It's Really Ridiculous

There's an article in the Times discussing Bush's plan to create personal accounts within Social Securtiy. Of course, no details have ever been offered by Bush, but it will involve heavy borrowing. Yet at the same time he's cutting the deficit too. Don't forget that!

Here's one of the many parts of this article that bother me:

Some Republicans in Congress are concerned that too much borrowing would carry large economic and political costs. Senator Judd Gregg, the New Hampshire Republican who will be chairman of the Senate Budget Committee next year, said he would support borrowing money for Social Security if it was part of a plan that also included modest benefit cuts and tax increases.

But he said the additional debt might have to be accounted for on the government's books in a way that would not technically show an increase in the budget deficit in coming years.

"You've got to look at this as a very significant long-term fiscal policy decision where you're going to have a loss in the first 10 to 15 years and a significant move toward solvency in the last 20 to 30 years," Mr. Gregg said. "That mitigates against doing it in the context of a typical budget resolution."

Senator Gregg attempts to be a realist, mentioning the possibility of tax increases and benefit cuts. But when he talks about ways for the government to not "technically show an increase in the budget deficit" he becomes a full scale hypocrite.

If you plan on pretending there's no immediate deficit via social security borrowing because in essense it's an investment for the future, then how in the world did Senator Gregg support Bush's tax cuts, which were based on a social security surplus that was needed for the future? You follow me?

In other words you can't pretend there's no deficit buildup since the money is really invested in the future, and at the same time you cannot claim there's a surplus of cash if that money is attached to a future payout.

It works both ways, and apparently in his attempt to be a moderate, Senator Gregg wants it both ways. Have some balls, buddy.

There's a Reason You Were Fired

Because not only can you not coach, but apparently you're also not smart.

Take a look at Bob Davie's plan to have a national champion in college football.

I offer the simple solution, one I've been advocating for years.

Send the Rose Bowl back to the Big Ten/Pac 10 for good. It's the "Grandaddy" and it will always pull in cash.

Now you have the Fiesta, Orange, and Sugar Bowls.

Take the Top 4 teams every year, and use these 3 Bowls in a rotating playoff system.

Yes, there could be some crazy scenario where 5 teams go undefeated, like this year with Utah, but everyone is aware they are not the same calibur as the top teams. Even if there were 5 undefeated teams, there's a reason one of those teams would be ranked #5, and that for me would be reason enough they shouldn't be playing for the title.

But basically you would get the Top 4 teams playing for a National Championship in a short playoff system.

If you want to tweak it further, the Rose Bowl would have the right to opt out of the Big/Pac 10 teams if two teams from once conference were in the Final Four. This year that would be Cal and USC. Therefore they could choose Texas, if they wanted to.

I do not see the need for a 16 or 8 team playoff. 4 is more than enough.

A note to Bob Davie: Coaches are not going to view game film at the end of the year.

More Strong Dollar Policy

Remember when the Bush Team advocated the "strong dollar" policy?

The falling dollar reached new depths against the euro today, after a weeklong erosion of value prompted by concern that the dollar's status as the premier international reserve currency is growing more precarious.

The central bank of Russia said today that it would stop trying to peg the ruble solely against the dollar, shifting instead to a target based on a basket of global currencies. That could result in a decline in dollar purchases by the Russian central bank, whose currency reserves are dominated by dollar assets.

The biggest questions hang over Asian central banks, which have bought hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of United States Treasury securities and other dollar-denominated assets in recent years to slow the decline of the dollar, in order to safeguard their countries' exports to the United States.

In case you forgot, it was today.

He's reiterating. I don't think this guy has a clue about anything.

He's on a Mission

Gotta love this:

The warning call came in December 1995. "Do you folks on the mainland know what is going on here?" a friend from Hawaii asked Phil Burress, an antipornography crusader from the suburbs of Cincinnati.

Mr. Burress confessed that he did not. "They're going to legalize gay marriage here, and it's coming your way," the friend said, referring to a case before the Hawaii Supreme Court dealing with the right of same-sex couples to marry.

Mr. Burress, a self-described former pornography addict, had spent much of the 1990's fighting strip clubs and X-rated bookstores. But here was something he saw as a potentially greater threat to his fundamentalist Christian beliefs and traditional family values: something he called the "gay agenda."

