yesterday i had an email from a sometimes friend telling me he would no longer read my blog as i was clearly more liberal and anti-bush/mccain than he thought. what can i say? i blog things that interest me and sometimes i think they would be interesting to others. but make no mistake about it, while i would call myself a moderate, though socially very liberal, i despise what this president and his administration have done and have failed to do on just about every major issue-good job brownie aside- and i see mccain as more of the same, possibly without the horrors of a cheny vp. just in case my blogs have been too subtle, the mission has not been accomplished. and living here in england had made it worse. here i get to talk to people from all over the world and it is easier to see the global effect of our country's impact on that world. to say that being against a war is conservative or liberal makes no sense. i would bomb the hell out of anyone that we needed to do so to protect us and in many cases our allies. but not just because they have oil. anyone who wants to stop reading can do so. it just makes me angry when they argue about flag pins and thousands are now dead or injured. and the iraqi people who want a decent life live in turmoil, while people in africa kill their goats for food so they can feed their children and worry about the goat's milk later. and this administration is against stem cell research....
pastor wright aside i care more about what they will do about health care, the economy, energy, food, education, social security, medicare, returning veteran's, torture, land mines, immigration, --i can go on and this little list is not in priority order. without a majority in congress not much will get done unless they work together and if they see every issue as us and them rather than the good of the country god help us all. end of rant for now. my run certainly didn't give me runner's high today.
so are the states still red and blue? and how will michigan and florida be resolved? when will the dems change their stupid primary system? and what should i do with my stimulus money?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fact of the Day
George Washington gave his inaugural address today in 1789 when he became the first President of the fledgling United States of America. The address was delivered at New York's Federal Hall which was the USA's capitol building at that time.
from scotsman.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
crooks and liars
To hear Bush tell it, the economic anxiety Americans feel right now is somehow related to tax cuts that expire in 2011 — tax cuts that primarily don’t help the middle class or low-income families anyway.
In all seriousness, how many people who are worried about their families’ finances right now are going to say, “I’ve been really worried, but now that I know my tax rate will remain the same in 2011 as it is 2010, I’m feeling better again”? That, in essence, is what the president argued with a straight face this morning. The answer for economic angst now is maintenance of existing tax cuts three years from now.
Ben at TP recently offered a competing explanation for economic anxiety.
[M]aybe American negative attitudes toward the economy stem from the housing and credit crises, job losses, rising unemployment, a volatile stock market, high gas prices, high family debt, flat wages, increasing budget deficits, a weak dollar, and rising health care costs — not to mention the effects of the $12 billion per month war in Iraq that is being bankrolled largely on borrowed funds.
Could that have more to do with explaining why Americans are so upset with the economy? Nah. It must have something to do with expectations for tax rates in 2011. After all, as Bush insisted this morning, those three-years-away rates “cause different behavioral patterns.”
That makes a lot more sense. Thank goodness the president and his congressional allies are so in touch with concerns and fears facing American families.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CNN:
More than half of Yellowstone National Park’s bison herd has died since last fall, forcing the government to suspend its annual slaughter program.
Bison’s natural habitat is at high elevations, but they move lower when grass for grazing becomes scarce.
More than 700 of the iconic animals starved or otherwise died on the mountainsides during an unusually harsh winter, and more than 1,600 were shot by hunters or sent to slaughterhouses in a disease-control effort, according to National Park Service figures.
As a result, the park estimates its bison herd has dropped from 4,700 in November to about 2,300 today, prompting the government to halt the culling program early.
“There has never been a slaughter like this of the bison since the 1800s in this country, and it’s disgusting,” said Mike Mease of the Buffalo Field Campaign, a group seeking to stop the slaughter program for good.
Government officials say the slaughter prevents the spread of the disease brucellosis from the Yellowstone bison to cattle on land near the park. Brucellosis can cause miscarriages, infertility and reduced milk production in domestic cattle. [..]
The USDA acknowledges that bison-to-cattle transmission is difficult to document, but it says investigations indicate that bison were the likely source of infections in cattle herds in Wyoming and North Dakota.
But critics call the culling an overreaction. There is no documented case of the disease passing from bison to cattle, they said.
Let’s call this another front on the War On The Environment, shall we? Since their concerted effort to gut the Endangered Species Act last year, which included de-listing the gray wolf in February, resulting in 10 wolves being killed in Wyoming alone this month, the Bush administration has been responsible for causing at least two species (the Lake Sammamish kokanee and the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit) to become extinct. And even more are threatened as they ignore environmentalists. Further, experts are saying the construction of the ridiculous border fence is threatening to make species like jaguars, ocelots, and the Sonoran pronghorn extinct in the United States. Heckuva job, Bushie.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Countdown Tuesday, Keith and Rachel dissected two of McCain’s major potential liabilities: his own “radical” pastors and the many examples that threaten his image as the Honorable Campaign Finance Reform Champion.
Download | Play Download | Play
“He’s such a maverick he not only doesn’t play by other people’s rules, he doesn’t even play by his own rules.”
Despite his horrendous showing at the ABC debate, I’m grateful Stephanopoulos finally broke the media silence and confronted McCain on his Hagee problem last weekend. When will the rest of the mainstream press wake up and realize that religious leaders on the right have been saying controversial stuff for years?
When will they also realize that the Maverick they fell in love with has left the building? Saint McCain once championed strict campaign finance rules. Now he exploits (and even violates) his own signature legislation. The man who once stood as the moral arbiter on torture now remains silent as his own legislation gets used to torture people. He was for the Bush tax cuts before he was against them. Agent of intolerance to commencement speaker. “Bring em all home” to “100 years is fine with me.”
Are there any defining attributes John McCain won’t sacrifice to appease the lunatic fringe and become President? More importantly, is there any way to get the press to cover this?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fareed Zakaria: McCain Would Mean Second Cold War
Posted: 29 Apr 2008 08:38 AM CDT
Thank God someone out there is scrutinizing McCain’s neocon craziness.
Newsweek:
On March 26, McCain gave a speech on foreign policy in Los Angeles that was billed as his most comprehensive statement on the subject. It contained within it the most radical idea put forward by a major candidate for the presidency in 25 years. Yet almost no one noticed.
In his speech McCain proposed that the United States expel Russia from the G8, the group of advanced industrial countries. Moscow was included in this body in the 1990s to recognize and reward it for peacefully ending the cold war on Western terms, dismantling the Soviet empire and withdrawing from large chunks of the old Russian Empire as well. McCain also proposed that the United States should expand the G8 by taking in India and Brazil—but pointedly excluded China from the councils of power.
You would think a policy-reversal of this magnitude would merit some attention. Not in McCain’s Media.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment