posted on September 25, 2004 07:45:56 PM new
In a shameless display of political bottom feeding, Dick Cheney, implied a vote for Kerry-Edwards invites another terrorist attack on America. The absurdity of this fear-mongering strategy would be laughable if this election weren't so "deadly" serious.
Cheney was right. America should be very afraid -- afraid of four more years on the Bush-Cheney terror train. The world awaits America's decision to rejoin the community of nations or continue its antagonist role. According to recent poll numbers, the Bush-Cheney camp's spin of the last four years may be working, as political pundits like MSNBC's Chris Matthews suggest, "Bush is winning the personality contest. People see Bush as the kinda fella' you'd most like to have a beer with."
Unfortunately for America, this clearly is no time for drinking.
The Bush-Cheney bungling of the last four years --and their employment of tactics of lowered expectations to disguise their disastrous impact -- may prove successful. Following the transparently deceptive Republican National Convention, poll numbers of likely voters in states like Ohio and Missouri suggest that many either aren't paying attention or the Bush-Cheney tactics of fear and misleading rhetoric are having the desired effect.
Once again, the Bush-Cheney corporate elitists are benefiting from a frustrating double standard that sees the rich as always right, even when they're clearly wrong. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the "Fox faithful" believe Bush and Cheney have made the world safer, when the opposite is true. Global terrorism has increased, and the Iraqi insurgency becomes more emboldened with each U.S. casualty, now grimly at more than 1,000.
Bush supporters cite the dearth of terrorist attacks on American soil since 9-11 as proof of Bush-Cheney's success against terrorism, conveniently forgetting that under President Clinton American soil was attacked (by foreign terrorists) eight weeks into his first term (World Trade Center bombing) then for the next seven-and-a-half years lay dormant, a testament to terrorism's patience. The point being, America could have a terrorist attack on a school that Russia endured no matter who's elected.
China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and Syria are all foreign policy "miscalculations" that will almost certainly come into play within the next four years. No amount of American nationalism and hyperbole will substitute for experienced, rational diplomacy based on mutual respect.
Americans may see Bush as a down-to-earth fella with whom to share a laugh and a beer or two, but the prospect of "four more years" to the world at large is definitely not amusing.
This is an factual thread about George Bush, and I approve of it's content.
posted on September 25, 2004 08:26:48 PM new
Are you still here? It's Saturday night and I thought that you would be out on a date with a woman. I guess that I am wrong, again.
Bigots are miserable people. Prevent Bigotry through Education.
posted on September 26, 2004 10:33:01 AM new
Let's see:
American troops take out Taliban and Hussein.
1) Syria all of a sudden becomes Syria who?. Gradually is disengaging from Lebanon.
2) Libya "sees the light" calls for peace, harmony and the American way.
3) Iran announces end to nuclear program. This year with Kerry leading in polls, announces resumption. After Bush's re-election, I'll go out on a limb and predict they quit again.
posted on September 26, 2004 10:59:43 AM new
You are very trusting, squirrel. The situation is more volatile than your leader during this pre election period would lead you to believe. Go to google news and you will find pages of information that should get your attention.
Tensions between Iran and the United States have recently heated up to the point that some analysts, particularly in the Arab world, surmise that the struggle between the Iraqi transitional government and the Shi'a resistance led by Moqtada al-Sadr is essentially a proxy war between the two countries.
posted on September 26, 2004 12:02:07 PM new
I fully believe Iran will be the next target in the war against terrorism. We have eliminated the primary source for future terrorism support (Iraq), eventually we will have to deal with Iran. If it is by proxy, so much the better.
At least in Iran there is a significant base of educated young people the mullahs have a rough time with. This scenario depends on the Israelis not taking them out first. Israel just purchased hundreds of "bunker busters" from us whose only use could be hardened installations in Iran.
All the time, we will be applying pressure on the Saudis to crack down on financing these groups. As the dominoes fall, I'm sure some token princes will lose their heads.
posted on September 26, 2004 01:34:49 PM new
The world of terrorism should be scared of 4 more years of Pres Bush.
But 4 years of Kerry would be disasterious for the US.