How dare these gays have an agenda, and want equal rights.

I love how this guy can't control himself in life so his life's work then becomes telling others how to live there life.

Here's another nice tidbit:

He envisions holding town-hall-style meetings early next year in Ohio's 88 counties to identify issues, recruit organizers and train volunteers. With a cadre of 15 to 20 leaders in each county, he says he believes religious conservatives can be running school boards, town councils and county prosecutors' offices across the state within a few years...

"I'm building an army," Mr. Burress said. "We can't just let people go back to the pews and go to sleep."

Get your guns now because the religious war in this country is coming.

You think Watts was a riot? Just wait, one day it's going to be a fucking disaster in other places, and people will say, "Oh my god, those are WHITE PEOPLE RIOTING!"

...to a Higher Standard

Is what we hold ourselves to:

UNITED NATIONS -- The Republican-controlled Congress has stepped up its campaign to curtail the power of the International Criminal Court, threatening to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in economic aid to governments that refuse to sign immunity accords shielding U.S. personnel from being surrendered to the tribunal.

The move marks an escalation in U.S. efforts to ensure that the first world criminal court can never judge American citizens for crimes committed overseas. More than two years ago, Congress passed the American Servicemembers' Protection Act, which cut millions of dollars in military assistance to many countries that would not sign the Article 98 agreements, as they are known, that vow not to transfer to the court U.S. nationals accused of committing war crimes abroad.

Because we need to be able to commit war crimes when we deem it necessary.

Seriously, do you think we're the envy of the world anymore?

This court was created to combat the Hitlers of the world, and much of it was written by the United States.

Of course, Clinton supported it, as does Kerry because they assume that good will be do the right thing, and bad bad people will pay a price, like soldiers in Abu Gharib. Bush contends US troops could be brought up on frivolous charges, as if that could ever happen!

I guess when you have tendencies to conduct illegal activities over and over it's normal that you fear a tribunal that could oversee what you're doing. It says a lot about the Bush Administration.

Like We Care?

News from Iraq:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Leading Iraqi political parties including the group led by former presidential candidate Adnan Pachachi and the two main Kurdish parties signed a petition on Friday calling for the planned Jan. 30 elections to be delayed.

Uhh, no one in the White House cares anymore. The election is over. Have it whenever.

Letters

Saw this in the Times yesterday:

To the Editor:

When I consider the disparate fates of Dan Rather, who broadcast a news story based on documents later discredited and who admitted his mistake, and of President Bush, who initiated a war on the strength of documents also later discredited but who has fought disclosure of the facts and never admitted his mistakes, I'm dismayed that we hold our leaders to standards so much lower than those for our journalists.

Kevin McNamara
Houston, Nov. 24, 2004

Happy Thanksgiving

Be careful on the road for Bush could be driving.

Want Your Own Law?

Apparently all one needs to do is drop of a note with Congress and it might just become law.

It's all just "conspiracy" and coincidence, ya know? Morons think that.

This Story Can Make You Sick

Nice nation:

No one keeps track of exactly how many American children were left behind by the record 186,000 noncitizens expelled from the United States last year, or the 887,000 others required to make a "voluntary departure." But immigration experts say there are tens of thousands of children every year who lose a parent to deportation. As the debate over immigration policy heats up, such broken families are troubling people on all sides, and challenging schools and mental health clinics in immigrant neighborhoods.

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security say they are simply enforcing laws adopted in 1996, which all but eliminated the discretion of immigration officers to consider family ties before enforcing an old order of removal.

"There are millions of people who are illegally in the United States, and it's unfortunate, when they're caught, seeing a family split up," said William Strassberger, a spokesman for federal immigration services. "But the person has to be answerable for their actions.",

Federal officials said they leave time for parents to make arrangements for their children, and refer them to a social service agency if necessary. Many parents arrange to leave American-born children with relatives or friends; others, especially those who have no one to assume responsibility for a child, take the children along when they are expelled.

You should really read the whole thing.

Condi

One would think that Condi Rice should be way out in front on this problem in the Ukraine. Afterall, she's an "expert in Soviet relations," and this is one of the last vestiges of Soviet-style politics.

