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Bush Says Americans 'Ought to Have' Broadband and a Pony by 2007

wrttnwrd writes "George Bush is calling for universal broadband by 2007. He doesn't say how, or who's going to pay for it, or who's going to build it, but hey, isn't almost good enough? (for all of you Boondocks readers out there)" First step to universal broadband: don't have your Justice Department argue against communities providing their own broadband service. And don't forget the pony!

16 of 1,078 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A pony indeed by cperciva · · Score: 4, Informative
    "Some Americans have yet to receive their forty acres and mules."
    This is not recorded anywhere in any historical document. This is a legend that has been passed on over the years.

    Not quite. During the civil war, General William Tecumseh Sherman issued an order to provide some blacks with 40 acres, and for the army to loan them mules. However, he had no authority to do this, so his order (and promises) were worthless.

    http://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/blacktax.as p
  2. Re:You're no FDR by dancingmad · · Score: 3, Informative

    A large part of why Bush isn't interested in that issue is that he's driving hard to win Hispanic voters (along with Jeb) in Flordia, which for both parties is a key battleground state.

    --
    "There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
  3. Re:A pony indeed by Lord_Breetai · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is not recorded anywhere in any historical document. This is a legend that has been passed on over the years.

    If it is a legend then I don't know what to make of this:

    From Order by the Commander of the Military Division of the Mississippi, January 15, 1865:

    "The three parties named will subdivide the land, under the supervision of the Inspector, among themselves and such others as may choose to settle near them, so that each family shall have a plot of not more than (40) forty acres of tillable ground, and when it borders on some water channel, with not more than 800 feet water front, in the possession of which land the military authorities will afford them protection, until such time as they can protect themselves, or until Congress shall regulate their title."

    Nothing about mules, but still...

    --
    "You are only young once, but you can be immature forever." -www.animemusicvideos.org
  4. Re:Unemployment by cperciva · · Score: 5, Informative

    5.6% unemployment: Low for Clinton, High for Bush.

    The Bureau of Labour Statistics doesn't agree with you.

    During Clinton's term in office, the unemployment rate dropped from 7.5% to 4.0%. During the first three years of Bush's term, it rose from 4.0% to 6.0%.

  5. Re:Only a coincedence... by An+Onerous+Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    A few points.

    First, we're up to 591 now.

    Second, America's large-scale deployment lasted from 1965-1973. So the 56,000 casualties were spread out over eight years. While I'm glad that we're only losing around 600 troops a year rather than 7000, "It's not as bad as Vietnam, so it must be okay" doesn't strike me as a healthy perspective.

    --

    You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!

  6. Re:Only a coincedence... by loraksus · · Score: 3, Informative

    "What you mean is the lazy still won't work."

    Yeah, in about 2 weeks me and 400 other people will be laid off. My friend just got laid off a week ago with 200 other employees.
    Yeah, I'm sure there are oodles of places that need employees.

    What is with all these "everything is peachy, there are no problems" AC republicans?

    --
    1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcfv gbhnjmk,l.;/
  7. Did you read it? by bstadil · · Score: 4, Informative
    If you actually read the report you will find that the majority of the "Phoneless" is young single men.

    Even though this is from 1994 let me guess that the survey asked for landlines and the increase is due to switch to mobile. Second I did a little googeling and it seems the the Phone question was one of the ones targeted as a NOSY question and a few groups were advocating "Just say no" to that one.

    Young men even in the lower income bracket is the one with the most discretionary money.

    Meaning most likely wrong and the portion that is "right" it is of Choice not Necessity

    --
    Help fight continental drift.
  8. Re:In other news... by meta-monkey · · Score: 4, Informative

    The story is a little onesided. Kerry thinks everybody should have broadband, too. Check the CBS article Bush, Kerry see broadband as election issue. If it asks for a member ID and a password, use "memberid" and "password" respectively. Bush says he wants broadband for everybody by 2007, Kerry says he wants to spur technologies that will bring broadband to everybody. Same thing. However, on slashdot, we're only allowed to point out when Republicans say stupid things, not when Democrats do. Didn't you read the F.A.Q.?

    --
    We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
  9. Re:That's just wrong by cyberformer · · Score: 3, Informative
    Bush has spent money on plenty of things beside Iraq:
    • The anti-ICBM missie shield, which doesn't work but will give lots of money to military contractors.
    • The prescription drug benefit for HMOs and pharmaceutical companies. He even lied about the cost of this, because other republicans wouldn't have supported it otherwise.
    • The totalitarian information awareness project, well known to everyone here.
    • Enforcement of the DMCA and other corporate-protection laws, also well known to everyone here.
    • The War on Drugs. This included giving millions of dollars to the Taliban (who were very anti-drug) shortly before 9/11.
    • The faith-bsaed initiative, which channels taxpayer's (well, deficit) money towards projects such as teaching creationism.
    • The tax cut to the rich. Okay, so harcore right wingers will say this isn't technically spending, but the effect is the same. And sometimes it is a straightforward handout. Many corporations already paid no tax under Clinton, so Bush made sure that their tax rate is now negative (ie. they get a big tax refund while never having paid the tax in the first place.)
  10. Re:Hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    1. Anger most of the population

    I know you're just trying to be funny, but let's look at this a little more closely, hmm?

