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The reason I don't believe it, I will be happy to share with you. s/m

Posted By: gourdpainter on 2008-11-03
In Reply to: GP - I'm really trying to understand where you are coming from - Trying to understand

First of all, I went to the blog just to see what was there.  I saw a picture of Obama.  I HEARD a voice that MIGHT have been Obama's although I had some doubt but then I am not a voice recognition expert.  I haven't heard it on the news but don't you know that the news media will pick up on ANYTHING that they think is sensational?  The trouble is people believe it.  I agree with your mother.  She is a wise woman.  If you want the truth listen to the candidates speak out of their own mouths.  There has certainly been enough opportunity to do that.  McCain and Palin don't have a plan to criticize because all I hear from them is scare tactics and that does not impress me.  See my previous post where I quoted  what John McCain said at his rally about Obama.  THAT I believe.  Hope this explains it.


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If we can't share the wealth, we can at least share a laugh...nm
x
This is the reason we are in Iraq and it's the same reason I didn't vote for him in 2000: Didn't

his own personal reasons.


http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050620/why_george_went_to_war.php


The Downing Street memos have brought into focus an essential question: on what basis did President George W. Bush decide to invade Iraq? The memos are a government-level confirmation of what has been long believed by so many: that the administration was hell-bent on invading Iraq and was simply looking for justification, valid or not.


Despite such mounting evidence, Bush resolutely maintains total denial. In fact, when a British reporter asked the president recently about the Downing Street documents, Bush painted himself as a reluctant warrior. "Both of us didn't want to use our military," he said, answering for himself and British Prime Minister Blair. "Nobody wants to commit military into combat. It's the last option."


Yet there's evidence that Bush not only deliberately relied on false intelligence to justify an attack, but that he would have willingly used any excuse at all to invade Iraq. And that he was obsessed with the notion well before 9/11—indeed, even before he became president in early 2001.


In interviews I conducted last fall, a well-known journalist, biographer and Bush family friend who worked for a time with Bush on a ghostwritten memoir said that an Iraq war was always on Bush's brain.


"He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," said author and Houston Chronicle journalist Mickey Herskowitz. "It was on his mind. He said, 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.' And he said, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.' He went on, 'If I have a chance to invade…, if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency.'"


Bush apparently accepted a view that Herskowitz, with his long experience of writing books with top Republicans, says was a common sentiment: that no president could be considered truly successful without one military "win" under his belt. Leading Republicans had long been enthralled by the effect of the minuscule Falklands War on British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's popularity, and ridiculed Democrats such as Jimmy Carter who were reluctant to use American force. Indeed, both Reagan and Bush's father successfully prosecuted limited invasions (Grenada, Panama and the Gulf War) without miring the United States in endless conflicts.


Herskowitz's revelations illuminate Bush's personal motivation for invading Iraq and, more importantly, his general inclination to use war to advance his domestic political ends. Furthermore, they establish that this thinking predated 9/11, predated his election to the presidency and predated his appointment of leading neoconservatives who had their own, separate, more complex geopolitical rationale for supporting an invasion.


Conversations With Bush The Candidate


Herskowitz—a longtime Houston newspaper columnist—has ghostwritten or co-authored autobiographies of a broad spectrum of famous people, including Reagan adviser Michael Deaver, Mickey Mantle, Dan Rather and Nixon cabinet secretary John B. Connally. Bush's 1999 comments to Herskowitz were made over the course of as many as 20 sessions together. Eventually, campaign staffers—expressing concern about things Bush had told the author that were included in the manuscript—pulled the project, and Bush campaign officials came to Herskowitz's house and took his original tapes and notes. Bush communications director Karen Hughes then assumed responsibility for the project, which was published in highly sanitized form as A Charge to Keep.


The revelations about Bush's attitude toward Iraq emerged during two taped sessions I held with Herskowitz. These conversations covered a variety of matters, including the journalist's continued closeness with the Bush family and fondness for Bush Senior—who clearly trusted Herskowitz enough to arrange for him to pen a subsequent authorized biography of Bush's grandfather, written and published in 2003.


