Conservatives in Congress rebuffed an effort to include $2 billion in emergency money for veterans' health care in the recently passed $82 billion Iraq war supplemental. The president's request increased the VA budget a mere 2.7 percent (including the increased co-pays and enrollment fees), hardly sufficient to deal with an expected influx of Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans in the coming years. Nearly 28,000 soldiers who served in Iraq and were discharged have already sought care at a VA facility. Of the nearly 245,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan already discharged from service, 12,422 have been in VA counseling centers for readjustment problems and symptoms associated with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. VA Secretary Jim Nicholson has said the budget circumstances are not "dire," yet Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Larry Craig (R-ID) was forced to increase the 2006 budget request by $1 billion. Dave Autry, a spokesman for the Disabled American Veterans, said, "Vets are owed a debt and the government has said they are eligible for health care. The government needs to pay for it. It's a continuing cost of our national defense."


BUSH WANTS TO SHUT DOWN VETERANS HOSPITAL IN HIS OWN BACKYARD: Veterans in Bush's backyard, near his ranch in Crawford, Texas, are protesting his administration's decision to close a VA hospital in their town. "It would be, in my opinion, a tragic mistake to shut down our hospital, especially during a time of war when tomorrow's veterans are in harm's way today," said U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Waco). In May 2004, then-VA Secretary Anthony Principi announced he would be closing three veterans hospitals nationwide and partially closing eight others. For his work, Principi was rewarded with an appointment to the chairmanship of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commission.


VETERANS GROUPS SLAM BUSH BUDGET: More than 300,000 veterans' claims are pending before the VA, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, and the number of claims pending for more than six months rose from 47,000 in 2003 to 75,000 at the end of March 2005. The deteriorating condition of VA health care has elicited plenty of criticism. The American Legion called Bush's budget "the wrong message at the wrong time to the wrong constituency." The Vietnam Veterans of America said the budget did a "disservice to those of us who donned the uniform to defend the rights, principles, and freedoms that we hold dear." And the Veterans of Foreign Wars decried Bush's decision as "especially shameful during a time of war."


McCain: " I Can't Promise to Endorse Sarah Palin"

http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2008/12/14/mccain-wont-endorse-palin-for-2012/


 


Gotcha. Reject candidates who promise what we know they can't deliver.
...although that does raise the little problem of who, then, we could possibly vote for?

I read an interesting statement over the weekend and can't find it now, but basically it was this: When we scream at our politicians we're really screaming at the electorate that put them in office. And at bottom, that really is the problem. The politicians are exactly what our electorate has chosen. And frankly, I don't see the electorate changing for the better - especially younger voters - for which I think we can thank at least one generation of parents who didn't parent, and teachers who didn't teach.
'Bout time, too! This science shows such great promise in
N/M
Please share, then

Please share who they really are, since you seem to know.  I've been following this board for 4 years or so and I surely don't know who this poster is.  Whoever they are, though, they speak the truth about your postings, Observer.  You are not always the "lively" debater you claim to be when you utilize sarcasm, accusation and put-down so frequently.


I do notice that the posters from the Conservative board repeatedly accuse the posters on the Liberal board as all being the same person.  Dream on.


probably not- they just share

the same talking points.


 


okay, let me share something with you
I found myself alone and with two children with NO child support for quite a while and YES, it does stink but you know I found a job and continued to better myself, eventually receiving a little over $200 a MONTH in child support for 2 children. Now, I don't blame anyone for my situation. I made some poor choices along the way and I PICKED MYSELF BACK UP, prayed,and did the best I could. I received AFCD for ONE MONTH... I received food stamps for ONE MONTH and after that the only other thing that helped me was a little bit of help to cover what my insurance through work didn't cover for my children; that lasted about a year. After that, not a thing... I was back on my feet, I was making better money and working two jobs, one from home. There is all sorts of help out there already and it is awful nice that it was there to help me and my children in our time of need but ya know what?? I was grateful for that. I never once thought I was owed that help and never once complained when that help stopped.

I also know a couple of people who took advantage of the financial aid for school, etc. and when they were done they were able to make the money they needed to survive.

I feel for your daughter, I really do..... but it will get better if she keeps going and strives for more than the $10/hour job.... raise her expectations a little bit and she will get there.... You know no one said this life was going to be easy and I've had my share of hardships too, mostly brought on by poor choices. I will pray for your daughter this evening and I hope things will get better for her.

