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179 Comments
Thank God we don’t have SOCIALIZED medicine.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-insure9nov09,0,3065397,full.story?coll=la-home-center
One of the state’s largest health insurers set goals and paid bonuses based in part on how many individual policyholders were dropped and how much money was saved.
Woodland Hills-based Health Net Inc. avoided paying $35.5 million in medical expenses by rescinding about 1,600 policies between 2000 and 2006. During that period, it paid its senior analyst in charge of cancellations more than $20,000 in bonuses based in part on her meeting or exceeding annual targets for revoking policies, documents disclosed Thursday showed.
The revelation that the health plan had cancellation goals and bonuses comes amid a storm of controversy over the industry-wide but long-hidden practice of rescinding coverage after expensive medical treatments have been authorized.
These cancellations have been the recent focus of intense scrutiny by lawmakers, state regulators and consumer advocates. Although these “rescissions” are only a small portion of the companies’ overall business, they typically leave sick patients with crushing medical bills and no way to obtain needed treatment.
******
Because after all, nothing says healthy like a healthy PROFIT.
Figure out a way to make a sick kid die?
Good job, America! here’s your bonus!
Bill Clinton is never at a loss for company. When he’s not globe-trotting or charming audiences for as much as $400,000 a speech, he’s often schmoozing visitors in his suite of offices in Harlem. Last July, the former president sat down with a billionaire impressed with the William J. Clinton Foundation’s campaign against AIDS in Africa. The two men chatted amiably over lunch for more than two hours, and the visitor pledged to write Clinton’s foundation a generous check. But there was something unusual, if not plain weird, about the meeting. NEWSWEEK has learned that the billionaire so eager to endear himself to the former president was Richard Mellon Scaife—once the Clintons’ archenemy and best-known as the man behind a “vast, right-wing conspiracy” that Hillary Clinton said was out to destroy them………
http://www.newsweek.com/id/69545
First time posting. I just wanted to say to all former and current Marines who may see this Happy birthday to the Corps. My son is a former Marine and a vet of Iraqi Freedom. I am very proud of him
The first time I heard this song I was in one of those Dollar Generals, it stopped me cold. I stood and listen to it and I felt my heart swell. There are many songs about this nation, some can really make you feel pride in this nation and lucky you were born an American. But none reach so deep in me as this one does.
I was not looking for it, I happened to be looking on a myspace page of a guy who shows you how to play certain songs on the guitar. He showed in part how to play this song and since it is veterans day and this so speaks to nation and those whom defend our nation. I put the link here, listening to it still reaches that deep within me. God bless this country and God bless those whom have served her and are serving her still……God Bless the USA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYSQebRyTM4
I cant help but wonder if Phelps & Co. will make an appearance today at the Veterans Parade?? They hate soldiers so much… Geez!!
Our glorious President loves Venterans SO much, that today he is sending V. P. Cheney to lay the wreath at Arlington Cemetery… So he can take a weekend off at his Texas Ranch!! Can anybody say impeachment??
Figure out a way to make a sick kid die?
Good job, America! here’s your bonus!
Posted by: CapnAmerica | November 11, 2007 at 02:03 AM
marc hiz werds or he gib u a left hook on da ash!
The Veteran’s day Parade was actually yesterday. I walked in it and never saw hide or hair of the Phelps. I too wondered if they would show their pathetic faces.
Anybody able to stomach the brownback column in today’s eagle? The same, “I never met a carbon molecule I didn’t like” brownback, the same “I never met a vote I couldn’t skip” brownback, the same brownback who seems to have little interest in performing his duties as an elected official of Kansas, telling us what we need in western Kansas.
Ya, you got a lot of credibility, there, coalboy.
Researchers at Ohio State University garnered little attention in February when they found that youngsters who lose their virginity earlier than their peers are more likely to become juvenile delinquents. So obvious and well established was the contribution of early sex to later delinquency that the idea was already part of the required curriculum for federal “abstinence only” programs.
