posted October 30, 2004 01:10 AM              

George W. Bush is managing the Iraq war so badly that even highly regarded congressional Republicans have publicly broken ranks with the president's rosy pronouncements ( aka lying to the American people) about progress in the war.

Here is what some of them had to say:

'We're In deep trouble in Iraq'

"The worst thing we can do is hold ourselves hostage to some grand illusion that we're winning. Right now we are not winning."

"The fact is we're in deep trouble. We're in deep trouble in Iraq. We need more regionalization. We need more help from our allies. We need the Iraqi people to come around us in a more supportive way."

Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., Washington Post, Sept. 18-19, 2004

'Lack of planning is apparent'

"Our committee heard blithely optimistic people from the administration prior to the war, and people outside the administration, what I call the 'dancing in the street' crowd, that we just simply will be greeted with open arms. And we asked on witness how long do we stay. 'Not very long. You get out of there. America fights the war, we get out, people are free, Saddam is gone, and then they're rejoicing, they've established democracy.' Now, the nonsense of that is apparent. The lack of planning is apparent."

Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Sept. 16,2004

'We do not need to paint a rosy scenario'

"And it is going to be a tough sled. And we need to be more direct and more honest about how difficult it will be."

"We do not need to paint a rosy scenario for the American people."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- S.C. "Hardball" MSNBC, Sept. 16, 2004, and Washington Post, Sept.19,2004

'We're not winning'

"There's nowhere in the history of warfare that shows that if you allow the enemy to have sanctuary, that you can - that you can win the battle. And we're not winning."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., NBC "Nightly News," Sept. 14, 2004

'It was a mistake'

"Ive reached the conclusion, retrospectively, now that the inadequate intelligence and faulty conclusions are being revealed, that all things being considered, it was a mistake to launch that military action. ...I believe that launching the pre-emptive military action was not justified."

Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., Lincoln (Neb.) Journal, Aug. 18,2004

Things About John Kerry that George W.Bush doesn't want you to know

1. Ten Nobel Prize - winning economists have endorsed Kerry. A letter from the economists said the Bush administration had "embarked on a reckless and extreme course that endangers the long-term economic health of our nation."

2. Kerry will cut taxes for 98% of Americans and 99% of businesses. Taxes will go up only for households earning $200,000 or more per year.

3. Kerry is a gun owner and hunter who in his 20 years in the U.S. Senate has never voted to take away the rights of responsible gun owners.

4. Kerry will cooperate with automakers, unions, and environmentalists on any future CAFE increases, and provide $10 billion to help auto plants adapt to build high-tech "cars of the future," and provide a $5000 tax incentive to consumers to buy energy-efficient vehicles.

5. Twelve retired generals and admirals, including former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral William J. Crowe, have endorsed Kerry. "The current administration has on overly simplistic view of how and when to use our military," said Crowe, once the highest-raking officer in the U.S. military. "They have created a mess in Iraq and are crippling our forces around the world."

Things George W. Bush wants you to forget

1. The seven years since Congress increased the minimum wage is the longest period without a boost since the minimum wage was enacted in 1938. President Bush and Republican congressional leaders continue to block attempts to give our lowest - paid workers a raise and Bush even supports letting states opt out of the minimum wage law. Nearly 7 million workers would benefit from a raise above the $5.15 minimum.

2. On Dec.21,2003, just in time for the holiday season, Bush and the Republican Congress allowed emergency federal unemployment benefits for jobless Americans to expire. When Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., tried to reactivate federal benefits in amendments attached to a gun liability bill and JOBS bill, Republicans defeated it, cutting off unemployment benefits to 2.1 million jobless workers over the next six months. ( Merry Christmas to you too, Mr. President and Republican congressmen!!)

3. In March 2001, the first labor initiative by Bush was to sign a bill repealing the ergonomics standard that President Clinton had put into effect. Ten years in the making, the ergonomics standard would have helped protect more than 1 million workers who suffer workplace ergonomic injuries each year.

4. The twin U.S. deficits - a $374 billion budget shortfall in 2003 and a $489.4 billion trade imbalance in 2003 - are record highs. In January the International. Monetary Fund published a report saying the U.S. federal budget was on "an unsustainable path." A recent U.N. Trade and Development report warns that the U.S. budget and trade deficits are threatening global economic recovery.

