BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 02:08 PM

The New York Times Editor is not happy with the fiscal soundness of the nation under the present crew of deficit hawks:

A False Start on Social Security

Published: December 3, 2004


Even before the debate has truly begun over the centerpiece of President Bush's second-term domestic agenda - creating private retirement accounts within Social Security - White House and Congressional budget leaders have been floating the idea that it won't require a major increase in the federal budget deficit. This is dangerously misguided. Unwilling to raise taxes, Congress and the administration will have to borrow well over $1 trillion to turn the president's wish into reality.

For a country that already needs to borrow $2 billion a day just to stay afloat, that gargantuan price tag for privatization is one reason it's a bad idea. It is far from the only reason, and arguably not even the main one. Yesterday, for instance, the president's top economist said privatization would very likely lead to major benefit cuts, which could be devastating for people who lost money in their private accounts. For now, however, the cost issue is moving to center stage in Washington. It is imperative to refute the suggestion that private accounts would somehow, magically, pay for themselves.

The issue is how to pay full benefits to people at or near retirement if Social Security money starts going into private accounts. Since current wage earners cover the benefits for current retirees, every dollar workers invest elsewhere has to be replaced. This is the so-called transition cost, estimated at $1 trillion to $5 trillion.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: DougR
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 02:20 PM

Molly Ivins? Amos, if you are going to use someone to drive home your point(s), why not pick someone who has credibility with conservatives? If you point is only to preach to the choir, I'm afraid that your rants are merely a waste of your time. Your quoting someone like Molly Ivins as a creible source would be equal to my offering Ann Coulter as a credible source to liberals.

I guess centerpiece did go a bit too far.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 02:40 PM

DougR:

Dang, here I thought you were gonna pay me a compliment and you withdraw it!! Damn. Just for that, four more years of Mollie Ivins.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 09:06 PM

Putin Accuses U.S. of Double Standard

Fri Dec 3, 6:27 PM ET

By RAJESH MAHAPATRA, Associated Press Writer

NEW DELHI - Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) sharply criticized the United States on Friday, accusing it of a double-standard in fighting terrorism and questioning whether any election in Iraq (news - web sites) can be democratic when fighting is raging in the country.

Putin, who has been angered by U.S. and European denunciations of the Ukraine election as rigged unacceptable, began a three-day visit to the Cold-War era ally with continued criticism of Washington, saying it seeks a "dictatorship of international affairs."

"Even if dictatorship is wrapped up in a beautiful package of pseuo-democratic phraseology, it will not be in a position to solve systemic problems," Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying in a speech Friday night in New Delhi.

Putin, who has been critical of the United States for going to war without international approval, warned that the fighting in Iraq was threatening the possibility of a democratic vote slated for Jan. 30.

"All this will definitely call in question the possibility of holding honest and democratic elections in Iraq early next year," he said.

Putin and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed a joint declaration that called for ending "political expediency" in the global fight against terrorism. The declaration made no reference to any country.

But in an interview in a Hindu newspaper, Putin said the United States and European nations practiced double standards by allowing into their countries some Chechen rebels whom Moscow considers to be terrorists.

(From Yahoo News)

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Siggy
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 11:12 PM

Sanity

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 05 Dec 04 - 10:10 AM

Thomas Friedman takes the Administration to task for slighting the National Science Foundation and offers President Bush a transcendant opportunity to make good:

Fly Me to the Moon

...

If President Bush is looking for a legacy, I have just the one for him - a national science project that would be our generation's moon shot: a crash science initiative for alternative energy and conservation to make America energy-independent in 10 years. Imagine if every American kid, in every school, were galvanized around such a vision. Ah, you say, nice idea, Friedman, but what does it have to do with your subject - foreign policy?

Everything! You give me an America that is energy-independent and I will give you sharply reduced oil revenues for the worst governments in the world. I will give you political reform from Moscow to Riyadh to Tehran. Yes, deprive these regimes of the huge oil windfalls on which they depend and you will force them to reform by having to tap their people instead of oil wells. These regimes won't change when we tell them they should. They will change only when they tell themselves they must. ...

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 05 Dec 04 - 10:32 AM

In A Soldier's Story a poignant and electrifying insight into the difference made when the war connects with you directly.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 05 Dec 04 - 05:06 PM

From CNN on John McCain on military sufficiency:

McCain said the problems in Iraq go deeper than troop numbers.

"The problem we have here is that the Pentagon has been reacting to initiatives of the enemy rather than taking initiatives from which the enemy has to react to," he said.

"And the problem, when you react, you have to extend people on duty there, which is terrible for morale. There's a terrific strain on Guard and reservists. If you plan ahead, then you don't have to do some of these things.

"The military," he said, "is too small."

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, said U.S. forces in Iraq are "still paying an awesome price for the initial failures on policy and refusal to change them of this administration, of going in with too little power and too little legitimacy."

Biden, who recently returned from a trip to Iraq, told ABC's "This Week," "We've won everything we've tried to do, including Falluja, but then we've lacked the resources to secure what we've won."

Biden said that, after his trip to Iraq, he was "less concerned about an outbreak of civil war than I am about the outbreak of civil chaos."

Biden also predicted that the Pentagon would keep troops in place until an objective has been reached, in this case the elections, "and then you're going to see them draw down again."

---

Looks like a bad plan, badly executed by inept management to me. Those who were there will remember that this is what cost us the Vietnam fiasco, on two sides: one, we failed to understand the hunger for self-determination of the North Vietnamese, who saw US forces as invaders; and two, we pretended to be there to win, but we compromised on our resources and degree of intent. There is no such thing as half a war. If there are not sufficient moral grounds for going and overwhelming the insurgents flat out, taking tactical and strategic initiative and providing completely adequate numbers to do so, then we should have no war at all. Playing half the game will lose another thousand lives just because the CiC doesn't know whether he is coming or going. I wouldn't take a bullet for those reasons, myself, but then I am not a good hypnotic subject, either.



A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: freda underhill
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 08:42 AM

The United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, warned today that the number of young Iraqi children suffering from acute malnutrition has nearly doubled since the March 2003 invasion, as health and living conditions have deteriorated. Almost eight per cent of Iraqi children younger than five suffer from chronic diarrhoea and protein deficiency, the agency's latest reports said.

"This means that hundreds of thousands of children are today suffering the severe effects of diarrhoea and nutrient deficiencies," UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy said.
Diarrhoea, caused mainly by unsafe water and in some areas lack of clean supplies, is responsible for 70 per cent of child deaths in Iraq, the agency said.

Water treatment plants, already in poor condition, have suffered more damage since the invasion. In Baghdad, 40 per cent of the water system has been damaged, with water lines either broken or contaminated. Sewage treatment plants no longer work because of problems with the electrical supply, poor maintenance, and damage caused since the invasion.

Malnutrition doubled since US invasion: UNICEF; December 6, 2004 ; Sydney morning herald

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 09:15 AM

The G.O.P. vs. President Bush

Published: December 6, 2004 (NY Times)


It seems surreal that after winning a majority of voters on the point that he is the strongest anti-terrorism leader, President Bush must fairly beg House Republicans not to embarrass him any further by bottling up the badly needed reform of the intelligence agencies. Yet this is the ludicrous scenario as Congress returns for a two-day session with the president's political clout on the line and the intelligence overhaul bill blocked from a floor vote by a few G.O.P. committee chairmen. Voters are entitled to wonder who really won in November. Mr. Bush with a pressing national agenda? Or a few House lions determined to pander to Pentagon power eddies and fire up anti-immigrant animosities?

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 09:18 AM

Talk About Scrooge
Published: December 6, 2004


In November, wages grew a whopping 1 cent an hour. But that was clawed back by a six-minute decline in the average workweek, producing a $1.25 drop in weekly earnings. Coming on the heels of a sluggish start to the holiday shopping season, the Labor Department's latest employment report, released Friday, doesn't presage a particularly merry Christmas or happy New Year for millions of working Americans.

In what is becoming a dismally predictable occurrence, the economy produced far fewer jobs than expected last month - 112,000 new slots versus an expectation of 200,000 - for the worst new-job total since last July, which was widely characterized as an economic "soft patch." Moreover, job growth in October and September was not as good as once believed. Those monthly numbers, disappointing on their own, reinforce what is now an unmistakable pattern in which the economy grows at a decent pace and corporate profits surge, while wages lag inflation and job creation barely keeps pace with the growth in the labor market.

We know how we got here. Tax cuts were misdirected at investment rather than consumption, resulting in an economic recovery weaker than it might have been.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 06:31 PM

When did the Soviet Union collapse? When did reform take off in Iran? When
did the Oslo peace process begin? When did economic reform become a hot
topic in the Arab world? In the late 1980's and early 1990's. And what was
also happening then? Oil prices were collapsing.

In November 1985, oil was $30 a barrel, recalled the noted oil economist
Philip Verleger. By July of 1986, oil had fallen to $10 a barrel, and it did
not climb back to $20 until April 1989. "Everyone thinks Ronald Reagan
brought down the Soviets," said Mr. Verleger. "That is wrong. It was the
collapse of their oil rents." It's no accident that the 1990's was the
decade of falling oil prices and falling walls.

