01-29-2009, 06:23 PM | #31 |
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The people who cry "disaster disaster disaster" frankly don't impress me with their thinking. The "disaster" they seem to have in mind always seems to be better said as "a setback to the [il]liberal agenda." O'Reilly calls these people "Secular-Progressives," if you'd rather use that term, and reckons they don't got it. He makes a pretty solid case.
Item: refusal to pass gun control legislation -- good for the Republic, bad for increasing the chances of genocides, and for criminals generally. Gun rights are a most potent expression of human rights -- a right not to be murdered or robbed, a right not to suffer genocide. Fundamental, I should think. Item: demolition of undemocratic regimes, plural -- better for good government worldwide; the greatest part of human miseries stem from bad governance, as looking for correlations of bad national quality of life with undemocratic governance will show. On a related note, it's one option for making a better world that isn't taking in millions of illegal immigrants: make their home places better than they were, and where's the wrong in removing those human obstacles to that idea that invariably present themselves, with their guns, their goons, their clubs and gas? That we're about the best country around is evidenced by how many millions of people are literally breaking into the place to partake. About eleven million illegals these days. Item: not being buffaloed by environmentalist lobbies promotes efficient business by ensuring the cost of doing business is not so excessive it is no longer worthwhile -- that way lies European stagnation. Business is something humans do, and GWB understood that in his bones. Item: Federal-level government almost entirely engrossed in foreign policy reduced any temptation to meddle with domestic affairs, to the benefit of those affairs and of civil rights also, unlike his predecessor, who clearly viewed the Bill of Rights not as a guide to his behavior in office, but as a stumbling-block to his ambitions. His predecessor was never out of disgrace, couldn't do foreign policy (very scant legacy -- his lone foreign-policy success seems to have been handing the Balkans fighting over to Europe to settle), and had the DoJ completely suborned with Janet Reno. His predecessor got two terms, neither with my vote, I can tell you. Unlike his predecessor, your own civil rights have never been imperiled nor eroded with GWB, whatever the pretenses of the ravers have been. Look at what they say happens, then look at really does happen. This is why I'll defend GWB's record. Item: GWB kept me happy enough with him to vote for him twice. He did things I wanted done. This cannot be dismissed as just UG being crazy -- it's UG thinking better than most of the people who yell at him around here.
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01-29-2009, 11:43 PM | #33 | |||||||
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01-29-2009, 11:46 PM | #34 |
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Hey sugarpop - do you think congress has any culpability in this mess? Are they responsible at all for any of the financial issues we are dealing with? I'm interested in your opinion.
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01-30-2009, 12:39 AM | #35 | |
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They need to put reasonable regulation, transparency and oversight back into law. I believe ultimately, deregulation caused a lot of this. |
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01-30-2009, 12:43 PM | #36 | |
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I find it ironic that those calling for investigations were themselves as involved in the oversight as those they are accusing. Dodd, Frank... No the congresspeople didn't write the loans - that we agree upon. But it sure seems that the financial lobbyists they were very close with knew what was going on. They sure as hell have a lot of explaining to do and should stop the finger pointing.
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01-31-2009, 06:38 AM | #37 |
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I posted a reeeeally long response to that article. (Because I felt the need to go into a whole lot of things that I see as being contributing factors to what happened. ) Thanks for guiding me there.
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01-31-2009, 01:48 PM | #38 |
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Sorry honey. That was a Bush plan completely approved by a Democratcially dominated Congress. The Democrats approved it the first time as well but the Congress was controlled by the Rebublickins and Bush carried it out. You can't blame Bush for that one.
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01-31-2009, 09:02 PM | #39 |
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Some of them may have approved it for what it was supposed to be for, which in my understanding was to listen in on Americans who were suspected of terrorist associations on phone calls from other countries, but they completely misused it and simply spied on everyone and anyone. They were even listening in on personal phone calls our SOLDIERS were making from Iraq and Afghanistan to their wives and husbands. And you can't possibly believe Bush told them everything about how he was using it. He had the most secretive administration ever, and he thought he was above the law.
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02-01-2009, 01:04 AM | #40 |
barely disguised asshole, keeper of all that is holy.
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I can picture Bush and Cheney sittin in the office with headphones on
listening to me talk to my mom... can you?
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"like strapping a pillow on a bull in a china shop" Bullitt |
02-01-2009, 06:18 AM | #41 |
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Somebody grab the butterfly net!
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02-01-2009, 08:53 AM | #42 |
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House approves Patriot Act renewal
Approval sends measure to Bush's desk before expiration http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/03/07/patriot.act/
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02-01-2009, 09:41 AM | #43 | |
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Bush did it unilaterally, using the congresionally approved Authorization of Use of Military Force (AUMF) as a legal justification. An AUMF authorizes military force...NOT NSA wiretapping. Gonzales lied to Congress about it and Bush as much as acknowledged that there was no Congressional approval, which was why he called for a new and expanded FISA bill after the abuses became public. they did go along with the amended FISA (Protect America Act) in 07, but were instrumental in including greater Congressional oversight and far greater limitations on wiretapping American citizens. I had to come back here to correct the revisionist history Last edited by Redux; 02-01-2009 at 09:51 AM. |
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02-01-2009, 10:05 AM | #44 | |
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02-01-2009, 10:10 AM | #45 | |
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And I was disappointed in the Democratic caving on the telecomm immunity, but pleased that at least the new FISA has more oversight and limitations. |
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