things like bypassing the FISA laws or the War Powers Act...which they are already doing
things like accelerating the selling out of America via their Corporate and Lobbyist Masters , bit by bit...for Chinese and Indian money to line CEO's pockets while tossing aside American Workers
things like more pre-emptive wars to "end tyranny" whenever and however the White House decides to do so
on and on
distract,distort,deny and destroy
that's the Rovian way...go ahead, look at the transcripts of the speech...you will see Emperor Shrub use "bi-partisanship" like a club to make the point over and over again that it means everybody do it MY way...not that we can all work things out together
read closely and you can find numerous instances where he sets up a false dichotomy that lets you believe to speak against the policy means you are un-American somehow
over and over you see examples of how this speech was NOT from a President or Administration that seeks to govern ALL the People...but instead panders to it's base at all costs, and tosses the red meat towards the carnivores in the Lobby
yeah..i know i'm being a bit harsh...intentionally so
after seeing the quisling, milquetoast DLC types creaming themselves in their rampant desire to grow up to be just like the GOP Machine...i despair that we will break loose from the totalitarian nightmare i see heading our way...
too many folks sleepwalking like pigs in the wilderness, blithely unAware of the tiger pit filled with pungi stakes smeared with Greed's shit and waiting to lay the gangrene down on U.S.
too disgusted to go on...the Jeffersonian Option is drawing closer, the next Installment may just be "This, I Believe"...and you, gentle Readers, will note i NEVER use the word "believe" about myself...
me? i killed my cel phone, am heading out to invest all i have into canned goods and shotguns...then time to head to the nearest Revival tent to get "born again" and sign up for the GOP's next primary and send a check to Pat Robertson right after i get a crew cut...
cuz ya don't need a Weatherman to know which way the Wind blows...
your mileage may vary
Excelsior?
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Margaret Romao Toigo
Indeed, what Mr. Bush did not say speaks volumes. And loudly enough to be noticed by many. I fear his troubles are just beginning.
I thought it was a rather mundane speech, a sort of "Dubya's Greatest Hits -- Remixed," except for that part about us being addicted to oil, that was new.
If "hitting the numbers and numbing the hitters" (I liked that one, BTW) was the intent, it isn't likely to have much effect.
So why such pessimism when November is still so far away?
BTW, Justice Alito is turning out to be a surprise... I think I will reserve my judgment on the justice for now. Remember, he wasn't elected and doesn't have to worry about getting re-elected.
2 - gonzo marx
why the pessimism? too much to list i guess...but i am trying to reserve being too extreme until after November
my worry is how much of a shitstorm can be brewed up prior to that, all it would take are a few SCOTUS decisions to really screw the pooch for a generation
but we will see, mebbe i'll be pleasantly suprised
it's the privacy shyte that really has my panties in a twist...and some folks wonder why i use a pseudonym
objects in mirror may be closer than they appear
Excelsior!
3 - SonnyD
Gonzo: yes, yes, no, no, no, no, yes, yes, yes, maybe, maybe, OK, no, so?, overstated, but I know what you mean, ya think?, no, yes but it won't last very long, no, no, no, it's politics after all, yes, yes, yes, HUH?, this I gotta see, Talk about Drama!
4 - gonzo marx
SonnyD...thanks for the Laugh...
i needed it
Excelsior!
5 - Dave Nalle
Bog and JuJu help me in this dark hour of insanity...
By the twin hurtling moons of Barzoom, I will address just a few of your points, you bleating Bantha.
trade deficit
A nonexistent fictional construct.
stagnant wages
Except for how they're going up and all.
more money spent on Iraq than just about ANY endeavor EVER undertaken by our Nation....why?
Ever heard of adjusting for inflation? Take even the War on Poverty and slap it into 2006 dollars and the Iraq War looks like chickenfeed.
National Debt...Budget Deficit....nothing from the first POTUS with an MBA, who controls House and Senate...and why they can't fucking balance a checkbook?
Did you miss the part about cutting the deficit in half by 2009? Not an exciting solution, but an answer to your question anyway.
with the confirmation of Alito to the Supreme Court, right on the heels of Roberts being appointed as Chief Justice...the final piece of the totalitarian take over appears to be complete...