If President Bush made energy independence his moon shot, he would dry up
revenue for terrorism; force Iran, Russia, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia to
take the path of reform - which they will never do with $45-a-barrel oil -
strengthen the dollar; and improve his own standing in Europe, by doing
something huge to reduce global warming. He would also create a magnet to
inspire young people to contribute to the war on terrorism and America's
future by becoming scientists, engineers and mathematicians. "This is not
just a win-win," said the Johns Hopkins foreign policy expert Michael
Mandelbaum. "This is a win-win-win-win-win."

Or, Mr. Bush can ignore this challenge and spend the next four years in an
utterly futile effort to persuade Russia to be restrained, Saudi Arabia to
be moderate, Iran to be cautious and Europe to be nice.

Sure, it would require some sacrifice. But remember J.F.K.'s words when he
summoned us to go to the moon on Sept. 12, 1962: "We choose to go to the
moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but
because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure
the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we
are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we
intend to win."

Summoning all our energies and skills to produce a 21st-century fuel is
George W. Bush's opportunity to be both Nixon to China and J.F.K. to the
moon - in one move.

(From the NY Times Editorial section -- Friedman)

---

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 07:12 PM

Paul Roberts, who served under Reagan as Treasury Secretary, has a very dim view of the current posture of the Bush Administration.

In a piece entitled Is The Bush Administration Certifiable? he asks seriously, "Has President Bush lost his grip on reality?", and goes on to say:


'In his December 1 speech in Halifax, Nova Scotia, President Bush again declared his intention to pre-emptively attack "enemies who plot in secret and set out to murder the innocent and the unsuspecting." Freedom from terrorism, Bush declared, will come only through pre-emptive war against enemies of democracy.

How does Bush know who and where these secret enemies are? How many more times will his guesses be wrong like he was about Iraq?

What world does Bush live in? The US cannot control Iraq, much less battle the rest of the Muslim world and beyond. While Bush threatened the world with US aggression, headlines revealed the futility of preemptively invading countries: "Pentagon to Boost Iraq Force by 12,000," "US Death Toll in Iraq at Highest Monthly Level," "Wounded Disabled Soldiers Kept on Active Duty." ...Bush's insane doctrine of pre-emptive war promises a 21st century more bloody than the 20th.' See link for whole article.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 07:18 PM

A site called "WhyWeHateBush" (which I saw for the first time today I believe) is upset about the Republican assault on Kofi Annan, in an essay entitled Once again, it's the Bush Administration vs. the World. Part of their thesis:


Bush Republicans Attack United Nations, Deflecting Attention from Cheney Corruption

 Commentary ~ December 4, 2004: George Bush and his minion Republican attack dogs launched a vicious assault this week on United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan because, they say, his son received $125,000 in payments from Cotecna, a Swiss contractor in the oil-for-food program. This accusation conveniently overlooks the fact that Dick Cheney continues to get $1 million a year from Halliburton, the company that received billions in uncontested contracts from the U.S. Government through Cheney's influence.


The New York Times reported that Mr. Annan's son, Kojo Annan, was employed from December 1995 until the end of 1998 by Cotecna Inspection Services, a company based in Geneva. On Monday, the United Nations confirmed that Kojo Annan received nearly $2,500 a month after leaving the company, payments that did not cease until February 2004.

Seth Goldschlager, a spokesman for Cotecna in Paris, told the International Herald Tribune that the $2,500 a month in health care compensation was part of the noncompete agreement that is required by Swiss law.

$2,500 a month for an official's son vs. $1 million a month for an actual official? Realistically speaking, if there was any corruption, wouldn't Kojo have asked for ten times that amount?

For all this so-called "corruption," Cotecna won a $4.8 million contract to monitor the import of aid items to Iraq under the oil-for-food program, which permitted Iraq to sell oil to buy goods to offset the effects of sanctions between 1996 and 2003. Halliburton, far and away the largest recipient of Iraq reconstruction dollars with about $18 billion in contracts, has seen revenues increase by 80 percent in the first quarter of 2004, compared with the same quarter of 2003, according to the Financial Times. Next in line is the Bechtel Group of San Francisco, with nearly $3 billion in Iraq reconstruction contracts. USA Today has reported that Bechtel executives gave thousands of dollars to both Bush presidential campaigns, and two of the company's top executives serve on advisory boards for the White House and Pentagon.
A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 07:22 PM

A paper called the New York Tribune has written a condemnatory article on the Bush Administrations "managing the news flow out of Iraq". An excerpt:

US media uncover Bush administration's managing the flow of news from Iraq
By New York Tribune Dec 3, 2004, 11:57


