Thank you for your wonderful responses!
Posted By: Samonella on 2008-09-16
In Reply to: What is your opinion regarding medical marijuana? - MaryJane
I am truly impressed by all of the posters who responded to this question in such a compassionate and intelligent way. You have renewed my faith in the people who post on this board, and for that I thank you!
Personally, I think that any medicine that can help relieve human suffering should, without a doubt, be legal and made available to those in need. The voters of California or any other state that wish to have marijuana legalized should have that right without interference from the federal governent.
Again, thank you!
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Your responses come as no
surprise. I was actually expecting worse. I guess i should thank you for your temperance. All that I said was that when I heard the Governor speak, it crossed my mind how no one representing this administration has attended any funerals of Iraqi soldiers. You say the others have attended none to some...that is more than this administration sees fit.
This IS the only administration where the president or an envoy of some sort has not attended a funeral or 2. It just simply crossed my mind while listening to the governor going on and on about W's compassionate self. I do not, contrary to popular belief, suffer from BDS. He is so completely inconsequential that I almost feel sorry for him. I watched him in Ohio giving a speech and he was rambling about chickens and plucking and something else...really not making a lot of sense. I was embarrassed for him. I have never seen a presidential campaign start as early as this one and I believe, IMHO, that the reason is that the nation pretty much considers this administration chopped liver. You have got to admit that the scandals (enough to make any CEO proud) have kept this administration from governing, with the exception of **staying the course,** not attending a funeral here or there.
I did not get my information on other presidents' funeral attendances from **liberal sources,** it is pretty much common knowledge and has been bandied around every time someone talks or writes about the numbers, the lack of photos, the **no draped caskets** rule quite a few times,...at any rate, I DID go to a **liberal** site today and found an article written by a man who had the same response I did and I will enclose it for your reading enjoyment. His focus covers the Iraqi civilians while I confess I had not thought of them as much as the soldiers and I should have.What those poor people go through on a daily basis, every day, every single day, with numbers in the 3 digits some of the time is heartbreaking.
The Human Face of Death
by Louis Freedberg
What the green hills of Blacksburg, Va., and the dusty streets of Baghdad have in common is that in the last few days terrible acts of violence have been perpetrated there.
But the reactions to that violence could not have been more different.
Within a day of the Virginia Tech massacre, the 32 victims were memorialized in detailed biographies, news stories, photos and “interactive features” on a range of Web sites.
Here’s an excerpt from the Washington Post’s write-up on 19-year-old Emily Hilscher, the first student killed by the deranged Cho Seung-Hui. Apparently, Hilscher liked every kind of music except country and classical. “Give me something I can bang my head to or dance like crazy and I’m all over it,” she wrote in her My Space profile.
Of Ryan Clark, another early victim, the New York Times wrote, “Ryan Clark was known as Stack on campus, an amiable senior memorable for his ready smile and thoughtful ways … Tall and thin, Mr. Clark, a resident of August, Ga., was well liked and a member of the university’s marching band, the Marching Virginians.”
It is entirely appropriate that the violence at Blacksburg be personalized. Putting the human face on death will help focus the nation’s attention on an out-of-control culture of violence, which allows easy access to guns to the most demented among us.
If the violence in Iraq were humanized to the same extent, perhaps the war in Iraq would be over by now.
Yet, instead of putting a human face on the carnage there, the human toll in Iraq has been mostly reduced to body counts. The victims of the Iraq war have received little of the outpouring of grief and national attention focused on the Virginia victims.
Here’s a cold number: as of this week, 3,309 U.S. servicemen and women have been killed in Iraq. Typically, the victims get a story or two in their hometown newspaper or a report on local television. (I just read my colleague Steve Rubenstein’s wrenching obituary on Sgt. Mario De Leon from Rohnert Park, who died in Baghdad on Monday. “Sweet, polite kind,” his wife said of her 26-year-old husband, who loved to watch his collection of “Star Wars” movies. “I never met anyone like him.”)
But then everyone moves on (except, of course, the survivors).
Some might say soldiers are in a line of work where casualties are expected. Mass homicide on a college campus, they’d argue, is a different story that deserve special attention.
But the civilian casualties of the civil war in Iraq rarely emerge as human beings who have lives as rich and complex lives as the Virginia dead. News reports from Iraq invariably provide a daily casualty count in a sentence or two, the numbers usually prefaced by the words “at least.”
