Sounds like a fine man voting his conscience, sort of like

• I read this on Snopes, it is true and I found it very - danfan
  • Just so you know about Snopes - JD
    • what possible advange to the Chicago political machine - can a Christian A-Am endorsing McCain be?
      • do some research - JD
        • Thread topic is African-American Christian endorsing McCain. - So this rant relates how?
          • yeah, so what? - JD
            • Yep, the democrats always get a free pass...sm - ms
            • I see a pattern of hostile incoherence that has no earthly - relationship this McC endorsement dialog.
              • not true - JD
                • "Not true", as in - Everything you have posted so far...sm
    • Of course you are, dear. Mohamar Ghadaffi on the other hand - on WND perfectly credible. nm
    • Thanks for that info. I did go directly to this man's site... - danfan
  • Sounds like a fine man voting his conscience, sort of like - Powell who won't be GOPing this year. nm
    • Powell - JD
      • Bush inherited Powell from Clinton who inherited him from Reagan. - Uniformed rants strip McC of any shred of credibil
        • i personally don't care much for either of them - JD

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu

    Friday 18 November 2005

    Washington - The Republican-controlled Congress helped itself to a $3,100 pay raise on Friday, then postponed work on bills to curb spending on social programs and cut taxes in favor of a two-week vacation.

    In the final hours of a tumultuous week in the Capitol, Democrats erupted in fury when House GOP leaders maneuvered toward a politically-charged vote - and swift rejection - of one war critic's call for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. You guys are pathetic, pathetic, Massachusetts Rep. Martin Meehan yelled across a noisy hall at Republicans.

    On another major issue, a renewal of the Patriot Act remained in limbo as an unlikely coalition of liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans sought curbs on the powers given law enforcement in the troubled first days after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

    Both the House and Senate were in session after midnight Thursday, working on the tax and deficit-cutting bills at the heart of the GOP agenda, before returning to work a few hours later.

    What it does is start to turn down the escalating costs ... for our children and our grandchildren. One of the things that we cannot leave to that next generation is a huge deficit that they can't afford, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said after enactment of a $50 billion deficit-reduction bill.

    Democrats dissented, with one eye on the 2006 elections.

    The Republicans are taking food out of the mouths of children to give tax cuts to America's wealthiest. This is not a statement of America's values, said the Democratic leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California. Democrats believe that together, America can do better, she said, invoking the party's new campaign slogan.

    The cost-of-living increase for members of Congress - which will put pay for the rank and file at an estimated $165,200 a year - marked a brief truce in the pitched political battles that have flared in recent weeks on the war and domestic issues.

    So much so that the issue was not mentioned on the floor of either the House or Senate as lawmakers worked on legislation whose passage will assure bigger paychecks.

    Lawmakers automatically receive a cost of living increase each year, unless Congress votes to block it. By tradition, critics have tried to block increases by attaching a provision to the legislation that provides funding for the Treasury Department. One such attempt succeeded in the Senate earlier in the year, but the provision was omitted from the compromise measure moved toward final approval.

    The overall bill provided $140 billion for transportation, housing and other programs. It cleared the House on a vote of 392-31. Senate passage was by voice vote.

    Pay raise harmony aside, Republicans spent the day celebrating a party-line, post-midnight vote in which the House cleared legislation to reduce deficits by $50 billion over five years. The vote was 217-215, with all the Democrats who voted in opposition, along with 14 GOP rebels.

    Acting Majority Leader Roy Blunt of Missouri said Republicans would make their tax cut bill the top item on the agenda when lawmakers return to the Capitol in December.

    The House-passed measure attacks deficits by limiting spending for the first time in a decade on Medicaid, food stamps, student loans and other benefit programs that normally rise with inflation and eligibility.

    The House GOP leadership had hoped to clear the measure a week ago. It was forced to retreat when Republican moderates rebelled, even after Hastert agreed to strip out a controversial proposal to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

    The Senate-passed companion measure calls for less deficit reduction, $35 billion over five years, but includes the ANWR provision.

    The differences are expected to make it difficult for the House and Senate to reach a compromise by year's end, particularly since Republicans can't count on any Democratic support.

    The tax bill presents difficulties of its own for a GOP majority struggling to translate last fall's election gains into this year's legislative achievements.