Allawi's recent visit to the United States was part of an intensive campaign by the Bush administration to manage the flow of news out of Iraq. As a matter of policy, any journalist wanting to visit the Green Zone, had to be escorted at all times; one could not simply wander around and chat with people in bars and cafés, says the latest issue of the New York Review.
The vast world of civilian contractors-of Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown & Root, of Bechtel, and of all the other private companies responsible for rebuilding Iraq-was completely off-limits; employees of these companies were informed that they would be fired if they were caught talking to the press. During the days of the Coalition Provisional Authority, its administrator, L. Paul Bremer, and the top military commander, Ricardo Sanchez, gave very few interviews to US correspondents in Baghdad.
They did, however, speak often via satellite with small newspapers and local TV stations, which were seen as more open and sympathetic. "The administration has been extremely successful in going around the filters, of getting their message directly to the American people without giving interviews to the Baghdad press corps," one correspondent said.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,siggy
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 10:51 PM

Mental Health 101 by Amos

Freud

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Peace
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 10:55 PM

GUEST, Siggy--your post was number 666.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 09:34 AM

Founding principles under siege by Bush administration

By SCOTT ELLIOT

"Karl Rove has all but succeeded in reversing the outcome of the Civil War and the Scopes trial in one masterstroke. The founding principles of this country have been under siege by the Bush administration for the last four years. In our schools, biology is being edged out by Bible studies, the pursuit of happiness has become the private reserve of the most affluent, and America the Beautiful is falling prey to the oil drill and the chain saw.


I'm surprised that we Democrats lost, but in retrospect, I'm not surprised that we lost on "moral values." After all, everyone knows, or should know by now, that it is more moral to take up swords against "infidels" than to beat them into plowshares. Osama bin Laden taught us that, only he had to make do with box cutters.


Bearing false witness not only appears to be acceptable to Bush supporters; it is the common thread between the campaigns of father and son. Bush I gained office with the aid of Lee Atwater's infamous Willie Horton ads. Bush II used Atwater protégé Karl Rove's attacks on the patriotism of true war heroes, John McCain, Max Clelland and John Kerry. Attacks were made against Bush, to be sure, but so far, none have been proven untrue.


Followers of U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Bush apparently believe that the mere sight of a woman's breast is a grave threat to our national morality, but they have no problem with peeking into people's bedrooms and then finding ways to punish them if they don't like the way they make love.


While Kerry dreams of someday reducing terrorism to the level of a nuisance, Rove already considers the poor, the sick and the elderly little more than a nuisance. Dismantling Social Security and Medicare, protecting profits for health insurance and pharmaceutical companies, rolling back environmental standards and slashing housing programs are the cornerstones of the new morality.


While Bush enlists the working class in making a heaven on earth for the rich, Rove is no doubt busily at work trying to figure out how to expand the eye of a needle."

See link for rest of article.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 09:40 AM

Bush Administration Facing Failure On Every Front


By Paul Craig Roberts


Is the Bush administration competent? There is enough information at hand on which to base an objective opinion.

On the eve of President Bush's second term, the US economy has fewer jobs than when Bush was inaugurated four years ago.

During Bush's first term, the US economy was unable to create jobs in both export and import-competitive sectors. The formerly powerful US jobs machine has been allowed to run down to the point that jobs can only be created in nontradable domestic services.

The service jobs that have been created are too few in number to offset the loss of manufacturing and knowledge jobs. Unemployed manufacturing workers, US software engineers, computer programmers, and IT workers number in the hundreds of thousands.

During Bush's first term, the value of the US dollar declined dramatically in relation to other traded currencies. The extraordinary diminution in the dollar's exchange value threatens its role as the world's reserve currency. If the dollar loses its role as reserve currency, there will be catastrophic consequences for US living standards and superpower status.(...)

---

Click link for rest of article.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 06:26 PM

From The Boston Globe:

Afraid to look in the moral abyss


By James Carroll  |  December 7, 2004

Excerpt:

WHY DON'T we Americans look directly at the war? We avert our gaze, knowing that the situation in Iraq grows more desperate by the day. Vaunted "coalition" efforts to "break the back" of the "insurgency" have only strengthened it. The violence among Iraqis would surely qualify as civil war -- except that only one side is fighting. The structures of relief and repair are gone. Whole cities are destroyed, populations displaced. The hope of Iraqi elections is mortally compromised. "Coalition" members are dropping out. The mission of American force is to secure the country, but it can't secure itself. The performance of US intelligence has been consistent: Its strategic failures caused the war, and its tactical ignorance of the enemy is losing the war.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 06:29 PM

Bush sets out plan to dismantle 30 years of environmental laws

By Geoffrey Lean in Washington

05 December 2004

Excerpt:

George Bush's new administration, and its supporters controlling Congress, are setting out to dismantle three decades of US environmental protection.

In little over a month since his re-election, they have announced that they will comprehensively rewrite three of the country's most important environmental laws, open up vast new areas for oil and gas drilling, and reshape the official Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

They say that the election gave them a mandate for the measures - which, ironically, will overturn a legislative system originally established by the Republican Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford - even though Mr Bush went out of his way to avoid emphasising his environmental plans during his campaign.