Give me a break. Even if Mr. Bland is an arch conservative Roe v. Wade still gets held up 5-4 at the very least.
Fascism- A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism
Which is about as alien as you can get from Bush's feel-good niceguy speech.
distract,distort,deny and destroy
The words you live by.
that's the Rovian way...go ahead, look at the transcripts of the speech...you will see Emperor Shrub use "bi-partisanship" like a club to make the point over and over again that it means everybody do it MY way...not that we can all work things out together
Yeah, bipartisanship and consensual government sure are signs of fascism. Huh?
read closely and you can find numerous instances where he sets up a false dichotomy that lets you believe to speak against the policy means you are un-American somehow
I sure can't find them. Maybe you can point them out for us.
me? i killed my cel phone, am heading out to invest all i have into canned goods and shotguns...then time to head to the nearest Revival tent to get "born again" and sign up for the GOP's next primary and send a check to Pat Robertson right after i get a crew cut...
I already have the canned goods and shotguns, not to mention a 3-pounder for a little artillery support. I'm going to have to update the emergency supplies before 2008 and establish power independence by then as well, because I figure the shit's going to come down right around March of '09 when all the things you imagine about Bush come true under Hillary.
Dave
6 - Dave Nalle
And BTW, I thought on a lark I'd look up that wage growth data. Personal income is up 6.5% over the past year. That's more than double the rate of inflation. That's pretty damned good.
Dave
7 - gonzo marx
so, some folks think that the trade deficit is a "fictional construct"..
that one bloggles my little mind..so let's take a peek...
this year, we imported 200 billion dollars more in high tech products from china than we exported
that, by definition, is a deficit...and that's just the tip of the iceberg...check out how much of our aircraft sub-assemblies are being made in China, shipped here...then sold back at a discount
each and every penny is one we used to make here from a high paying middle class job
check Lou Dobbs' website..he gives ya nice linkages to the numbers from the GAO and CBO
speaking of the CBO...one last one to touch on real quick...that "cut the deficit in half by 2009" ...according to the CBO...that's a complete lie and utterly impossible at this point
have fun with the Research...me? i just got a whole case of barf bags...
Excelsior?
8 - Mark Saleski
where did you find the personal income data? i heard/read yesterday that it had not kept up with inflation for 2005. (and i'll be damned where i heard or read it)
9 - gonzo marx
well... here is the link to the numbers i was talking about...and this nice Article raises many of the same Questions...and more
not to mention it being from an exemplary professional journalist who specializes in these money matters and whom i think is one of the best around today in being Objective and Ethical in his work
give it a read
Excelsior!
10 - gonzo marx
dreck...lemme try this linkage again...
here
Excelsior!
11 - Dave Nalle
so, some folks think that the trade deficit is a "fictional construct"..
that one bloggles my little mind..so let's take a peek...
No, gonzo, the IDEA that the trade deficit is meaningful is a fictional construct. It's all trade and all of benefit to the nation, whether it's outgoing or incoming. The US economy has always been driven by consumers, so an imbalance in favor of imports over exports is not, in fact, a problem at all.
each and every penny is one we used to make here from a high paying middle class job
Except, of course, that this is not true, because jobs have expanded substantially in the tech sector and in the middle
speaking of the CBO...one last one to touch on real quick...that "cut the deficit in half by 2009" ...according to the CBO...that's a complete lie and utterly impossible at this point
The last CBO figures I saw had the deficit completely eliminated by 2011, so cutting it in half by 2009 seems to make sense in that context.
Dave
12 - Mark Saleski
my question was for dave. where did the personal income figures come from?
13 - gonzo marx
to comment #11...read the linked Article...it explain it far better than i possibly can
i know you are not familiar, personally, with the tech sector...i have been working in it for quite soe time now, and allow me to suggest you have no clue as to the Reality of the situation
case in point...3.2% cost of living raise - 8% increase in halth benefit costs+normal tax increases+real cost of living+gas/fuel prices(and the added cost increases of EVERTHING that ships by truck)= net is MUCH lower than last year
nuff said?