On the Saturday just before the Virginia Tech massacre, “at least” 37 people were killed, and another 150 wounded in a car bomb explosion in Karbala.
On Sunday, 34 people were killed in two suicide bombings in Baghdad. Of those who died half were women and children, according to a report.
On Wednesday, “at least” 158 people were killed in Baghdad in some of the deadliest attacks of the war.
So it goes, each day in Iraq. More deaths. More numbers.
I’ve been searching for a report profiling even one of yesterday’s victims in Iraq. What did they look like? What music were they interested in? What were their hobbies? Who is mourning them?
I’ll concede that it’s tough to identify victims of suicide and car bombings. Language and security barriers make it difficult for reporters to track down relatives and friends of the victims.
Of course, they aren’t Americans. It’s understandable we would care more about our own.
The daily statistical reports from Baghdad on the latest atrocity are numbing to the point where we hardly pay attention to them anymore. They read like a table from Dow Jones Industrial index — up today, down tomorrow.
Imagine what would happen if mass killings on the scale of the Virginia Tech massacre — or multiples thereof — occurred each day in the United States.
Yet that is exactly what is happening in Iraq, a country one-tenth our size.
The Virginia victims deserve to be remembered as vibrant human beings. The images of them that dominate the airwaves have the potential to spark action to make sure something like it does not happen again.
But the anonymous victims of a war begun by the United States should also be memorialized. By reducing them to ciphers, it’s too easy to avoid confronting the full impact of the catastrophe that has overtaken Iraq.
And so the war goes on.
Louis Freedberg is a Chronicle editorial writer. E-mail him at lfreedberg@sfchronicle.com.
© 2007 The San Francisco Chronicle
Discuss this story
If your not getting responses
It seems like some posters below are attacking others for not aggreeing with them, however, they are being ignored. People are attacking others and luckly the original posters know what their game is and decided to not respond anymore, however, some (a) poster has taken it to a new level and decided to try to instigate more trouble. I would say no response is the best response they deserve.
Your responses are disturbing.
I don't believe I have ever seen a more angry and irrational person.
Thank you for your candid responses.
It helped solidify a few things in my head. I guess for me the bottom line is, whatever your beliefs are on the subject, if you have religion in your life or a pagan like myself, it does not give the right for a special interest group to subjugate another, and that is the end result. I don't think that they can effectively stop abortion using this method.
I think it all goes back to educating people. I guess it is easier for some individuals to stand on their moral high ground and point fingers than to truly come up with a workable solution. The unborn do not need their voice. They have a mother to make decisions for them, which is where it should stay. Selective benevolence? Not for me. If one is so emphatic in the decision to embrace life and fight for it, then fight for all. Do not pick and choose who or what's life is in more need. Pro-life to me means anti-war, anti-starvation, anti-subjugation, etcetera, for all living things.
If one is strongly anti-abortion, which is strictly a moral issue, then start a movement to educate people and create viable alternatives, but leave it out of political and the legal system. I do believe that choosing a presidential candidate because of a moral or religious tendency is improper. It comes as no surprise to me that this behavior has been justified on this posting. I find it to be extremely arrogant. But it seems that some just cannot temper themselves and feels the calling to preach not realizing that when one has an opinion about everything, they lose their effectiveness. People stop listening. The need to control or dominant a conversation has nothing to do with dissent. It has everything to do with being unduly opinionated and argumentative and makes people wonder who they are trying to convince.
I was glad someone brought up the subject of the welfare of these unwanted children. If parents discover early in their pregnancy that the child has birth defects and are responsible for the welfare over the lifetime of that child, should they not have the right to abort it? If a parent has a child who has experienced a TBI who cannot survive without a ventilator and nutritional support, should they not have the right to end that child's life? To me, that is benevolence. It is wrenching decision and should not rest within the government or a special interest group. Deferring abortion law back to the states does not address the issue at its root, it just puts it in someone else's lap.
No one wants increased welfare and other government subsidies. There is a direct correlation between the poor and uneducated to welfare subsidies. If government would actually take the subject seriously and increase education funding rather than cutting it everytime tax cuts are put on the table, which tend to hit the inner cities the hardest, it would stand to reason the abortion rates would go down. I firmly believe this. But, I digress, and this is a whole other subject.