There was just one problem: It is probably not true. Other things being equal, a more probing study has found, youngsters who have consensual sex in their early-teen or even preteen years are, if anything, less likely to engage in delinquent behavior later on.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/10/AR2007111001271.html?hpid=topnews
The Halloween garb worn by a Westview student last week was a ghost costume, not a Klan outfit, the boy’s father said yesterday.
“My son is not racist. He was more naive than malicious,” said the father, whose name is not being used because he said he feared his son could be subject to harassment.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20071110/news_7m10costume.html
Jeez, it’s getting to the point where you need to keep a lawyer on-call. Almost anything you do is going to offend somebody.
There are now three things certain in life: death, taxes, and a steady stream of Republicans soliciting sex in bathrooms.
State Rep. Bob Allen’s troubles may only get worse.
Seconds after he was convicted Friday of soliciting a sex act in a park bathroom, legislative leaders were discussing how to remove him from office.http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-boballen1007nov10,0,1617921.story
I guess kansas must be sleeping it off after his big night with Pat.
What a maroon. And so much for bans.
The United States ranks near the bottom for infant survival rates among modernized nations. A Save the Children report last year placed the United States ahead of only Latvia, and tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia.
Doctors and analysts blame broad disparities in access to health care among racial and income groups in the United States.http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071111/ap_on_he_me/saving_the_smallest_us_picture
Says a lot about health care delivery in this country. Since the republican plan for health care obviously isn’t working, let’s see what Hillary has to offer.
From the looks of things last night, Mr. Kansas needs to sleep off more than just one night!! He might be trying to find one of those on-call lawyers!!
“The suitcase nuke is an exciting topic that really lends itself to movies,” said Vahid Majidi, the assistant director of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate. “No one has been able to truly identify the existence of these devices.”http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TALE_OF_THE_SUITCASE_NUKE?SITE=WIMIL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
One less thing to wet the bed about.
I’d like to see at least some doctors go back to an older model of doing things.
Think about it.
Doctors today have to pool their resources or sell them in order to secure a point of service, namely a building.
SO, dozens of folks every day have to drive to that point of service. Too, the cost they pay for treatment is in no small part the overhead (building) that the Dr. sees them in.
Why?
Surely with the internet, cell phones, etc, we have reached a point where the house call of latter days would be a savings to the medical industry and so all that use it.
A doctor would not need an office or records. A home based data handler could tend to appointments, billing, and the other paperwork.
Expanding on that I posted above.
I wonder if it would have positive implications as to liability for doctors.
Wouldn’t a doctor be a bit better protected from frivolous suits if he were invited to a persons home?
Thats a good thought J R, but the Drs. also have necessary tools and instruments (and even labs) in their offices… They couldnt do on site testing if they limited themselves to making house calls. At least I dont see how they could… But, it IS a good thought!!
Well,
A doctor could have a hospital or other such site to share with a larger number of other docs.
Just preliminary diagnostics, they don’t use much more than the stethoscope, thermometer and their eyes and brains.
THIS will get me in trouble.
What about school nurses as a resource here?
Most schools have a nurse on a few days a week basis. Could our schools serve as a point of first contact for medicine? They are evenly distributed location wise.
And technology could play a larger role too.
Now, you call a Dr.s office and make an appointment. The administrative assistant jots down your symptoms and makes as appointment. Not much for the doctor to go on til he sees you in person.
Maybe use technology and data bases to narrow things down a bit for the doc? By the time you get to him, he’s got things fairly well narrowed down as to what ails you.
Actually J R,
I’m afraid your idea wouldn’t work on many levels.
80 to 85% of anyone’s bill for his visit to the doctor is tied up in diagnosis. (Diagnosis is merely taking your plain English subjective complaints and translating them into objective findings in Latin.)
The medical equipment, diagnostic and treatment, need a building.
Records are required by law. Statutes outline specific requirements for record content and retention. The federal requirements of HIPPA are in the process of making everything digital. The space for storage becomes less as the space for the required technology becomes greater.
