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http://www.expatica.com/source/site_art … e]Rumsfeld & Germany

I guess the Germans declined to summarily dismiss the complaint.

Edited By BWhite on 1106436303

Question:

The inauguration included a National Prayer Service, formally recognized by the President. At that service, this was said:

President Bush was present at this event. If he leaves Graham's statement unchallenged, does that mean Bush himself believes God guided his re-election?

Or is he playing things both ways?

Telling the religious people, yup God chose me to be President but doing it via surrogates so he can deny this with more secular citizens.

Is this troubling?

Edited By BWhite on 1106328181

The last time a president was elected for a 2nd term with a Republican majority in both houses of Congress was 1928.

In 1929 . . . .

Adam Smith's real target was hand in glove alliances between the wealthy and government. It's called mercantilism.

And that is what America has today, rather than genuine capitalism. When GOP pundits like Larry Kudlow invoke Adam Smith's name, his corpse spins like a top.  :;):

There is no level playing field because the good ole' boys from Yale have rigged the game. Good ole' boy Kerry is merely more willing to toss the rest of us some scraps. Bush/Cheney won't share.

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A new and interesting tidbit. Before Castro came to power the Bush family had some large land holdings in Cuba.

I seem to recall reading (in the last few days) that Castro's geologists NOW claim to have struck oil on that same land.

Would it be a conflict of interest for GWB to regime change Castro and then re-claim the stolen land after the Marines finish mopping up?

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Just say NO!

To http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-new … sts]Sponge Bob Square Pants

:band:

Edited By BWhite on 1106250881

I want the government to do it because I fear the sharp rascals like those at Enron will steal our accounts blind and then step over my family (laughing) as they lie starving in the street.

The static socialistic society you fear is legitimate to fear.

On the other extreme is a society where uber-wealthy robber barons steal the honey made by the worker bees. Refusing to mitigate such conditions leads to French Revolution style upheavals.

Some services are best handled as public utilities. And everyone benefits from a social safety net as that fosters stability.

This is why Bush enrages me.

I was taught to treat words like "Liberty" and "Freedom" and "Justice" as sacred - - words and ideas we tread around with caution and respect and aspire to implement. Words we approach with humility.

He whores those words as campaign soundbites, like his Bible thumping, even though I have read Bush actually does not attend church all that often.

Never assert proudly that God or Justice is on our side.

Always ask, humbly, are we on the side of Justice?

Lockesian in public rhetoric, Hobbesian in the hearts of the neo-cons who do not believe (IMHO) that all men (humans) are created equal.

Or, perhaps equality of all humans can only come after the return of Jesus and the infidels are disposed of.  :;):

Shakespeare's play Julius Ceasar is "spot on" for our current situation.

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Trebuchet, Cobra, et. al.

May I suggest that being openly disrespectful of the "liberals" is not a good way to foster the national unity needed to face the global challenges that await the USA.

Bill Clinton understood the need for a "Sister Soljah" moment where he publicly and openly slapped down a member of teh fringe Left.

George Bush needs to humiliate someone like Ann Coulter - - openly and decisively - - as part of seeking to build national unity.

I have (had?) hopes that America might actually be different than these older empires and that through a sincere embrace of the principles written down by Thomas Jefferson and declared on July 4, 1776 we might escape the age-old cycle of empires overreaching and being dragged down.

The hey-day of America as a nation-state will someday end. But if we are smart about it we can have a soft landing rather than a hard landing and it can end with the values and principles of 1776 being spread world-wide. Our institutions may fail, but our memes triumph.

I have (had?) hope that America might actually be governed by people who had seriously read the Enlightenment philosophers and believed what they read.

What I see here is a return to the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, who pre-dates the Enlightenment and which spurns the genuis of Jefferson, Lincoln (and Voltaire).