I would like to hear a presidential candidate state they are going to increase education funding. That is a reason for backing a presidential hopeful.
Responses for M and Some thoughts (sm)
M:
If they don't show progress and default on the loans, then the gov would have a controlling interest because they gave out those loans. This would lead to restructuring, and probably more of a government run industry. And yeah, they could mess it up just as bad, but we have to at least try something.
Some thoughts:
Even if they are supported financially during re-education, what would they go into? Just about every industry across the board is being hit with this financial mess, so their options would be limited. Also, we're talking about millions of people, and not everyone is cut out for higher education, which is a good thing because we actually do need workers in this country.
This also leaves us with an auto industry that would consist of imports, so we would still be oil dependent.
Yep -Responses from the very ones I expected.
You all are SO predictable.
TTYL...I'm off to do something constructive for our country....
I can also read them and post responses to them
if I like and sometimes I choose to, and I don't use use rage to get my point across like you do. You are the one that needs to take a serious chill pill...that is if you want to, but I seriously doubt it. You revel in your rage.
Obama does not inspire these responses.
xoxoxo
Unbelievable that there are no responses to this post.. All I can say is...sm
this is so true. In my opinion, people voting for the republican ticket are either right wing religious voters, rich voters, poor under-educated voters who are easily led, bigots who would never vote for a black man, or people who for whatever reason buy into the terrorist, Muslim, anti-American, anti-Christ, foreigner, not like us scare tactics that abound.
When I read the ugly responses here to my
post, I know that Jesus is real and that He not only gives someone a new heart but a new mind, a mind not corrupted by the world as the majority of the minds are of you who responded here with your attacks. Of course, you think you are attacking me, some of you on a very personal level, not even knowing who I am, asking such a stupid question as to whether I have children or even suggesting sending brown envelopes filled with feces to people like me.
I don’t know who you are either, but I can tell you that I pray God forgive you for your blindness and hate just as He forgave me when I surrendered my life to Him.
This post is not about me. It is about innocent life, life that never asks to be born, defenseless life that no matter the circumstances of conception is holy and valued in the eyes of its Creator. For everyone of YOU reading this, someone gave you a chance at life. That is more than 50 million aborted babies and counting have had. Their lives have been snuffed out before they had a chance for life, liberty, and the pursuit of justice. They have been murdered for convenience and a lack of responsibility. We all have choices in life, and yes, responsibility does begin with conception. Even a baby conceived in a rape has the same right to life as any other. It didn’t have a choice as to its parentage or the circumstances of its conception.
The Red Envelope Project is to protest millions more innocent babies being murdered across the globe using U. S. taxpayer monies. Woe to you if you support this administration’s unbridled hatred of innocent lives.
I do put my money where my mouth is by working with pregnant women in my community, giving of my time, talents, energy, and financial resources in giving them an alternative to abortion. Many have become pregnant under the most awful circumstances imaginable to the human mind. Yet, these women are far more courageous than most of you who call us terrorists because we want to protect life. In fact, these women are thankful that there are those of us who are willing to sacrifice for them so that their babies have a chance at life. Not even the most vile of you on this board can take away the profound satisfaction and love we have of defending and protecting the most innocent among us. When I see a mother look into the face of her baby and know that she has chosen life, whether she has decided to raise her baby or to give it up for adoption, then I know that all my time, talents, energy, and financial resources have gone into and been made to that which is worthy and glorifies my Lord, and another child has been born who will have an opportunity to become all that God created him or her to be.
Someone made a choice of life for you. Why would you want to deny that for another innocent baby? Why would you want to support an evil president who celebrates death instead of life?
Well, I got a fair number of other responses....sm
..from people who got the point. Sorry if it zoomed past you two!
Note to self: There are a couple of simpletons on the board. Do not use parody or metaphor when writing, or you'll lose them.
Read all the responses to your message - sm
and try to understand what we are saying.
There is just no justifiable reason for this luau and/or any other diversion Obama is into. Does not seem as though many people agree with you and, for the record, I am not here to argue with you, just to try to get you to see past the fog.
Questions for dems and pubs - only serious responses need post...(sm)
If you are a democrat, is there anything that Obama has done that you don't agree with, or perhaps is there a policy that he has kept from the previous admin that you agree with that would be out of the norm for the left?