"The election was a validation of the philosophy and the agenda," said Mike Leavitt, the Bush-appointed head of the EPA. He points out that over a third of the agency's staff will become eligible for retirement over the President's four-year term, enabling him to fill it with people lenient to polluters.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 06:31 PM

Years from now, the mistreatment of Afghan war detainees at Guantánamo and
Iraqi war detainees at Abu Ghraib is likely to rank with the internment of
Japanese-American civilians in World War II as a blot on the history of the
United States. But the Bush administration remains deaf to criticism of its
actions, whether it comes from U.S. courts or the International Red Cross.
Congress must act to steer America back toward compliance with the Geneva
conventions and U.S. law.

From The International herald Tribune editorial section.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Johnjohn
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 11:50 PM

New York Times
WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 -
The House voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to approve the sweeping intelligence-overhaul bill sought by President Bush and the independent Sept. 11 commission

JJ

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 11:59 PM

Afghanistan swears in first democratic leader
Declan Walsh in Kabul
Wednesday December 8, 2004
The Guardian UK
"For 30 years coups, assassinations and invasions were the usual means of power transfer in Kabul. But yesterday Hamid Karzai broke with bloody tradition and assumed office with a simple formula of words.

Laying a hand on the Qur'an, Afghanistan's first democratic president swore his allegiance inside the former royal palace that was once the scene of thunderous gunbattles but has since been renovated to welcome 600 guests."

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Calhoun
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 12:14 AM

Bloomberg
Representative Allen Boyd became the leading Democrat to endorse President George W. Bush's plan to create private Social Security accounts ...

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Kingfish
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 12:23 AM

New US team reflects Bush's world-view

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 12:38 AM

Dear John-John Guest Kingfish Calhoun:

What I don't get is why you feel you have to be secretive and pretend to be three different people.

Why is that?

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 04:57 PM

Couldn't help but be bemused by these two news stories which appeared side by side in a newsfeed this morning:

---

Huge no-fishing zones 'offer only hope' of saving marine ecosystem from
disaster
Michael McCarthy | December 8
The Independent -

It has been invisible, so it has gone largely unheeded,
but the wrecking of the seas is now the world's gravest environmental
problem after climate change, British scientists said yesterday.

Such destruction has been caused by over-fishing in the marine environment
and only massive protected zones, where all fishing is banned, will allow
the sea's damaged areas to recover, members of the Royal Commission on
Environmental Pollution said.

---

US rules out joining Kyoto treaty

The US has told a UN conference on global warming that it has no
intention of re-joining international efforts to cut greenhouse gas
emissions.

The chief American negotiator at the conference in Argentina's capital
Buenos Aires ruled out any move to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol for years.

He told reporters that efforts to cut emissions were based on bad science.
The US was focused instead, he said, on implementing President George W
Bush's plans to promote energy efficiency.

---

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: DougR
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 05:33 PM

Amos: I don't recall the Democrat's idol, Bill Clinton, waving the flag for the Kyoto Treaty either. Do you? He and the Democrat controlled congress had ample opportunity to sign it if they wanted to. Why didn't they? For the very reason the U. S. representative pointed out. A division of opinion, even in the scientific community, whether or not global warming is a real threat.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 08:17 PM

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.

The "scientific community" believes with unanimity that global warm is a threat. Oh yeah, the Bush administration can always find a quack whom they can pay to say otherwise, but "the scientific community" (consisting of liberal, conservative, American, European, Asian, black, yellow, brown, christian, hindu, WHATEVER...) agrees that it is happening and that it may have cataclysmic consequences. The only real question is how much human activity is implicated. Note that it IS implicated, but we don't know for sure how much.

The notion that there is any debate whether global warming is really occuring or not is a myth propagated by Rush Limbaugh and his ilk, who are either scientifically illiterate, or lying through their teeth (you choose). On September 14, 2004, Rush Limbaugh actually said "come on think about it folks...if the ice caps were melting, the oceans would be getting cooler." If you follow this logic, and believe this BS, the same two choices apply for you.

Sorry to jump on anybody, but I've got three kids who may have kids themselves, and this shit matters! Drop the political crap. Where and how are my kids and their kids going to live? I've seen the world environment change in my lifetime. Seventy percent of the world's coral reefs have died in the last 10 years (go look it up if you don't believe it).

If Rush Limbaugh were a coal miner, he'd be saying "big deal, it's just a dead canary."

Idiot.

"Winning" politically matters more than our progeny's future?

Idiots all.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Bobert
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 09:53 PM

Voodoo, science?

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Jeb Shwarzeneggar
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 10:48 PM

Kyoto will not work, warns climate expert
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor

09 December 2004.

"The West's approach to fighting global warming, enshrined in the Kyoto protocol, will not work, a leading climate scientist said yesterday."

