Letters to the Editor
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Testosterone is poisonous
Too much of it can kill ya. Too much machismo can do in a country. Bush and Cheney are walking cases in point. We don't need more of it. Maybe it's time to vote for people who are gifted with a combination of sensitivity and vigor. If I were a Republican (shudder at the thought), I'd be talking up Huckabee.
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I strongly disagree with Bluesman Mark when he says
"None of you are worth shitting on." Otherwise, I generally agree with his analysis.
The fed system supplies a redistribution of taxes from wealthier states to the less wealthy, and offer an efficiancy of scale not possible if we had 50 states doing things fifty different ways.
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Children, please...
Bluesman:
"Ok bozos, where do the states get the funds to run these now cut out federal programs? By RAISING your state taxes you freaking MORONS!!!!! Or by running up a huge deficit & brankrupting the state's treasury."
Maybe in some states, but every state would be able to have control over this and debate the pros and cons, and the dollars would be easier to see. And then you said the magic word, BANKRUPT, which goes to the heart of the federal problem, which is that we print money by creating federal debt, which you and I have to pay interest on, $460 billion last year. So the federal government doesn't have to worry about financial reality, they just push the debt onto you and your kids, grandkids, etc, and economists cheer them on due to the 'economic growth'. This is why Cheney said deficits don't matter, because he knows that on the federal level they can get away with this crap. States do have to balance their budgets eventually.
"As to privatization, well the "stellar" examples of many things that have been turned over to private business hands speaks for themselves."
I never said privatization, I said decentralization, having the states handle these things. Didn't Massechusetts recently get a decent healthcare plan? Do you really think the federal government is going to do any better anytime soon?
"Every few years your elected morons fuck things up worse than a football bat & we liberals, moderates & progressives have to clean up the huge pile of shit you leave behind."
Please, many Democrats voted for 1. increasing the debt time and again and 2.the Iraq war, so the time for that whine has come and gone. Part of the problem is that political participation is HARD, and representative government requires turning off the tv every once in a while and getting involved in the process. So neocons and liberals wait for mommy congress and daddy president to solve all of their problems and then are baffled when things go wrong. Government is run by people, people who have their own agendas, and the further away they are the less they care about you and your problems.
chris swart:
"The fed system supplies a redistribution of taxes from wealthier states to the less wealthy, and offer an efficiancy of scale not possible if we had 50 states doing things fifty different ways."
This may be true for some things like defense and interstate highways, but not everything. And if they were just moving money around, fine, but it all comes down to control. Ive worked in state government before, and every federal dollar comes with conditions that have to be met, that may or may not apply to the what's going on in a particular state.
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"HE THREATENED TO HIT ME WITH HITH PURTHE....."
"He threatened to hit me with hith purthe..." So said the MACHO MAN Fred Thompson, as Giuliani in his CHANEL dress swung his lead-weighted purse in a deadly arc toward the grotesque mincing living MUMMY Thompson. McPAIN leapt in, SCREAMING "Let Freddie alone, Rudy, or I'll SCRATCH yer eyes out, ya BIG SISSY!" Thompson pushed pipsqueak McPAIN aside, "Get out of my way, half-pint, I'll show this sweaty-browed rat-faced TRANNIE who the REAL QUEEN IS...Put 'em up, Put 'em up, MARY!" While the two MACHO prissy she-men SCARECROW TATTERDEMALION of Romney MARSH and A-Huck A-Huck A-Huck Huckabee sat WETTING THEIR PANTIES AND WINCING as the three SISSY-BOYS SLAPPED THE CRAP OUT OF EACH OTHER in AI-OH-WAY (Iowa)!!!!!
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Mas Macho Republicans
Col. Day didn't get the "Congressional Medal of Honor", nobody ever has. It's the Medal of Honor. Here after please drop "Congressional." Thank you.
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The GOP Decision
Forget the issues. Let's decide the leader of the free world on the basis of the scent of their musk.
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another one
"I like Ron Paul, but as a liberal/progressive, would never vote for him or a return to the 19th C."
Me too. I like Ron Paul a lot. I think he's a principled, intelligent, brave man, and his refusal to toe the party line is commendable in this day and age. His candidacy has created some fascinating discussion. I do not, however, think that his ideas about drastically limited government will fly, simply because it's been tried before, with legendarily ugly results.
But hey -- this does come back to the article. This liberal/progressive would love to have a beer with Ron Paul. Shit, I'd invite him to a barbecue. That does not mean that I will vote for him. Not to toot my own horn or nothin', but the rest of the country would probably do well to draw that distinction themselves.
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THE THOMPSON FILES, the early years
"There I was.
JimBo had brought out four of his best stillhounds, and we'd chased them across the wooded hollow until we found them, baying and howling at the foot of McGree's tarnished copper stash. Old man McGree had done took off, hoping the creek weren't too high and he could wade across it. I sent JimBo, a deputy and the dogs out after him. Me and the sheriff, we commenced to banging on the still, each of us with a five pound sledge, when I got a call over the crystal set.
'Thompson here,' I said.
'Fred, you'd better get back here.'
'What's in the world's going on?'
'It's Pearl, at the P.O., she done finally lost it.'
'On my way.'
When my pickup pulled up at the Post Office, there was a big crowd outside, blue-hairs and overalls, all peering inside the windows. One farmer grabbed me by the elbow, 'Don't go in there, Fred. You know about a woman's scorn, and Pearl's is worse.'
I went in anyway. It was dark, and throughout the gloomy, stale air were the ethereal flutterings of torn letters and envelopes. I looked behind the counter. There was Pearl, a lense missing from her horn-rimmed glasses, grabbing fistfulls of mail, tearing them assunder, and flinging them into the air. 'I'm free!' she'd squeal.
'Pearl!' I shouted, 'That there's the mail of these here United States! I demand that you cease and desist.'
Pearl screamed and ran into the back. I hopped the counter and went after her. She ran me around an island a couple of times, flinging mail the whole time, before I was able to catch up and tackle her. For a while, we both lay there, our limbs all akimbo, breathing heavy.
'Pearl, what in the world has got into you?'
'I think, I think I got the stress from post-trauma.'
'Trauma? what trauma?'
'Vietnam, of course!'
Pearl had never set foot outside Hazzard county, and everyone knew it.
'Pearl, I have it on good authority that by the end of the War of Viet Cong Aggression you were at least 61 years old. So just stop it!'
We finally got Pearl's niece to come get her and take her back to the house, when JimBo pulled up. 'Did you get him?' JimBo just hung his head and shook it. 'Damn! That McGree is one crafty SOB.'
'Here,' JimBo said, pushing a mason jar in my hands. 'There's some evidence against him.'
'Thank you, JimBo.'
'We still gotta dust the still and take that to evidence to deter--'
'I said, "Thank you, JimBo!"'
JimBo slunk off, back to the truck, and I ducked into the back, behind the p.o. boxes. I popped the top off the jar and took a long quaff of the white lightning. It started cool and went down hot.
'Damn!' I said, 'I ought to be President!'"
Paid for by the Committee to Elect Fred Thompson.