idrankwhat

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Everything posted by idrankwhat

  1. The Democrats as well as a few independently thinking Republicans actually have asked that the wire tapping issue get looked into. The problem is that the idealogs that control what comes to the floor are in control. That's why there's no one looking into it right now. It's just like Sen. Pat Roberts and his refusal to continue with the second part of the 9/11 investigation. I think I did hear that Arlen Spectre may be revisiting the wire tapping issue. He's pissed at Gonzales for refusing to answer any questions during his two visits in front of his committee (they should have sworn him in). But now, with this article about Bush's excessive use of signing statements to assert that 750 new laws don't apply to Bush if he doesn't want them to, http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/04/30/bush_challenges_hundreds_of_laws/ Spectre's probably going to try to go after an answer. Which brings us to current events. I think that's why Goss is gone and Hayden's in, a pre-emptive defense against likely impeachment proceedings after this fall's elections.
  2. The problem is that about a half dozen companies own almost all of the media outlets on earth. Ever wonder why almost all news programs each morning are talking about the exact same handfull of stories?
  3. Actually, I don't watch very much TV news anymore. I get tired of getting beaten up with the commercials plus I've got a two year old kid. If I had the time I'd probably choose the McNeil/Lehrer News hour for regular news but right now I get most of it off the internet. It's faster because I don't have to wait for the car and truck commercials to end or for the local stations to quit stroking their doppler vs. their competitor's doppler. Hopefully the net will prove to be an equalizer of some sort once it's starts pumping more video content. The only thing that will screw that up will be if this congress puts an end to net neutrality, which looks quite likely. What was the question again
  4. Fox and Friends? Cavuto? Gibson? Fox is running out of room to insert a real news show. And I'll have to disagree that people watch those opinion shows because they want different views, I think they want reinforcement for the views that they already have. The reason that I can't stand them is because of the host's handling of their guests. They cut them off in the middle of a statement, then lead them into straw man arguments, cut off the response and then finish with rant which reinforces their view right before they cut to commercial. That's the sign of someone with a weak argument. It's disrespectful to the guests and does a disservice to the viewers by reducing what should be news to something that resembles propaganda.
  5. Great question. Simple answer: no. Not liberal or conservative, just information and opinions from the guests. Ciels- Michele That's what the news is supposed to be (and still is if you look hard enough). It used to be much better. But when you have the news owned by a few large corporations that salso sell you your clothes, food, automobiles, military hardware, entertainment etc. you get what we have today. It's not about getting accurate information to the viewers, it's about making money. As an aside, I think that FOX News is an oxymoron. There is way too much editorial content for it to be considered a reliable news source. Admittedly, they have gotten a little bit better ever since Bush's poll numbers started to suffer.
  6. I have what should be a simple question. What if a news source just told you what happened, didn't insert their opinion, allowed people from opposing points of view to calmly and respectfully have an exchage of those views......would that be considered "liberal"?
  7. And this administration has learned from the mistake of taking an oath. That's why when Gonzales or the oil execs go in front of congress they won't let them take one. Here's Gonzo getting his pass. http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Senate-Judiciary.mov
  8. I heard this interview with Paul Reickhoff yesterday. I wouldn't mind hearing more about him. He seems to have his priorities in order. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5382507
  9. John Dean said it best when he stated that this is the first time in history that a president has admitted to an impeachable offense. And Dean should know. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10626679/
  10. So you claim that the Congress is aiding a criminal? Why has the Courts not done something? Are they in on it also? How can a court make a ruling if no one brings them a case?
  11. There is proof. And I have called and written my congressmen. The problem is that this republican leadership won't investigate any of it and they're the one's who decide what comes to the floor. Bush can't be impeached until the other party takes over at least one house of congress. If you have proof he has done illegal things, call your congressman. Its hard to claim the things he did was illegal since the Congress and Senate vote to support it, and the Courts have not ruled otherwise.
  12. Yea, I can't really hide my feelings about this one, but it aint the cool aid talking. I just use the words of those I accuse against them. There's plenty of it out there. Here's a primer if you're interested in where our foreign policy comes from. Make sure you look at the signatories and then cross check them with the names in the administration and their supporting pundits. Start reading the older statements first. http://www.newamericancentury.org/lettersstatements.htm And I *am* a political cynic who believes that the only way that we're going to get our country back is to make it illegal for politicians to take any money whatsoever. It's bribery, not free speech.
  13. In a nutshell, I hate double standards. Clinton was investigated for Whitewater, monicagate, etc. None of which had anything to do with his functioning as a president. Bush on the other hand has lied in order to lead us into an illegal and premeditated war, leaked classified info for political gain, illegally spied (whoops, still spying) on Americans and absolutely nothing comes of it. But to clarify, I'm not a big fan of politicians as a whole and I consider myself an independent because my views don't fit into tab "A" or slot "B". BUT, I will go on record as saying that Bush is quite possibly the worst president in our history, the current biggest threat to world peace and the financial or physical security of the US. He's a tool of Dick Cheney and the "Project for a New American Century" and he's too stupid to notice because he seems to think that he's ordained by God. I'd better quit now before I tell you guys how I really feeljavascript: addTag(':)') Every president ever. Whether you think it's useless or not depends on if you're drinking the blue or the red cool aid. I didn't think you drank any coolaid, but after that post, now I'm not so sure....