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Bobert
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 11:03 PM

Yeah, fir every scientist who seems to make sense there's another who doesn't have a clue...

Even Bush's clue-less scientists agree that the planet seems to be warming. Where the disageement crops up is in the area of solutions. Bush's scientist think that we just need to figure ways of eating up the carbon monoxide short of protecting forests. But they don't seem to have any real ideas on how that might happen???

And these are scientists???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 11:09 PM

Anyone notice the incredible calving that is going on at bopth poles, with segments falling of icebergs as big as Greenwich Village? Unprecedented decomposition of centuries-old ice-masses?

Hmmmmmm?


There are some pictures out there of these blocks of ice falling apart...fskinatin'


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Crawford Iconoclast
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 11:26 PM

Letters to the EditorDear Editor:
I want to congratulate George Bush on his victory in the 2004 presidential election! An impressive win was accomplished with 52% of the 60 per cent of eligible voters casting a Republican ballot!
He will have a very tough job ahead given the record of the previous administration and I, for one, don't envy him the task! George Bush will now have to oversee a federal bureaucracy that has mushroomed more than any other in history with a 300 plus trillion dollar deficit to get down. He will have to get those health care savings accounts in place for the 45 million uninsured and see if those drugs that people want from Canada are safe to buy more cheaply. I am looking forward to investing my 2% in my social security account (and am looking closely at Smith&Wesson/Remington Gun stock) though I know he will have to fight tooth and nail with those "liberals" who wanted to keep the trust intact!.

But most difficult of all is that he will inherit a war from a previous administration with no clear exit strategy, waning moral support from battle weary reservists and national guard and worsening insurgency that have killed more Americans every month ....But I know this moral president can do the job! Again Congratulations and Best of Luck!

G.D.
Jonesboro, Ark


What an embarrassment you are to Crawford, Texas!! What an embarrassment you are to the State of Texas!! We live in Indiana now and it was amazing how people here were making fun of you for what you wrote about Bush. Of course, Indiana voted 61% for President Bush. I guess that's one of the reasons alot of people here thought you should be run out of Crawford.

As small as your little town is, I would think you would have a one way ticket to California or New York by now. My question to you-----how can someone so out of touch with Texas be able to run a newspaper in the town where the President of the United States lives??? I guess you have trouble with subscriptions at least in your area. Do you personally know President Bush??? I wondered about that. And I guess you know that John Kerry's hometown newspaper endorsed President Bush. Go figure-----Maybe you two were just trying to get some publicity for yourselves.......

We hope to move back to Texas soon. We miss the Lone Star State. We are also proud of the President and proud that he has Texas roots.

Sincerely
S.H.
Ft. Wayne, Indiana


After spending 33 years writing for and editing newspapers, I am well aware of how easy it is to be stupid.
Your editorial for Kerry proves anew that being stupid is our occupational hazard.
D.B.
Lake Placid, Fla.


Go cry in your cow manure. This is a rag for nitwits.
K.S.


Hurray! Hurray!
Four More years of:
Dick Cheney, Halliburton and their
top assistant George W. Bush.
D.M.


I am very grateful that your endorsement of John Kerry fell on deaf ears. The breakdown of counties throughout the United Sates shows a shift away from the Democratic Party. The era of Ted Kennedy and his "gang of liberals" is now over. Ain't life grand?? Now the hard part for this newspaper is to make amends with the local town folk for your endorsement. Your need for fifteen minutes of fame didn't set well did it??
J.M.
Fort Worth, Texas


Eat your hearts out you lying liberal jackasses!
M.H.

