( a day in the life of a Baghdad family – Bashir, a young man, enters his family’s apartment and greets his father.)

Bashir: Greetings Father, Praise be to Allah.
Father: Praise be to Allah.
Bashir: It’s hot in here. Did we have any electricity today?
Father: One hour, tops. May Allah rain perversions on the Imperialist American Pigs!
Bashir: That sucks. A thousand perversions to the Infidels.
Father: What did you do today?
Bashir: Praise be to Allah, I put out one roadside IED and helped prepare a suicider for a Mosque mission at evening prayers.
Father: Praise be to Allah, but did you stop by the Coalition Forces Outreach Center like your Mother asked you to?
Bashir: Yes, Papa I did.
Father: And did you tell them that death squads have harassing and threatening your Mother, sisters and our neighbors?
Bashir: Yes Papa I did. They said that they already knew and intended to step up patrols. They were very sympathetic.
Father: A thousand perversions to the Imperialist Occupiers.
Bashir: Praise be to Allah, a thousand perversions.

America’s economy is heading for a real shitstorm. The price of petrol is up, wage increases have not kept pace with inflation and a whole lot of your industries have lost jobs and their ability to compete with those of other nations. Currently factories are opening in Canada because health care is cheaper and the people are better educated then in America. The national debt, contrary to popular rightwing belief, is going to have to be paid with interest one of these days, and it is a force which has destroyed countries before. Feudal France died because it couldn’t service its debt, as did Russia, and the Soviet Union.

No Child Left behind is a failure, and America’s literacy rate is shrinking not growing. University grants and loans have been cut under the Bush administration and FEMA is at the weakest it has ever been. Hurricane Katrina is an example of a historic cock up, and in order to believe the Whitehouse BS on whose fault the whole mess was, you have to believe that NO has never suffered a national disaster before. The lines of authority that were the chief sticking point Brown was complaining about had already been long since laid.

There is not a single issue on which GW has had any success on. Foriegn affairs? Screw-up. Even Poland (As in, “Remember Poland”) has pointed to Iraq as being the reason it won’t fight by America’s side again. The enviroment? Cut funding to researching alternative fuels, and divert the rest to the same people whose interests are least served by discovering an alternative. Destroy ANWR. Unemployment? Figure is rendered meaningless when you dig a little further. Spending? Adjusted for inflation Bush has the third worst deficit in the history of America, only being topped by WWII, adjusted for inflation he has the top four. Not good coming off of Clinton’s record breaking surplus.

And don’t try blaming Clinton for that one, Bush has had five years to screw up in.

Terrorism? The worst terrorist attack in America’s history? Bush. The first islamic terrorist attack in English history? Bush. Just two examples.

Think of one issue where Bush was right? There aren’t any. Lowry’s position on this being the first time Liberals have ever been right? Shit if this last five years is the result of Bush getting everything else right by the rightwing it certainly makes me wonder just what the rightwing considers getting it wrong.

http://www.usatoday.com/ printedition/ news/ 20060803/ 1a_coverart03.art_dom.htm

Comment by Roger_Roger — August 16, 2006

Potentially? Man, that’s weak. It sounds like the talk of a
“potential” democracy being installed by an invading force, even though it’s never been successfully done.

“NOW IS THE TIME DEMS!!!! Stop walking and stop talking!!

You offer no solutions, yet rag on dems for the same thing? I gave you a proposal, and your answer? “When it comes to Social Security, the program just needs to die already.” What an intellectually bankrupt response. It shows just how little interest you have in finding real solutions. That you cannot bring yourself to debate the issue tells me you swallow think-tank spew without critical thought. Lifting the caps would make the program solvent for decades – but asking the rich to pay their fair share doesn’t occur to you. Why is that?

So, to recap: a liberal dem proposed a plan, and you ran away. See what I mean about your spew? We’ll see if you can debate the issue today, as I will be tracking you across threads, and asking you the same questions. Will you run away again?

the facts you list say so much for themselves and for the present.

i had no ideas of the pattern of loss.

thank you

p.s. i would say thank you kasinka , # 75, but, with me, that style of address has an eerie, treblinka/cold-war sound to it. very uncomfortable to type.

To date, I only hear what Bush did wrong. I am very unhappy with the Repug’s but what are the Dems offering?? Still waiting………..

Comment by Roger_Roger — August 16, 2006 @ 4:26 pm

Lamont covered all this and his plan. That’s why he won the election. One way to win is to fight terrorism in the first place instead of occupying a soverign nation. We have no right to be there. Bremer was sent to Iraq to carve up all the resources and handle all the lucrative rebuilding contracts, thus cutting out the Iraqis. Then we wonder why they’re so pissed off. The whole thing was a giant resource grab and a “get the taxpayer to pay for the war and reconstruction so we and our buddies make obscene profits” con job. It is sickening. These men have commited treason and should be shot. It is called blood money. Bob Dylan wrote a song about these bloodsuckers, The Masters of War.”

Comment by Gregor Samsa — August 16, 2006 @ 8:22 pm
Don’t hold your breath gregor-MA is back under HIS rock. I do think that MA should get a little atta-a-boy for posting tonight. His party is going down in flames and HE sees a pony under the pile of horse $hit that bush created.

Roger_Roger

Late to the the post and I see others have weighed in … but this caught my attention.

To say:

” So Bush’s plan is not working ” and then move on to all of that other stuff is a bit “cavalier” – to put it lightly.

It is like me telling you not to drain a fifth of Jack Daniels knowing you are planning to drive a car.

You ignore my advice – you crash the car, kill people and destroy property.

And then you say:

“… Well, I guess my plan didn’t work … but, what are you going to do to make this all better ? Unless you have a way to make this all better – well then you can’t say anything … ”

With all due respect – that’s just silly.

In this case, the first thing I would do is to make sure you don’t get anywhere near the wheel of a car any time in the near future.

And I’m sure you are following the analogy – the first thing we must do politically is make sure that the neocons and the chicken hawks that are currently nesting in the republican party are kept as far away from power as possible.

Retired General John M. Shalikashvili – former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

and

Retired General Tony McPeak – Chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force during Desert Storm

both left the republican party as a result of Bush’s decision to wage this war.

If you are serious about voting against the republicans this November, then you should make your case to the other republicans that you know.

Otherwise, this time next year you will have the opportunity to write … ” So Bush’s plan still isn’t working – and, in fact, it has gotten a lot worse … “