Bush vs President Clinton

"I'ma uniter and not a divider...." Have you ever seen such divisions in this country and the whole world before Bush? We'd almost have to go back to the time of the Civil War.

6 years later, most people who CNN found to poll have forgotten that Clinton was a do nothing self centered poll watching egoist.

Did I mention do nothing?


I am starting to love polls, might start one myself. They are so much less stressful than those complicated elections.

http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=107&subsecID=295&contentID=252964

paull, Do you know how to read graphs? LOL

Finally! A journalist who is writing what we have been thinking for the past 5 years!

Will the Real Traitors Please Stand Up?

By FRANK RICH - NY Times
WHEN America panics, it goes hunting for scapegoats. But from Salem onward, we've more often than not ended up pillorying the innocent. Abe Rosenthal, the legendary Times editor who died last week, and his publisher, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, were denounced as treasonous in 1971 when they defied the Nixon administration to publish the Pentagon Papers, the secret government history of the Vietnam War. Today we know who the real traitors were: the officials who squandered American blood and treasure on an ill-considered war and then tried to cover up their lies and mistakes. It was precisely those lies and mistakes, of course, that were laid bare by the thousands of pages of classified Pentagon documents leaked to both The Times and The Washington Post.

This history is predictably repeating itself now that the public has turned on the war in Iraq. The administration's die-hard defenders are desperate to deflect blame for the fiasco, and, guess what, the traitors once again are The Times and The Post. This time the newspapers committed the crime of exposing warrantless spying on Americans by the National Security Agency (The Times) and the C.I.A.'s secret "black site" Eastern European prisons (The Post). Aping the Nixon template, the current White House tried to stop both papers from publishing and when that failed impugned their patriotism. .......

Journalists and whistle-blowers who relay such government blunders are easily defended against the charge of treason. It's often those who make the accusations we should be most worried about. Mr. Goss, a particularly vivid example, should not escape into retirement unexamined. He was so inept that an overzealous witch hunter might mistake him for a Qaeda double agent.

full article at: http://proudliberalbitch.blogspot.com/


NEW YORK, May 12 -- Robert W. Ray, the former independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton's affair with Monica S. Lewinsky, turned himself in to police Thursday on charges of stalking a former girlfriend, according to the Manhattan district attorney's office.

...................................................................................................

"Keeping taxes low helps Americans find and keep work, supports families and communities with good job bases, and makes America a great place to do business for companies both here at home and those overseas looking for a place to invest," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said in a statement.

"The point is the preponderance of these revenues will go to upper-income people, people who make a million dollars or more," Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) said yesterday. "It's a question of priorities."


How Much Would You SaveUnder the Plan?

Income, in 2005 dollars Average tax saving

$10,000-20,000 $2
$20,000-30,000 9
$30,000-40,000 16
$40,000-50,000 46
$50,000-75,000 110
$75,000-100,000 403
$100,000-200,000 1,388
$200,000-500,000 4,499
$500,000-1 million 5,562
More than $1 million 41,977

SOURCE: Tax Policy Center

Even though the dividend and capital gains tax cuts are not set to expire until 2008, Republicans say extending them now through 2010 is vital to preserve economic stability and maintain a robust investment climate that has pushed the Dow Jones industrial average to near-record heights.
Critics maintain that those tax cuts have overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy, while budget cuts target programs for the poor to close a deficit created largely by tax cuts totaling nearly $2 trillion since Bush took office.


Enjoy your McDonald's Happy Meal, Paul, 'cos that's all you are going to get!

love your blog maggie! great work! it is now on my fave list. I have always imagined randy rhodes as you.

Thanks Kuvasz......... Randy Rhodes ! Don't I wish!?! That's the best compliment that I have had in a long time.

I am tickled pink to see you posting again.

maggs, There are real numbers behind those statements. More middle class families have fallen into poverty during Bush's tenure, because salaries have not been keeping up with inflation, and increased the number of Americans without health insurance from 40 million to 46 million (some could no longer afford the higher health insurance premiums) - or almost one million for every year Bush has been in offoce.

The drug plan that was pushed through congress by Bush is so complicated, the majority of minorities, handicapped and seniors have not applied for it even though they are eligible.

More blacks and Hispanic high school students are dropping out of school, and Bush' Leave No Child Behind is a joke.

Bush has also cut or increased the cost of college loans for those most in need.

We have lost an average of two US soldiers every day in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, while the cost has escalated from one billion every week to two billion every week. This while Bush cuts more social services for Americans.