There are good people out and there may be room for more help to the ones who are helping themselves if the ones who are not willing to change their circumstances and are satisfied with all the help they get continue to live off the taxpayers' money.

IMO if someone is receiving ANY kind of government assistance, they need to be drug tested and made to be accountable for every cent they receive. If they can't NO MORE HELP. PERIOD.

There are plenty of people out there on disability for back injuries for instance who are collecting a check and who knows what else YET they go out and paint houses or do construction work and get paid under the table. Do you know that in Indiana, if you receive disability, once you are approved, they do not check again, unless they have received a complaint and even then, no guarantee they would lose it. Funny how I personally know someone who applied for disability and received it within 2 months and I know another person who had to use continuous oxygen and had other real medical issues that kept him from working and he had to appeal a denial for two years, after having to retain an attorney, before they would approve his. There is something definitely wrong with that picture.

Also, there are so many people in the grocery line, using their WIC or food debit cards and then go outside to a nicer car than I have... maybe it's a relatives, who knows? But they are dressed in nice clothes and eating steak and high $$$ food that I can't always fit into our budget, and I see them with 5 kids.

Some people learn from their mistakes and some people don't think they have made mistakes and continue to manipulate the system and quite frankly it disgusts me.

Sorry this is so long, I haven't even said everything I would like, but I sincerely hope something works out for your daughter.
I would try if you had any to share.

x


against wealth redistribution

I am fatigued with more and more of my paycheck going to the stockholders of the company I work for.  My benefits are being taken away, my line count has been "adjusted" several times in the last 10 years to make more profit for the stockholders. Meanwhile, the suits are given astronomical salaries and golden parachutes. 


Second issue.  It is very important to remember that the 3 remaining judges on the Supreme Court who are not conservative will be leaving very soon.  The pres who appoints their replacements will be impacting the nation for the next 30 to 40 years or so.  Think about it.   Can you imagine your 15-year-old granddaughter or great-granddaughter being forced to give birth to a horribly deformed baby because she made a  mistake?  Roe v Wade WILL be overturned if McCain is elected.  The court will be totally pro-corporate interests if mcCain is elected.  This is a much getter consequence that is not getting enough consideration amidst all the slogan throwing.


 


 


I don't really think a redistribution of the wealth
is the answer and don't necessarily agree with it either. What I would like to see though are these corporations, and individuals, that don't fairly pay taxes start paying what they are supposed to. They hide their money in off-shore accounts and redistribute it so they don't have to pay so much. I know that this happens, I started out in accounting in college and we had big long discussions about this. But I didn't have to have a class to know that this happens.
What exactly do you think spread the wealth
xx
I say YES to spreading the wealth

I am happy that FINALLY someone is standing up for the middle class.  I am happy that finally we will be given some tax breaks.  The wealth does NOT trickle down when the tax breaks are given to the upper class/business that fall in that tax bracket.  They do not create more jobs, therefore strengthening the middle class/economy.  What they do is line their pockets and get rich  and then save even more money and get even more tax breaks by sending work overseas and hiring people that will gladly work for way less an hour, therefore driving the value of American jobs down so that the rest of us, who are stuck trying to make it, find a decent paying job, are screwed.  I am voting for Obama and I think he is going to win.


spreading the wealth
no I dont and I dont want to.  But I do know about working my butt off and my husband his.  My husband has lost his job as a finish trim carpenter because of this ecomony.  I also know that since Bush has been in office, our lives have been that much harder.  Prices have gone up on EVERYTHING but our pay has not.  I also know that McCain did nothing but support Bush over the last eight years and only just recently has tried to separate himself from him.  Even McCain has said that he voted 90 percent of the time with Bush.  That is ALL I need to know.  By the way, not everyone who is having a hard time these days are people who refuse to work.  Not everyone that votes for Obama are people that are on welfare.  I have never been on welfare and would never be on welfare.  But unfortunately, the days of just simply working hard and getting ahead are gone.  It is NOT true.  I have been smart with my money, I work hard and I have been responsible with my credit but I cant see where I am getting anywhere. 
"Spread the wealth around"..also known as...
we are penalizing those who have worked hard, make a decent living, pay our bills and don't live above our means so that those who don't or won't do the same can ride our coat tails and not have to be responsible for themselves and feel some sort of entitlement. Some plan, placed squarely on the shoulders of hard working Americans who have done the right thing. Can you say SOCIALIST STATE?
Too bad that redistribution of wealth
won't benefit most of us.....it will benefit the low income people who want to mooch off of the government.  Besides, I still says that the middle class is fair game to Obama.  He will raise our taxes too....you just wait.
Redistribution of wealth...
"Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read "Vote Obama, I need the money." I laughed. Once in the restaurant my server had on a "Obama 08" tie, again I laughed as he had given away his political preference--just imagine the coincidence.

