Interesting comment on earmarks...

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• Interesting comment on earmarks... - sam
  • Excellent article!!! Thanks, sam! - Chele

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were from the dems.  Both sides suck as far as I am concerned!  If you are going to comment and bash the pubs for their 40%....at least be thorough and report the dems and their 60%.  Now we have President Obama who said that he would not sign anything with earmarks in it and that he would read every line, etc........now that he is pres.....he seems to be whistling a different tune. 

There are 8,500 earmarks in that bill costing us around 810 billion dollars.  As far as I am concerned.....both dems and pubs know where they can go because I tired of this crap!  They are all crooks.  They are all out for their own special interests.  They are hurting us more than helping us.

but his reasoning was, at times, questionable. It appears as though he is going to take the money and run unlike some of his compatriots who are "attempting" to refuse stimulus money.

Earmarks Include:

1. Add-ons. If the Administration asks for $100 million for formula grants, for example, and Congress provides $110 million and places restrictions (such as site-specific locations) on the additional $10 million, the additional $10 million is counted as an earmark.
   
2. Carve-outs. If the Administration asks for $100 million and Congress provides $100 million but places restrictions on some portion of the funding, the restricted portion is counted as an earmark.
   
3. Funding provisions that do not name a recipient, but are so specific that only one recipient can qualify for funding.

I heard Bush this morning saying that no one predicted or knew that the New Orleans levees would give way.  Well, that is not true.  This was widely predicted by engineers and meteologists.  The engineers predicted it for years if/when a major hurricaine hit, as well as engineers and meteorologists predicting this 1-2 days before Katrina.  I even told my boyfriend last Sunday night that they were predicting some levees would break, that New Orleans would be in water the same depth as Lake Pontchartrain and that thousands could die.  Gee, guess I should be a White House advisor.

My other gripe is that this federal response seems a bit slow.  Like maybe Monday afternoon things should have been put into motion instead of......Thursday?  But then, I'm sure not an expert.

Why did you choose the Hilter comparison?

Here is what I saw in Hitler:

1.  Megalomania - yes, possibly in Bush.

2.  Skillful use of the propaganda of hate to unite a nation and incite a lust for war.  Blaming of select ethnic group for Germany's woes -- yes, I see some similarity there, but Bush seems more like "oops, sorry I accidentlly killed you" to the Iraquis (Islam nations) rather than "I will place you in concentration camps until you are all exterminated." 

3.  Hitler was mentally ill but still capable of great, inspirational speeches and inspiring confidence in the masses -- Bush is kind of dopey and I'm not sure who he inspires, really, if much of anyone.

4.  Hitler seemed to have an agenda to exterminate -- as mentioned, I don't see that in Bush.

Well, I had fun with this.  WWII is an area that I know quite a bit about.

Did gt actually say there were NO socialist Jews?  I took her to mean that Jews in general should not be categorized as socialists.  There are probably socialist Irish, socialist Catholics, socialist African-Americans....but that doesn't mean you label the entire ethnic group as such.  Common sense would dictate this.  Just as I keep saying, you cannot label all liberals or all democrats as having the same ideals and belief systems.  You seem to keep trying to put square pegs in round holes here....or, as also has been mentioned...thinking only in black and white when the world and all its people are shades of gray.  It makes me very sad to see this and I end up feeling hopeless about the future of our country and of the world.

As far as Chomsky, I haven't read tons of his writing but what I did read a few years ago I very much liked.  Could it be a case of you taking some things he wrote out of context?  Or perhaps some things he wrote were more fiery or radical than you were comfortable with?  Perhaps you didn't survey his writings as a whole and only picked out a few you didn't like.  When you make an accusation as you did, please provide examples to back up your comments.

I think I do your understand your point....basically you are saying his comment was taken out of context?  It did seem that what I read of this quote was more that he was careless in his comments - they touched a nerve, as I said.  It seemed he was looking at a cultural problem from a tongue-in-cheek statistical line of reasoning, and perhaps spoke before thinking.  At least, I HOPE that's all it was.  I have not read this all that carefully, I must admit.  I also admit I know NOTHING about him personally or his past.

Thanks for your intelligent commentary.

Obviously your beliefs bring you solace and comfort and that is a benefit that religion offers, in my opinion, and that is very good if it helps you.

However, perhaps you should not generalize.  I was a hospice worker as well as watching my mother die from cancer.  She was a life-long agnostic and I don't believe it ever even crossed her mind to call out to Jesus or Zeus or any other deity.  She made the most graceful exit from this world I have ever seen and was at peace with that process. 

I do agree though that in times of extreme stress many folks may want to enlist the aid of a higher power, but please don't assume that we all turn to Jesus.

(Basically, Russia wants to be able to trust the USA again but is deploying "short-range missiles near Poland to counter U.S. military plans in Eastern Europe" in response to Bush's missile placement in Poland and the Czech Republic.)

From: 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081105/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_medvedev

After the speech, the Kremlin announced Medvedev had congratulated Obama for winning the U.S. presidency, saying in a telegram he was "counting on a constructive dialogue with you on the basis of trust and taking each other's interests into account."

When I spoke of hijacked I meant:

1.  I have been banned at times from the Conservative board for comments I've made which seemed pretty tame in retrospect.  How many of you conservatives have been banned on the liberal board? I'll bet none, but hope I'm wrong.

2.  The conservative board have reminded the liberals posting on it REPEATEDLY that it is their board, no bashing allowed and to go back to their own board - often in a very nasty fashion.  Fair enough, but the same rules are NOT followed by the conservatives posting on the liberal board and that is definitely not playing fair and creates a double-standard.

3.  It does make me happy to see conservatives posting on this board but I do not enjoy the bashing and the double-standard (see point #2) that I see going on.  Worst of all, it turns me into a basher at times, too, out of frustration!!

That's it, didn't mean to start a civil war or anything.

I have learned SO much from both conservative and liberal posts and hope it continues.

Open the website listed and take a look at ALL THE OFFERS.  It is WONDERFUL.  Some groups are accepting over 1000 people.  It will make you feel like people really do CARE and they are all over the country. 

Thought you didn't smoke pot gt?  You were all up in arms about that last week  So which is it, you do or you don't?

Nuevo California state motto---what grows in Nuevo California stays in California!    

was that now McCain has nothing to say about Obama's lack of experience because Palin doesn't have much either.  I didn't take it necessarily as a bash. 

How can someone be pro-life and pro-death penalty?  A life is a life right?  Most of the pro-lifers I know, have listened to have made comments about God's the only one who can take a life, well if that is someone's stand how can you be pro-death penalty.  I'm not saying that that is her reasoning, God, but just a question.

I'm all for cleaning up gov't too, including your party, but isn't what she is under investigation for a bit of gov't corruption too with the whole ex-BIL incident.  I read that somewhere too about firing the guy because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex.

He was asked about press inquiries into candidate's pasts.  He chuckled and said that this has been happening to him over 18 months and repubs are complaining after only 4 days.