5. Not only does Medicare Rx do nothing to bring down the cost of prescription drugs for seniors, but according to the Medicare Payment Advisory commission, the bill has built in large overpayments to HMO's to entice them to stay in the Medicare system. And with the record jump, in the 2005 premium rate, Medicare costs will comsume a record 37% of seniors' Social Security benefits.

The rich get richer and the poor get...

In 2003 Geroge Bush's tax cuts gave an average $78,460 tax break to the richest 1% while 13 million American children lived in poverty.

On Bush's watch, 4 million more Americans fell into poverty, for a total of 35.8 million in 2003 - that's one in every eight people and one in six children.

While the income of the average household dropped by $1,500 since Bush became president, CEO's of large companies got an average 26 % raise in compenation in 2003. Those who outsourced the most jobs got the biggest raises. CEO's of large companies make 400 times the average worker's pay.

The Congressional Budget Office found that Bush's tax cuts have shifted federal tax payments from the richest families to middle-class working families.

Health care crisis growing

4 million more Americans have lost their health insurance, bringing the total to 45 million.

Monthly Medicare premium payments will increase 17.5 in 2005 - the largest increase ever.

HIgh health care costs have been found to cause more job losses in industries that have generous pay and benefits

Prescription drugs cost more in the United States than anywhere else in the world

posted October 30, 2004 01:34 AM              

Let's not forget who that $74,000 tax cut goes to--the top 1% of the American population is 2.6 Million Americans who are weasling out of paying their fair share. Multiply that by $74,000 and you have 192 billion in lost revenue.

Gee, that would almost cover the war in Iraq--guess us peasants will have to pick up the tab.

It makes me drool just thinking what I could've done if I had $74,000 dollars in my pocket this year

Not to mention that reforming the tax code means that thousands of THE LARGEST CORPORATIONS IN AMERICA would suddenly have to start paying taxes for the 1st time since the 1950's, since all of these huge corporations have paid $0 and 0 cents in taxes since then, thanks to tax shelters.

Combine that with the fact that a corporation is considered a "person" or a separate entity that shields its employees (CEO's) and shareholders from any and all liability, and you don't have a rosy picture.

When they tell us they've "created" jobs, they haven't created anything. It doesn't mean they've filled those jobs, or that they actually intend to fill all of them, only that the "openings" are there. As soon as they are done reporting, they move the whole lot of jobs overseas.

Good work, Mirandee. At least someone cares about classism and the common man around here, unlike so-called "conservatives" who are not really concerned about hard-working American people at all... that's why they need to play sleight-of-hand games by distracting us with Iraq, so in the meantime they can rob us blind.

posted October 30, 2004 12:29 PM              

Here's one for you, laff. I think #3 is the reason why loss of jobs and health care are unimportant to conservatives. But they are all good and oh so very true.

A Field Guide to Bush Supporters: A List of the Top 22 'Species'
By Cheryl Seal

Having followed the policies, decisions, and manipulations of George W. Bush closely and in depth for over three years, I found myself wondering, with daily growing amazement: Who on God's green Earth still actually supports this man?

Well, yes, of course, the nation has been lied to by the media on a daily basis, which has made seeing through the scum on the White House pond more difficult. And the same meda has spun every action and statement made by Bush into something that doesn't LOOK like it should smell as bad as it does. Even so, certain glaring evidence of something rotten in the District of Columbia is inescapable: nearly 1,000 soldiers dead in Iraq and the numbers rising. National landmarks and "public buildings" blocked by cement barricades and chain-link fences. Nearly 2 million missing jobs. Salaries that have plummeted. Nine million more people finding themselves without healthcare. Dozens of angry - VERY angry - former allies. A deficit that could swallow a small planet. Worsening air quality heralded by skyrocketing asthma rates. And on and on.

So who are these holdout Bush supporters?

After pondering four years worth of my own interactions, pro-Bush postings at various webstes, and the comments of callers to rightwing talk shows and C-SPAN, I have identified and compiled the following list of Bush supporter types.

1. Scared, under-informed, and disempowered women who have been brainwashed into believing that there are Al Qseda bogeymen behind every door and only G. W. Bush can save them.

2. Scared, under-informed, and disempowered men who have been brainwashed into believing that there are Al Qaeda bogeymen behind every door and only G. W. Bush can save them.

