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There's his well-documented reaching out to the Bin Laden family members. He helped them so they could fly out of our country when flights were otherwise grounded.

Replace "nobody" with "vast majority" and I might agree somewhat. I seriously doubt it's any different now than it ever was, except for the fact that now we're so much more inundated by propaganda in our daily lives. One hundred years ago people might not have been able to make any more intelligent decisions than now. The only difference being that back then it was because of ignorance, and now it's because of liars.

A bold attempt to expand the topic of this thread to infinity! Agreed on your wariness of tax, SS and gay marriage stuff. Bush's justification for his SS fix stinks of his justifications for the Iraq War. Just say anything 'cause people are too dumb to realize that it's illogical (fix the SS crisis by removing money from it? ), then once that starts to stink too bad, it'll be replaced by another palatable "reason". Healthcare Government-sponsored health care I'm not sure about, but I do think our system is broken. Healthcare is a necessary service similar to a utility. I'm unsure of whether I like the idea of privatized utilities or not, but they certainly need a watchdog (that answers to the people). Tort "reform" Currently the only popular watchdog we have over big business, the medical industry, and the other assorted monied interests are the civil courts. Removing non-rich invidividuals' access to legal counsel by limiting judgements (and thus removing the lawyers' profit incentive for taking on a difficult case on contingency) will further consolidate the power of the rich over the poor. I don't like the frivolous lawsuits any more than you, but at the moment, I consider them a necessary evil. Until a better system of accountability for civil wrongs exists, I don't think our current system should be removed. Environment Speaking of govt. watchdogs, I think more effort should be paid to environmental concerns. Snake-oil Companies I think more oversight should be done over drug manufacturers. Their advertising should be banned on TV. And their literature to doctors should be more carefully scrutinized. I fully support one congressman's call to have all drug company sponsored trials be registered before the trial begins, so results the company finds problematic cannot be hidden as easily. Fiscal Responsibility I totally agree with more fiscal responsibility for the government. Note that the social security crisis is not a problem of social security going bankrupt. The problem is, is that social security will no longer be running in the black. This will necessitate social security calling in its loans to the US government. The "crisis" is that this will cause havoc to our government because it is perpetually running in the red. How about this proposal. It would require an ammendment to the constitution, I think. Allow the president line-item veto powers, only on designated appropriations bills. Also, this line-item veto (as opposed to a regular veto) could be overturned by a simple majority of the House. This might give the president sorta scary powers (when the House is controlled by the same party), but it would reduce at least half the pork! It would also add to accountability as any item the president did not veto would be implicitly endorsed by him/her. Also, any item for which the veto was overturned would have been voted on specifically, by people who need to be re-elected every two years. There's my platform Thank you and God Bless America

I completely agree with this statement. How it applies to the original quoted story is not clear. I think you are confusing Spongebob teaching tolerance with a certain political party foisting the words "gay marriage" into every living room in America as a strategy to win an election.

who thinks GW comes close to personifying this ideal? this is bullshit lip service. i like what he said, but it makes me sick hearing it from his mouth. I agree that it is not credible coming from his mouth. But it is a positive statement, and I applaud it. It does no harm to agree with this sentiment. And perhaps he will follow through. Remember, he is a lame duck now. He doesn't need to toady to the GOP to get re-elected. Perhaps, just maybe, he will embark on an effort to actually help and strengthen the USA. If he does attempt to do so, he'll need the help of the public (us) to fight the politics as usual.

Was that a tangential, somewhat unrelated remark, or did you miss this part of the quoted story: "The video has appeared on Nickelodeon and other networks, and nothing in it or its accompanying materials refers to sexual identity. The "tolerance pledge," which was borrowed from the Southern Poverty Law Center, is not mentioned on the video."

Do you have to pay for the belay tests? If so, perhaps you should consider getting a punch card.

Listened on the radio. You can read the text or listen to it here, among other places probably. The liar did a great job with the presentation too.

Wow! What a speech. And don't forget, I'm an avowed Bush hater. Bush is one area where I preach hate and intolerance to my children. But, boy, nice speech! This basically sums up the meat of the speech: "All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppress, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you." Can't argue with that! Sure, the devil is in the details. And of course, who knows if this is total lip service, which will be used to justify bombing Iran and Syria while Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are conveniently ignored. But you gotta give someone the benefit of doubt don't you. It is a positive sentiment. How about this one? "In America's ideal of freedom, the public interest depends on private character — on integrity, and tolerance toward others, and the rule of conscience in our own lives. Self-government relies, in the end, on the governing of the self." Does this signal he's dropping the federally mandated anti-gay stuff? Interesting. If one of those pollsters called me right now, I might actually have to think for a few minutes to answer the presidential approval question!

