Why do you still support Bush?

Terrorism is a form of warfare (an illegal form).

And there are valid moral reasons why it ought to be so.

On the other hand, as the linguist said, "The difference between a dialect and a language is that the speakers of one have a navy."

RFK Jr. Blows the Whistle on Diebold
By John Ireland, In These Times. Posted July 21, 2006.


On July 13, the Pensacola, Fla.-based law firm of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed a "qui tam" lawsuit in U.S. District Court, alleging that Diebold and other electronic voting machine (EVM) companies fraudulently represented to state election boards and the federal government that their products were "unhackable."

Kennedy claims to have witnesses "centrally located, deep within the corporations," who will confirm that company officials withheld their knowledge of problems with accuracy, reliability and security of EVMs in order to procure government contracts. Since going into service, many of these machines have been linked to allegations of election fraud.

In the wake of alleged vote count inconsistencies and the "hanging chad" debacle of 2000, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002. HAVA appropriated $3 billion to replace voting equipment and make other improvements in election administration. Diebold, Election Systems & Software and Sequoia Systems secured the lion's share of nearly half that sum in contracts to purchase EVMs. All 50 states have received funds and many are hurriedly spending it on replacing lever and punch card machines in time for November.

According to the Election Assistance Commission, more than 61 percent of votes in the 2004 presidential election were cast and/or tallied by EVMs. Election Data Services, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, estimates that the figure will jump to 80 percent by November, which will see elections for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives.

Matt Schultz, an attorney with Kennedy's law firm, Levin Papantonio, describes the process of competition for HAVA's $300 million of contractor funds as "a race to the bottom." "There is no question in my mind that these companies sacrificed security and accuracy, mass-producing a cheap product to cash in on tons of federal money," Schultz says. "It's an industry-wide problem."

Qui tam lawsuits stem from a provision in the Civil False Claims Act, which Congress passed in 1863 at the behest of President Abraham Lincoln to respond to price gouging, use of defective products and substitution of inferior material by contractors supplying the Union Army. The provision allows private citizens to file a suit in the name of the U.S. government charging fraud by government contractors and other entities that receive or use government funds.

Long known as "Lincoln's Law," it is now commonly referred to as the "Whistleblower Law." Since the mid-'80s, qui tam recoveries have exceeded $1 billion, mostly after exposing medical and defense overcharging.

Mike Papantonio, partner in the law firm and co-host with Kennedy on "Ring of Fire," a weekly radio show on the Air America Network, explains the value of the qui tam approach. "The problem with injunctive relief, or [a writ of] mandamus, or prohibition-type writs, is it all comes down to politics. ... How do you bring injunctive relief with [Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth] Blackwell? How do you get [Florida Governor] Jeb Bush to do anything? They won't. You have to move outside of that political realm."

In 2004, Blackwell was in charge of implementing state and federal election laws, while, at the same time, co-chairing the state's 2004 Bush/Cheney Campaign. Under his watch, election officials neglected to process registration cards from Democratic voter drives, purged tens of thousands of voter registrations and distributed EVMs unevenly, leaving some voters waiting up to 12 hours. According to Kennedy, "at least 357,000 voters, the overwhelming majority of them Democratic, were prevented from casting ballots or did not have their votes counted." Ohio was decided by 118,601 votes.

The contents of the suit could be under judicial seal for at least 60 days while the U.S. Department of Justice considers whether or not to join the suit. If U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales decides not to join the suit, Levin Papantonio may approach individual state attorneys general. If no one joins, the firm is free to, as Papantonio puts it, "stand in the shoes of the Attorney General and fight on behalf of the taxpayers and the nation."

"The single greatest threat to our democracy is the insecurity of our voting system," warns Kennedy. "Whoever controls the voting machines can control who wins the votes."

If number of posts in this thread, which was intended to tell why one still supports the president, represented how much one really believes in the president, c.i. would win hands down.

I've not seen someone so owned by a politician, well except for Frank. But we all know he really loves W, he's just trying to put up a front for his liberal friends.

I have no liberal friends...or almost no liberal friends.

I am a white male of a certain age...and I have dozens of white male friends of a similar age...almost all of whom are conservatives. White males over 50 seem predominantly to be conservatives.

They are a terrified lot.

But nice try with that nonsense. But you ain't gettin' a cigar.

Q. Why do you still support Bush?

A. I couldn't get laid in the 60's and supporting Bush is my revenge.

McG wrote:
I've not seen someone so owned by a politician, well except for Frank. But we all know he really loves W, he's just trying to put up a front for his liberal friends.

Nonsense! It seems Bush still owns a whole lot of you righties no matter how stupid and incompetent he's proven himself to be.

From NewsMax:

'U.S. Headed for Bankruptcy': Key Fed Member


London's Daily Telegraph is reporting that the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank's Professor Laurence Kotlikoff, a leading constituent of the U.S. Federal Reserve, has announced that the United States is on the path to bankruptcy - if it is not already there.

"To paraphrase the Oxford English Dictionary, is the United States at the end of its resources, exhausted, stripped bare, destitute, bereft, wanting in property or wrecked in consequence of failure to pay its creditors?" he asks, according to the daily.

While the article acknowledges that the U.S. budget deficit is still small compared to those of many European nations, Kotlikoff asserts that: "The U.S. government is, indeed, bankrupt, insofar as it will be unable to pay its creditors, who, in this context, are current and future generations to whom it has explicitly or implicitly promised future net payments of various kinds."

The respected Fed member goes on to say that the only way to examine the solvency of a country is to look at "the lifetime fiscal burdens facing current and future generations." If these exceed those generations' resources, "get close to doing so, or simply get so high as to preclude their full collection, the country's policy will be unsustainable and can constitute or lead to national bankruptcy."

While Kotlikoff admits he is not sure the United States will actually become insolvent, he says many indicators point to such a development.

Especially worrisome is the calculation of the massive long-term gap between anticipated government spending and all future receipts. This gulf "will widen immensely as the Baby Boomer generation retires, and as the amount the state will have to spend on healthcare and pensions soars," the Telegraph reports.

"The total fiscal gap could be an almost incomprehensible $65.9 trillion, according to a study by Professors Gokhale and Smetters."

Says Kotlikoff: "This figure is more than five times U.S. GDP and almost twice the size of national wealth. One way to wrap one's head around $65.9 trillion is to ask what fiscal adjustments are needed to eliminate this red hole. The answers are terrifying."

I have been saying for a long time that Americans are using monopoly money, because there's nothing to back up all the deficits.

With Bush at the helm, it's getting a lot worse every day, but he keeps telling the American People our economy is doing fine.

People like mm (and everybody he knows) can be proud they continue to make good money, and are in such excellent financial shape.

Are you preparing for the August 6th celebrations ?

Re: Why do you still support Bush?

Me too.
David

Then why are you on this or any other Bush supporters thread?

Jesus H. Keerist...proof positive that there is such a thing as a stupid question.

The Bush hypocrisy that righties are blind to.

I hope that W 's veto of stem cell research funding
will be overridden, but I am not optimistic that it will be.
David

page flip................















........hoping

try, try again..........


































...?

sheesh....yet, I am resolute......


































... shalamozoooo *

passing baton