3. People making over $100,000 per year whose primary focus in life is "getting theirs" (as in "who cares if anyone else does?")

4. Homophobics

5. Black people who hate themselves and wish they were white

6. Just about any minority people who hate themselves or at least hate one other minority group.

7. White people who hate all minorities.

8. People brainwashed into believing that the world revolves around just two issues: guns and abortion

9. Executives whose companies spew toxic wastes into the air, soil and water.

10. Developers who would turn anything - from farmland to nature sanctuaries - into parkinglots and strip malls if they could.

11. Co-dependent women who want a pat on the head from their patriarchal husbands or boyfriends for voting for HIS favorite candidate.

12. Angry white males who believe that only white males have a right to health, wealth, and the pursuit of happiness and thus don' want to share the resources

13. People who cannot find the capitol of the next state on a map, let alone Afghanistan or Iraq

14. People who believe that they will be one of the 144,000 "chosen" who will be sucked up into heaven following an accelerated Armageddon provoked by Bush

15. People who eat Freedom Fries

16. People who claim to be pro-life while cheering on the slaughter of innocent men, women and children in poor countries.

17. People who claim to be pro-life while promoting the extinction of dozens of species by endorsing the removal of environmental protections

18. People who claim to be pro-life but promote the often prolonged and painful deaths of thousands of fellow human beings by opposing affordable health care policies or the use of federal funds for clinics in poor nations because they may offer abortion..

19. People who think female breasts are nasty objects and should be hidden permanently from view, if not banned altogether.

20. People too unread, unimaginative, and unintelligent to grasp concepts that cannot be presented as "tiny sound bytes" and simple-minded slogans

21. People who believe "liberal" is a dirty word because that's what Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the simple-minded slogansmiths have hammered into their heads.

22. People who believe that what really counts in a leader with the power to determine the course of events for hundreds of millions of people on Earth is whether you can picture having a beer with him.

posted October 30, 2004 07:17 PM              

Actually, Mirandee, there are many Bush supporters who fit into none of those categories.

However, there *is* on category they all fit into!

PEOPLE THAT WATCH THE NEWS.

That's right. People who watch the news. See, Mirandee, the press in this nation is not liberal at all. That is a great lie.

The newspapers of this country have all been slowly, steadily eroded, Mirandee. Since you are from MI, you know what I'm talking about. They are all *scab* papers.

The billionaires control the media, they own everything, and they are all for whomever is looking out for their best interests, monetary-wise.

If you read anything larger than a zine in this country, you can bet a millionaire owns it.

Most conservatives are nice people, Mirandee. I've met them. I've talked with them. I would not be wasting my time in this channel if I thought otherwise.

To individuals such as LibraSparkle, I say, thank you. Your support is much appreciated.

This is something that's so important to me: an America united again, that doesn't bash the poor, the weak, women and minorities, that is caring and supportive. If I could have that with certainty, I would fight for it, yes, on the front lines.

So, Mirandee, I hope you will consider this thoughtfully. A lot of people are taught what to think, and once they buy into an agenda, they won't let go. I think a stunning example would be Laura Bush. She is really an incredibly headstrong woman. She lives her life the way she has been taught it should be lived. That is why she cannot see the truth about her own life partner, or turns a blind eye to it. That doesn't make her co-dependent, just ill-informed, because she lives inside a whole different paradigm from the rest of us. (Think of Betty Crocker)

posted October 30, 2004 07:32 PM              

I also know some very nice conservative people who do not fit into any of the groups listed. Some of my friends are conservatives who support Bush. But they are not filled with hate and labels for anyone who disagrees with them. We manage to "agree to disagree" about Bush and discuss things without telling each other we are right and the other is wrong. We actually listen to each others views. That is how it should be.

posted November 02, 2004 12:50 AM              

I liked Barbara Bush a whole lot more than her husband too and have since read things about her that, while I don't know how true they are, show that she has a very bad side. That's why we can't tell when they are in the public eye. Anyone can put on an act or say anything. Unless we know them personally or hear accounts about them from those that did know them personally, we just don't know. It was from an ex-friend who spent a lot of time with Barbara Bush that I read accounts of her other side.

I know what laff means though about kind of being blind to what the person you live with is truly like as a leader. When you love someone mostly you overlook the bad things you might see in favor of the good things. Or you just don't see the bad at all. Denial is what it is.