  14. You KNOW that? Do you have a magic 8 ball? No. But I remember the 90's and I occasionally listen to talk radio. They're still feeding their Clinton fetish every chance they get. I wasn't a huge Clinton admin fan (but I certainly prefer him to what we have now) but the thing that pissed me off was that he had to spend his entire term fending off useless investigations and character assassination. Meanwhile, the current admin can do whatever it wants, legal or not, and there's no touching them because they're being protected by the congressional leadership and the justice dept. As for presidential candidates, I can respect McCain, but Leiberman is a problem. His allegience is obviously primarily with Israel, regardless of what they do. He's supposed to be working for us, not them. And I agree that there are tons of others who would serve us better. Now if we could just figure out a way to get them on the ballot and some TV time.
  15. I just wanted to throw in a point of order on entitlements and defense spending. With regard to defense spending you also need to consider the *emergency* spending requests that Bush deliberately keeps off the budget every year. Secondly, the entitlements take on a different status when you add things like the medicare drug plan, which is a windfall for the pharmaceutical companies and the congressmen who wrote the bill....and then turned around and went to work as lobbyists for those same pharmaceuticals. It's still a form of welfare but now it's corporate welfare. Also, I actually wrote my congressman on this idea. I was thinking that we should take defense spending off budget, like social security. That way we would see the deduction every week on our paychecks. Maybe people will think twice before invading another country or re-hiring defense contractors who repeatedly get busted for over billing. QuoteAnvil, again, if entitlements are the problem.........
  16. I only mention Hillary's name because I know that it works the neocons into a lather. But I will say that I can't stand Bush and it's because of the damage he and his train wreck of an administration has inflicted. I know that if Hillary were Pres then we'd be hearing nothing about her policies but more about the size of her ankles or how much it costs to cut her hair....you know....the important stuff. Actually, I wish Powell would run. It might give him a chance to undo the damage to his reputation. I would go with, YES! I agree it would be a good idea. And I would be ok with that. It seems you would only be OK with Hillary, not Bush.
  17. More voted for him or he got more votes? Normally I'd say that there's no difference, but then I heard the president of the voting machine maker, Diebold, say that he was going to do everything in his power to get Bush re-elected. Call me a conspiracy theorist? Maybe. But I don't think that having a hard copy for a vote is out of the question. You can't buy a pack of gum without getting a receipt, why should a vote be any less verifiable? And before you reply, consider if it were Hillary that had the sworn support of a voting machine maker. That's the difficult thing about fairness, it works both ways. But more voted for him than Kerry. So he won. Neat huh?
  18. Ok, here's something to chew on. We are currently PAYING the interest on the debt even though we haven't touched the principal for about five years. So this is basically an interest only loan and we're currently forking out about two BILLION dollars PER DAY in interest. Where do you think your income tax goes? As for the previous post, check the value of the dollar over the last few years, and also consider what's going to happen when the dollar gets so unattractive that not only does China quit financing our debt but OPEC decides to peg oil against the Euro instead of the dollar. The people who are currently running our government think about one thing, what they can get for themselves NOW, future be damned. Most countries carry a debt and when not paid, reflects in lower value of currency.
  19. Rich people who buy treasury notes and other countries who wish to invest in the US. Over 20% is owed to Asian countries, the biggest slice of which goes to China who continues to fund our trade deficit. That's the ironic thing, the party who has the big woodie for fighting communism is systematically selling our country to China.
  20. The cars and the women are a weakness......the cookies on the other hand, are necessary for proper wing loading. yeah, but you have to, your credit is crap. what with the fancy cars and women. And the cookies and all. that's 5
  21. I bet Anvil would. And maybe Flygurl that's 4 we can find a few more I'd do it. I don't have a problem with pay as you go. They make me do it at the DZ!
  22. Actually I'm not a big fan of either party. I think that the only thing our mis-representatives are interested in is keeping their jobs and padding their bank accounts. But I can't help but poke fun at those from the right who don't seem to realize that the Bush administration has pissed all over nearly every plank in the traditional Republican platform, and worse yet, they're proud of it. Unfortunately, even though it's amusing, it's way too expensive. Basically, when Bush came into office my unborn son owed $20,000 to the federal government. Now that he's almost 2 he owes $30,000. Once he gets older I'm pretty sure that he's going to be pissed.
  23. Nice spin, Kerry also got more votes than any presidential candidate, which means that more people voted *against* Bush than any other president in history. But the "lefty" comment has me wondering something. What does it mean to be "Conservative". As far as I can tell it means large federal government, massive deficit spending, extensive nation building, weak on immigration, strong federal vs. weak state powers, weakening of the military through misuse, domestic spying, corruption, corporate welfare, no checks against an overly powerful executive branch, and a greedy earmarking feeding frenzy on the current access to the treasury. I'm sure that I've missed something but it's so hard to keep up.
  24. West Point's the place! Veerrrrrrry friendly people with no attitude issues. It's true that the DZ is surrounded by trees but that's only a problem if you miss the ABSOLUTELY HUGE TRIANGULAR AIRPORT! It's really hard to make a bad spot. Stay away if you don't like approachable people, great parties, dogs, kids, giant landing areas, fun boogies, favorable winds most of the time (except this spring), having your spot made by and jumping with someone with over TEN DAYS worth of freefall, and a DZ that's run by the USPA Director of Safety and Training. http://www.skydivethepoint.com/ http://www.skydivewestpoint.com/