george bush: hero for fundamentalists and fascists

Is this better? The avatar I mean.

Whatever floats your boat

It puts me in a happy place.

Custer died for your sins...we shall over run.

Please Mr. Custer, I don't wanna go
Hey, Mr. Custer, please don't make me go
I had a dream last night about the comin' fight
Somebody yelled "attack!"
And there I stood with a arrow in my back.


. . . blast from the past . . .


Seems McG is havin' a pity party . . . feels like one of the walkin' wounded 'cause us liberals is all big bullies . . .

Pity party? Any idea who that is?

I don't knwo, setanta, you scare the merde out of me!

George Bush is not considered a hero anywhere by anyone, except by those who have no one else. That's why he is having so much trouble scaring up friends and allies. One of the big problems is that he commands no respect, but he doesn't realize it. When even John Zogby of the Zogby polls thinks he might have trouble - entertainment might be on the way.

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Toward One-Party Rule
By PAUL KRUGMAN


In principle, Mexico's 1917 Constitution established a democratic political system. In practice, until very recently Mexico was a one-party state. While the ruling party employed intimidation and electoral fraud when necessary, mainly it kept control through patronage, cronyism and corruption. All powerful interest groups, including the media, were effectively part of the party's political machine.

Such systems aren't unknown here — think of Richard J. Daley's Chicago. But can it happen to the United States as a whole? A forthcoming article in The Washington Monthly shows that the foundations for one-party rule are being laid right now.

In "Welcome to the Machine," Nicholas Confessore draws together stories usually reported in isolation — from the drive to privatize Medicare, to the pro-tax-cut fliers General Motors and Verizon recently included with the dividend checks mailed to shareholders, to the pro-war rallies organized by Clear Channel radio stations. As he points out, these are symptoms of the emergence of an unprecedented national political machine, one that is well on track to establishing one-party rule in America.

Mr. Confessore starts by describing the weekly meetings in which Senator Rick Santorum vets the hiring decisions of major lobbyists. These meetings are the culmination of Grover Norquist's "K Street Project," which places Republican activists in high-level corporate and industry lobbyist jobs — and excludes Democrats. According to yesterday's Washington Post, a Republican National Committee official recently boasted that "33 of 36 top-level Washington positions he is monitoring went to Republicans."

Of course, interest groups want to curry favor with the party that controls Congress and the White House; but as The Washington Post explains, Mr. Santorum's colleagues have also used "intimidation and private threats" to bully lobbyists who try to maintain good relations with both parties. "If you want to play in our revolution," Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, once declared, "you have to live by our rules."

Lobbying jobs are a major source of patronage — a reward for the loyal. More important, however, many lobbyists now owe their primary loyalty to the party, rather than to the industries they represent. So corporate cash, once split more or less evenly between the parties, increasingly flows in only one direction.

And corporations themselves are also increasingly part of the party machine. They are rewarded with policies that increase their profits: deregulation, privatization of government services, elimination of environmental rules. In return, like G.M. and Verizon, they use their influence to support the ruling party's agenda.

As a result, campaign finance is only the tip of the iceberg. Next year, George W. Bush will spend two or three times as much money as his opponent; but he will also benefit hugely from the indirect support that corporate interests — very much including media companies — will provide for his political message.

Naturally, Republican politicians deny the existence of their burgeoning machine. "It never ceases to amaze me that people are so cynical they want to tie money to issues, money to bills, money to amendments," says Mr. DeLay. And Ari Fleischer says that "I think that the amount of money that candidates raise in our democracy is a reflection of the amount of support they have around the country." Enough said.

Mr. Confessore suggests that we may be heading for a replay of the McKinley era, in which the nation was governed by and for big business. I think he's actually understating his case: like Mr. DeLay, Republican leaders often talk of "revolution," and we should take them at their word.

Why isn't the ongoing transformation of U.S. politics — which may well put an end to serious two-party competition — getting more attention? Most pundits, to the extent they acknowledge that anything is happening, downplay its importance. For example, last year an article in Business Week titled "The GOP's Wacky War on Dem Lobbyists" dismissed the K Street Project as "silly — and downright futile." In fact, the project is well on the way to achieving its goals.