WELL MR SMITH,
I WANT TO THANK YOU AND YOUR TWIN, AND SOUL-MATE MICHAEL MOORE.
YOUR PROFOUND IGNORANCE HELPED TO ENERGIZE A NATION TO GET OFF IT'S BUTT AND GO OUT AND VOTE AGAINST THOSE LIKE YOU AND THE COMMUNIST PARTY, RE WWW.CPUSA.ORG THEY TOO ENDORSED JOHN KERRY.
YOUR ENDORSEMENT WAS NOT BORN OUT OF TRUTH, BUT A PACK OF LIES GENERATED BY THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL PARTY.
I COULD RESPECT A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION HAD YOU SIMPLY SAID IN YOUR DISGUSTING EDITORIAL THAT BASED ON A DISAGREEMENT IN POLICY YOU WERE ENDORSING KERRY . BUT YOU WENT OUT OF YOUR WAY TO EDITORIALIZE THE UNTRUE ALLEGATIONS YOU DID .
GEORGE BUSH WENT TO WAR IN IRAQ BASED ON INFORMATION FURNISHED BY AN INTEL REPORT PROVIDED BY AN AGENCY IN POWER DURING THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION, ANY AMERICAN WITH ANY GUTS WOULD DO THE SAME.YET YOU LITTERLY CALLED A MEMBER OF THE COMMUNITY FROM WHICH YOU EARN A LIVING CRAWFORD TEXAS . A LIAR. YOU MAY CALLTHAT 1ST AMMENDMENT FREEDOM? OF COURSE IT IS. BUT THERE IS ALSO A THING CALLED "TASTE" SOMETHING YOUR INFLATED EGO IS DEVOID OF, BUT SINCE I PLAN TO EXERCISE MY FIRST AMMENDMENT RIGHTS ALSO , BASED OF YOUR EXAMPLE .I PLAN ON INFORMING ANYONE WHO ADVERTISES IN YOUR PAPER THAT I'LL BE DRIVING TO WACO OR CLEBURNE TO SHOP, AND SINCE YOU DONT LIKE BUSH I WONT OFFEND YOU BY ADVERTISING IN YOUR PAPER ANY MORE, AFTER-ALL YOU WOULDNT WANT TO GET GERMS FROM MY MONEY, SURELY ALL US BUSH FANS ARE BOUND TO HAVE GOTTEN A KICK-BACK FROM HALLIBURTON?
SO EVEN THOUGH I'VE NEVER SPENT A GREAT DEAL WITH YOU, SO YOU WONT MISS THIS "BUSHIE" GUESS I'LL JUST "TATOO" MY ADS ON A JACKASS'S BEHIND AND LEAD IT AROUND TOWN.
THAT MAY BE JUST AS RESPECTED.AS YOUR PAPER NOW IS.

J.V.


GUESS YOUR CANDIDATE LOST. WHY DON'T YOU MOVE TO BOSTON. YOU MUST BE A BUNCH OF IDIOTS! GO GEORGE W!!
Unsigned

It is clear you do not represent Texas. Please get into your car, pick up that lesbian Marxist named Molly Ivins and head north, way north.
Like that line in that old John Wayne movie-"We just don't need your kind around here".
The sooner the better.

J.M.
A real Texan, born in Texas.



Dear Texans:
Today, all of America has received a wonderful gift from the great state of Texas. I want to let you know that Americans appreciate the fact that Texas has lent him to us for the next four years. In four years time he will return to Texas and most likely go down in history as one of the greatest presidents of all time. Some may not like his policies but all should respect his convictions and desire to serve this great country.
E.V.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand, you lose. - K.R.


Dear Mr. Smith,
Well, I hope you aren't shocked, appalled or surprised at the outcome. You decided to open your mouth and back Kerry, in Bush's hometown. Fun, isn't it, being on the outside looking in?
Are you going to whine about it? Are you going to just emphasize the "hate" mail and NOT focus on your arrogance?
The big articles just put out by Time and Newsweek magazines, delayed, according to the editors, because they were so negative for Kerry, are very interesting and informative. Too bad you didn't have a chance to know some of that stuff before you editorialized for Kerry....in Bush's home town.
These two editors were on the O'Reilly Factor yesterday. VERY interesting.
What a colossal dose of Smith-arrogance. You called it "principle." Another load of arrogance. You tried to rub the noses of your local readers in your liberal point of view. Endorsing Kerry in Bush's hometown? Unbelieveable arrogance. I won't call it stupid because you KNEW exactly what you were doing.
You must win some kind of Darwin award for it—the "Mother of all Arrogance" award perhaps?
My guess is that you will be a guest columnist on the syndicated liberal rags in blue states. I look forward to reading some more of your gems. I DO read both sides.
Come on out to Kaleeeeforneeyah! We love our Governator and his lovely Democrat wife! He's no girlie man; he will PUMP YOU UP!
You DO have a future with the left, er, progressive side of the Democrat party.
I was a Democrat until 1994. Became an independent as a shock reaction to Clinton's admission of his gargantuan lie about Gennifer Flowers. Then, I became a Republican when my Democrat party put up Clinton for re-election in 1996. One of the "seven dwarves," "a third rate governor from a second rate state"....the DEM'S own words. "What has happened to mah party?" —
Zel Miller.
Y.B.A.
San Francisco

To The Editor:
Well, it looks like you really stepped in it NOW. You may want to just shut it down and move to the 'LEFT COAST'. No one of any common sense shares your liberal bias. Hey I've got an idea. MOVE TO FRANCE! They'd love you there.
S.M.
Omaha, Neb.

The Editor of your newspaper should move to Boston. That's where the Queers are but not many steers.
J.B., Minn.