No J R, I think you want things to go back to simpler days that never were. Doc Stone had an office complete with surgery so that he could work on the various victims of the times. The logistics required for keeping a doctor’s buggy going every day are more complex than you might imagine. You have to have at least two horses to ensure one is always available. Harness makers, farriers, blacksmiths, livery stables, hay and feed.
No my friend, medical services have always come at a price.
House calls? This day and age?
A question for Bush sheep, why,if cares so much for the troops, was he not at Arlington today?
A question for Bush sheep, why,if cares so much for the troops, was he not at Arlington today?
A question for Bush sheep, why,if cares so much for the troops, was he not at Arlington today?
Sorry about multiple posts I’m still trying to figure this thing out.
Better check that URL thing again Hank… Ya know???
I think somebody else mentioned that earlier, D Fortney!! Good point!!
My Dad was a small-town doctor who made house calls (okay, I’m an old coot). When I was a kid I used to accompany him.
Most of our ailments are minor and routine. And most diagnoses are minor and routine. “If you hear galloping hooves, think horses not zebras,” and all that.
But doctors are trained to think about zebras and that usually turns into action when the “horses” diagnosis doesn’t fit the case at hand.
Those of you who are older might remember the days of “exploratory surgery.” You hardly ever hear that term these days, thanks to CAT-Scans, MRIs, enhanced non-invasive diagnostic technologies, none of them compatible with the house-call mode of health care. Further, there are plenty of diagnostic tools which simply do not require a doctor to perform (blood pressure, weight loss or gain, etc.) which are efficiently recorded by trained office staff… which means the physician’s time is spent actually dealing with the case presented.
When I was a kid we literally *never* had a Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas or a majority of Sunday dinners that weren’t interrupted by somebody calling with a request for a house call. As often as not it was, “Doc, I’ve had this pain in my elbow for a couple of weeks. Can you come out to the farm and check it out?”
As I recall (remember, this was a few years ago), he charged $10 for an office call, $15 for a house call. Some of his patients actually carped that he got “time and a half” for making a house call. And many house calls resulted in other people — extended families and neighbors — showing up to ask the good doctor about one ailment or another, “since you’re here.” In fact, I think Dad took me along as an excuse for getting away from freeloaders who’d show up when he made house calls.
Okay, that was a different time. A different era. In the 1950s, perhaps 50% of what any Doctor could do for you fit in my Dad’s medical bag. By the time he retired in the 80s (and long after he stopped making house calls), the practice of medicine advanced.
And there’s some irony in this: if “there’s a bug going around,” most likely you’ve caught the bug. But your swollen glands mignt not be “the bug” and we have technologies available to catch lymphoma early… so the best treatment a Doctor can give you is to get you tested. At a cost that most certainly is more than a $15 house call.
If you have the insurance. And *if* the bean counters at the for-profit insurance companies determine you’re not gonna hurt the stockholders’ bottom line.
Sorry guess I need to read closer
Think about how many patients a doctor sees in one day, plus all the tests, etc. that he/she orders. It wouldn’t be cost effective for the doctor to drive to each patient, she couldn’t see as many patients and there are no facilities/sevices in the home to do lab tests, EKGs, Xrays, etc. Home visits are done by home health care professionals, we do the assessments, draw labs, do various treatments under the supervision of doctors. If there’s a problem the doc is only a phone call away at the office where patients are being seen one after another all day long.It’s a system that works well…the only thing that needs to change is the way private insurers try to block and deny medical care for their clients.The time for universal health care is long past due…every citizen should have equal right to healthcare without having to fight all the dishonesty and beauracracy that insurance companies love throw in the way.
Our glorious President loves Venterans SO much, that today he is sending V. P. Cheney to lay the wreath at Arlington Cemetery… So he can take a weekend off at his Texas Ranch!! Can anybody say impeachment??
Posted by: Chas. | November 11, 2007 at 08:00 AM
Guess his true colors are showing
“Dwight Fortney” –
The reason George WMD Bush isn’t at Arlington Cemetery today is that, to boost his poll numbers, he demanded a photo-op with the widow of the unknown soldier.