Send her to Russia, let her have a sitdown with Putin. Lets see what the pianist is made of. I'm betting not ivory.

Dan Rather Steps Down?

And why? Because he missed a story, or so wanted to believe a story that he, or someone else, made a bad call?

No, no, no. That is not why Rather has stepped down.

Rather, and so many others in the media, have been painted as these "liberals," and the networks themselves are so intertwined with the US's message that they've now just gotten on board the ship.

Just hearing Sumner Redstone comment to the Wall Street Journal that he's voting for Bush because it's better for his company was enough for anyone to realize the situation:

Yesterday, the chairman of CBS's parent company chose Hong Kong as a place to drop a little bomb. Sumner Redstone, who calls himself a "liberal Democrat," said he's supporting President Bush.

So Dan Rather is stepping down, and this country has moved to the right on some weird levels, but we're reaching a tipping point.

Rather is definitely older, and to deal with his problems at work is probably not worth it to him, so I get it on that level. But the fact that honesty now takes a back seat to "liberal" and "conservative" is just insanity, and it's the conservatives who are the problem.

They're asking for an alternative perspective from educated peoples who see things in an honest way. Therefore, people with lesser credentials than say people at the Times, or elsewhere, now get quality positions at FOX News and other outlets. Unfortunately, these outlets are airing a message that touches more people than the Times, or any paper of record.

For people who are so against "favoritism" for minorities throughout education and business, it's amazing that being conservative scores you points versus those that are more moderate to left. I'm sorry, I think there's a problem there.

Back to Rather for a second. Rather's co-workers believed the story about Bush because of the likelihood that such a story about his military record could be true. That happened because Bush, and the government, have covered up all his misdeads, from records getting caught in a fire, to not being able to find them, to conflicting accounts, to a coordinated effort to discredit John Kerry's record, to a thousand things. So a story came up because some guy was probably so disgusted about what was being hidden that he created a very loose story, and sold it to people who knew about all the other lies.

Of course, for Bush, it was the best thing that ever happened. "Look, all the stories are lies now!!!" That was the new take. "The liberal media is creating this fiction" and Dan Rather, of all people, was the unfortunate soul who got caught in it. Of all people, Dan Rather. It was Dan Rather versus the Bush machine. Shocked he lost that battle!

Now that we have Rather stepping down, and Redstone stepping right we have succumbed to the Republican Right on another level, and the money machine that pushes poor policy.

It will backfire in the long run. Hubris is a bad thing, and like the election, this will be the beginning of the end.

Conservatives will expose themselves as selfish fools who really are only concerned for today. Never giving a shit about others, or the direction of the world's future.

Whenever You're Unsure

Always good to apply the "What If it Were Clinton" Rule.

These People Hate Numbers!

But competition breeds success!

A new study commissioned by the Department of Education, which compares the achievement of students in charter schools with those attending traditional public schools in five states, has concluded that the charter schools were less likely to meet state performance standards.

In Texas, for instance, the study found that 98 percent of public schools met state performance requirements two years ago, but that only 66 percent of the charter schools did. Even when adjusted for race and poverty, the study said, the charter schools fell short more frequently by a statistically significant amount.

The study added new data to a highly politicized debate between charter school supporters, including senior Bush administration officials, and skeptics who question the performance of the publicly financed but privately managed schools.

Deputy Education Secretary Eugene W. Hickok minimized the report's significance even as he released the results. But academics who have been critical of charter school performance called it an important contribution.

Too funny, and by funny I mean sad.

This reminds me of Bush's EPA report under Whitman, when they didn't like the results so they left out the OPENING PARAGRAPH!

It also reminds me of WalMart, who conducted their own internal study to document how workers were being treated, and how many were illegals. Walmart then discounted their own study and said the numbers were wrong!

America, America, God shed his grace on thee...

Good Read

There's so much to say here about the difference between the two parties, and yet neither party has to be mentioned.

It would also be nice if Bill Safire and Tom Friedman could start writing columns like Fareed Zakaria.

It's Called Home Field Advantage...

Wanna know what the Ohio State/Michigan rivalry is all about?