To The Editor:
Concerning Stem Cell Research
As Homo-sapiens we are different and have risen above all other creatures. Every life is valuable, but human life is more so. Humans should not be treated by the scientific community as "cattle", ripe and ready for experimentation without ethical checks and balances. No other human endeavor has carte blanche like the science community is not only asking, but DEMANDING of the world.
Life is precious and so very, very short. I don't know when it starts. I don't really care. If I'm to make a decision concerning stem cell research, I see it this way: I refuse to even risk the possibility of taking an innocent life to save mine, but I am very willing to give mine to save yours. And it would be my greatest honor to do so.
J.G., Katy, Texas

To The Editor:
You are what my dad used to refer to as being "penny wise and dollar dumb."
Bush may be bad for "the" economy....but your dumbass actions are responsible for "your" economy, and that of your paper, taking a rather serious dive, huh?
R.

To The Editor:
Adding fuel to the fire. There are some people who are too stupid to understand how they have messed up; are you? You primarily earned your income from local matters......... It appears to most that you took the chance for greater notoriety with your only partially accurate opinion. Now 'tis time to pay for your folly. I wish you no bad cess (guru net that), only hope that you have learned not to bite the hand that feeds you, even if it is the "right" hand. Ha, ha - good pun -did you get it?
Sincerely,
P.Z.
Robbinsville, N.C.

Thank you Amos for informing us about this fine bottom of the birdcage class newspaper.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Greg F.
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 11:29 PM

And these are scientists???

In a word, Bobert: No. They're not. They're Bush propagandists, bought and paid for.

Since about a week after Bush took office, REAL scientists & scientific organizations have pointed out time and time again how the BuShites use junk "science" to support their ideaology.

Just Google "Bush" and "junk science" or do a news.google.com search for the same- you'll be reading for weeks.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 11:31 PM

Dear Bratwurst-Brain:

More anonymous hatred, huh? Y'ever wish you could just come out and say what you had to say under your own name and own your own point of view?

Terror is ugly whether high or low. Spewing this kind of venomous crap is just sad.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Once Famous
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 11:40 PM

Flash: This Just in.

Amos is really an Arab.

I heard the CIA is interested in him.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Fat Albert
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 11:54 PM

Amos is the Mr Universe of spewing venimous crap. It looks like those letters were from ordinary people that did not like the bulshit spewed by Leon Smith, the Democratic candidate two time loser and owner of the newspaper.

Are Asian countrys in violation of the Kyoto Treaty? Maybe those glaciers calve because of them.

Massive air pollution casts Asian haze over global climate

Wed Dec 8, 2:58 PM ET

"AGRA, India (AFP) - A cloud of pollution which has been identified in the skies across Asia travels long distances across the Indian ocean and is now threatening to make the entire planet a drier place, experts warned."

Hey Hey Hey

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 09 Dec 04 - 12:43 AM

If you bother to rub your brain dwells together, Albert, you will see a slight difference. Once in a great while I go off the handle about the murderous cretin in charge of the country, because I think his rampant galloping idiocy has done serious harm to the world. But MOSTLY I offer various views from different people on this thread, and try to speak to issues, reserving my ad hominem stuff for the President.

The people who wrote most of those letters, though, were just so full of hatred all they could do was froth at the mouth. And by the way the word you are thinking of is venomous, meaning rich in venom.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Fat Albert
Date: 09 Dec 04 - 02:25 PM

The positive facts that others post here are usually from news articles. The things you post here are from Bush haters. You always ad you personal spin to it to emphasize the negative and degrade anything positive. Do you also hear voices?

I picture you as Joe Bfstplk in Lil' Abner. The guy with the raincloud over his head all the time.

If you are allways looking for shit you will find it. If you want to be miserable you can find a way. The opposite is also true. Forget Dianetics and see a professional.

Hey Hey Hey

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 10 Dec 04 - 03:45 AM

Hey Amos, I'm an Arab too!

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 10 Dec 04 - 03:48 AM

Robert Kilroy Silk reckons Arabs are rubbish.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 10 Dec 04 - 05:22 AM

Hi jOhn, fancy meeting you down here in Intellectual land! Robert Silk has an orange face, never trust a man with an orange face!

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 10 Dec 04 - 05:49 AM

He is OK Robert Silk but he doesn't Bush his teeth.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 10 Dec 04 - 05:52 AM

That Anique bloke off telly {david Dickson] has got an orange face as well, he's a right weirdo, he wears womens dresses, i saw a programme about him.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 10 Dec 04 - 05:53 AM

Morning Dave, Now THAT'S the kind of link we like to see!

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 10 Dec 04 - 05:57 AM

Is that really a photo of Robert Kilroy Silk?
he looks a bit different on telly, must be all the make up etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 10 Dec 04 - 05:58 AM

699

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 10 Dec 04 - 06:01 AM

700!!!! Thanks chaps, a good team effort!