Major Political Changes in the USA

[slum_goddess]

i hope you're right but i thought that so many times, most notably when the memos came out. after that, it was all kerning all the time. and i wannit to happen when i'm still young enough to do a fucking happy grrl dance, it's been too long.

[slum_goddess]

the accountability preznit

[DudeAsInCool]

Congress vs. the White House

April 4, 2005

BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

A senior Republican senator who avoids the headlines and tries to help President Bush as much as possible was discussing with me two weeks ago the problems of seeking Social Security reform. Then he said something that surprised me: "I have been around awhile, and this is the worst administration at congressional relations that I have ever been associated with."

I checked with several Republicans in both the House and Senate, and all agreed more or less with that assessment. Last week, I asked an administration official who is willing to speak his mind so long as his name won't be used. "I don't know that much about Congress," he said, "but I do believe this is a dysfunctional administration."

The worst? Dysfunctional?

http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak04.html

Finally - Bob and I agree on something

[slum_goddess]

i guess 'dysfunctional' is as good a word as any of those one can print. i have other adjectives for them. :)

[DudeAsInCool]

FBI seeks expanded search powers

Justice Dept. also wants expiring Patriot Act provisions renewed

NBC News and news services

Updated: 12:16 p.m. ET April 5, 2005

WASHINGTON - FBI Director Robert Mueller on Tuesday asked lawmakers to expand the bureau’s ability to obtain records without first asking a judge, and he joined Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in seeking that every temporary provision of the anti-terrorism Patriot Act be renewed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7388717/

[slum_goddess]

i don't think anything will happen but: 'Veterans For Peace Call for Congressional Action to Remove George W. Bush from the Office of President of the United States

Who: Veterans For Peace, a national organization of military veterans including men and women from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, the Iraq War, other conflicts and peacetime. What: A call to congress to impeach George W. Bush and Richard Cheney from the offices of Pr esident and Vice-President of the United States, respectively.

Why: In a letter sent to each member of the U.S. House and Senate, Veterans For Peace (VFP) stated that "this administration's war on Iraq, in addition to being increasingly unpopular among Americans, is an unmistakable violation of our Constitution and federal law which you have sworn to uphold. In our system, the remedy for such high crimes is clear: this administration must be impeached." from here

[slum_goddess]

daily outrage beginning just about now: Josh Marshall: 'So how much debt has President Bush run up on his watch? This page on the Bureau of Public Debt website gives some month by month and year by year benchmarks.

'If I'm reading the data right (and math isn't my forte, so don't assume that's a throwaway line), at the end of September 2001, the total debt of the United States government stood at just over $5.8 trillion dollars. At the end of last month it stood at just under $7.8 trillion. ($7,776,939,047,670, to be precise.)

So, a bit less than $2 trillion of debt piled up on President Bush's watch...Needless to say, that is much more than the entire Social Security Trust Fund, which President Bush says there is no way to make good on...So that means that President Bush (his administration) has borrowed some $700 billion of your payroll taxes that he now says will never be paid back. In fact, just last year (2004), on the president's watch, $156 billion (and change) of your Social Security payroll tax dollars went for what he calls worthless pieces of paper...'

[DudeAsInCool]

Delay Under Fire

Wife and Daughter on Generous Payroll of Pac Committees

http://nytimes.com/2005/04/06/politics/06d...artner=homepage

Another Delay Trip Under Scrutiny/This One Tied to Russian Lobby

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...av=rss_business

[Kooperman]

So, a bit less than $2 trillion of debt piled up on President Bush's watch...Needless to say, that is much more than the entire Social Security Trust Fund, which President Bush says there is no way to make good on...So that means that President Bush (his administration) has borrowed some $700 billion of your payroll taxes that he now says will never be paid back. In fact, just last year (2004), on the president's watch, $156 billion (and change) of your Social Security payroll tax dollars went for what he calls worthless pieces of paper...'

Worthless is as worthless does....

Would I lie to you?