Figures
Thanks sugar,
I used an old laptop that we just got a new mother board installed in. It’s the one we keep in the motor home and I didn’t fix the URL in it yet.
Contrary to what some believe, several years ago that URL used to be the one for the BCCA. (Bearded Collie Club of America) They got a new webmaster and a new IP and now it’s; http://beardie.net/bcca/
Hank
We were in PA last month at our national specialty. As I was working on the laptop, I was eating a piece of raspberry crunch cake that we got at a Amish farm. Boo Bear was standing over me drooling.
The drool went into the little speaker slits and shorted out the laptop’s mother board.
Amish raspberry crunch cake, $3.95
Dell laptop computer, $1995.00
Camping in Pennsylvania under the maple trees by a lake with Boo Bear, Priceless
I thought the deficit had been cut in half, corporate tax income was increasing every second.What happen to the goldilocks economy, the greatest story never told? At least Hillary hasn’t taken my guns this week.Treasury Sales May Rise 50% as Deficit Suddenly Grows (Update2)
By Elizabeth StantonEnlarge Image/Details
Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) — Sales of Treasuries may increase for the first time since 2004 as the U.S. federal budget deficit expands, jeopardizing the biggest bond rally in five years.
Government auctions of bills, notes and bonds in the fiscal year that started this month may rise more than 50 percent to $220 billion, according to UBS Securities LLC, one of the 21 primary dealers that underwrite Treasury auctions. The first decline in corporate tax revenue since 2003 increased the shortfall by 12 percent to $162.8 billion for the year ended in September, from $144.8 billion in the 12 months through April
George is becoming more ineffective as his time drolls on..he can’t even put a sentence or an origional thought together these days..it’s almost pathetic.
1 year, 2 months, and 12 days left til it’s time to party.
George is becoming more ineffective as his time drolls on..he can’t even put a sentence or an origional thought together these days..it’s almost pathetic.
1 year, 2 months, and 12 days left til it’s time to party.
Posted by: Mary Caruso | November 11, 2007 at 11:26 AM
It would almost be funny if his incompetence wasnt costing American lives
I wonder if the ranch in TX has an alzheimers treatment facility built into it??
Well, time to head out for dinner… Guess Ryans is as good as any for Sunday Dinner…
See you all laer!!
I wonder if the ranch in TX has an alzheimers treatment facility built into it??
You are despariging people with Alzhiemers. My dad had it and even right before he died he still made more sense than Bush
Mary, check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVuacSi0kWA
Amazing how people can’t figure out what I do every Sunday morning until noon or after.
Not really amazing for this Blog though, they wouldn’t know about such things.
You Libs attacked Rush for his phony soldier routine.
Now you are going to vote for a Phony President – Hillary Clinton:
Clinton Campaign Accused for the Second Time of Planting a Question at a Public Appearance
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,310417,00.html
I’ve never seen so many grown men so afraid of a 60 year old woman ……
I’ve never seen so many grown men so afraid of a 60 year old woman ……
Posted by: ken | November 11, 2007 at 01:03 PM
Oh, then you would have no problem with Condoleeza Rice being President or perhaps Senator Hutchinson of Texas?
Or are you afraid of those women becoming President?
PHONY PRESIDENT:
Clinton campaign admits planting questionsBy DON FREDERICK and ANDREW MALCOLM
November 11, 2007
Hillary Clinton stopped at a biodiesel plant in Newton, Iowa, last week to see alternative fuels in the making and to drive home the week’s campaign theme of her energy plan. After a tour, the candidate took questions from the crowd.
She called on a young woman. “As a young person,” said the well-spoken Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff, “I’m worried about the long-term effects of global warming. How does your plan combat climate change?”"Well, you should be worried,” Clinton replied. “You know, I find as I travel around Iowa that it’s usually young people that ask me about global warming.”
There’s a good reason for that, too. The question was a plant, totally rigged in advance, like a late-night infomercial. Just before the public forum a Clinton staffer had chosen the young woman, a student at Grinnell College, and asked her to ask that specific question.