When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need--the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight.

I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I've decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful.

At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the hom eless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient deserved money more.

I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application."


Redistribution of Wealth

Redistribution of wealth is happening as I write this, except that it's all going to make greedy rich people richer.  Up to a trillion dollars now (and probably growing in the future), the Wall Street crooks are still earning their bonuses.


Why is it okay to redistribute the wealth to the WEALTHIEST while punishing people who are working hard and HONESTLY, just trying to feed their families?


The middle class has been diminishing in this country for a long time now, and it's almost extinct.  I'll never understand why people support rewarding those who are dishonest.


Redistribution of wealth...another way of saying
reparations, just not as blatant.
Redistribution of YOUR Wealth
Obama and Congress will let the Bush tax cuts expire in 2010. That will cost each of us MTs about $1,200 or so a year. He is proposing 3 new separte payroll taxes (new separate deductions) including his own bill now in Congress to "fight WORLD hunger." Sounds nice, but I would rather fight hunger at my house. If you think you are going to get a bunch of free stuff in return for all these new taxes, think again - that stuff will all evaporate after the election but the tax increases will remain, just like with Clinton. I heard last night that 57% of Americans think Republicans now control Congress - and these morons vote - scary.
Yes, need to spread that wealth around. LOL nm

So restribution of wealth

isn't taken away someone's rights even though it penalizes hardworkers by taking their money and giving it to people who don't?  I do believe that is taking away someone rights....the rights to keep the hard earned money that they earned and make their life better because that is what they worked for and we voted for that when we voted in Obama.


They still have the right to be together as a couple.  No one is telling them that they can't go out in public and declare they are a couple, etc.  However, to allow their union and call it marriage is something that many people cannot agree with and they have that right to their opinion and their vote has made that decision.  Marriage is between a man and a woman.  If homosexuals want to be legally bound to each other......call it something else but keep the definition of marriage as a man and woman.


Thanks, that was great. May I share
You've probably already read it, but it's worth reading more than once.

We’re Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore
How did the Party of Lincoln and Liberty transmogrify into the party of Newt Gingrich’s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk?
By Garrison Keillor August 26, 2004

Something has gone seriously haywire with the Republican Party. Once, it was the party of pragmatic Main Street businessmen in steel-rimmed spectacles who decried profligacy and waste, were devoted to their communities and supported the sort of prosperity that raises all ships. They were good-hearted people who vanquished the gnarlier elements of their party, the paranoid Roosevelt-haters, the flat Earthers and Prohibitionists, the antipapist antiforeigner element. The genial Eisenhower was their man, a genuine American hero of D-Day, who made it OK for reasonable people to vote Republican. He brought the Korean War to a stalemate, produced the Interstate Highway System, declined to rescue the French colonial army in Vietnam, and gave us a period of peace and prosperity, in which (oddly) American arts and letters flourished and higher education burgeoned—and there was a degree of plain decency in the country. Fifties Republicans were giants compared to today’s. Richard Nixon was the last Republican leader to feel a Christian obligation toward the poor.

In the years between Nixon and Newt Gingrich, the party migrated southward down the Twisting Trail of Rhetoric and sneered at the idea of public service and became the Scourge of Liberalism, the Great Crusade Against the Sixties, the Death Star of Government, a gang of pirates that diverted and fascinated the media by their sheer chutzpah, such as the misty-eyed flag-waving of Ronald Reagan who, while George McGovern flew bombers in World War II, took a pass and made training films in Long Beach. The Nixon moderate vanished like the passenger pigeon, purged by a legion of angry white men who rose to power on pure punk politics. “Bipartisanship is another term of date rape,” says Grover Norquist, the Sid Vicious of the GOP. “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” The boy has Oedipal problems and government is his daddy.