Riiiiight

WaPo:

Congress has eliminated the financing of research supported by President Bush into a new generation of nuclear weapons, including investigations into low-yield atomic bombs and an earth-penetrating warhead that could destroy weapons bunkers deep underground.

The Bush administration called in 2002 for exploring new nuclear weapons that could deter a wide range of threats, including possible development of a warhead that could go after hardened, deeply buried targets, or lower-power bombs that could be used to destroy chemical or biological stockpiles without contaminating a wide area.

Lets make sure no country can do nuclear research, then we can pull out of any treaty preventing us, or others from making new nuclear weapons, then we can make our own new and improved weapons, next everyone in the world will marvel at what a great nation we are, how there are no double standards, and that we should be loved, not feared.

The Artest Ron

If the New York Knickerbockers were smart they'd deal Allan Houston to Indiana for Artest right now.

Artest's value is the lowest it will ever be, and Houston is the good guy the Pacers like having in Indiana. Plus, Houston can play this year, and the Knicks don't need Houston, or Artest for the rest of the season.

Artest can survive in one city, and that is New York.

Also, the three guard lineup the Knicks would have with Stephon Marbury, Jamal Crawford, and Artest would work great because both Crawford and Artest can get to the paint, and rebound, plus both guys can matchup with small forwards, especially Artest.

Seriously, what Knicks fan wouldn't want this?

One more time... 

I Can Hear Geoge and Laura Weeping...

AP:

OMAHA, Neb. - Marine Lance Cpl. Shane Kielion was killed in action in Iraq not knowing that his first child had been born just hours before.

April Kielion, the Marine's widow and high school sweetheart, gave birth to a boy in Omaha on Monday, said Kielion's old high school football coach, Jay Ball.

This story really bothers me because I know the effect this can have on someone's life.

My friend John Hulme made a movie about his father who died in Vietnam a few months after John was born, and it took John over 30 years to come to terms with this.

Iraqnam is no different, with no end in sight, but this time we've created more problems than we can ever hope to solve.

Holy Shit!

When are we going to stop with this?

President Bush said today that he would ask Congress for more money to help Colombia fight drug trafficking, which has caused enormous civil unrest and bloodshed in that country for years.

"Next year, I will ask Congress to renew its support so that this courageous nation can win its war against narco-terrorists," Mr. Bush said this afternoon with Colombia's president, Álvaro Uribe, standing beside him at a news conference in Cartagena, by the sparkling Caribbean.

Since Congress passed the aid package known as Plan Colombia in 2000, the United States has spent more than $3 billion, mostly in military aid, helping Colombia trying to stem the production and export of cocaine.

First off, if the "War on Terror" goes as well as "The War on Drugs" expect everyone to either be dead, or Muslim, in 15 years. We lose this war EVERY YEAR, and every year the US Government does exactly what Republicans hate the most: Throw money at the problem. But they keep doing it!

Second, when we destory all the acreage of cocoa, and the labs, these drug dealers pickup and move to Peru and Bolivia, to name a few. It's a huge market, and someone is going to make it happen. Over the last 10-15 years the amount of cocoa acreaage in the Andean Region has remained at 500,000, with no noticeable change. End of story.

Throughout the Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton years the US Government went after members of the Medellin and Cali cartels, and obviously there was no more coke after they were all killed, right? Wrong! It's called smaller dealers, whose names we never learned, who move the plants and production labs elsewhere.

After we supposedly stopped the big traffickers the US started going after the growers, who basically had no way to make money so they grow cocoa. Then the US dumps money to the Colombian government, and forces them to eradicate the plants. In the process of eradicating the cocoa we basically eradicate every other crop that is grown, which leads to the next problem.

Third, the Marxist guerillas in Colombia, FARC, basically live off drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, etc. It's a lot easier for FARC to recruit when farmers are being put out of business, and I'm not talking cocoa farmers, but them too. I'm talking regular farmers who also lose their crops while we indiscriminately take out every farm that looks suspicious.

If the US realized there is only one way to tackle the drug problem we would be spending a lot less money abroad, and groups like FARC would make a lot less money to finance wars against their own government.

The only way you can win the "War on Drugs" (and you can't) is at home through education. But lets be serious, you cannot win it, and it's high time that the libertarian message of legalisation of drugs breaks through and at least becomes part of the dialogue.