I conducted those interviews last fall and published an article based on them during the final heated days of the 2004 campaign. Herskowitz's taped insights were verified to the satisfaction of editors at the Houston Chronicle, yet the story failed to gain broad mainstream coverage, primarily because news organization executives expressed concern about introducing such potent news so close to the election. Editors told me they worried about a huge backlash from the White House and charges of an "October Surprise."


Debating The Timeline For War


But today, as public doubts over the Iraq invasion grow, and with the Downing Street papers adding substance to those doubts, the Herskowitz interviews assume singular importance by providing profound insight into what motivated Bush—personally—in the days and weeks following 9/11. Those interviews introduce us to a George W. Bush, who, until 9/11, had no means for becoming "a great president"—because he had no easy path to war. Once handed the national tragedy of 9/11, Bush realized that the Afghanistan campaign and the covert war against terrorist organizations would not satisfy his ambitions for greatness. Thus, Bush shifted focus from Al Qaeda, perpetrator of the attacks on New York and Washington. Instead, he concentrated on ensuring his place in American history by going after a globally reviled and easily targeted state run by a ruthless dictator.


The Herskowitz interviews add an important dimension to our understanding of this presidency, especially in combination with further evidence that Bush's focus on Iraq was motivated by something other than credible intelligence. In their published accounts of the period between 9/11 and the March 2003 invasion, former White House Counterterrorism Coordinator Richard Clarke and journalist Bob Woodward both describe a president single-mindedly obsessed with Iraq. The first anecdote takes place the day after the World Trade Center collapsed, in the Situation Room of the White House. The witness is Richard Clarke, and the situation is captured in his book, Against All Enemies.



On September 12th, I left the Video Conferencing Center and there, wandering alone around the Situation Room, was the President. He looked like he wanted something to do. He grabbed a few of us and closed the door to the conference room. "Look," he told us, "I know you have a lot to do and all…but I want you, as soon as you can, to go back over everything, everything. See if Saddam did this. See if he's linked in any way…"


I was once again taken aback, incredulous, and it showed. "But, Mr. President, Al Qaeda did this."


"I know, I know, but…see if Saddam was involved. Just look. I want to know any shred…" …


"Look into Iraq, Saddam," the President said testily and left us. Lisa Gordon-Hagerty stared after him with her mouth hanging open.


Similarly, Bob Woodward, in a CBS News 60 Minutes interview about his book, Bush At War, captures a moment, on November 21, 2001, where the president expresses an acute sense of urgency that it is time to secretly plan the war with Iraq. Again, we know there was nothing in the way of credible intelligence to precipitate the president's actions.



Woodward: "President Bush, after a National Security Council meeting, takes Don Rumsfeld aside, collars him physically and takes him into a little cubbyhole room and closes the door and says, 'What have you got in terms of plans for Iraq? What is the status of the war plan? I want you to get on it. I want you to keep it secret.'"


Wallace (voiceover): Woodward says immediately after that, Rumsfeld told Gen. Tommy Franks to develop a war plan to invade Iraq and remove Saddam—and that Rumsfeld gave Franks a blank check.


Woodward: "Rumsfeld and Franks work out a deal essentially where Franks can spend any money he needs. And so he starts building runways and pipelines and doing all the necessary preparations in Kuwait specifically to make war possible."


Bush wanted a war so that he could build the political capital necessary to achieve his domestic agenda and become, in his mind, "a great president." Blair and the members of his cabinet, unaware of the Herskowitz conversations, placed Bush's decision to mount an invasion in or about July of 2002. But for Bush, the question that summer was not whether, it was only how and when. The most important question, why, was left for later.


Eventually, there would be a succession of answers to that question: weapons of mass destruction, links to Al Qaeda, the promotion of democracy, the domino theory of the Middle East. But none of them have been as convincing as the reason George W. Bush gave way back in the summer of 1999.



 


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


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.

.


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

Website I'd like to share...

Disclaimer:  It will probably not appeal to the McCain supporters, so need for you make snarky remarks about it. 