    Newsweek, 3/26: 49% favorable job approval; 47% likely to vote for the president. The other polls are pretty close, within a percent or two. Given that the polls have margins of error of 3-5%, all we can conclude is that about half of the people in the country right now think the president is doing a good job and plan to vote to re-elect him.

    Does that sound like "most of the population" is "angered" to you? Because it sounds more like a very small segment of the population is "angered" to me, that a larger segment is dissatisfied, and that about half are either satisfied or pleased.

    How about a little honesty, huh?

  11. Re:A pony indeed by commodoresloat · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here's the link. The urban legend is the idea that there was a bill passed recently with this title that gave blacks credit on their income tax as a slavery reparation. The IRS claims to have gotten over 100k bogus tax returns claiming this refund (and apparently they mistakenly did send refunds to many of those). But the story of freed slaves being promised "40 Acres and a Mule" after the end of slavery is not really an urban legend, although the person promising had no authority to do so. And the phrase was used throughout the twentieth century as a symbol of America's failure to deal responsibly with the legacy of slavery.

  12. Re:Your Poll by useosx · · Score: 3, Informative

    Besides, every American knows that Jimmy Carter was the worst President ever.

    But, do you every wonder why people think that (11th paragraph).

    Yeah, it's OT but the parent was modded up, so what the hell.

  13. You, like Bush, are full of shit by UberQwerty · · Score: 4, Informative

    Except the AWOL aligations were false, and the White House proved otherwise. This was a blatent attempt of the Democrats to portray John Kerry as the "war hero" while Bush as a deserter.

    In fact, the White House didn't have a leg to stand on. They talked out their asses for a while until they convinced everyone who doesn't pay attention that they had a case. If you paid attention, like I did, you'd have a different view. To give you some documentation, I googled it. Here's a good article on the subject:

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-02-11 -bush-guard-usat_x.htm

    It's from USA Today. A relevant excerpt (boldfaces mine):

    In an interview that aired Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press, Bush said he fulfilled his Guard commitment and offered to make his records public. Host Tim Russert asked, "Would you authorize the release of everything to settle this?" Bush replied, "Yes, absolutely."

    Since then, White House officials have released only documents concerning whether Bush fulfilled his service obligations. White House statements have not addressed the release of any papers that could show disciplinary actions, medical exams, legal scrapes and the like.

    On Tuesday, the White House released pay records from a military archive in Denver that it said showed Bush was paid for at least the minimum training time he was obligated for in 1972 and 1973.

    But the records showed only what days he was paid for, not where he was or what duty he performed. Neither did they address outstanding questions about why Bush missed a required physical in 1972, forcing him to stop flying, or what happened during a five-month gap in 1972 when Bush didn't show up for training.


    Here's another article for your perusal (boldfacing mine, again):

    White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the records "show that he was paid for his service, and you get paid for the days on which you serve."

    That's the proof the white house had, BTW. Pay records. I've heard members of the national guard at the time say that they had managed to get paid without even showing up for duty. We'll assume for the sake of argument that GWB was 'getting paid for the days on which he served,' though:

    The records indicate that between May 1972 and May 1973, Bush served 14 days -- two days in October, four days in November, six days in January and two days in April. The White House offered no indication of why there was a gap in Bush's service from April to October, 1972.

    That's a five month gap. Nobody knows where he was during those five months.

    AWOL----absent for 30 days or less.
    Desertion-----absent for more than 30 days with evidence of no intent to return to duty.
    Five months-----150 days

    --


    PUBLIC SPLIT ON WHETHER BUSH IS A DIVIDER -CNN scrolling banner, 10/15/2004
  14. Re:Your Poll by dbIII · · Score: 3, Informative
    Carter was a quite good person, and did as good a job at being president as the circumstances were likely to permit
    The Iran hostage crisis got rid of him - he sent in the troops to deal with terrorists, it didn't work, and he lost the election.

    Reagan then showed how he dealt with terrorists - in cold hard cash - with the biggest ransom deal ever made. With the later Iran-contra scandal some of that money came back to the USA to buy weapons.

    As for the ecomomy under Reagan ...

  15. Re:Unfair by spoonyfork · · Score: 3, Informative

    Al Gore did NOT claim to have invented the internet. Anyone who repeats that false statement is a liar who is quick to believe false statements that match what they think they believe, or want to believe.

    --
    Speak truth to power.
  16. Not so says the CIA world fact book! by Wacky_Wookie · · Score: 4, Informative


    CANADA:

    Life expectancy at birth:
    Definition Field Listing Rank Order
    total population: 79.83 years
    female: 83.38 years (2003 est.)
    male: 76.44 years

    (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ge os /ca.html)

    USA:

    Life expectancy at birth:
    Definition Field Listing Rank Order
    total population: 77.14 years
    female: 80.05 years (2003 est.)
    male: 74.37 years

    (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ge os /us.html)