Some people are beginning to realize there's a conflict/disconnect between the rhetoric coming out from this administration and the reality.

His approval rating has been dropping like a lead ball.

The only possible way to turn this around is for Bush to start another war.
He might just do it to save his presidency.

I bookmarked magginkat's blog. It looks like there's some good stuff there -- stuff I can use for an antidote after reading some of Brandon's rambling.

Since neither Bush or Clinton can run again for office, this comparison is useless.

Seems all the Democrats have to hanf their hat on is someone in the past.

Do the Democrats have any viable candidates for something relavant, like the coming 2008 election?

Bush turned a $136 billion surplus from Bill Clinton into a $158 billion deficit in his first yearan almost inconceivable swing of $9 trillion to the worse in only six years.

I do not know what you are talking about and with whom you are "grouping" me in with when you say..."You Guys..."

So I will ask you an objective question again and maybe you have the insight and intelligence to answer it.

Since neither Bush or Clinton can run for office again, who do the democrats feel can make a positive impact on the country in the 2008 elections?

Woiyo, the comparisons are useful because, with the possible exception of the Social Security plan, most Republicans have supported Bush's tax-breaks-for-the-wealthy economic plan. They are even saying how it has led to an increase in government funds. In fact, if you adjust for inflation, the government is collecting LESS money now than in Clinton's final year!

It is important that in the upcoming elections of 2006 and even 2008, the American people be appraised of the fact that the Republican tax plan does not work for the economy.

Wrong!

The tax plan that was recently extended benefited everyone across the board. No one is paying more in taxes now than they were prior to the legislation passed several years ago.

You are also ignoring the direct question. If you feel the democrats have a better plan, they need to win the Congress and the White House in 06 and 08.

WHO might be those democrats that may win?

look folks... it's real easy...bush sucks...Clinton WAS sucked.... similar but so different.....

At Last, a Scandal We Can Enjoy! - Hookergate!
Wake up and smell the sex! That sizzling aroma wafting up from Washington penetrates the nostrils like the scent of hot dogs grilling on the barbie. And just like that sweet meaty bouquet of backyard BBQs on Memorial Day, it's hard to tell, from a distance, just whose backyards are having all the fun. Fortunately, the FBI, a few bloggers and even some mainstream reporters are sticking their noses into this pork-laden sex scandal we're calling "Hookergate" (as well as "Fornigate," "Tailgate" and "Watergate-gate"). ((What about Gannongate?))

We do know that one of the smoked sausages belongs to freshly incarcerated Republican Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham, former Vietnam War "Top Gun," and House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Hot Dog from San Diego who was sentenced in March to more than eight years in prison for taking $2.4 million in bribes from military contractors. Cunningham's personal booty (detailed by CounterPunch's Jeffrey St. Clair in his salacious new book, Grand Theft Pentagon.) included a yacht docked on the Potomac where he lived rent-free, cutely dubbed "The Duke Stir," owned by his "owner," San Diego defense contractor, Mitchell Wade. Wade's largesse paid off well for him, as the Dukestir brought home the bacon in the form of tens of millions of dollars in defense and intelligence contracts for Wade's fledgling company MZM Inc.

But this cozy arrangement that cost taxpayers millions wasn't just between Wade and Cunningham. Now the FBI is looking into just which U.S. government officials enjoyed the Wade-paid Poker 'n' Prostitutes parties at the Watergate Hotel (yes, that Watergate Hotel).

Yummy yum yum. Illegal sex between powerful congressmen and classy call-girls pimped by defense contractors flanked by card sharking spies. Who can resist the smell of high muckety-muck wieners roasting between hot hooker buns?

And from where else could that meaty stench be coming? Hm.Sniff, sniff Smells like there's another hot link on or about the person of one Porter Goss who was hustled out of his new job as CIA chief faster than a guilty husband could stash his lipstick-collared shirt in the laundry bin. Goss, a Yale Man who whooped it up with William H.T. Bush (uncle of President George W. Bush) as a Psi Upsilon frat boy before he followed in proto-Yalie Nathan Hale's hallowed footsteps and became a (rather hapless) spy, says he handed in his resignation so he'd have more time for "golf."

