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Many people, regardless of their "party" or lack thereof, are fiscally conservative

Every time I hear someone say my fellow Americans are fiscally conservative I get a good laugh out of it. You must have missed out on the whole mortgage crisis and the fact that 43% of Americans spend more than they make thus continuing their slide into debt and eventual bankruptcy.

America is such a fiscally conservative country that we bailout banks to the tune of 25 billion dollars , repeatedly bailed out airlines for a couple of dozen billion every couple of decades, bailed out S&L associations costing the American taxpayer another 124 billion, subsidize the agricultural industry at 16 billion dollars a year.

I could make this even worse by mentioning the costs of needlessly invading Iraq in search of WMD or talk about all the wonderful pork projects and "terror funding" that gets wasted but there are people who have written books on the subject and detail this much better than I ever could.

How did he stay in office so long if there was already evidence of corruption in 2003 and 2004?

The same way that William Jefferson of New Orleans did (and still is).

(Who, BTW, in response to the AC that also responded to your post, is NOT white)

How did he stay in office so long if there was already evidence of corruption in 2003 and 2004?

In less time than it took to read your post.

Corporate agriculture makes Microsoft's anti-competitive behavior look saintly by comparison to their own shenanigans.

Some of the subtler, but most important battles won by would be the conspicuous absence of recommended daily sugar intake being listed by the FDA.

http://www.accidentalhedonist.com/index.php/2006/01/24/tariffs_and_subsidies_the_literal_cost_o

http://thehill.com/business--lobby/lobby-league-25-agriculture-2004-12-08.html

(Tangent: I use Yarssr [for *nix/GNOME] to organize my feeds. Lives in the GNOME panel notification area as a pop-up menu.)

Slashdot
Various Associated Press news wires
BBC News
CNN
Daily Kos
Several local news feeds from my local newspaper
Multiple single-topic feeds from ESPN
The International Herald Tribune
A custom feed from Careerbuilder
The Top Stories and In Depth feeds from Reuters
My regional surf reports from Surfline
Politics coverage from The Hill

The more my colleagues know, the less they believe this Administration's rhetoric. As someone who has chaired classified hearings and reviewed classified materials on this subject, I believe the more information Members receive about this Administration's actions in the area of warrantless surveillance, the more likely they are to reject the Administration's scare tactics and threats. My colleagues who joined me in the hearings and reviewed the Administration's documents have walked away with an inescapable conclusion: the Administration has not made the case for unprecedented spying powers and blanket retroactive immunity for phone companies.

Whether this is a worthwhile exercise or mere grandstanding depends on whether Republicans have groundbreaking new information that would affect the legislative process. There must be a very high bar to urge the House into a secret session for the first time in 25 years. I eagerly await their presentation to see if it clears this threshold. As someone who has seen and heard an enormous amount of information already, I have my doubts.

[House Minority Leader] Boehner's spokesman, Kevin Smith, derided the secret session proposal as a stalling tactic.

"There are clear rules and procedures for how Congress handles classified information," Smith said. "This nonsense is nothing more than another stalling tactic from a bunch of liberals who don't want to give our intelligence officials all the tools they need to keep America safe."

>Americans are center-right as a rule, NOT center-left.

You are *way* off base. There are many more democrats than republicans in this country:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_party_strength_in_U.S._states
and the democratic party is by far the largest.

America has been under conservative control in *recent* history, say since 94 during the republican revolution, and in many ways this has already ended with the democratic congress. It is now conventional wisdom (aka nonsense) that it has always been a conservative country this way. FDR, JFK, and Lyndon Johnson were the big movers and shakers of the 20th century, and they left the lasting impression. Compare them to Reagan and his legacy, the national debt, and beating the soviet union by default.

The brief republican majority was largely a historical accident, and had more to do with disorganization within the democratic party, Rush Limbaugh, and Monica Lewinsky than any underlying demographic trend towards conservatism.

>The youth vote
>is ALWAYS overrated - it hasn't made an impact since JFK,

Apparently you are pretty out of touch because young people have been turning out in enormous numbers during the past couple of elections. Also, there's a *reason* why people compare obama to JFK, and the youth vote is *part* of it.

http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/poll-shows-youth-vote-boost-favoring-obama-giuliani-in-presidential-race-2007-04-19.html
"
Turnout among 18- to 24-year-olds grew by nearly one-third between 2000 and 2004, from 36 percent to 47 percent. And 2006 saw significant youth-vote gains for a midterm election as well.
"

However, they haven't stepped up to the plate when it comes to Impeachment, and for that they will suffer.