    The Senate cleared a measure after 1:30 a.m. that calls for $60 billion in cuts over five years.

    The measure drew bipartisan support, passing on a vote of 64-33. Its provisions would continue a series of existing tax breaks that otherwise will expire, and shelters 14 million upper middle-income families from higher taxes.

    The White House has threatened a veto, citing a provision that raises taxes on oil companies.

    The House has yet to pass a companion measure. When it does, the tax on oil companies is unlikely to be included, and it is likely to be jettisoned before a compromise measure reaches the White House.

    Hastert said Republicans want to make sure that we support our troops that are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan ... a lot of people say: Look, this is a tough time, we just ought to pull out and leave. We pull out and leave, we strand an effort to make sure that we can tamp down terrorism, to tamp down a dictatorship, that we can stabilize an area in the Middle East, he added.

    GOP aides conceded the last-minute maneuver was designed to put Democrats in a political squeeze - voting for withdrawal and exposing themselves to attacks from the White House, or voting against it and risk angering the voters that polls show want an end to the conflict.

    Democrats angrily attacked the GOP move, then lined up with Republicans to vote against a troop withdrawal in hopes of draining the issue of its political significance. The vote was 403-3 against the measure.

    Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., called the measure a piece of garbage and an attack on Rep. John Murtha. The Pennsylvania Democrat, a decorated veteran and respected congressional voice on military matters, said Thursday it was time for the troops to come home.

    House and Senate negotiators announced a tentative agreement earlier in the week to pass a seven-year extension of the Patriot Act. Key senators lawmakers involved in the talks balked at the terms, and officials said they would resume compromise efforts when Congress returns to work in December.

  -------

we should have stayed out of Irag and minded our own business.I think we need to work on cleaning up America before we start on other countries.   I don't like the fact that innocent men, wome and children were and are being killed.  I stated that he is the lesser of 2 evils and I am following my conscience. 

ORGANIZE the whole volunteer process, you know?  I'm sure there'll be lots of green stuff to learn, like how to rat out your dumb, stubborn parents for using the wrong kind of light bulbs.  How to spot non-organic produce.  We'll love it.  It'll be great.  You'll see!  Soon we'll wonder how we ever got along without it.

And in the words of Ronald Reagan (yeah, another dead guy...everybody get over it, OK?)   'A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever know on this earth.'

What, in your opinion, originally defined right behavior from wrong behavior? 

This not only applies to the discussion below but also any wrong behavior such as stealing, murder, rape, or any one of the other blights on the face of mankind.  Please explain your answer citing whatever source of information supports your argument. 

That explains Bush's exclusion on that list.  How embarrassed and ashamed should America be to see the leader of another, presumably poorer country try to provide humanitarian aid to Americans because our own president believes humanitarian aid begins with oil companies and ends with those intent on eliminating American freedom?

I wonder if he views our president as an oppressor and if he plans to invade and occupy our country to save us from Bush and to spread his superior form of government to the United States. 

Sorry.  I was just being silly.  No credible leader in the world would ever do anything like THAT.....WOULD HE????

The economic summit was held behind closed doors.  The politicians on both sides are probably gleefully aware that the American people are so busy blaming Democrats/Republicans they can't take time to see what is really going on.  BOTH parties are to blame.  I expect Bush made a deal behind closed doors and he'll pass it off to Obama who will continue.  My opinion is we are no longer a free nation, we just haven't been informed of the new rules yet.  He who has the gold rules and the foreign nations certainly have the gold. I don't personally expect Obama to make any great change, I just hope he will change some things that he can which might actually benefit the middle class but I honestly doubt it.  WE, the "sheeple" have let this great country get in this condition and WE are going to have to fix it...if it isn't too late.  I expect our forefathers are turning in their graves because of how we've squandered the freedom they fought and died to give us.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Sharpton_Post_editor_insulting_public_with_0219.html

Ironically (LOL), when I read some posts on this board denying this is blatant racism by the Post, the mental image I get is this (hoping it prints):

... but I will put my flag up on the 4th of July. 

I find it so sad that our country is so very divided and the ugliness and meaness has come out of everyone's mouths.

It seems that some of it is the religious versus the nonreligious, the gay and the hetero, our way or no way..

no matter who is president, we are all equal and should all be treated wiht respect.

Peace.