[DudeAsInCool]

Florida eyes allowing residents to open fire whenever they see threat

MIAMI (AFP) - Florida's legislature has approved a bill that would give residents the right to open fire against anyone they perceive as a threat in public, instead of having to try to avoid a conflict as under prevailing law.

Republican Governor Jeb Bush, who has said he plans to sign the bill, says it is "a good, commonsense, anti-crime issue."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...ns_050406201103

***

I see, 'Shoot now, ask questions later!' :reallymad:

[slum_goddess]

why has no one publicly suggested jeb needs psychiatric help w/this shit ('good, common sense, anti-crime issue)? WTF?

today's main outrage AFAIC/so far from here: HS recruiting tactics: Buy prom tickets for students if they promise to sign up for information about enlisting. Show up on campus in 'a Hummer rolling on 24-inch dubs, blasting rap, lined with flames on the side... Make sure that you're 'so helpful and so much a part of the school scene that you are in constant demand...participate in Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month events...'Some influential students such as the student president or the captain of the football team may not enlist; however, they can and will provide you with referrals who will enlist...'

this pisses me off as well: 'Dressed in Army uniforms, recruiters stood outside telling people that if they signed up, they [would] receive a T-shirt that said, in Spanish, "YO SOY EL ARMY.' and this: 'Carloss waved down a girl: "Go to one of these boys over here who you think is cute and tell him to do it."

"Who?" she replied.

"I don't care," Carloss said, "as long as he's 17."

[slum_goddess]

MAJOR POLITICAL CHANGES IN THE US: people are getting angry, yay.

'Parents, teachers, and students packed the Indiana Statehouse Wednesday to sound off. They filled the rotunda, stairwells and balconies to protest proposed cuts to education.

Melanie Wright is an educator. "I am furious. We are a small school corporation. We have already lost our Title One money this year. Now we are losing dollars next year and for the following year."

Megan Cahill is a volunteer in the Indianapolis Public School System."We have already a 73 percent dropout rate and I can't even imagine what is going to happen if this money is cut from our budget." [...]' from here. commentary at dKos.

[Kooperman]

The kids drop out of school so they can get a job (unless the business closings and outsourcings make no jobs available) and make some money (if they find a job) and get some medical benefits (which fewer businesses offer and which are becoming smaller and smaller). If they find jobs and work all their lives, paying in social security taxes, then they will have a meager income in their older years (if the government hasn't spent the money they paid in social security taxes or if social security still exists, after attempts to destroy it by the 43rd president).

[DudeAsInCool]

The Delay Scandal Scorecard:

http://www.slate.com/id/2116392/

[slum_goddess]

no more lighters at amerikan airports, whoo-hooo! meanwhile, germany and the rest of the sane world, leave themselves open to terrorist attacks but we ban lighters, thus making us safe! nyah, nyah, amerika's safer than DE now...trivial fearmonging bastards.

[DudeAsInCool]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Monday nominated Undersecretary of State John Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

***

Bolton drew fire from Democrats in 1994 when he said at a Federalist Society forum that "there is no such thing as the United Nations." "If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference," he said.

Several officials from U.N. Security Council member states expressed astonishment that Bush would name someone they believed had a known antipathy toward the United Nations, according to a Reuters report.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/07/bolton/

Seems typical for a Bush nomination - once again, it's someone who is WRONG for the job.

[Wolfie]

Dressed in Army uniforms, recruiters stood outside telling people that if they signed up, they [would] receive a T-shirt that said, in Spanish, "YO SOY EL ARMY.'

Anyone who signs up for a T-shirt is too stupid for the genepool imo. Does Jeb think everyone is as stupid as his brother?

:rolleyes:

[DudeAsInCool]

Frist Likely to Push for Ban on Filibusters/Failure Risks Conservatives' Ire; Success May Prompt Legislative Stalemate

By Charles Babington

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, April 15, 2005

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is all but certain to press for a rule change that would ban filibusters of judicial nominations in the next few weeks, despite misgivings by some of his fellow Republicans and a possible Democratic backlash that could paralyze the chamber, close associates said yesterday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2005Apr14.html

[DudeAsInCool]

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee will soon consider a bill that

would create draconian mandatory minimum sentences for a variety of

nonviolent drug offenses, including marijuana. If this bill becomes

law, anyone convicted in federal court of the crime of "enticing"

someone "who has previously been enrolled in a drug treatment program"

to "possess" marijuana will receive a five-year mandatory minimum

sentence.