It's simple: legalize everything, tax the crap out of it, stop wasting taxpayer dollars on programs abroad, and start using the money to educate people, help people, and fix the problem. Any argument against this is probably a weak one considering for the last however many years the other arguments haven't worked!

Finally, Bush is such a loser-moron. He's such a simple minded idiot that he has to say, "Narco-terrorists..." Pretty soon we'll be hearing about those "hoodlum-terrorists on the streets" and those "financial-terrorists who are ruining your 401Ks..." What about the "political-terrorists who are misguiding our nation, dipshit?"

I'll Tell Ya

There's not a whole to say lately due to the post election malaise, but watching the President deal with Congress is going to be really entertaining.

The latest issue over the Intelligence Bill is just one example of how difficult life might be for a deeply conservative President who has to deal with conservatives in Congress who have been waiting for this day forever.

Members of Congress, like Senator Majority Leader Bill Frist have said things like, 'if the President supports it we'll pass it...' and guess what? The President does support it, and they didn't pass it. This is just the beginning of the infighting.

People are wondering what Democrats are going to do the next 2 years. I say let the Republicans beat themselves silly, and hopefully moderates will realize how backwards so many of these Right-wingers really are. What choice do they have?

President Clinton could blame the House for not getting things done, and Newt Gingrich's House could blame Clinton, but Bush has no one to blame but himself when things don't get done, aside from other Republicans.

Considering Bush is never to blame for anything, and has never had to be responsible a day in his life, I would imagine he will start blaming Republicans really soon. But of course he'll call them "liberal Republicans!" :)

I look forward to this.

I also look forward to the Conservatives on the radio attacking Republicans who are not conservative enough. Basically, you'll have radio hosts in New York City, Chicago, LA, Miami, and other cities attacking the moderate Republicans in those areas, and in turn they will start losing on many levels, one being their ratings.

Sit back, relax, kick your feet up, and hopefully we don't get attacked again. Hopefully...

A Crutch?

Come on, it's a damned GOLF CART!

Too many use alcohol as a crutch.

Nearly a quarter of adults or 12 million people use alcohol to fill the 'hole in the soul' created by low self esteem and depression, experts warn.

This percentage is unacceptably high and needs to be addressed, they say.

The root of the problem is society's acceptance of alcohol misuse as part of British life, according to Dr Massimo Riccio of the Priory Hospital.

A survey of 2,000 people reveals 60% of UK adults think it is fine for people to binge drink over the festive season.

In other news, people are using air to breath and feet to get places.

Just for the record, the "hole in the soul" is way down on my list of reasons, right after "sustaining late night encounters."

It's Now Official

The debt that Iraq had to pay back, but was never going to, now doesn't have to be paid back:

Germany and the United States have agreed on a proposal to cancel 80 percent, or about $33 billion, of the debt owed by Iraq to a group of creditor nations known as the Paris Club, capping an American effort for debt forgiveness, the German finance minister said Saturday.

The creditor nations, which are owed $42 billion by Iraq, must now accept the accord worked out by the German minister, Hans Eichel, and Treasury Secretary John W. Snow. "Our expectation is that it will be accepted," said Mr. Eichel's spokesman, Jörg Müller.

"We agreed that there should be a write-off of debts in several stages amounting to 80 percent in total," Mr. Eichel told reporters at a meeting here of finance officials from the Group of 20 industrial and developing countries.

Like any of this matters? Like they were ever paying? Finally, what is the value of $40 Billion with regards to this war? Is it even real money at this point?

If you listen to Dick Cheney, deficits don't matter, and Iraq is proving that debts don't matter either! Congress is proving that nothing matters! Greenspan isn't sure what matters.

Guns Should be Easier to Get

So people this dumb can kill each other faster:

BIRCHWOOD, Wis. — A dispute among deer hunters over a tree stand in northwestern Wisconsin erupted Sunday in a series of shootings that left five people dead and three others injured, officials said.

Jake Hodgkinson, a deputy at the county jail, identified the suspect as Chai Vang but would give no additional details.

Several news organizations in Minneapolis-St. Paul reported the suspect was 36 years old and from St. Paul.