It says there's actually no conclusive record of who read or didn't read the report, only what they claim. However, a congressional intelligence staffer said it was certainly less than 10. Edwards is actually in the didn't read list. The interesting thing to note is that according to that list, a much larger proportion of senators who claim to have read the report voted NO on the authorization than their counterparts who probably didn't read it.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/dtv-plan-will-help-first-responders-provide-adequate-funds-for-consumers-2007-06-13.html

The broadcasters now say 69 million televisions rely on antennas, including unconnected televisions in cable and satellite homes. They say that after a broadcaster-sponsored consumer education effort, consumers will want coupons for one-third of those televisions. That comes to 23 million coupons, and the initial $990 million allocation can fund 22.25 million coupons. If really necessary, additional funds will underwrite another 11.25 million coupons.

"The tape contained discussions of another woman who might surface with allegations about an affair with Bill," Gerth and Van Natta wrote in reference to Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton. "Bill's supporters monitored frequencies used by cell phones, and the tape was made during one of those monitoring sessions."


So, are the people complaining about Bush going to say the same thing about Clinton? I seriously doubt it. I mean, she's got Sandy Berger advising her (probably on burglary tactics), so signs aren't good she's changed.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/gop-targeting-clinton-on-phone-call-snooping-2007-10-16.html/

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/gop-targeting-clinton-on-phone-call-snooping-2007-10-16.html/

some how 5c got stuck on the end. Just remove that.

While wiretapping is wrong. Both sides have done it. http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/gop-targeting-clinton-on-phone-call-snooping-2007-10-16.html%5C

So Bush did not have warrants, neither did Clinton why does the congress not investigate every presidency back to Nixon?

Yes I am ready to be flamed on this one.

I am just saying both sides are guilty of doing this. The problem is Bush got caught. Now news is coming out that Clinton did the same thing. I am sorry justice, and the constitution for that matter, applies to both sides of the isle, Democrat and Republican.

Let's not forget it would make it illegal for doctors (or their families) to own hospitals. How dare some otologist, cardiologist, or plastic surgeon have their own operating room. Filthy pig-dog capitalists!

Whitehouse Response

The White House was not amused Thursday by the antics of an Australian comedy group that breached President Bush's security in Sydney.

Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino had few details on the incident, but Australian press reported that 11 members of the troupe "The Chaser's War on Everything" had been charged with entering a restricted area. ...

See the rest of the article at:

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/white-house-mu m-on-comedy-groups-security-breach-2007-09-06.html

We are all in this boat together.

If you're going to post this, where are the stories about Senator Feinstein directing more than a billion dollars toward a company her husband controls? Or how about Harry Reid's son's and son in law all being lobbyists, one even lobbying him?

How about slashdot go back to, oh, I dunno... technology instead of hiring editors who are nothing but partisan shills?

If you're going to post this, where are the stories about Senator Feinstein directing more than a billion dollars toward a company her husband controls? Or how about Harry Reid's son's and son in law all being lobbyists, one even lobbying him?

How about slashdot go back to, oh, I dunno... technology instead of hiring editors who are nothing but partisan shills?

Oh, we've got a few reasons for this. (last one's a ~100K PDF)

Muwahahahahaha... Tell that to Mogadishu. Tell that to Beirut. Tell that to Baghdad, Paris, and Amsterdam. Tell that to Banda Aceh. Tell that to Indonesia. And oh yeah... remember to tell your grandkids when they get drafted to fight for Christendom, as it were. I'm sorry, but they will NOT be enforcing any kind of Sharia on this Redheaded Rebel.

And I'm allergic to bees, so my chances are pretty good. Especially since I'm 10 miles from Tijuana.

I don't watch Faux News... I read Das Interwebs... :P Where the hell did they come up with that anyways? A few of my favorites:

http://www.drudgereport.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
http://news.google.com/
http://www.haaretz.com/
http://www.msnbc.com/
http://thehill.com/
http://www.iht.com/
http://my.yahoo.com/ - of course, customized for worldwide RSS.


Grow up and open your eyes to the world reality. Not just the one you see in your four walls. Try working with some people from different parts of the world. Especially men from the worker caste in India that don't know anything about how to work with Females. One peed all over the bathroom IN OUR OFFICE, because the young janitorial Mexican girl knocked on the door while he was taking a leak. He was offended, so he whizzed all over all of the porcelain. Oh, and he was Muslim too... he would accost any woman he saw wearing a crucifix... and since we have a lot of Filipinas here, it was awful. Needless to say, it STILL took us 2 months of protesting to get HR to do something about him. I particularly enjoyed bringing in bacon and egg muffin sammies and eating them right in front of him. Oh, did I mention that he was in the cube next to me.. this is how I know all this.