My answer: I actually agree with the decision exhibited thus far by the Obama administration to keep the "enemy combatant" thing. I think it could serve as useful, however, it should not be abused. In the case of al-Marri I think it was abused, and it should be refined. They have FINALLY brought charges against this guy who has been held in prison since 2003 with no charges, no counsel, nada. I think we need to preserve the right to hold people, but there needs to be some kind of standard for doing so.
Info on case: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gcdH1vowYGzkkCo-7c8M2imC056Q
If you are a republican is there anything that the Obama administration has done that you DO agree with?
Wonderful
Wow! We agree! Wonderful. :O)
Thank you for such a wonderful
contribution to this board.
Have a pleasant day. 
Wonderful? For who? Certainly not
the American people.
Slick and glib speaker. Yes.
Too good to be true? Yes.
Loving father and husband? Yes.
Cool as a cucumber? Yes.
Good for our country? NO. Unless you want to live like the Cuban and Russian people.
WONDERFUL????
I support abortion rights 100%. Do I think it is wonderful, no, but I think it is a personal choice. Strange choice of words you used...
thank you for that wonderful
youtube of our pledge of allegiance where it says, just like I said above, one NATION under God. Not one America as you so incorrectly typed above. Thanks for proving me right though. Kudos!
This is wonderful.
Finally, some good news on the domestic jobs front. Thanks for posting.
Wonderful news
So glad your husband is home. I know you must be thrilled. My brother-in-law came home right before Christmas to 4 kiddos and my sister who missed him terribly. He was in Kuwait years ago and just finished his second tour in Iraq. I think he is retiring soon.
However, he doesn't support the war and now votes (mostly) democrat. I think he and my sis are fighting beween Obama and Hillary :-)
It would be wonderful if it was that simple....
so let's just make it REAL simple. If you want on SCHIP, you have to pay an additional 3% off the top in your income taxes. Democrats in Congress want to expand it, 3% off the top of all their salaries from now on to fund it. That would probably take care of it for years to come. If not, then start down the registered Democrats' tax rolls and if they favor the program, 3% off the top of their salaries to pay for it. Don't force it on people who are not going to use it, who pay their own premiums, to pay for it. Let those who want to expand it fund it. Simple as that. Sounds fair to me.
Hillary is wonderful
Hillary is wonderful so is every other democrat running..ANYONE is better than the tired old men running as republicans. I would vote for my dog before I would vote for a republican. We need four years of peace and prosperity and building our reputation in the world and healing this country and fixing all the destructive things this administration has done here and abroad. Hillary, when she worked as a lawyer, was one of the top five lawyers in America. Her IQ is higher than Bill and that has to be quite high as Bill is quite an intelligent man. Contrast that to the person in the WH now. I think his IQ must be around 75 to 90.
Welcome to the wonderful world of
Been typing derm for FAR too long to ever make the mistake of using a tanning bed.
And, isn't it wonderful that these animals
creatures of the wild.....wonder how many of them are in favor of abortion? Natural animal instinct to care for their young.
Its a Wonderful Life
Warren Buffet and Barack Obama
George Baily and Mr. Potter are finally friends George will be the richest man in town!
What a wonderful quote!
Thank you so much for sharing this timeless quote with us today, zoesnana. It seems so fitting in light of our current economic status. President Jefferson was a very wise man!
Wonderful post. :) nm
nm
sounds wonderful
thank you so much. I just might make that in my regular oven first!
I think it is wonderful and cannot happen
Gitmo has been a horrendous stain on the reputation of our country, and closing it will be a major step in improving our standing in the world.
As far as how Bush got re-elected, well...just read some of the posts here. That should be explanation enough.
On this wonderful, glorious day, let us
celebrate the fact we in the US have a new change of guard, a new president and a wonderful opportunity for everyone to pull together and bring to light what this man is all about. It matters not what you would have liked for things to be different, things are like they are. You cannot change faith try as you might. This was exactly what was supposed to be. No amount of remarks about him or his wife being bigheaded or snooty will take away the glory that is their's today. He is the choice of the people, he won and we should all be looking to him and his cabinet to maybe help some of you from the hardships you have been going through. I read posts here about their husbands losing their jobs, people not having work, worried about their homes- rejoice and perhaps the tide is turning. Some of you are not even giving this man a chance. Everyone deserves a fair shake and lots on here already doing their best to show the opposite.
