who has authoritarian power anyway? we're in the US.. do you think the presidency is just a symbolic position? thats why there's a executive, congressional, and judiciary branches of government.. but its pretty clear that he was pushing the direction for majority republican congress and senate.. if not, he can always veto..
You are forgetting that I was pointing that out to you first. There are many people responsible for budgetary woes.
Serious? Yes. Accurate? yes? Complete analysis? No. I was just pointing out that a struggle with an enemy from without has different stakes than a strugle with an enemy from within. The southern struggle was to secede from the Union not to obliterate it-- like the fatwas.
wow. you really believe tax cuts took over immediately and by March 2001, that's what sunk us into an economic slowdown??? i love how responsible people think politicians are for the economy.
"Crucify him, crucify him." - Jesus hits career low in approval rating. moral- polls don't tell the whole story.
Me too and I don't make crap. Seriously I have a wife who can't work, I am trying to work full time and go to law school (which ain't cheap) so I can build a better life for my family. Which remids me of a story... /scratches chin as screen starts to dissolve/ My wife was visiting with a college friend in California some years ago and they were having dinner with her friends parents. Orange County VERY Republican. The Dad said something to the effect of "idealized youth that start out as Democrats change to Republicans when they make their own wealth and want to keep their own earnings for themselves". To which my wife coyly replied "Ya, I hope to be a Republican someday..." EVERY American should be willing to have an increase in their taxes to bring the Federal Deficit into check, especially the ones that can afford to take a hit. The effects of the Tax cuts wouldn't be nearly as bad if Congress didn't keep increasing discretionary spending and as if to add insult to injury Congressional leaders like Tom DeLay saying how lean the budget is. The problem for Democrats is that the Republican party has become so damn good at framing issues that they can take what should be seen as every American's DUTY, paying their fair share of taxes, and turn it into something evil. Nobody likes giving their money away to the federal government, but until the mindset changes that your tax dollars are your contribution to make this country great again, the Tax Cuts for the Wealthiest Americans will continue.
As I said I was there about 3 weeks after 9/11 and I went down to the site at 2AM and saw the whole massive smoking pile. It was the closest thing to hell that I've seen and that's even including seeing resorts wiped off the face of the Earth in Thailand. That said though it didn't destroy the city. Outside of Manhattan and north of Houston St. there were essentially no physical affects from 9/11. Yes it was a tragedy yes we obsessed about it but no it wasn't anywhere near the whole city being occupied by an enemy power. That's because you have no sense of historical perspective. The scale of the crisis of 1812 to the country in 1812 was far greater because we faced an enemy that really could physically destroy us and our economy. Al Qaeda can't do that and in case you haven't notice. Oh wait you're one of those that trumpet every now and then, our economy has largely recovered from 9/11. For that matter I didn't notice people rationing foods and goods. No I heard the Pres. telling us to spend spend SPEND and go on vacation. Yeah that was real hardship forcing myself to buy a DVD player and go skiing in CO as my patriotic duty. Much harder than not eating meat at least one day a weak, planting a victory garden, not buying new clothes and not driving to conserve resources for the war effort. What's your point? The Confederacy was trying to leave the US and if they had won it wouldn't have been the US that won. Anyway what does this have to do with how hard times are for us now than compared historically? Do you know any of your family or others who went through the Depression and WWII? There's a reason they're called the Greatest Generation. Ask them what challenges they faced and you will understand the magnitude that FDR was facing. As I said yes I believe we are facing stiff challenges now but compared to what this country has gone through in some previous times, not even close. I don't believe Bush is a dolt who screwed up an easy ride but I do believe there were many things he could've done better that wouldn't have made things worse but I'll save that for another debate (or post) Um remember that really bad Michael Bay movie that came out a few years ago starting Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale. What was that called? Pearl Harbor gee I didn't realize that Pearl Harbor was actually in Europe. No I'm not but I'm not someone who believes Al Qaeda has one of the worlds most powerful and modern Navies either. Do you? Largely because the rest of the industrialized countries in Europe and Japan were truly devestated. We were essentially the last industrial power standing which gave us a huge leg up on pretty much every country standing. As I said the war on terrorism is bad but other than Afghanistan can you point to one country where Al Qaeda and its cohorts have succeeded in wiping out their industrial base? Sorry my bad I thought you lived in Houston. Yes and last I checked NYC is still standing and doing very well. It was never abandoned. NO is yet to be seen but you're acting as though you know the future is predetermined that NO will be abandoned and left like a Pompeii. The point is that at the time the state of TN thought things in Memphis was so bad that it was worth considering a municipality. They didn't know, as you don't know now, what the future would be. The disaster from their standpoint was as bad if not worse. I don't know what you mean by in the loop but from my understanding it took more than a decade to rebuild it to something approaching what SF was and it never fully recovered to being the preeminent West Coast city. Galveston arguably is still out of the loop since in terms of population, economy, and cultural importance it has never recovered from the 1900 hurricane. You're acting as if what we're facing now is so much worse than what has happened in the past. You're looking back from you're standpoint of 2005 and saying "well I see Memphis, I see SF so obviously things weren't as bad then as now." The point you don't get is that to the people there at that time the challenges they faced and what was at stake was greater than what we faced now. They didn't know the future then yet you're aguing that somehow you do and can say that history will show that things are so much worse now. There's nothing to indicate that at all considering we don't even have scarcity or rationing of basic goods like at any other time of crisis.
Governors handle crisis in own ways ... She says that two days after Katrina, desperate for help, she couldn't get through to Bush and didn't get a callback; hours later, she tried again, and they talked. ... Barbour hasn't had to wait hours to talk to Bush. In fact, Barbour said in an interview with USA TODAY, the president called him three to four times in the wake of Katrina. "I never called him. He always called me," he said. ... The Great Divider strikes again.
Rimbaud; Good point about Altanta. MY bad. I didn't include the Rodney King riots on the Clinton list because they occured in the spring of 1992 before Clinton took office.
I think Americans do pay enough taxes. GW gave everybody a tax cut - not just the "wealthy people." If you live in California, you pay another 10 percent in income taxes as well 8 percent sales tax. We also have Social Security taxes, medicare, etc. - so I think Americans do pay enough. The problem is that the Republicans have somehow framed it so military cuts are politically unfeasible. All this may have been fine and dandy - except GW and the Republicans are spending billions on some war and non-military federal spending has increased at a higher rate than during the Clinton years.
If the Democrats doesn't at least take back either the house or the senate after all these they don't deserve to be a politcal party.
I think Langal is spot on and this is one area where I will say that GW Bush is getting something of an unfair shake. The economy isn't some fine tuned engine that responds rapidly to changes in fiscal policy. There's a huge inertia in it that takes a while. For instance in the field I'm familiar with construction. During a boom developers won't start building new commercial properties until well into the boom because they don't want to commit financing until it looks like the boom will last long enough to fill up developments. When things start to slide though construction won't stop immediately because there are contracts already committed. So even if the commerce sector tanks construction projects that will still be in the pipeline will continue keeping the construction sector still going. If the recession is short those projects will be filled up at the start of the next boom if long like what happened in Houston in the 1980's or Silicon Valley now you end up with a lot of empty brand new office buildings.
we're making some huge assumptions about the veracity of the comments from both of these governors...particularly given the ramifications, either way, on their own respective political lives.
Yeah, I am an idiot. That is a very good reason not to include it. So...ummm...Yao Ming is pretty tall, eh?