Trouble is, the young woman told others, and her account showed up on the Grinnell website, including mention that the staffer signaled Clinton whom to call on.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-ticket11nov11,1,724688.story?coll=la-news-politics-national&track=crosspromo
If I thought they were qualified yes –
Straight from ABC News – The Phony President Tries To Get A Minister to Lie
Another Question Planted by Clinton CampaignIllinois Minister Tells ABC News That Clinton Staffer Asked Him to Pose a War Question
One day after Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign confirmed that a staffer planted a question for the presidential candidate at a recent campaign stop, another person has come forward with a similar story.
Geoff Mitchell, a minister who recently moved to Hamilton, Ill., from Iowa, told ABC News that he was approached this spring by Clinton’s Iowa political director Chris Haylor to ask Clinton a question about war funding.
Mitchell, 32, said that the request “did not sit well with me in the tradition of the Iowa caucus.”
“I grew up in Iowa and I value the tradition of the caucuses of answering the questions of the people,” Mitchell said.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3848826&page=1
I’ve never seen so many grown men so afraid of a 60 year old woman ……
Posted by: ken | November 11, 2007 at 01:03 PM
The pickin on a poor woman Clinton defense, won’t get her elected.
If I thought they were qualified yes –
Posted by: ken | November 11, 2007 at 01:15 PM
Both are already more qualified than Clinton. Senator Hutchinson has been a Senator longer than Clinton and Rice has experience at the inner government workings of National and International level, H. Clinton does not.
Some attack Rudy Giuliani because his former chief of police MAY have committed some felonies. Kerik by the way, is not a part of Rudy’s campaign team.
While in the Hillary Clinton camp, you have a CONVICTED FELON on her campain team TODAY!
Sandy Berger pleaded GUILTY to FELONIES two years ago for illegally removing and destroying classified documents from the National Archives.
And you have Hillary taking over $1 MILLION from convicted felons, which supposedly have been returned. (Yeah right, I want to see the cancelled checks!)
And now Clinton staging Phony Questions for her town meetings!
Which candidate is in bed with filthy Felons?
CLINTON CULTURE OF CORRUPTION CAMPAIN CONTINUES!
Clinton Campaign Accused for the Second Time of Planting a Question at a Public Appearance
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,310417,00.html
Posted by: Max | November 11, 2007 at 12:59 PM
Hey Max,Ever heard of Jeff Gannon?
MAX — Wake up!! How is it a LIE for a staffer to ask a member of the audience to ask a question?
That isnt a LIE… Bush has done it for 7 years… Reagan never had a Press Conference on TV where the questions werent known ahead of time…
Bush doesnt have spontaneous question/answer sessions… All of his audiences are hand picked, and pretty much all supporters!!
C’mon, get off of your Hillary phobia, even!! This is going to be a long year if you keep up with this kind of CRAP!!
I mean, Max, insome of the debates, the candidates have the questions before the debate!
Do you call that a lie too??
Well, mates,
The PBS series by Burns seems to think that WWII was won without the submarine service. Anyway, it isn’t mentioned.
The US submarine force in the Pacific sank more Japanese tonnage by the end of the war than Japan had at the beginning of the war.
Therefore, in observation of Veterans Day I ask you to take a moment or two and remember the men and submarines lost in WWII:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVJkWmo9Vg4
And we thank you for your support.
If Hillary had pulled the FEMA trick, the entire audience would have been staff members, asking prepared questions, and the talk session would have been billed as a ‘town hall’ meeting.
It is perhaps fortunate that now, even the youngest of WW II Vets are at least 80 years old. And the war has now been over for more than 62 years.
Unfortunately, because of the actions of this President, we will continue to have MORE war veterans than is necessary for many more years yet to come.
Blessings to the Vets!!
It could appear to some Blog readers as if Max has a phobia of women being in positions of power and control — unless they might be southern or black intellectuals.
Looks like Max has a problem with power issues.
No sugar, I have a problem with anyone with a Socialist agenda, who gets in bed with felons, violates campaign finance laws, and plants phony questions in her town hall meetings.
That is Hillary Clinton.
No other candidate running has done this.