More exciting squid news

President Bush heated up our planet!

Non-twist-off beers are one of those paradoxical items for which people seem to think that a less-desireable characteristic adds value to the product. And microbrews have been coming in 15.5 gallon cans for a long time!

Walmart probably bilks the public out of $1.5 million a week, by just having the prices of a few items be "accidently" wrong on the barcode key so that they cost half a buck more at the checkout than was listed on the display.

"You got change for a 2000?"

Chicken or the egg Jay? "Why do those fucking numbnut loser pussies hate us so much?"

From the Seattle Times (emphasis mine) ... "Both parties have been unhappy with Reed at points in the recount. At different times, each wanted the Secretary of State's Office to take a more forceful role in directing how county officials should conduct the recounts. Democrats filed a lawsuit against Reed in the state Supreme Court. They wanted to force him to issue statewide standards for reviewing signatures on absentee ballots, for governing election observers and for requiring reconsideration of all ballots rejected in earlier counts. In that case, Reed's attorneys sat with lawyers for Rossi and the Republican Party who had joined the case on Reed's side. They won, with the court unanimously rejecting the Democratic request. Less than two weeks later, the stage was shuffled, and Reed's attorneys sat with the Democrats. They argued against a Republican request that King County be prohibited from reconsidering more than 700 ballots that officials said had been erroneously rejected. Again, the court was unanimous, ruling this time against the Republicans." ... When both parties get pissed off it is, I think, the sign of a fair arbiter. The fact that the courts unanimously agreed with him in both cases also indicates that he's following the law. Unless, of course, it was those damn activist judges,...well except for the first time when they agreed with the Republicans

If you're using a dynamic rope, then you won't need a screamer attached to your belay device.

Sacrifice by Flipper Can you hear the war cry? It's time to enlist. The people speak as one. the cattle, the crowd. Those too afraid to live demand a sacrifice. They demand a sacrifice of your life Can you smell their stinking breath. Listen to them. Wheezing and gasping and chanting their slogans. It's a gravediggers song. Praising god and state. So the nation will live. So the people will remain as cattle. They demand a sacrifice They demand a sacrifice of your life Can't you smell the fresh blood, streaming into the soil. As our patriots, fathers, mothers and lovers admire the military style. Crying tears of pride For the sons and lovers For all the fools slaughtered For the maimed, the dying And the dead. They demand a sacrifice. They demand a sacrifice of your life.

The thing about fixing cars using the manual is that: you can do it, but it's a steep learning curve. The first time you take that stuff apart on a car it can be pretty confusing, but you'll learn a lot about that area of the engine. So, if you ever have to do that exact repair again, it's easier. But usually you don't have to fix the exact same thing twice. Doh! (Brake components are complicated! Make sure you leave one intact while fixing the other so you have a model of how to put it back together.) When you learn more about your particular engine (and in fixing engines in general) it gets exponenentially easier. But it's still usually a tiring, dirty, PiTA job that will take two to ten times as long for you to do than the "professionals". It's nice to be self-sufficient, but sometimes it's just more efficient to pay through the nose.

If my son died over there, I'd be thinking of him. I wouldn't be giving a shit about whether his civillian boss's signature is genuine or not. I'd be focusing on why/how he died. Form letter apology from someone who didn't know him from Adam would be nice, but it's not like it'd turn me for or against the war. That is, in the list of Rumsfeld's failings, non-signatures is not high on the list. Sure it's a shitty thing to do, but using kids for cheap cannon fodder in a war of choice while the big money gets spent on unrealistic anti-missle technology, for example, would seem like a more relevant issue to focus on.

Does anyone really care whether or not the Sec of Defense uses his actual hand to sign a fuckin' form letter? Is this "issue" just a smokescreen non-issue to get all the knee-jerkers among the left to embarrass themselves and us? Or perhaps this is just an attention diverter (a la Kerik's nanny) to misdirect people away from the real problem (Iraq = quagmire)?

Special Ed's got one I think.

The "let's have sex", predatory approach seems to be not working (this probably only works for individuals with specific qualities), so maybe you ougta try just building up your "base". Don't size up every woman for sex before you even meet them. Instead of limiting yourself to women who are sexaully appealling to you, just make friends with any women who are friendly to you. If someone seems unfriendly, then leave them alone. You don't need the abuse. Soon, you'll know lots of women and once in a while some may be romantically interested. You'll probably even have some busybodies fixing you up with their friends. This is a long-term approach and requires patience and willpower. Stop reading porno, try to shove that lust somewhere else, and just meet people rather than potential sex-partners. When it finally rains, it will probably pour.