With a departure so abrupt and a reason so lame, twitching noses have to wonder if that spicy scent is indeed emanating from Porter's pants. It is certainly coming from the pants of his protégé Kyle "Dusty" Foggo who also suddenly resigned from his new post as the CIA's third highest ranking official (promoted to this job by Goss). Ol' Foggo of Foggy Bottom just happens to be longtime best buddies with Brent Wilkes, another defense contractor/pimp who is said to have helped pay for those poker 'n' poontang parties at the Watergate. Wilkes also seems to have heavily bribed the Dukestir, among other well-placed congressmen, to give juicy pork-packed contracts to his company, ADCS (Automated Document Conversion Systems).

Foggo admits to participating in the poker fests, but denies poking any prostitutes. At least, he didn't know they were prostitutes. But who knows who's a prostitute anyway? The contractor/pimps, Wade and Wilkes, probably didn't introduce the ladies as "prostitutes" nor were they so crass as to open their wallets and pay the hookers right in front of Duke, Dusty and the other government officials. This is the cream of America's crop we're talking about here; they know how to be cool in sensitive situations. Well, to a point.

Who might those others be? With luck, we'll soon find out. Let the smell of sizzling "defense" pork be our guide. As Deep Throat used to say, follow the money. Some of the congressman who received money from Wilkes are: (on the Armed Services Committee) Duncan Hunter (CA), Chairman - $43,200, Jim Saxton (NJ) - $1,500, Ken Calvert (CA)- $8,000, (Appropriations) Jerry Lewis (CA), Chairman - $86,252, Bill Young (FL) - $6,500, Tom Delay (TX) - $70,000, Henry Bonilla (TX) - $19,500, Joe Knollenberg (MI) - $13,000, Robert Aderholt (AL) - $2,000, John Doolittle (CA) - $103,000, Don Sherwood (PA) - $1,000, Mark Kirk (IL) - $5,000, (Select Committee on Intelligence) Peter Hoekstra (MI) - $4,000, Heather Wilson (NM) - $3,000, Darrell Issa (CA) - $5,000, as well as Roy Blunt (MO) - $21,000, Larry Craig (ID) - $43,000, Benjamin Gilman (NY) - $42,146, Robert Livingston (LA) - $10,000, Devin Gerald Nunes (CA) - $13,000, Ronald Packard (CA) - $11,000, Charles Robb (VA-Senate and the only Democrat on this list) - $17,000, Billy Tauzin (LA) - $18,587 and Jerry Weller (IL) - $10,000.

Interestingly, in this list of over 20 power-wielding, wiener-sporting alpha males, there is only one woman, and Wilkes only gave her three grand. Something tells me she wasn't at the Poker 'n' Poke 'Em parties either, though I could be wrong about that.

To be fair, the genders of the prostitutes have not yet been revealed. Most of us assume they are female, but let's be open-minded. After all, one of the most famous hookers in Washington is Jeff Gannon, aka Jim Guckert, former White House Correspondent and Closet Gay Market Call-Boy specializing in Military Fetish Play. Not only did Gannon/Guckert have greased backdoor access to White House press briefings, according to official records of his signed-in comings and goings (compiled conveniently by Gary Leupp), he appears to have spent many hours beyond the briefings hanging out (in his briefs?) in the White House, including about a dozen *overnights* in which he signed in on one day and signed out on the next.

Not that anyone's pointing any fingers, greased or not ­ heavens, no! - but when one hears about those White House sleepovers, one can't help but envision a certain family-values-spouting President (who has been cheerfully outed by his own "Desperate Housewife" Laura for "milking a horsea male horse") playing "Brokeback Mountain" Military Cowboy with manly NeoConMan Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert. Not that Jeff/Jim is a true Neocon, and he probably didn't con the White House (just the Press Corps). Remember, he's a hooker.

Most hookers are apolitical. It's the nature of being a good hooker. You work for whoever's got the cash. In Hookergate, the hookers are working for their pimps, Wade and Wilkes, who pay them. But the pimps are getting much more money from the johns, except instead of cash on the table, its defense contracts worth millions. Since the whole defense industry seems to operate like this ­ plus or minus a few whores, jokers, campaign contributions and stock options - one could say billions.

It's common wisdom among prostitutes, especially in Washington, that Republicans are better customers than Democrats. Democrats tend not to want to pay for sex. For various reasons, some having to do with "democracy" and some having to do with being cheap, Dems like to do it with interns and volunteers.

Republicans prefer to get their sex from professionals. They also seem to have more of an awareness/superstition that Sex is Bad - after all, that's what they're continuously and hypocritically preaching to their trusting constituents. Thus Republican officials tend to value the discreet privacy that professional prostitutes provide. The Hookergate hookers didn't blab about the Watergate Whorehouse like Monica blabbed to Linda Tripp. But thanks to the Dukestir's other more extravagant bribes, the whole game is being exposed anyway.