I don't even know how I ended up at this site, but it has so many topics on it, instead of recommending a link just to one or two, I'll give the whole page.  Be sure to scroll down. 


http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/ (although I don't consider myself a 'wonk' LOL)


Try the home page too:


http://thinkprogress.org/


One of my favorite political websites, that I've been going to every day (and causing me to spend far less time on this board) is Talking Points Memo:  http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/


Would anyone else like to share their favorite websites that are lib or nonpartisan?  TIA


They share the SAME PHILOSOPHIES!!!
It has nothing to do with Ayers being an advisor, mentor etc. THEY SHARE THE SAME PHILOSOPHIES -- don't you guys get it????
maybe they can share technology....I would take one of these too!
http://www.teslamotors.com/
I wish I could share your confidence. (sm)

Bush made frequent use of "signing statements" in order to get what he wanted, and not all of them were publicized at the time.  He would sign the bill and then add a little "P.S." that basically nullified it if Bush so chose.


If this vehicle is available to Obama, as well, then we may not know it for a while.


Please be so kind as to share where
you get your information. I am interested in reading or watching what has you so concerned. My interpretation of current events is much different than yours appear to be.
Please share the stories of these
Poor mistreated, misguided kids. If this were happening, the nightly news would be flooded with stories, continuously, nonstop day in and day out. That's all you would hear. Please give us a break. You are breaking my heart...
of course I didn't share my feelings with my son, but thank you. nm
nm
I share your sentiments totally. sm

Some would see this as political from the get-go.  They would read this and dismiss it saying, oh those stupid Republicans.  It has not penetrated some of their conscious or subconscious thinking that there really is more to this than politics.  The stakes are more than high.  Historically, Muslims spread Islam barbarically and without mercy and were ony stopped from taking Europe by the Crusades.  They are ready to spread again, only this time, it is the United States they have their eyes on.  I found this article that I believe illustrates not only what will happen, but has a good understanding of what is happening now.


Preventing a Premature Exit From Iraq
By Ed Feulner
CNSNews.com Commentary
October 19, 2006

BAGHDAD (Jan. 21, 2009) -- Iraq's bloody civil war worsened today, when 10,000 heavily armed troops from the Shiite state of Shiastan pushed north from Najaf and Rumaythah. The attack threatened to trap three battalions of U.S.-backed Sunnis in the region.

The latest round of fighting has triggered a new wave of refugees into Kuwait and Jordan, the United Nations reported today. Millions of Iraqis have fled the country since American troops pulled out in 2006, a controversial withdrawal that al Qaeda celebrates as a watershed victory.

Word of today's offensive pushed crude oil prices to $210 per barrel, a new record, certain to cause problems for the newly inaugurated American president ...


All right, enough with the doom and gloom. The preceding paragraphs are fiction, but they reflect what's likely to happen if the United States pulls out of Iraq before the country is stabilized and able to function on its own. Unfortunately, some of our politicians want to do exactly that.

We believe that a phased redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq should begin before the end of 2006, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid wrote in a letter both signed in August. Even if our task there remains unfinished?

As President Bush put it on Oct. 11, when you pull out before the job is done, that's cut and run as far as I'm concerned. And that's cut and run as far as most Americans are concerned.

Heritage Foundation experts James Carafano and James Phillips explained in a recent paper what's likely to happen if we withdraw quickly. Such a shortsighted U.S. policy would be a severe blow to the Iraqi security situation, Iraqi oil exports, U.S. allies in the region, the global war against terrorism and the future of all Iraqis, they write.

If we leave now, we'd leave the Iraqi army (with all its heavy weapons) up for grabs. That's likely to spark a civil war, as soldiers align themselves into religious and regional militias.

Under that scenario, we can expect Iran -- already a regional power -- to support the Shiite Muslims in the south, a move that would give Tehran control of most of Iraq's oil. Not that this would necessarily keep the oil flowing; as the civil war escalated, guerrillas would cut pipelines and blow up oil wells.

Right now, Iraq produces 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, and the country's government aims to increase that to 2.7 MBD by year's end. If production is disrupted, though, worldwide prices would skyrocket.

If we cut and run, Iraqi civilians would be the biggest losers. Millions would flee the starvation, disease and destruction that civil war brings. Meanwhile, al Qaeda would tout its role in forcing the U.S. out, providing a huge recruiting boom for the terrorist group.