Whatever the reason, there's a strange disconnect between most political commentary and the reality of the 2004 election. As in 2000, pundits focus mainly on images — John Kerry's furrowed brow, Mr. Bush in a flight suit — or on supposed personality traits. But it's the nexus of money and patronage that may well make the election a foregone conclusion.

idiot
maybe YOU should die young buddy, bush is a hero. do you forget all those cheers the day after september 11 when bush proclaimed that we would take our revenge and that the people who died did NOT die in vain. u ignorant pig, u think bush wants to go to war? bush is an extremely religious man, who would not put people in harms way unless it was completly necessary. just b/c YOU or me have not gotten a perfect answer explaining why we went to war, doesnt mean there wasnt a good reason. are you the head of the cia? if so then maybe you should have had an explaination; but you're not, so dont talk about **** you don't even understand. there is a reason why we dont know every little thing, if we did, how the hell could anything get done!? you are a complete moron, and anyone that has anything negative to say against bush, god have mercy on you and your pitiful souls. bush is out there saving the people of iraq, while they cheer and thank us, while you put him down. sorry, i don't know what you are nor what you call yourself, but i'm an american

thanks for sharing bushisgod, but i think i will just let this pass me by.

get a life

Re: idiot


i see your point.

best put your hat on to cover it.

hard to take one seriously when in support for their position invoke the religious godliness of their leader while using invective and vulgarity, unless that god is Mars.

"Even for a man who has made some of the stupidest, most ill-advised, poorly thought out and badly constructed off-the-cuff comments ever uttered by a high-ranking government official, this was way over the line. For George Bush to declare that "we have sufficient forces" in place to handle any armed threat from Iraqi insurrectionists so "bring 'em on" is so lacking in common sense, so devoid of compassion for those effected by the statement, so willful a display of ignorance of how such a comment will be interpreted by both foe and friend alike that it can be considered nothing but indisputable evidence that he is by temperament and intellect grotesquely unsuited for the office. For a man who has never heard a shot fired in anger to stand in a public forum and deliberately goad others to take violent action against the men and women he is directly responsible for is an abomination. How dare he be so callous?

How dare he be so hypocritical? How dare he be so stupid?"

Mike Shannon

I appreciate Mr Shannon's comments, but how come he's so surprised that the most ignorant President in history we never elected would say something really stupid?

ok, that was the stupidest comment i've ever heard....wow, "i see your point, best put your hat on to cover it".....where did you go to school? bush is a great man, who has been trying to fix our nation since clinton screwed it all up! he is an honest man, unlike our former president. he cares about his country, and he gives his all every day for the people of our nation, even people like you. people like you who should get the hell out of america if you're not going to support it. you think the war is wrong? go move to iraq, we don't want you; traitor

Hey, can you see where even your chosen screen name is inappropriate/sacrilegious, some might say...?

Can you also see where your post reminds me of McCarthy's witchhunt?

Also, no name-calling, i.e. referring to someone else as a "traitor" is just a step outside of A2K guidelines, okay?

ok, so how does this remind you of a witch hunt? and yes i do see how my screen name might seem like that, you're right there, but i didn't mean it like that. i am a roman catholic and do not literally think bush is god. i just think he is an amazing man, and i think that (not neccessarily if you just genuienly do not like him) if you believe and protest against the war in iraq, that you can be called a traitor. the war, like any war, is not just for kicks. war in any sense is sad and terrible, but it also desperate. bush believed he was protecting our country and the people in it, and i believe that the people are not entitled to have all information disclosed to them for safety and security purposes. i believe bush is a very good man, who would not put money or anything else before the safety of his country. i truely don't believe there is one mean bone in his body! he is only human, do not pick him apart and just sit there and wait for him to do something wrong, he is doing for YOU, not himself in any way. if he was just trying to please everyone for votes next year, you think he would be doing what he is doing? he believes what he says and does is for the good of the country and is the best thing he can do, and i admire and praise that.

We (edit: DO NOT) support the war (dissent is the highest expression of patriotism).

We support the troops.

Bush is still an idiot. A dangerous, reckless idiot.

(Do you have any brown shirts in your closet?)

alright "pdidde"....

Bush is certainly trying to "fix" things. Depends what the meaning of the word "fix" is.

ok CLINTON....does it depend on what the meaning of "is" is too?