The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt’s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks we’re deaf, dumb and dangerous.

Rich ironies abound! Lies pop up like toadstools in the forest! Wild swine crowd round the public trough! Outrageous gerrymandering! Pocket lining on a massive scale! Paid lobbyists sit in committee rooms and write legislation to alleviate the suffering of billionaires! Hypocrisies shine like cat turds in the moonlight! O Mark Twain, where art thou at this hour? Arise and behold the Gilded Age reincarnated gaudier than ever, upholding great wealth as the sure sign of Divine Grace.

Here in 2004, George W. Bush is running for reelection on a platform of tragedy—the single greatest failure of national defense in our history, the attacks of 9/11 in which 19 men with box cutters put this nation into a tailspin, a failure the details of which the White House fought to keep secret even as it ran the country into hock up to the hubcaps, thanks to generous tax cuts for the well-fixed, hoping to lead us into a box canyon of debt that will render government impotent, even as we engage in a war against a small country that was undertaken for the president’s personal satisfaction but sold to the American public on the basis of brazen misinformation, a war whose purpose is to distract us from an enormous transfer of wealth taking place in this country, flowing upward, and the deception is working beautifully.

The concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few is the death knell of democracy. No republic in the history of humanity has survived this. The election of 2004 will say something about what happens to ours. The omens are not good.

Our beloved land has been fogged with fear—fear, the greatest political strategy ever. An ominous silence, distant sirens, a drumbeat of whispered warnings and alarms to keep the public uneasy and silence the opposition. And in a time of vague fear, you can appoint bullet-brained judges, strip the bark off the Constitution, eviscerate federal regulatory agencies, bring public education to a standstill, stupefy the press, lavish gorgeous tax breaks on the rich.

There is a stink drifting through this election year. It isn’t the Florida recount or the Supreme Court decision. No, it’s 9/11 that we keep coming back to. It wasn’t the “end of innocence,” or a turning point in our history, or a cosmic occurrence, it was an event, a lapse of security. And patriotism shouldn’t prevent people from asking hard questions of the man who was purportedly in charge of national security at the time.

Whenever I think of those New Yorkers hurrying along Park Place or getting off the No.1 Broadway local, hustling toward their office on the 90th floor, the morning paper under their arms, I think of that non-reader George W. Bush and how he hopes to exploit those people with a little economic uptick, maybe the capture of Osama, cruise to victory in November and proceed to get some serious nation-changing done in his second term.

This year, as in the past, Republicans will portray us Democrats as embittered academics, desiccated Unitarians, whacked-out hippies and communards, people who talk to telephone poles, the party of the Deadheads. They will wave enormous flags and wow over and over the footage of firemen in the wreckage of the World Trade Center and bodies being carried out and they will lie about their economic policies with astonishing enthusiasm.

The Union is what needs defending this year. Government of Enron and by Halliburton and for the Southern Baptists is not the same as what Lincoln spoke of. This gang of Pithecanthropus Republicanii has humbugged us to death on terrorism and tax cuts for the comfy and school prayer and flag burning and claimed the right to know what books we read and to dump their sewage upstream from the town and clear-cut the forests and gut the IRS and mark up the constitution on behalf of intolerance and promote the corporate takeover of the public airwaves and to hell with anybody who opposes them.

This is a great country, and it wasn’t made so by angry people. We have a sacred duty to bequeath it to our grandchildren in better shape than however we found it. We have a long way to go and we’re not getting any younger.

Dante said that the hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who in time of crisis remain neutral, so I have spoken my piece, and thank you, dear reader. It’s a beautiful world, rain or shine, and there is more to life than winning.
I don't think it's safe too share too much on here. SM

I did it once and I was crucified for it.  Won't do it again.  Truthfully, and this is not meant to be mean, I don't think I would have much in common with most on this board at all. 


Please share with me how I'm 100% wrong here.

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I do not share your minimization....
of a very accomplished woman. And I agree that the American people are intelligent enough to realize that fact.

Obama = socialism and redistribution of wealth, and all his "plans" will stick a knife in the heart of an already challenged economy.

NOBAMA. :)
I don't share her views but no need to ban her. nm