That's right: Passing a joint to someone who used to be in drug

treatment will land you in federal prison for a minimum of five years.

Please visit http://www.mpp.org/MM to e-mail your U.S. representative

and two U.S. senators today. It only takes a minute to send one of our

pre-written e-mails urging them to stop this bill in its tracks.

[DudeAsInCool]

The Crusaders

Christian evangelicals are plotting to remake America in their own image

By BOB MOSER

It's February, and 900 of America's staunchest Christian fundamentalists have gathered in Fort Lauderdale to look back on what they accomplished in last year's election -- and to plan what's next. As they assemble in the vast sanctuary of Coral Ridge Presbyterian, with all fifty state flags dangling from the rafters, three stadium-size video screens flash the name of the conference: RECLAIMING AMERICA FOR CHRIST. These are the evangelical activists behind the nation's most effective political machine -- one that brought more than 4 million new Christian voters to the polls last November, sending George W. Bush back to the White House and thirty-two new pro-lifers to Congress. But despite their unprecedented power, fundamentalists still see themselves as a persecuted minority, waging a holy war against the godless forces of secularism. To rouse themselves, they kick off the festivities with "Soldiers of the Cross, Arise," the bloodthirstiest tune in all of Christendom: "Seize your armor, gird it on/Now the battle will be won/Soon, your enemies all slain/Crowns of glory you shall gain."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story...eregion=single7

[Wolfie]

Someone just shoot me. <_>

[DudeAsInCool]

Frist Set to Join Religious Effort on Judicial Issue

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

WASHINGTON, April 14 - As the Senate heads toward a showdown over the rules governing judicial confirmations, Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, has agreed to join a handful of prominent Christian conservatives in a telecast portraying Democrats as "against people of faith" for blocking President Bush's nominees.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/politics...artner=homepage

[DudeAsInCool]

House Passes Bankruptcy Bill; Overhaul Now Awaits President's Signature

By STEPHEN LABATON

"The G.O.P. is practicing Robin Hood in reverse," said Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. "Last night they repealed the estate tax, a gift to the wealthiest individuals in our society. Today they pushed through the special-interest bankruptcy bill, punishing the very poorest members of society. This shows all the world that all of that talk about values in the last election was just that - talk."

Read the full story here:

http://nytimes.com/2005/04/15/business/15bankruptcy.html

[slum_goddess]

thanks for the heads-up, Dude...done. passing a joint nets one five years? that's great, that'll really help the neverending war on drugs and/or those involved. fuckin bastards.

[slum_goddess]

this is Holden's wrap-up of his (and my long-time) obsession w/Dan Froomkin, when Froomkin wrote about war widows and which among them (for or against the war) met w/the preznit:

...I have to wonder what Bush would say -- or has said -- faced with a widow who didn't support the war. It might have happened on Tuesday if widow Shelann Clapp had been invited to meet with him. But she wasn't.

Clapp's exclusion apparently had everything to do with the fact that her husband died in a stateside accident -- and nothing to do with her opposition to the war, which until speaking with me yesterday she hadn't talked about in public.

But she's angry.

"I'm not a good military wife anymore, I'm an angry military wife. I'm an angry military widow," she said. Her husband of 28 years, Chief Warrant Officer 5 Douglas V. Clapp, died in November in a helicopter crash not far from Fort Hood. The Black Hawk in which he was a passenger was headed to check out equipment being readied for use in Iraq when it hit support wires from a TV transmission tower. He'd served in the military for more than 30 years and had recently returned from a deployment in Iraq.

What Shelann Clapp is angriest about is that she didn't even hear that Bush was meeting with survivor families until the next day.

"Maybe my husband didn't really count," she said...