Recipe For Cooking Books
My former roommate from college is a dyed-in-the-wool, lifelong conservative, and he's got some pretty impressive credentials in his resume: Time Magazine correspondent and bureau chief, Wall Street Journal Contributing Editor, Vice President of a major international banking institution. We've remained close friends all these years, and when we get together we invariably enjoy debating politics, often heatedly but always with mutual respect. He also happens to be horrified by the current administration. My point here is that somehow the whole liberal vs. conservative frenzy that's been blown out of proportion by the media has obscured the damage that's being done to our country. One just has to connect the dots. With massive tax cuts, where's the money supposed to come from to pay for America's foreign adventures? Meanwhile, much of the support structure for the war in Iraq, supply lines, feeding the troops, etc. which used to be done by the military, has been handed over to private corporations at a hugely inflated rate. One of the biggest beneficiaries of this largesse is Halliburton. The Vice President, its former CEO, still draws down deferred salary while his stock continues to earn him millions. As Willy's wife said in Death of a Salesman, "attention must be paid."
Speaking of politics, I'm amused to see the presidential debates being referred to in the media as part of the "accelerated" campaign. Accelerated? Huh? It's way longer than it ever was before, which means it's a lot slower. It's just one more example of something being called the exact opposite of what it really is. I suppose it's meant to make it sound more thrilling. Once again the public allows itself to be hoodwinked.
posted by John M Crowther @ 6:24 AM
9 Comments:
As a retired professor of budgeting and finance I am appalled at the current state of of our federal fiscal process. During the Reagan years it was bad. Now it is inconceivably bad.I always felt that Reagan's people wanted the debt so that Democrats couldn't spend on domestic programs. The bushies seem to simply want to steal what ever is hanging loose.Good drawing john! roger
I am giving up. I was a Republican until 2005, then became so disillustioned with both parties that I turned independent. How in the world are we ever going to solve the problems here in the USA when people on both sides of the fence spend their time blaming the other side with never a solution to our problems in sight? Bush bashing has become so popular that the public has stopped listening to what the Democrats are actually saying (nothing) and the Republicans are busy distancing themselves from him so their talk is full of nothings as well. Why let one man who is not a monster but a misquided and pig-headed man who will not try to work with the public take on such a persona that one loses sight of what is really important? For everyone who acts as if the Republicans are all to blame for everything, there is a Democratic politician with his/her hand in the till, sitting smugly, convienced that the public is so stupid that we can be lead around by the nose by the media and smut talk from them. Say something long enough and loud enough, people who never really think for themselves will begin to believe it. Maybe we do deserve the government that we have now and will have in the future if we, the public, are that stupid.
So bashing is not the answer, I am not sure what is the answer but I do believe that we have become such a wide and diverse country that we need three parties, not two. Atleast it would give us a fighting chance, hopefully, that is until the third party becomes as greedy and hateful as both the Democrats and Republicans are now.
This is my opinion which does not reflect on any comments made here on this cartoon or in the past on this blog. While I might disagree with some, I respect the right of each person to state what he/she believes to be true, the same right that I claim.
Ah, but Lee, giving up is precisely what they want us to do.
It is difficult to know which side to believe. It seems to me that after the Iron Curtain came down and during the Clinton Administration was when they started cutting back on the military bases and closed many. But in doing so they moved the activities of those bases to other existing ones and just made those bases larger and staffed them with private contractors who are paid much higher saleries. Patuxant River Naval Experimental Air Base where my son works is an example. My son is doing the same job he did in the Navy for a contractor at twice the salary.
My sister worked on the Senate Finance Committee for many years, wrote speeches for Lyndon Johnson, Senators Benson and Moynahan and Dole, plus many others. She said in all the years she worked there she had not seen such a hostile climate as has existed there in the last few years. She retired a couple of months ago and had been head of the Social Security Advisory Committee for the last 5 years she worked. She is the most brilliant woman I have ever met. She was the first worman to grad from OU with a 4.0 and got her phd at Columbia. She met her husband at Columbia where he also got his phd, Gifford Malone, who graduated from Princton and was with the State Department until he retired.
I save all of my questions regarding what is going on "on the hill" for our long Sunday evening phone conversations.
Ah, Katherine, straight from the horse's mouth so to speak. You do indeed have a right to be proud of your sister.
John C. if I thought that the public would start looking at the facts, then I would have more hope but every time I turn on the radio or the TV, more vicious retoric spews out and the public seems to echo it mindlessly.
Lee, I do not see a third party as an answer to our political problems. In my opinion, even though you may not like some of the policies of either party, the best way to have results is to work within an existing one and hope to change from inside. A third party would only devide and weaken the good parts that exist in what we now have.
You are right that many people have heard so many lies so many times that they think they are fact. "Snoops" is a good website to verify some of them. Unfortunately, there are "bad guys" in both parties that keep getting elected time and time again because they keep sneaking in "pork chop" items for their home states into the budget.
Too many people do not bother to vote because they feel that their One Vote will not make much difference, but in reality they have not bothered to be involved or informed.
>>Speaking of politics, I'm amused to see the presidential debates being referred to in the media as part of the "accelerated" campaign. Accelerated? Huh? It's way longer than it ever was before, which means it's a lot slower.<<
Back in the old days in a European country known to all, the fastest train was called the “rapido,” and, as the name connoted, it got you there more rapidly than any other means of rail transport.
If you didn’t want to pay the surcharge, you could always take another train --the “accelerando” whose romantic sounding name always gave the idea of speed. (Cf. “crescendo”). Needless to say, the “accelerando” –as in accelerated campaign-- was the slowest train and stopped at every station known to man and some not known.
The US equivalent might be the milk train, which, as Tennessee Williams, once told us “doesn’t stop here anymore.” When will all this foolish and wasteful politicking stop?
To me, the President is just a figure head and truly does not have the power that the public seems to think he has. There is not much he can do without the consent of the House and Senate. He can say just about anything, but has no control to back it up. The party that has control of the Senate makes the decision about what bills will be brought up for discussion in committee and they look into it and decide whether it will be brought up before the entire House and Senate. The President of the Senate has the final say, so Polosi(?spelling) right now is the most powerful person in our country. Many senators that have kept their seats for many years have risen to the head of powerful committees and do not want to run for President and take the chance and not win and have to give up their senate seat.
WOOPS: Pelosi is head of the "House".
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