Oh my! The parade is wonderful! nm
.
Wonderful post! (nm)
Wonderful post! (nm)
Hopefully our foreign policy will change for the better now.
Wow, now that was a wonderful post, how I wish.......sm
more people here, and everywhere, felt as you do. Just wonderful. I was feeling really low and reading that post made me feel good. thanks so much for posting, I have been trying to do the same, we can all love our country, our fellow Americans, and try to help out, no matter partisan politics. thanks again and GOD BLESS YOU! :P)
What a wonderful way to show your *compassionate*
side at Christmas time.
This woman's soldier son was killed in Iraq right before the holidays, leaving behind a wife and child, but you glibly act like it's no big deal.
Of course, to those of your ilk, the only good soldier is a DEAD one, so it's perfectly understandable.
Crawl back under your rock. You're nothing but an ugly, hateful snake.
Carla... (((hugs)))... please ignore this ignorant, hateful subhumanoid creature. Don't read any more of its posts. It is clearly an evil force that only truly belongs on the CON board.
I think we should all ignore this poster and not feed its hatred. Just like Bush, It clearly has no compassion for those it sends to fight a war based on lies and deceit.
Wasn't it wonderful? The other board sm
would have you think only 2 of us think this way and are posting under different fake names. Now, to get it into our heavily censored mainstream media is another story.
Wonderful post, Mystic. :-)
I especially liked Fear - Future Events Appearing Real. Describes our so-called war on terror to a T. We're warned repeatedly of the danger we encounter, yet nothing has been done to secure our borders, ports, or rail systems, and we've totally ignored the possibility of liquid bombs in our airports, even though their existence has been known for a very long time. Why hasn't Bush implemented policies that truly would make us safer?
And I couldn't agree more about WE taking back the government. I've often thought that those at the highest levels of government forgot just who their employers are.
Thank you very much for providing a firsthand view of how malevolent our government can be when faced with the threat of exposure of the truth. I hope you filed a civil suit against them. If not, you might want to consider hiring Cheney's new lawyer in the Plame case (Clinton's lawyer). I wonder why he didn't hire Ted Olson again. Either way, I wouldn't mind my tax dollars being used to prosecute a case aimed at exposing the truth.
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001347.php
Another wonderful post, Teddy.
Obviously, no human being on earth can say with any degree of credibility that agnostics call out to Jesus when the time is near. Nobody can possibly know what every other person on earth calls out, if anything.
For some, peace comes from religion. Others are able to find peace within themselves. Some never find it. Each person must follow their heart and brain and find the niche that works best for them.
I guess Islamic fascists aren't the only ones who try to force their religion on everyone else. The difference is that the United States isn't supposed to favor one religion over another. We're supposed to be a nation that has religious freedom.
This is especially dangerous during a time when war with religious fanatics is involved. To pledge undying, unquestioning loyalty and support of Israel in political matters (even if some feel they have acted badly) soley for personal religious reasons (to insure one's place in heaven) is very dangerous to the United States and the rest of the world. This is why politics and religion don't mix, and this is why the United States is becoming such a scary place. :-(
I thought she was wonderful. Bill was as well.
NM
wikipedia is a wonderful thing...