My favorite foreigners that I've ever worked were with practically brothers... we even shared an office. One was a Christian Iranian, the other a Sunni Iraqi, and they surfed (in the ocean) together daily. I miss them both so much... and they treated HUMANS with a dignity and respect I've never seen since. Sad. I learned a lot from them.

It's not the terrorism I worry about, it's the FORCED IMPOSITION of Sharia on societies that are too vulnerable to know better. Women are being beaten in the public square now in Banda Aceh, and no one cares... the UN let them take it over... and now, they are beaten to death for meeting with a man in public. FUCK THAT SHIT maynard. FUCK IT ALL... I will give MY rotten ass life to make sure that NO ONE must suffer under such injustice. *sigh* Even you. Especially you... too damned ignorant to know better.. either that, or you're blinded by decades of such imposition already.

Some articles to think about in the upcoming election:

Jon Kyl Rick Renzi J.D. Hayworth John Doolittle Richard Pombo Brian Bilbray Marilyn Musgrave Doug Lamborn Rick O'Donnell Christopher Shays Vernon Buchanan Joe Negron Clay Shaw Bill Sali Peter Roskam Mark Kirk Dennis Hastert Chris Chocola John Hostettler Mike Whalen Jim Ryun Anne Northup Geoff Davis Michael Steele Gil Gutknecht Michele Bachmann Jim Talent Conrad Burns Jon Porter Charlie Bass Mike Ferguson Heather Wilson Peter King John Sweeney Tom Reynolds Randy Kuhl Robin Hayes Charles Taylor Steve Chabot Jean Schmidt Deborah Pryce

Let's apply this logic to management and Republican politicians, since it is clear that these rants are all pro-business and pro-Republican.

"Duke" Cunningham, Republican House member from Califorina, took bribes and is now in jail. All Republicans in the House are whores with their votes for sale.

Enron was a huge fraud that cheated both investers and energy consumers out of billions of dollars. All big business is corrupt and dishonest.

Seventeen years ago, the Exxon Valdez dumped oil in Alaska. They are still fighting $4.5 billion punitive damages. Last year Exxon made $25 billion dollars, and this year they will make on the order of $36 billion. No matter how much harm they do, big business never has to face any real economic consequences. See http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News /Frontpage/042606/richert.html for details.

Are there problems with some unions? Yes there are. Are unions all evil? No. If you think that unions haven't made your life much better as a worker, then you are a complete moron.

I bet that not one person bashing unions is over the age of 40. Software development is notorious for discarding anyone over that age, no matter what they are willing to work for. If you don't think you need the protection of labor laws, you just wait. I used to work in the film industry, and we talked about if we would be forced into a union. Well, I don't work in the film industry any more. I work in government aerospace, where it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of age. I look forward to the day when all you "Unions foster mediocrity" types find youselves out of a job because you're too old or are outsourced or some 1H-B visa "guest worker" is willing to work for %25 of your pay. Then you'll be crying a differnt tune.

Found that link! Here it is

Here's another article from Jan 2004.

http://www.thehill.com/business/012104_fuel.aspx

The intention of the original tax credit program was to encourage industry to create synthetic oil and synthetic natural gas by processing coal. Industry found the loophole allowing them to "chemically alter" the coal in a way that gets them the tax break without having to do any work towards making real synthetic fuels. Damn those lefties for thinking that industry might actually do the right thing!

Fast forward. Today, the Council for Energy Independence, with the synfuel industry, is lobbying to extend the tax credits beyond the $50/bbl cutoff by calculating based on oil prices from two years ago.

http://www.thehill.com/business/012104_fuel.aspx

I am here to tell you that the people doing the lobbying today are Republicans.

danheskett wrote:
>
> > This is not surprising; as the Diebold CEO has pledged to give Shrub the votes.
>
> Right.
>
> The Republicans faked 90% of every poll leading up to election day that showed Bush narrowly winning

Actually, the last polls done right before the election showed Kerry narrowly winning.

Also there was much speculation that the pre-election polls overestimated the number of Republicans in their "likely voter" estimates, and didn't take in to account all the newly registered voters, who were more likely to vote for Kerry.