This doesn't mean we should stay indefinitely. As they say, there are only two exit strategies from any war: A country can win and go home, or it can lose and go home. Either way, all our troops eventually will exit Iraq. What really matters is what they leave behind.

We've made progress in Iraq, and we'll continue to do so. Many of al Qaeda's senior leaders have been killed or captured and the group's popularity among the Iraqis is low. We need to keep training Iraqi forces and preparing them to stand on their own.

In the long run, only Iraqis can assure the success of Iraq. But if, in the short run, we cut and run, we guarantee failure -- for them and for us. We can avoid the bleak future outlined above. But we must steel our resolve to get the job done right.

(Ed Feulner is the president of The Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based public policy research institute.



I share your concerns and agree
with everything you have said, but after having been in this business since the early 70s, I've learned never to expect anyone to speak up on behalf of MTs except the MTs themselves. I have never paid membership fees to AAMT and have never had the need to pay for certification, but I would pay MT union due in a heartbeat.
I expected that so where do you all get your info...please share so ...sm
we can all be on the same page here. I love how people criticize but back it up with nothing. And again I repeat...this is just ONE of the places I go to the ONLY place I go to.

So where do you go to get your info? DO TELL...
BTDT. Just thought you might want to share
nm
Sounds like we share the same governor...
don't even get me started on property taxes. Where is that decrease he promised?? lol. Shoulda known.
I'll share. Put this in your pipe
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fannie9-2008sep09,0,4063126.story
"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac CEOs To Get Golden Parachutes"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/08/AR2008090802605.html?hpid=topnews
"Ousted Fanny, Fredde CEOs Could Still See Big Paydays." Daniel Mudd (Fannie Mae) and Richard Syron (Freddie Mac), who are stepping down, have already made millions at the trouble mortgage giants and are expected to take away millions more.
http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSWAT01001720080909
"Obama Dismayed on Big Fannie Freddie Exit Packages."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/business/24gret.html?em
"What Will Mac 'n' Mae Cost You and me?"
http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac-shares-are-worthless/
"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Shares are Worthless." Do you know what's in your 401K, IRA, mutual funds?

I thought this was not about anyone's fair share...
they had the ability to pass it and get on with it, and chose not to. And the only reason for that is, they did not want a Democrat majority tied to a "Bush" bill. They hated him last week, and now all I hear is "We are trying to pass the President's bill..." That is just too weird, old-timer, I'm sorry.
But they STOLE more than their fair share.
nm
GP....I hope you will come back and share...
the "what comes next" email.

Thanks!
Do you share the same gene pool as
Ahmadinejad? Denying the genocide perpetrated in the name of Israel's so-called national security is every bit as evil (and just about as credible) as Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial.

How many times do we have to go down this road. Sticks, stones, rocks, and homemade pipe bombs versus assault rifles, submachine guns, machine guns, sniper rifles, shotguns, pistols,
Semi-automatics, breach grenades, SWAT rifles, Isherman, Sho't, Magach, Sabra and Merkava tanks, Davidka, Makmat and Soltam M-66 mortars, Soltam, Rascal, Sholef and IDF howitzers, cargo, sea scan, fighter and trainer aircraft, Shaldaq, Dvora and Super Dvora patrol boats, Sa'ar 3, 4 and 5-class missle boats, Sa'ar 5-class corvettes, Gal class and Dolphin submarines, Trophy and Iron Fist protection systems, Flight Guard airborne countermeasures systems, Machbet anti-aircraft weapons, Barak surface-to-air missiles, SPYDER air-defense system, Arrow anti-ballistic missiles, Tactical High Energy Laser, Iron Dome short-range rocket defense system, David's Sling medium-range rocket defense system, B-300 and Shipon shoulder-launched missiles, shoulder-lanched multipurpose assault weapons, FGM-172 SRAWs, MAPATS, Spike, Nimrod and LAHAT ATGMs, Shafrir, Derby and Python air-to-air missiles, Gabriel naval anti-ship missiles, Popeye air-to-surface missiles, LORA theater and Jericho ballistic missiles, Nimda, Trail Blazers, IDF Nagmachon, IDF Nakpadon, IDF Puma, IDF Achzarit, Namer IFV, Nemmera ARV, AIL Storm, Plasan Sand Cat, Wolf Armoured and Golan Armored fighting vehicles, IMI Mastiff, Casper 250, IAI Searcher, IAI Hary, IAI I-View, IAI Ranger, IAI Heron, IAI RQ-2 Hunter, Elbit Skylark, Elbit Hermes and Aeronautics Defense Dominator unmanned fighter vehicles, Typhoon close-in weapon system, Kilshon anti-radiation missile launchers, Caterpillar D7/D9 armored bulldozers, Enhanced Tactical Computers, LITENING targeting pods, Spice EO-GPS PGM guidance kits, Shavit spaceflight launch vehicle, EROS earth observation satellite and Ofeg reconnaissance satellites. Oops, I almost forgot the WMDs, including chemical, biologic and, of course, the nukes.