And Bush isn’t running, but you can’t cite one case where he had planted questions.
Roll over in your Socialist stew sugar.
You don’t care how crooked Hillary is, as long as she promises more Socialist hand outs for you freeloaders.
And Sugar thinks its “fortunate now” for all the WWII vets to be dying off.
How sick can you get?
Max, they’re OLD MEN now… My Dad was one of them… He would be 94 now!! It’s time to close the book on that chapter!!
That isnt sick… That is just moving on!! Bush will provide us with plenty of new Vets to remember for another 60+ years!!
Of course we cant prove Bush uses planted questions… But when he only has “the choir” that he is preaching to, draw your own conclusions. I would be willing to bet that every campaign running right now uses plants for some questions… For one thing, it keeps the “Q & A” sessions moving. Also keeps out a lot of, “ya know”, kinds of questioners. (one of my great pet peeves in life — “ya know”)
And Max, one other thing — There is a huge difference between being a Social Democrat, and being a Socialist. Hillary is NOT a Socialist — even though I am not totally convinced that she is the right candidate — She is just under extreme attack from people like you, Max, who are very afraid of the lady — I still think it is a power/control issue — I almost hope she doesnt get elected — I dont think I could stand 4 (or 8) more years of the Right Wing propaganda against her, and the Democrats, and the Nation.
Civilians have ZERO idea what its really like. Walter Reed? I’ve been there. Its mold covered and they’re drastically understaffed. Prescriptions Line? It takes hours. Active Duty gets to go first, but there are usually hundreds of veterans waiting in line waiting. Veterans who gave their lives and some their sight, hearing, body for this country don’t get to get their pain medication in a timely period? What is wrong with this system. It’s not just Walter Reed, I’ve been to every military hospital in the DC area now, since we’re stationed at Andrews AFB. Malcolm Grow, Bolling, and Walter Reed. All are drastically understaffed and the prescription situation is the same. It takes weeks to get an appointment. They say to call just a couple days before the start of the month to fight for an appointment that month. What if you’re sick? Well you can try calling early in the morning but if its urgent make a trip to the ER where you get to wait with a bunch of other sick people for hours. My son, who is one, was bleeding from the head and we weren’t seen for 3 hours. 3 hours! You want to know what we see on a daily basis? Med buses medivac sick wounded soldiers from the flight line at andrews afb to walter reed. Those buses are generally filled and during the week I see at least 2 a day. AT LEAST! Thousands of men are coming home wounded and all we hear about are the dead. Yes, we need to honor the dead, but people need to know how many are hurt and what their care is like. I’ve seen those rooms at Walter Reed. We stayed in one. It looks like a time capsule. Metal beds, slates of metal as mirrors, bathrooms so old the pipes creak whenever you turn on the water, mold, grit. Its not clean. It doesn’t smell like other hospitals, that clean sanitized smell. It’s sick! It’s sick. For those veterans who need care after, and for us military families there are wonderful signs on the door of the family care offices. They read “one issue per appointment please”. That’s right. Those people who fight for this country and us families left behind can only bring up one issue per appointment. If more then one make another appointment which is IMPOSSIBLE to get. Our hospitals are out of date and our doctors are deployed. I see veterans every day at the commissary and the BX on the base where we live. I’ve seen men burned so badly they’re unrecognizable as human. I’ve seen men who recently found themselves blind. I’ve seen families whose husbands gave their lives who can’t get a doctors appointment for a sick child and sit in the ER for hours. It is not right. Sure, we get “free” health care, but look at the price. This is a disgrace. We can’t have a voice or we risk the consequences. We need a voice. That man they call our president sits by and does nothing visiting privately funded hospitals. He gets to have all his appointments at National Naval Medical Center; which is REALLY nice, but impossible for the underlings to get into. I don’t think he waits months for an appointment, hours for prescriptions, can only talk about one issue per appointment, and gets medical care in these conditions. That’s whats wrong with this country.
Nice defense attempt of Hillary, Sugar.
Claim that those men who attack her are afraid of women.