Who cares who Duke and Dusty and maybe Porter were porking? I don't. That is, I don't believe having extra-marital sex or paying for sex necessarily makes them unfit representatives or even incompetent spies (look at 007). But I must confess that I do care in the sense that I'm interested. I mean, its fun to read about ­ or better yet see hot pics of ­ illicit sex in the higher echelons of government. It's mildly arousing, serves up interesting tidbits about the official's sexual fetishes and provides good water cooler gossip. Republicans relied on this *interest* factor when they nailed Clinton with Monica (even though the poor dears never even fully nailed each other). That's the bottom line: Sex, especially illicit sex in high places, is interesting ­ oh, that delicious smell! Eau de Sex.

What about the fact that these are prostitutes we're talking about here? I support prostitutes' rights. I'm all for sex workers making an honest buck. I believe prostitution should be decriminalized, a position I'm sure the Duke Stir would have abhorred during his pious, high and mighty, tough-on-vice congressional days.

But keep in mind that Hookergate isn't even about government officials paying for sex with prostitutes. That would be an honest transaction. But the officials weren't paying! The defense contractors were paying. In turn, the defense contractors were getting paid, ever-so-much-much more, by We the American People. We are the johns in this affair, and we don't even get our buns warmed. We the People have been jacked, big-time. And - smoking pork bellies, that stinks!

Of course, people are comparing Hookergate to Zippergate or Monicagate or Clinton's Folly or Ken Starr's Porn (one name never really stuck, just like the charges didn't amount to much more than a dirty blue dress). True, Clinton was risking the public trust by playing naughty games with chatty interns whilst surrounded by Republican vultures ready to swoop down at the slightest smell of blood - or semen. But Clinton wasn't spending the public's money for his personal pleasure. Monica wasn't representing any interest groups or contractors.

Hookergate is different. It's the sex scandal burning at the center of a pork-stuffed $500 billion annual defense budget monster that keeps growing and killing with greater, more devastating incompetence and profligacy. The hooker sex is irrelevant to the real festering obscenity, which is how both our elected and appointed officials keep giving away American tax dollars to their cronies, most of whom seem to have something to do with defense (that's where the fattiest pork is). Whether or not Halliburton services Dick Cheney's dick is irrelevant. The important - and truly obscene - thing is that, thanks to Cheney's firm guidance of Horse-Milking Clueless George, Halliburton is making big bucks on America's disasters in Iraq, Afghanistan and New Orleans.

No, the sex angle on Hookergate isn't the meat of the matter. But then, it's not the steak that sells the steak, it's the sizzle. If the FBI keeps grilling those dogs, it could just wake up the dormant journalistic instincts of the whores that report for the mainstream press. The smell of hot flaming illicit sex, properly fanned by Big Media, might even awaken the somnambulant anti-war movement and everybody else that loathes this lying, spying, faith-based, warmongering regime, which is a large majority of the country, as evidenced by Dubya's and Congress' plummeting polls. Then maybe we could make some changes that really benefit the johns - I mean, the American people.

Of course, hookers, including media hookers, always work for whoever's got the cash, and corporate media bosses tend to be religiously Republican. So when it comes down to doing their jobs and actually reporting on the obscene Jacking of America, well, let's just say I'm not holding my breath.
By Dr. SUSAN BLOCK http://counterpunch.org/block05132006.html

Economics is like a very large boat. What you do now does not have an immediate effect, but rather a lasting effect that can be judged further down the road.

Reagan/Bush I developed a sound economic strategy that boosted the economy. Clinton was able to enjoy the prosperity that resulted from good Republican fiscal discipline.

Clinton's economic policy resulted in the recession that plagued the begiining of the BushII administration. We are now recovering from the results of Clintons mistakes. Comparisons like the ones made in this thread are laughable at best. The American economy is extremely robust right now. Employment is up, home ownership is at near record levels, and the next president will be able to reap the rewards of the current efforts.

Neither president will fill receive the "most honest person" award, but those that say Clinton was more honest are just deceiving themselves. The man has more skeletons in his closet than Dahmer.

Maggs, Good article; it's my considered humble opinion that 95 percent of congress needs to be replaced to clean 'house' during the next two elections.

The "old boys" club screwed up enough shet for Americans with fraud, pork, and scandals.

When will Americans ever learn?