Excelsior!
14 - Dave Nalle
where did you find the personal income data? i heard/read yesterday that it had not kept up with inflation for 2005. (and i'll be damned where i heard or read it)
It's from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The figure I cited was for the period from the third quarter of 2004 to the third quarter of 2005. I've now found a new link with data for the fourth quarter which shows a total personal income growth for 2005 of 5.4%, slightly less good than my original calculation, but still substantially more than inflation. The portion of that personal income growth from wages salaries and bonuses increased by 6.4% over the course of the year.
And Gonzo, Lou Dobbs is a nutcase and hardly an exemplary journalist. He's a one-issue crank who completely ignores the overwhelming evidence that contradicts his bizarre fixation on outsourcing jobs - a process which has been definitively proven to increase employmnet and create new jobs at higher wages in most companies where it is practiced.
Dave
15 - gonzo marx
and the final paragraph of comment #14 shows the dichotomy i am speaking about, folks
i have no doubt Mr Nalle believes in his positions
i just disagree
and i would say anyone interested in the economic figures check the link i provided and do the math for yourself
to me, the Logic is unassailable, and the mathematics accurate
your mileage may vary
Excelsior!
16 - Stephen
When they come for me how do you think they will do it, set-me-up with some sort of criminal thing or will I just disappear, I live in Cleveland maybe they will take me for a helicopter ride over Lake Erie, what to do what to do????
17 - Dave Nalle
i know you are not familiar, personally, with the tech sector...i have been working in it for quite soe time now, and allow me to suggest you have no clue as to the Reality of the situation
And you know this because? My wife works in the tech sector as do almost all of my friends, not to mention almost all of my business customers.
case in point...3.2% cost of living raise - 8% increase in halth benefit costs+normal tax increases+real cost of living+gas/fuel prices(and the added cost increases of EVERTHING that ships by truck)= net is MUCH lower than last year
Not according to the BEA. Even taking all of that into consideration real savable excess income increased by 1.4% last year. That's less than the last couple of years, but still an increase. The fact that it IS lower represents the factors you mention.
I was also able to find data specific for tech jobs for 2004, in which year tech manufacturing wages increased by 5% and tech services wages increased by 7%.
The truth is that even when income goes up everyone tends to THINK they're losing ground, whether it's true or not.
Stop drinking the Dobbs Paranoia Juice and look up some of this data for yourself.
Dave
18 - gonzo marx
i drink of no one's "juice" ...and i HAVE not only looked this shit up myself..i live it
perhaps in Texas, and other parts of the nation this is different...but in the northeast everything i have stated has been born out time and again
we disagree...fair enough
i linked to my numbers..i am interested in looking over the source of yours
i've even done some comparison stuff for keeping in the $25-100k brackett...and the over 100k brackett
initial results tend to show the jumps are in the over 100k, and they could be what is skewing the numbers towards what you suggest
if i can nail donw solid data, i will post it...but it isn't irrefutable yet
but i DO stand by what is in the Article i linked to, and defy anyone to take those numbers, their sources and conclusions, and find flaw
i tried...
but i do tend to think that a lot of the difference here revolves around the very Real variations in Viewpoint between someone who got to attend top flight private schools and make their own Way versus someone who has been working and supporting himself since he was 13...
just my one sixth billionths of the World's Opinion...
your mileage may vary
Excelsior!
19 - Dave Nalle
i have no doubt Mr Nalle believes in his positions
i just disagree
Yes, but my position is supported by objective economic facts, while yours comes solely from the suspect opinion of one journalist.
and i would say anyone interested in the economic figures check the link i provided and do the math for yourself
And check out my link as well, where the facts are laid out quite clearly.
to me, the Logic is unassailable, and the mathematics accurate
And largely irrelevant to any real issue for American workers and consumers.
The entire issue of trade imbalance is ludicrous when you're talking about the specific welfare of working Americans. Imports generate jobs. Exports generate jobs. People earn good salaries manufacturing tech and other industrial products. They earn even BETTER salaries servicing, supporting and operating imported technology. And increasingly the really good salaries in the US are in information management type jobs, which are almost impossible to represent in the whole balance of trade paradigm and are a rapidly growing part of our economy.