That’s Hillary’s “oh poor me, I’m just a woman and the men are all pickin on me” routine.
And Hillary is CLEARLY a SOCIALIST.
You can’t defend Hillary’s planting of questions, her Ex-Con campaign crew, her financial comrades who are also felons, her changing positions on Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan, her proposed Socialist spending increases of $2 Trillion, so Sugar – just say that I’m afraid of women.
You are almost as ridiculous as Hillary.
After Hillary’s great debate show on Halloween, she got tired of answering tough questions like:
1. Do you support the governor of NY in issuing drivers licenses to illegal aliens?
2. What’s your position today on Iran and Iraq, given that you have changed your statements several times?
3. What’s your position on Saving Social Security Hillary?
After that brutal showing by Hillary, she decided she would ensure she gets softball questions, at least in her townhall meetings.
At a recent town hall meeting in Iowa,
Julie Anderson: “Hillary, will you solve global warming?”
Hillary: “Why of course. I have an energy plan and a conservation plan. I will save the world.”
Tom Zatopek: “Hillary, if you are President, will the sky be blue or grey?”
Hillary: “Chortle, Chortle, Hillarious Laugh, Laugh, Laugh. Why it will be Blue of course Tom!”
Cindy Hodson: “Ummm, I forgot what I was supposed to ask.”
Staffer standing by says, “pssst, Health Care”
Cindy continues her tough question, “Hee Hee, now I remember, Hillary, will I be able to get free healthcare if you are President?
Hillary: “Why of course Cindy. I’ll make everything free!”
Cindy adds, “One more question Hillary, do you think I look fat in this mini-skirt, hee, hee, hee?”
Hillary: “No Cindy, I think you look so HOT, I’m glad Bill isn’t with me tonight! snort, snort”
Tough questions in these town all meetings, that’s for sure.
It’s not just Hillary, Max… You only want to take your pot shots at the FEMALE in the race..
Take on some of the guys while you are at it… They ALL use soft ball questions.. ALL of them, except maybe Ron Paul… But nobody ever asks him anything anyway!! LOL
P. S. — I sort of like Ron Paul!
Max, that entire last post of yours is a total LYING fabrication… Where did you steal that??? From Drudge Report??
MAX — WHY are you so afraid to look up the “textbook” definition of Socialism?? Is it because you would find out that your “so-called” Socialism ideas are totally skewed and Wrong??
Or would you learn the clear cut FACT that NONE of the Candidates of either party are Socialists??
The nation has just passed you by, Max… C’mon — Catch up!!
Chas, you haven’t been reading my posts lately. I’ve gone after Obama too.
Hillary is the front runner for the Socialist Democrats though Chas.
You might as well get used to your Dem Girl getting attacked. It’s not because she’s a woman, it’s because of all of the reasons I’ve posted about before.
Show me how my attacks on her stand on the issues, her campain financing strategy (HSU! Contributions from poor waiters!), and her campaign staff of felons, has anything to do with her being a woman!
Chas, I’ve posted definitions on Socialism in the past.
If you can’t read the first time, there’s no point in reposting what you cannot read.
If you have your hand out Chas, and you expect, no DEMAND, that others like your next door neighbors, work hard so that they can give you THEIR money, then you are a SOCIALIST.
When you pay ZIP in Federal taxes Chas, and you shout for tax increases(paid for by people who pay taxes) and more free Social Programs, then you are a SOCIALIST.
And a hypocrite.
Hey Chas, be proud to be a Socialist.
Why are you so afraid to wear the label that best describes you?
Oh, and Chas, 2 of the 3 questions to Hillary I posted above, are the real softball questions that were asked.
What do you call the US tax code, where 50% of the working people pay 97% of the income tax, if it isn’t SOCIALIST?
What do you call Social Security, where someone who earns $100,000/yr pays 10 times the Social Security tax and gets about the same benefit as someone who earns $20,000/yr, if it isn’t Socialist?
What do you call HillaryCare! where those making less than $30,000/yr get free healthcare, if it isn’t Socialist?