Indeed, the exit polls showed Kerry winning by an even wider margin.

The exit polls are the most accurate polls we have, and they're often used to verify the legitimacy of elections.

"Exit polls are almost never wrong", writes Republican Dick Harris, who had ordered exit polls be conducted in Mexico in order to make sure the election was legitimate. "To screw up one exit poll is unheard of. To miss six of them is incredible. It boggles the imagination how pollsters could be that incompetent and invites speculation that more than honest error was at play here."

An official at Nebraska's Election Administration estimated that ES&S machines tallied 85 percent of the votes cast in Hagel's 2002 and 1996 election races.

In 1996, ES&S operated as American Information Systems Inc. (AIS). The company became ES&S after merging with Business Records Corp. in 1997.

In a disclosure form filed in 1996, covering the previous year, Hagel, then a Senate candidate, did not report that he was still chairman of AIS for the first 10 weeks of the year, as he was required to do.

It's worse than you think. Election Systems and Software, the company that builds, owns and largely runs many of the voting machines used in the US (and 80% of those used in Nebraska) was at one time headed and is still partially owned by Chuck Hagel, Republican Senator from Nebraska - who, surprisingly, won unprecedented victories in his state against an incumbent Democrat governor, winning by the largest landslide ever and taking the majority among demographics that had never voted Republican in the past.Hagel had avoided reporting his ownership, and then the whole trail started to come out into the open. It also turns out that Election Systems and Software was heavily funded by the conservative Christian fundamentalist Ahmanson family.

Look, the republicans are not smart enough to fix an electronic voting machine and the democrats would fix it so that the votes were split between 3 different right in canidates.

Take a gander at this article from the Hill.

Chuck Hagel is the Senator from Nebraska. 80% of its ballots are done electronically. It just so happens that Hagel owns a stake in the company(ES&S) that produced those voting machines. And he failed to disclose as much too.

Searching Google for more information turned up this confidence building bit:

"ES&S's machines are not tampered with. I've seen them in action. They are, in fact, buggier than hell. The software running them is not very stable code, and that's why there is so many problems with the machines."

The Hill Newspaper has confirmed that Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) has an ownership stake one of the largest manufacturers of voting machines in the country. (Hagel's ethics filings pose disclosure issue)

Several others have alleged the role of this company, Election Systems & Software, in several surprising Republican upsets recently, including the defeat of Max Cleland, formerly a popular Democratic Senator from Georgia.

See:
If You Want To Win An Election, Just Control The Voting Machines
Peter Coyote on voter fraud

Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska (a former conservative radio talk show host) owns part interest (a $1M-5M dollar investment) in The Macarthy Group, which owns a company called "Election Systems & Software". Sen. Hagel was, at one time, the chairman of ES&S. ES&S supplied the voting machines that count approximately 60% of all votes cast in the United States, and they counted all the votes in Hagel's 1996 upset and 2002 landslide wins in Nebraska. ES&S is loathe to reveal the source code. Sen. Hagel neglected to disclose his interest in ES&S on his FEC Personal Disclosure statements, claiming that his interest in The Macarthy Group (a privately held banking company) was exempt as an "exempted investment fund" (a rule which exempts candidates from disclosing their mutual fund holdings). Hagel's financial disclosures (or lack thereof) from 1996-2002 can be found here. Also interesting, in 1996 Hagel became the first Republican to win a Senate seat in Nebraska in 24 years to win a Senate seat helped in part by an unprecendented show of support by the black community who had never before voted republican.

While the use of proprietry software and the lack of a paper trail can't help, the problem appears more fundamental. It you turn elections over to private companies to run, which is really what you are doing if you use these voting machines, there are huge conflicts of interest. Take Senator Chuck Hagel who won the last two elections, against expectations, where 80 percent of the votes were counted using machines supplied and run by a company he indirectly owned.

Even if there is no impropriety going on in this particular case, their is certainly the appearance of impropriety. The question of who makes, owns and runs the voting machines appears even more important than the software and proceedures used by them. Rather worryingly the use of exit polls in the 2002 election was almost non-existent, so there was no indepedent check on the results. Potentially the people who control the voting machines control the result of an election.

Completely coincidentally, Nebraska has a new law that prohibits election workers from looking at the paper ballots, even in a recount. The only machines permitted to count votes in Nebraska are ES&S.

And completely coincidentally, Senator Hagel has won recent elections by surprising margins. See also this capitol hill newspaper report

there's more to this, but I can't find the links yet.