Dave
20 - gonzo marx
to comment #19
and there we see another facet of the difference...your assertation that these mysterious high paying jobs are all over th place is NOT born out by the Objective Facts i have come across, not the governmental statistics cited by Dobbs on numerous occasions
however, you also tend to neglect the Facts from even our own manufaturers..such as Boeing...who show how much of the high tech part for air craft are no longer built in the states, but in China
so those well paying jobs are lost
not only does this decrease the worker base..those jobs are NOT beng re-created in kind...but it does leave us with a MAJOR security hole
since Boeing IS a major defense contractor...who will build these parts if there IS some conflict which disrupts shipping if nothing else?
some think it's ok to send jobs out of the country, and drive labor prices down with illegal alien workers...
others think we should be bolstering our economic strength by inproving the labor market here, and not paying corporations, via tax breaks, to ship our jobs out of the country
that's stuff for each and every opne of us to think about...learn about..and decide
me?..i'm for buy American, keep US folks employed at the best wages in the world
but i'm silly like that
Excelsior!
21 - Mark Saleski
hmmm.
well, here's a link to a business week article that has numbers nowhere near what you've quoted.
managers/professionals up 3.2/2.4 percent vs. the 3.5% cpi increase.
these numbers are supported by this bureau of labor statics chart.
22 - gonzo marx
excellent stuff there Mark!
thanks for the linkage, which directly refutes many of the claims made, and gives the underlying breakdowns and some good explainations
that's the economy stuff...
now, howabout those wiretaps?
heh
Excelsior!
23 - Dave Nalle
i drink of no one's "juice" ...and i HAVE not only looked this shit up myself..i live it
According to the Maine Dept of Labor you work in the second highest paid industry in the state with an average salary of right around $47,000 a year. So you ought to be living pretty decently.
perhaps in Texas, and other parts of the nation this is different...but in the northeast everything i have stated has been born out time and again
Actually, the historic trends show that Maine as a state does considerably better than most other parts of New England as far as availability of jobs and salaries paid. State unemployment is as low as it is in Texas, and wages are actually higher.
i linked to my numbers..i am interested in looking over the source of yours
I posted the link.
i've even done some comparison stuff for keeping in the $25-100k brackett...and the over 100k brackett
initial results tend to show the jumps are in the over 100k, and they could be what is skewing the numbers towards what you suggest
In the tech industries the over 100K range is a very, very large portion of the total workforce compared to other industries. It's not just management and corporate admin.
but i do tend to think that a lot of the difference here revolves around the very Real variations in Viewpoint between someone who got to attend top flight private schools and make their own Way versus someone who has been working and supporting himself since he was 13...
I had a job starting when I was 13 too, Gonzo. I earned $2.25 an hour answering phones. I didn't have to support myself on it, but then neither do the overwhelming majority of 13 year olds. But very few of them have even part time jobs at that age. If you had to fully support yourself at that age you're in a very small and exclusive club, even more unusual than those who attended good private schools. You sound a bit like my wife, who supported herself from the age of 16 working in accounting and then in database management and eventually programming and system administration. No private schools, dropped out of college after one semester, yet she has a much more positive attitude than you do.
Dave
24 - Mark Saleski
woah, it's gettin' smug in here.
25 - gonzo marx
comment #23 sez...
*According to the Maine Dept of Labor you work in the second highest paid industry in the state with an average salary of right around $47,000 a year.*
well..there's a lie right there...off by about 25%
and all the techs here earn the same salary...in our industry as well as things like TV repair, there is a HUGE split between what is charged for the labor, by the hour...and what is paid to the tech
hence some of the problems with the numbers you are looking at
not many techs at my level in all of maine, i can honestly say i personally know most of them outside of Portland...
the only ones makin ghte kind of money you are talking about, own their business
as for the rest...i ain't bitching about my past...and note i totally give credit to your working yourself to where you are
i was just showing the difference, and how that can change a Viewpoint...
you see, simplicity itself for me to adapt to a world better than mine, very difficult for the reverse...
but i digress
Excelsior!