As Marmann so astutely pointed out the other day, no matter how much Israel arms itself to the teeth, it will NEVER be enough. The more you impose fear, the more you live under its curse.
thought I would share and see the disputes on this...
Just received in email... long but worth it. sure makes you just want to say DUH to those that still dont get it doesn't it...



Read his entire message and the last 3 paragraphs should make perfect sense to you... Perhaps, if you are a left-leaning, socialistic democrat, you might re-evaluate your position on how to get this country back on track.

Taxation and redistribution of wealth is not the road to pursue because it is unhealthy for any country, its people and its economy.



Read on.





To All My Valued Employees,

There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn't pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country.

However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interests.

First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, you have to understand that for every business owner there is a Back Story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside. You've seen my big home at last years Christmas party. I'm sure; all these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life.

However, what you don't see is the BACK STORY:

I started this company 28 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300 square foot studio apartment for 3 years. My entire living apartment was converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you.

My diet consisted of Ramen Pride noodles because every dollar I spent went back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective transmission. I didn't have time to date. Often times, I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business -- hard work, discipline, and sacrifice.

Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a modest $50K a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of hitting the Nordstrom's for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through the discount store extracting any clothing item that didn't look like it was birthed in the 70's. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and my life into a business with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford these luxuries my friends supposedly had.

So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9am, mentally check in at about noon, and then leave at 5pm, I don't. There is no "off" button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself. I unfortunately do not have the freedom. I eat, and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. Every day this business is attached to my hip like a 1 year old special-needs child. You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden -- the nice house, the Mercedes, the vacations... you never realize the Back Story and the sacrifices I've made.

Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right decisions and saved his money, have to bail-out all the people who didn't. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed a decade of my life for.

Yes, business ownership has is benefits but the price I've paid is steep and not without wounds.

Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you why:

I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don't pay enough. I have state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes. Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know what my "stimulus" check was? Zero... Nada... Zilch.

The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country.

The fact is, if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you'd quit and you wouldn't work here. I mean, why should you? That's nuts. Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree which is why your job is in jeopardy.

Here is what many of you don't understand... to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly government mandated to me that I didn't need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black-hole, I would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it now.

When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don't defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? You defibrillate his heart! Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it. Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the poor of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change you can keep.

So where am I going with all this?

It's quite simple.

If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, my reaction will be swift and simple. I'll fire you. I'll fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child's future. Frankly, it isn't my problem any more.

Then, I will close this company down, move to another country, and retire. You see, I'm done. I'm done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, will be my citizenship.

So, if you lose your job, it won't be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country, steamrolled the constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever. If that happens, you can find me sitting on a beach, retired, and with no employees to worry about...