What does kerry know of economics of the common man? He hasn't done anything in 20 years in state or government servace.
Kerrynomics: An Agenda for Calamity
By Ralph R. Reiland
Published 9/22/2004 12:09:53 AM
Without the small business sector of the economy, America would be flat on its back -- economically, politically, and militarily. And presidential hopeful John Kerry has consistently taken positions over the past decade that are a direct threat to the strength and survival of entrepreneurial activity and small businesses in this country.
That's the ominous conclusion of a new report from the D.C.-based Small Business Survival Committee, "Bigger Government on the Way? Senator John F. Kerry's 10-Year Voting Record on Key Small Business Issues."
Damage America's small business community and here's exactly what is at stake, based on the officials numbers. In its latest survey, the Small Business Administration reports that small businesses make up more than 99.7 percent of all employers in the United States and create 75 percent of the net new jobs in the American economy. In short, we're not talking about the financial interests of just some small business owners -- we're talking about the backbone of the American economy and the bulk of the nation's jobs and paychecks.
With a start-up rate of over 500,000 new companies per year, it's the entrepreneurial and small business sector that's more than making up for the jobs that are being lost through outsourcing and downsizing in the more monopolized and multinational sectors of the American economy. As a case in point, women-owned small businesses now employ more people in the United States than all the Fortune 500 companies combined.
Reviewing a decade-long history of Senate votes from the 103rd Congress in 1993 through the 108th Congress in 2003 on legislation important to small business, the Small Business Survival Committee (SBSC) finds Senator Kerry's record to be "unsettling."
Overall, on an array of matters that impinge directly on the bottom line of the nation's key source of new employment, SBSC reports that Kerry voted on the side of small business "a mere 13 times out of the 101 votes that SBSC rated during the past decade, giving him a weak 13 percent rating on key small business issues."
Year after year, on issue after issue, Kerry's votes on small business issues reveal an approach that time and again threatens to undermine the strength and vitality of the precise sector of the American economy that's now shouldering the greater part of job creation and innovation.
"Senator Kerry voted against small business 94 percent of the time on tax-related legislation rated by SBSC," says research associate Chris W. Myers. "Given 34 opportunities to support business on tax issues, Kerry chose to do so on only two occasions."
On regulatory reform, SBSC reports that Kerry voted against small business 25 out of 30 times. Currently, companies with fewer than 20 employees spend an average of almost $7,000 per worker per year in order to comply with federal regulations, nearly twice the amount of large firms. "It's important that this burden of regulations be reformed and minimized for small businesses," Myers argues. "However, based on his legislative record, that doesn't appear to be a goal of Senator Kerry."
On votes over the past 10 years in the area of legal reform, the SBSC analysis shows Kerry voting in opposition to small business 90 percent of the time. "Frivolous lawsuits hurt investment, job creation and the overall economy," explains Myers. "Unfortunately, Senator Kerry stands in the way of meaningful and common sense reform."
On health coverage issues, "Senator Kerry voted against the interests of small business 100 percent of the time," reports SBSC. "These ranged from votes against the passage of health savings accounts to votes against allowing self-employed small business owners to deduct their health insurance expenses to help make health coverage more affordable."
Taken as a whole, John Kerry's legislative record with respect to small business and the issues that matter most to this sector shows a preference for higher taxes, less affordable health coverage, more burdensome regulations, more frivolous lawsuits, and more government spending -- an agenda that's the perfect prescription for fewer business start-ups, more bankruptcies, less entrepreneurship, less economic growth, more unemployment, slower income growth, smaller take-home pays, more poverty, more regulators, more lawyers and bigger government.
Stated in macro terms, Senator Kerry is calling for a $2 trillion expansion in government spending for new federal programs over the next decade, over and above what's already projected, while at the same time he supports an agenda that places roadblocks in the path of small business growth and in the expansion of jobs and tax revenues that will flow from that growth. Bottom line, it doesn't add up.
Ralph R. Reiland is the B. Kenneth Simon Professor of Free Enterprise at Robert Morris University, a restaurateur, and a columnist with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The person who has nothing for which he is willing
to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
--John Stuart Mill
Prevent Bigotry through Education.