From Wikipedia:
In October 1996, she asked the Wasilla police chief, librarian, public works director, and finance director to resign, and she instituted a policy requiring department heads to get her approval before talking to reporters.[21] In January 1997, Palin notified the police chief, Irl Stambaugh, and the town librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons that they were being fired.[22] Palin said in a letter that she wanted a change because she believed the two did not fully support her administration. She rescinded the firing of the librarian, but not the police chief.[23] The chief filed a lawsuit; but a court dismissed it, finding that the mayor had the right to fire city employees for nearly any reason.[24] According to Ann Kilkenny, a Democrat who observed City Council, Palin also brought up the idea of banning some books at one meeting, but did not follow through with the idea.[20]
As mayor of Wasilla, Palin was in charge of the city Police Department, consisting of 25 officers, and Public Works.[25] She was praised for cutting property taxes by 40%[26] while improving roads and sewers and strengthening the Police Department.[20] She also reduced the mayoral salary, reduced spending on the town museum, and opposed a bigger library.[26] She increased the city sales tax to pay for the new Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex,[25] which eventually went over budget due to an eminent domain lawsuit.[27]
Palin ran for re-election against Stein in 1999[6][28] and was returned to office by a margin of 909 to 292 votes.[29] Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.[30]
During her second term as mayor, Palin hired the Anchorage-based lobbying firm of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh to lobby for earmarks for Wasilla. The effort was led by Steven Silver, a former chief of staff for Senator Ted Stevens,[31] and it secured nearly $27 million in earmarked funds. The earmarks included $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs, and $15 million for a rail project linking Wasilla and the ski resort community of Girdwood.[32] Some of the earmarks were criticized by Senator McCain.[33]
and on ethics:
In 1988, she worked as a sports reporter for KTUU-TV in Anchorage, Alaska.[15] She also helped in her husband’s family commercial fishing business.[16] Palin also had a 20% ownership in an Anchorage car wash business, according to state corporation records filed in 2004. Palin failed to report her stake in the company when running for governor in 2006; in April 2007, the state issued a "certificate of involuntary dissolution" because of the company's failure to file its biennial report and pay state licensing fees.[17
Wonderful post and very truthful.
I read most of the posts but rarely post. When I do, it's because I think it's worth it (to post).
I feel the same way you, sam, sbMT and others feel about watching and keeping up on O's plans, who he's putting in power, etc. GP shocked me with her latest post. She was always level-headed and calming.
I am a registered 'pub but only once in my life voted a straight ticket. This election was no different. I voted for McC and Palin, but for senate and congress crossed party lines.
My husband doesn't believe there should be a 2-party system as this is what causes such hard feelings. There should not be a "R" or "D" listed behind the names of people running for office and should elect on their merits. That certainly would clean out some of the bullsh-----, lazy political figures who only care to fill their own pockets, and those who only try to bring the government to its knees. If this were to happen, we would have a better government
.....but then again, there will always be bashers who are (to me) the most unhappy people in the world and would never be satisfied with anything, who think their choices are THE WAY or NO WAY and you can't say anything against them because they are so rightous.
That's my 2 cents. Bash all you want but I won't answer the bashers because it's not worth the aggravation. .
Isn't it wonderful that people are happy,
finally getting together for one purpose?!! Obama and Michelle are spending the day helping to paint walls in a boys' home. Imagine that? He is definitely a change from the old. It is exciting to have a president so on-hands. BTW, I just flipped through a few channels, there are plenty of other programs on the boob tube, just FYI.
All those that think abortion is a WONDERFUL thing
Sickening enough as it is, but to fund OTHER countries with MY money to kill children.......this man is definitely NOT a Christian!
http://www.infowars.com/?p=7259
why did you choose the word Wonderful?
nm
I think it is wonderful that he really seems to love this wife that much.....sm
not that spending money on someone is a measure of love, but when they are together, when they interact, when they exchange looks, they look like a deeply committed, loving, happy, devoted, and inspirational couple. Perhaps he just wanted to inspire joy to his wife for his own reasons. Lucky Michelle!
A wonderful op-ed by Charles Krauthammer...
The Fierce Urgency of Pork
By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, February 6, 2009; A17
"A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe."
-- President Obama, Feb. 4.
Catastrophe, mind you. So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared "we have chosen hope over fear." Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill.
And so much for the promise to banish the money changers and influence peddlers from the temple. An ostentatious executive order banning lobbyists was immediately followed by the nomination of at least a dozen current or former lobbyists to high position. Followed by a Treasury secretary who allegedly couldn't understand the payroll tax provisions in his 1040. Followed by Tom Daschle, who had to fall on his sword according to the new Washington rule that no Cabinet can have more than one tax delinquent.
The Daschle affair was more serious because his offense involved more than taxes. As Michael Kinsley once observed, in Washington the real scandal isn't what's illegal, but what's legal. Not paying taxes is one thing. But what made this case intolerable was the perfectly legal dealings that amassed Daschle $5.2 million in just two years.
He'd been getting $1 million per year from a law firm. But he's not a lawyer, nor a registered lobbyist. You don't get paid this kind of money to instruct partners on the Senate markup process. You get it for picking up the phone and peddling influence.
At least Tim Geithner, the tax-challenged Treasury secretary, had been working for years as a humble international civil servant earning non-stratospheric wages. Daschle, who had made another cool million a year (plus chauffeur and Caddy) for unspecified services to a pal's private equity firm, represented everything Obama said he'd come to Washington to upend.