Signed, THE BOSS
Please share your ideas for economic
What do you think would be the best course of action?
I hope you do have your own business and will finally have to pay your share!
What is fair is fair! Oh, by the way...Boo!
That is true, but I think that dems have done their fair share..sm
.
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.
I ate my fair share of soup growing up........sm
We lived on a farm and my dad grew a big garden every year....peas, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, butter beans, onions....and when the first pickings of the garden came in, mom would make a pot of vegetable soup with a little of all the different vegetables....an ear of corn, a few tomatoes, an onion, a few peas and a few butter beans. Best soup I ever ate and I wish I could have some now. Mom would always can and freeze a lot of vegetables to last us through the winter and sometimes a pot of peas and a pan of cornbread was all we had for supper. But it sho was good eatin'!
Bush got his share of being called 'cowboy'
maybe people really wanted to say 'cracker'??
Bush Sr and Clinton to Share Liberty Medal
Former Presidents Bush, Clinton to Share Liberty Medal
Friday, June 30, 2006

PHILADELPHIA — Former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, who put politics aside to help raise more than $1 billion for disaster relief efforts, will share the 2006 Liberty Medal, officials said Thursday.

The award annually honors an individual or organization that has demonstrated leadership and vision in the pursuit of liberty of conscience or freedom from oppression, ignorance, or deprivation.

Bush, a Republican, and Clinton, a Democrat, joined forces last year to aid Gulf Coast victims of Hurricane Katrina through the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. Earlier, they formed the Bush-Clinton Tsunami Partnership to help survivors of the December 2004 tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people in southeast Asia.

The former leaders will accept the medal and its accompanying $100,000 prize on Oct. 5 at the National Constitution Center, in what will be the first Liberty Medal given under the center's management.

First awarded in 1989, the Liberty Medal was previously administered by regional civic groups including the Philadelphia Foundation and Greater Philadelphia First.

Click here for the Natural Disaster Content Center

Past Liberty Medal recipients include Polish union leader Lech Walesa, former President Jimmy Carter, former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, South African leaders F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and, most recently, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.

Six recipients of the medal have subsequently won the Nobel Peace Prize
Agree...great post. Please come back and share...sm
your ideas.
Apparently other posters on this board do not share your view...
of free speech. Thank you for your permission, even though it had to be in the form of a potshot. That being said...I would equate fanaticism more with being on board for killing 1.2 million babies a year rather than being against it...but that is just me. I would think that liberals so concerned about war and the innocent killed during one...might show as much concern for innocent babies being killed like shooting fish in a barrel. But alas...not so.
I don't despise any women....please do not ascribe to me feelings I don't share...
and the scope of the issue is something you don't understand either, it would appear. There is nothing in that post to suggest I despise any women. I am against the procedure of abortion. Yes, you bet I am. I despise it. It is horrendous, horrible, terrible way to die. Why are people concerned about water boarding a terrorist but don't mind cutting a living human to ribbons? Nope, you're right, I don't understand it. I don't see any way TO understand it.

The poster made a good point about women resistant to birth control. All I said is if you add women who are resistant to all forms of birth control to women who have been raped or victims of incest, and when the life of the mother is in danger, you could cut abortions 85-90%. That would save a lot of lives. The last sentence was addressing those who say that the baby is not alive or moving at the time most abortions are performed and that is simply not true. The point I was trying to make is that when a woman has a planned, wanted pregnancy, if you tell her when she feels that movement that that child is not alive inside her, that would be a hard sell. The point is, it IS alive, and people want to rationalize abortion by saying they really aren't killing anything. THey are. Just be up front about it and say that they are pro choice, and if a woman makes a decision to take that child's life for whatever reason that is her choice. Fine. Just call it what it is. We have legalized killing of unborn children in this country and made it a cash industry. Not a good thing in my books.
McPalin new FL stump promise: Will SHARE THE WEALTH of
McSocialist: Drill baby drill, my friends, my friends, my friends, my friends. Alternative nuclear energy safety: Blah, blah,, blah, blah!. Yeah, baby!
Low class, hands out, gimme my share, I'm too lazy
to do it on my own crowd. The first ones to want it all given to them and the last ones who want to work for it. Of course they would boo the man in a wheelchair, never taught how to behave around respectable people.
Low class, hands out, gimme my share, I'm too lazy
to do it on my own crowd. The first ones to want it all given to them and the last ones who want to work for it. Of course they would boo the man in a wheelchair, never taught how to behave with respectable people.
I like Palin and am proud to share her genitals...er...wait...that didn't come out quite right, d
hahahahaha
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.”


 


Happy 4th to you too MT -
...and to everyone! I feel it an appropriate time to remember...I LOVE AMERICA...sappy but true:)Not even THEY can spoil that, ya know.