= = =

There really is an ideological global war and its Locke vs. Hobbes

Edit to expand - - Hobbes wrote that human nature makes it impossible to avoid an endless war of "all versus all." Power is all that ever matters. Locke wrote that rational, sensible human beings can sit down together and talk and negotiate mutually beneficial ways of living together.

= = =

NOT talking to bin Laden makes sense.

NOT talking to the Europeans and proudly giving the "liberals" a stiff middle finger is entirely Hobbesian.

Edited By BWhite on 1106238631

My frequent bashing of our current Administration arises from my own strong sense that we are "overplaying" our hand on these points. If we are holding 4 aces or a strong flush, then many of my criticisms of Bush, Rice etc. . . are off base. But if our hand is weaker (as I believe it is) then we are pursuing a reckless strategy that will be disastrous in the long term.

Japan? China can inflict terrible damage with conventional weapons and we cannot prevent that. More important perhaps, China offers Japan a larger export market than the US. Rather than rely upon Japan, I fear we need to be wary of a defection, possibly at a critical crisis point.

Taiwan? That's a liability not an asset. It's a target we must defend.

India is one key. But India and Iran have strong ties and Putin is working overtime to build bridges to India. If we lose India diplomatically, we find ourselves with a lousy, lousy hand.

What I simply fail to understand is the almost smug insistence on giving Europe our middle finger. It's "Do it our way" or "Go to hell!"  - - Freedom fries are a perfect example.

German intelligence, by the way, said they did not believe Saddam had WMD.

We said: "You're Wrong!" and Rumsfeld openly snubbed the German leadership. Except they were right after all.

USA allied with Europe, Western Civilization could rule the world.

But that would require the US to accept the EU as a partner, not a subordinate.

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Will India remain happy for very long as a junior ally? And if they are not to be a junior ally, why should Europe be a junior ally?

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Flashpoint - - Venuzuela. China needs their oil. All the more as we threaten Iran with regime change.

Chinese support of Chavez could cause a very real war in our own hemisphere.

Edited By BWhite on 1106195691

Here is an interesting statistic.

It appears the UK has 659 MPs (members of the lower House of Commons) witha total population of around 60 million, IIRC.

Every 90,000 to 100,000 people have an MP.

In our House of Representatives, the ratio is more like 600,000 people per Representative.

Suppose we tripled the size of the House of Representatives and somewhat reduced their pay. Wouldn't that dilute the power of individual representatives and perhaps dilute the power of organzied political parties?

Today, I am being compelled to pay for a military action I oppose and which I believe will prove profoundly harmly to the best interest of my children. Yet I file my 1040 nonetheless. ???

The mere fact of compulsion, standing alone, is insufficient to render the use of tax revenue inherently immoral.

A stable and content society benefits everyone, as does a prudently employed military. To compel everyone to pay, within the boundaries of legitimate political procedures is altogether appropriate.

IMHO, the libertarian position does have academic and philosophic attractions, however things like the minimum wage, OSHA and the social safety net absolutely do help sustain the golden goose that has given America so many golden eggs.

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Society prospers with sensible planning for things like streets, sewers, water works and the like. I believe my town should establish a very high bandwidth wi-fi intranet as a public utility. Other towns have done exactly that.

Aggresive enforcement of weights and measures and quality protection laws (label 95 octane gas as 97 octane or sell rusty metal bolts as stainless and you go to jail) promotes more efficient trade, which benefits everyone.

A social safety net that keeps our elderly from starving in the streets (and a sensible health care system) is one of the bulwarks our society can offer to prevent a reprise of the French Revolution, with the rich getting murdered in the streets.

Making everyone pay a share for that social safety net is merely fair because everyone benefits.

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Far more than 12% of my paycheck is being taken in taxes and the money used to employ prison guards to incarcerate people who are imprisoned for certain drug crimes in contexts where I believe prison is not appropriate.

Buying a flawed missile defense shield is a "waste" of my paycheck.   :;):

Why is your angst at giving Granny her monthly Social Security worthy of greater consideration? 

Edited By BWhite on 1105993387