And yet more damaging to Obama's image than all the hypocrisies in the appointment process is his signature bill: the stimulus package. He inexplicably delegated the writing to Nancy Pelosi and the barons of the House. The product, which inevitably carries Obama's name, was not just bad, not just flawed, but a legislative abomination.
It's not just pages and pages of special-interest tax breaks, giveaways and protections, one of which would set off a ruinous Smoot-Hawley trade war. It's not just the waste, such as the $88.6 million for new construction for Milwaukee Public Schools, which, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, have shrinking enrollment, 15 vacant schools and, quite logically, no plans for new construction.
It's the essential fraud of rushing through a bill in which the normal rules (committee hearings, finding revenue to pay for the programs) are suspended on the grounds that a national emergency requires an immediate job-creating stimulus -- and then throwing into it hundreds of billions that have nothing to do with stimulus, that Congress's own budget office says won't be spent until 2011 and beyond, and that are little more than the back-scratching, special-interest, lobby-driven parochialism that Obama came to Washington to abolish. He said.
Not just to abolish but to create something new -- a new politics where the moneyed pork-barreling and corrupt logrolling of the past would give way to a bottom-up, grass-roots participatory democracy. That is what made Obama so dazzling and new. Turns out the "fierce urgency of now" includes $150 million for livestock (and honeybee and farm-raised fish) insurance.
The Age of Obama begins with perhaps the greatest frenzy of old-politics influence peddling ever seen in Washington. By the time the stimulus bill reached the Senate, reports the Wall Street Journal, pharmaceutical and high-tech companies were lobbying furiously for a new plan to repatriate overseas profits that would yield major tax savings. California wine growers and Florida citrus producers were fighting to change a single phrase in one provision. Substituting "planted" for "ready to market" would mean a windfall garnered from a new "bonus depreciation" incentive.
After Obama's miraculous 2008 presidential campaign, it was clear that at some point the magical mystery tour would have to end. The nation would rub its eyes and begin to emerge from its reverie. The hallucinatory Obama would give way to the mere mortal. The great ethical transformations promised would be seen as a fairy tale that all presidents tell -- and that this president told better than anyone.
I thought the awakening would take six months. It took two and a half weeks.
You sound like a wonderful mother and...
...person. They're lucky to have you. 
"Discovery" is a wonderful tool.
The Democrats can't possibly believe their own self-righteous gibber. They know better than anyone where their own bodies are buried, but if it's prosecutions they want, we'll find them!
Welcome to the United Estados of Banana Republics.
But you no doubt thought Hillary was wonderful
!!
Wonderful post. I agree wholly with it.
There are too many people in this country who have the attitude "It's my way or the highway".
The below quotes were sent to me by a friend. I didn't take time to look them up, so they are fair game for anyone who wants to take a shot at them. Sorry for the type style on them. I couldn't seem to make them smaller.
When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.
Thomas Jefferson
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
Thomas JeffersonI predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Thomas Jefferson No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
Thomas Jefferson
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
Thomas Jefferson
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson
Very Interesting Quote
In light of the present financial crisis, it's interesting to read what Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
You did a wonderful thing, and I agree with your ultimatums, but....psm
Why do you, and many here, equate being a Democrat to be "weak, whiny, spendthrift, too soft," etc.? Personally, I agree with many of your points, and have always loved the proverb "Give a man a fish, he will eat for one day, teach him how to fish and he can feed himself all his life." But you are lumping together humanitarianism, altruism, etc., with being weak, stupid, socially backward, and perpetuating social ills, and that is not the case, or should I say, when government programs are working correctly with stringent oversight, this does not happen. I have voted Democrat because I believe in the party more than the alternative, but I am open to change, listen and watch and try to learn from each party, and am more Independent then anything. Being part of the Democratic party does not mean being a "bleeding heart liberal," and mmore than being a Republican means being totally cold, selfish, money-driven, fat cat, etc. This is all way too simplistic, and why the parties cannot communicate effectively or get anything done TOGETEHR. I am a Christian, I am very conservative on most social issues, but I am a human, humans are complex, and I am also socially conscious and aware, love the nation, love its people. Please, don't generalize quite so much, it is not good for the country to increase divisions.
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