Happy comet watching! Here's a link for anyone interested in seeing the collision:

http://www.space.com/deepimpact/


http://www.space.com/deepimpact/
So happy here
Bunch of corrupt individuals..Frist is waiting in the wings.
Oh Happy Day






Sunday, Oct. 02, 2005
Power Outage
House leader Tom DeLay's indictment upends the Republicans' to-do list and their outlook for next year's elections. Can they recover in time?

The news that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay had been dreading for months was brought by an aide, who interrupted DeLay's weekly lunch with Dennis Hastert in the House Speaker's office. DeLay absorbed it, and then the man widely called the Hammer on Capitol Hill (though rarely to his face) did what he does best: he hit back. All right, DeLay replied. Let's go. Let's go fight. Less than three hours later, before a roomful of reporters, DeLay addressed a Texas grand jury's charge that he and two political associates conspired to funnel $155,000 in illegal corporate campaign contributions into Texas legislative races. He called it one of the weakest, most baseless indictments in American history and the prosecutor who brought the case a partisan fanatic. That night, anxious to show he's not a recluse, he introduced Rudy Giuliani at a Friends of Israel banquet. DeLay even made an uncharacteristic round of the cable shows, hinting darkly on cnn that he would soon produce very good evidence that his nemesis, Travis County district attorney Ronnie Earle, had engaged in a conspiracy of his own--with the Democratic leadership here in Washington.

Combativeness has seen Tom DeLay through near-death experiences before, but on the Hill late last week, it was hard to miss the signs that his foot soldiers and allies had begun positioning themselves in anticipation of his demise. G.O.P. rules require that DeLay, 58, majority leader since 2003, relinquish his post while he fights the conspiracy charge, and speculation is rife that even if he is acquitted his days as one of the most powerful men in the House could be over. You leave a job like this, there is no coming back, says a top Republican official who likes DeLay and thinks he will be cleared. Politics abhors a vacuum more than anything else, and it's going to move past him too quickly.

Almost immediately, it did. A plan engineered by DeLay and Hastert to install complaisant Rules Committee chairman David Dreier as temporary majority leader was nixed by conservatives who dislike Dreier's moderate positions on stem-cell research and gay marriage. Instead the brain trust installed ambitious whip Roy Blunt, who will share some of the majority leader's duties with Dreier. The setup is so shaky that some House Republicans are pressing for the election of a new leadership team as early as January.

Meanwhile, lobbying shops that had traded on the access to DeLay were desperately dialing House aides to forge new relationships. Those not tied to DeLay were calling the same staff members to gloat. There's millions of dollars on the table, said an aide who had heard from both camps. These guys are going to slaughter each other. What's left of the G.O.P. leadership, already beset by a raft of other political problems, was trying to figure out how to salvage the ambitious legislative agenda of more tax cuts, hurricane help and gas-price relief that they want to carry them to next year's midterm elections--a more difficult challenge with the sidelining of the man who had so determinedly pulled off many of their close victories.

DeLay may not have seen the worst of it yet. Sources tell TIME that while Earle was closing in on DeLay from Austin, Texas, a federal investigation into the spreading scandal around disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, accused with Michael Scanlon (a former press secretary of DeLay's) of bilking their Indian-tribe clients out of $66 million, has begun lapping at the edges of the former majority leader's operation. A former Abramoff associate who was questioned by the FBI in August says, They had a lot of e-mails, a lot of traffic between our office and DeLay's office. Many of those exchanges involved lavish travel by DeLay arranged by the lobbyist but requested, the e-mails suggest, by aides in DeLay's office. (House members are allowed to accept gifts under limited circumstances but not to solicit them.) Says the source: There was nothing I saw that hit DeLay personally, but there was a lot of questionable stuff that was going on with his staff. 'Tom wants this. Tom wants that.' Was it really him or just the staff that was being aggressive? DeLay's office wouldn't comment on the Justice Department investigation, and neither would the FBI.