The incident happened when two hunters were returning to their rural cabin on private land in Sawyer County and saw the suspect in one of their tree stands, County Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle said. A confrontation and shooting followed.

Protectors of Terror

Or not:

WASHINGTON - Family members of victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks expressed outrage Sunday over Congress' failure to implement broad intelligence reforms aimed at thwarting another such assault.

"These guys are going to have blood on their hands," said Beverly A. Eckert, who lost her husband, former Buffalo resident Sean Rooney, in the attacks.

Congress adjourned Saturday without considering a compromise bill that would have created a new director of national intelligence after Republicans in the House objected that it took too much authority from the Pentagon and did not contain tough new restrictions on immigrants...

Congressional leaders left open a slim possibility on Sunday that lawmakers will attempt to resurrect the bill. But Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., interviewed on "Fox News Sunday," suggested that the current Congress is unlikely to act without an aggressive push from the president.

Bush promised to press ahead for reform.

"I was disappointed that the bill didn't pass," Bush told reporters in Santiago, Chile, where he was attending a summit meeting of Asia Pacific leaders. "It's very clear I wanted the bill passed."

"You're not going to stop the next terrorist attack by correcting immigrations loopholes as effectively as if you dramatically improve our intelligence capabilities," she said."There's no comparison. None of the 19 hijackers were here illegally." Eckert said she thought "we had reached our goal" Saturday, only to find out the bill never made it through the caucus.

There's no way this country isn't heading towards some type of disaster with these people at the helm.

Of course while Republicans wants tougher laws making sure dirty mexicans can't cross the border the President is totally in agreement:

SANTIAGO, Chile — President Bush vowed Sunday to push a plan that would allow undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States as guest workers even though it appears less likely to win backing in a Congress that grew more conservative in this month's elections.

Bush made the commitment during a half-hour meeting with Mexican President Vicente Fox in the Chilean capital, where the two leaders are attending the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference. But neither Bush nor his aides could offer any details of where the plan stood on Capitol Hill.

It's really just a diversity of ideas, which afterall is the nexus of the Republican party.

Tom Delay's NJ Influence

Rep. Mike Ferguson, who represents the Bridgewater area of NJ, gets more cash from Tom Delay's PAC than any other Congressman.

Money Accepted
Rep. Mike Ferguson NJ R - $42,403
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito WV - $38,500
Rep. Robin Hayes NC R - $37,722
Rep. Heather Wilson NM R - $36,959
Rep. Mike Rogers MI R - $34,500
Rep. Anne M. Northup KY R - $32,000
Rep. Jim Ryun KS R - $31,777
Rep. E. Clay Shaw, Jr. FL R - $30,020
Rep. Chris Chocola IN R - $30,000
Rep. John Kline MN R - $30,000

I've always maintained that this guy is the trash that makes trash smell.

(Thanks to TPM)

A "Values" Added Tax

I'd love to see them try this:

Another idea in circulation, which has been promoted for years by advocates of a consumption tax, is to let companies immediately write off the cost of new buildings and equipment - another way of eliminating taxes on investment.

To offset those tax cuts, many proponents of tax overhaul outside the administration have suggested eliminating major deductions, like those for state and local taxes and corporate interest payments.

But the political hazards are enormous. Eliminating the deductibility of state and local income taxes would infuriate people in high-tax states along the East and West Coasts. And while many of those states voted Democratic in elections three weeks ago, Mr. Bush would find himself in bruising battles with Republican governors like George E. Pataki of New York and Arnold Schwarzenegger of California.

Upon Further Review

Ron Artest is retarded.

I didn't realize someone threw a cup of ice on him, and that's how the brawl started. I thought there were multiple beers being tossed in his face from the get go.

Anyway, good for the league they suspended him the whole year. Now he can work on his cds.

I wouldn't be surprised if he never played again.

As for the fans, there's this outcry for better security in the arenas. Just think about the security for one second at Madison Square Garden. The average age of those guys is about 60. You think they're stopping a brawl? Then again, it was only a cup of ice that started this whole thing (and Ben Wallace).

I was glad the one guy who came on the court got cleaned up by Artest and O'Neal. That guy needs to get pummelled.

Thank goodness for NBA thuggery.