Republicans had plenty of problems even before the latest blow to DeLay. Voters are angry about gas prices, the war in Iraq and the botched response to Hurricane Katrina. Polls show President George W. Bush at or near the lowest public-approval ratings of his presidency. On the other side of the Capitol, Senate majority leader Bill Frist faces an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission into the circumstances surrounding his decision to sell all of his stock in the hospital chain founded by his family, Hospital Corporation of America, in June, just before the share price dropped following a bad earnings report.

So dispirited are Republicans that some worry about losing control of the House--a danger that once seemed remote. We're looking in the crystal ball. We're moving into an area where we don't know what will happen, says deputy whip Tom Cole, a conservative from Oklahoma. With a switch of only 15 seats required to end their majority, Cole is anxious that the party may have to contest as many as 100 tight races if the winds arraying against it turn into a national backlash like the one that ended the Democrats' 40-year reign in 1994. Having seen how the Democrats failed to galvanize their voters in that campaign, Republicans say the chief goal in rewriting their strategy for the fall will be to re-energize their base. The plan taking shape calls for a robust conservative agenda through next spring, including a tax-reform package. That move would allow Republicans to pivot back to issues like education tax credits that would appeal more to moderates as the elections approach.

As for DeLay, his struggles appear likely to consume him for many months. He has launched what amounts to a major political campaign to convince supporters that the indictment is flimsy and he is a victim of a political smear. DeLay pointed to Democrats' vow to use G.O.P. ethics as a campaign issue, and supporters noted criticism of Earle in Texas for speaking in May to a $100,000 fund raiser for a Democratic political action committee (PAC). But DeLay has produced no evidence Earle conspired with Democrats in Washington.

While it's true that Earle and DeLay have been locked in a complicated war of Texas-size egos for years, the charges against DeLay are fairly simple. During the 2002 elections, a committee DeLay founded to support conservative politicians--Texans for a Republican Majority, or TRMPAC--allegedly accepted $155,000 in corporate donations and then included that in a check for $190,000 to the Republican National Committee, which then routed a similar amount to seven Texas legislative candidates. DeLay's lawyers say the transactions were separate and that the PAC accepted money from both individuals and corporations. The contribution helped produce six wins that were crucial to DeLay's political ambitions in Washington because they resulted in a Republican majority in the state legislature, which redrew congressional district lines and helped add five more Republicans to the state's congressional delegation. If convicted, DeLay faces up to two years in prison and a maximum fine of $100,000.

DeLay has done his best to paint the D.A. as a Democratic loose cannon. But Earle, 63, points out that of the 15 public officials he has prosecuted, 12 have been fellow Democrats. Texas law makes it a felony for corporations and labor unions to contribute money to political campaigns, Earle tells TIME. My job is to prosecute felonies. I'm doing my job. The grand jury foreman, William Gibson, 76, insists that this was not one of those rubber-stamp deals. Ronnie Earle did not indict Mr. DeLay. Twelve people on that grand jury voted to indict.

If DeLay has cause for hope, it may be that Earle has been more successful convicting minor figures than major ones. The majority leader has put together a legal team headed by Dick DeGuerin, who handed Earle the most spectacular failure of his career: a 1994 misconduct case against former state treasurer Kay Bailey Hutchison that Earle was forced to drop on the first day of trial. Hutchison is now the state's senior Senator.

There are those who predict that DeLay will be able to balance mounting a defense with pulling strings behind the scenes in the House. But whereas he had been accustomed to just stepping downstairs to the majority leader's spacious suite of Capitol offices after a House vote, dusk last Thursday afternoon found DeLay outside on the Capitol Plaza, waiting at a traffic light to return to his office in the Cannon House Office Building across the street. Just like any other Congressman.


Happy day
I have been a vegetarian for more than 30 years and am also pro Native American.  I have not celebrated Thanksgiving for many years.  However, I do celebrate a day of getting together with family and friends and a day of appreciation..So, to all my liberal friends/co-posters..**Happy Day**..There are truly better days coming..
Happy 4th to Everyone!

I hope we never forget that brave American soldiers fought and died for our freedom to post on this very board!  Here's hoping that we all still have the same freedoms in the USA next year this time as we have today. 


My flag is hanging proudly.  I hope you all have a wonderful day.


Happy 4th to you and everyone!