What do you call Hillary’s Energy Plan, where $50 billion will be raised thru higher taxes, to give energy credits to those who earn less than $30,000/yr, if it isn’t Socialism?
What do you call Hillary’s plan to give every new baby $5,000 if it isn’t Socialism?
What do you call Hillary’s plan to give a $1,000 401k to those who aren’t working, if it isn’t Socialism?
“I have a problem with anyone with a Socialist agenda, who gets in bed with felons, violates campaign finance laws, and plants phony questions in her town hall meetings.
That is Hillary Clinton.
No other candidate running has done this.”
You don’t remember John F Kennedy? He planted questions in every press conference and debate, literally slept with a mafia mole, and had questionable contributions that ensured his election….I think both Hilary and Jack Kennedy are guilty of doing politics has usual. you don’t have to look too far to see that it certainly runs on both sides..you’re only pointing out the obvious..for every shady trick you accuse the Democrats of, I can come up with probably 10 more on the Republican side.
I’ll call myself a socialist if you will admit what I say you are.
My take is your a climber. I bet you’ve stuck and stepped on a few to get where you are. And you like the view from there. That is about what America demands as the price for success these days.
YOU are a feudalist Max. You appease your vassal who schmoozes HIS Count, who licks the boots of his Lord.
How about a little equal opportunity WITHOUT the attendant brown nose?
I’m not running for office JR.
I’m not a publicly paid Bureaucrat.
You JR, can attack me as a private person all you want.
Those personal attacks on me JR, do nothing to defend Hillary.
But go ahead, flame away at me all you want.
It doesn’t make Hillary look any better, and just makes you look bad.
Make my day!
Oh, and Mary, if what I posted was OBVIOUS, then Hillary would have dropped out of the campaign a long time ago.
And Mary, please post your 10 examples on the Republican side, I’d love to see them!
What do you call the Unearned Income Credit, where someone receives $3,000 from the Federal government as an “income tax refund” when they paid $0 income tax, if it isn’t Socialism?
Max Why does it surprise you that the Higher Income Level people pay more INCOME tax that the lower income people??? It is an INCOME TAX…
Your argument sounds like you wouldnt like it much that the owner of a Mercedes pays more SALES TAX than the owner of a Chevy Aveyo?? It has nothing to do with SOCIALIST or Non Socialist!!
And Max, I have yet to see you post any definitions of Socialism that the garbage you just alluded to above… which is FAR from a definition!!
I mean honestly, is this the best you can come up with??
“If you have your hand out Chas, and you expect, no DEMAND, that others like your next door neighbors, work hard so that they can give you THEIR money, then you are a SOCIALIST.”
None of your case scenarios in that paragraph even come close to a definition of Socialism… Go read some credible stuff, instead of that Right Wing Radio drivel!! Cause thats all you post all day every day!! It really does get old Max… Makes discussion all about you — sort of like Kansas does — Only, I dont think you are that mean spirited!!
You are lying Max.
Or, I’ll afford you may be misinformed or deluded.
You do NOT get EIC UNLESS you have had income.
I have news from Julie.
Baby Shuffles!!!!!!!!!!His creatin level went up .3 points (J R intruding here. c level is related to kidney function) but this is good news since previous days had seen jumps of 2 or 3 point something.He’s been taken of the sedative and is just on pain meds. He was much more with it today. He was cognizant for about a total of a bit over an hour. He responded well to questions and is determined to be home by Christmas.He managed a finger wave to my mom and smiled a couple times at me.
Tomorrow is his 43rd birthday. That’s 2 family birthdays this year that he’s spent in the hospital (Winter’s was the other birthday).He’s also had 2 more bowel movements.I’m so very tired. I’m going to bed. I’m sure Desperate Housewives and Dexter will soon be on reruns with the state of the Writers Strike.Love,Julie
IF you would use the proper term for it, it might not be so confusing for you…
It is EARNED Income CREDIT… advance payment for Income to be EARNED in the coming year, and it is reported as INCOME on the following year’s Tax Return!!
It is a CREDIT, max… like a LOAN against your upcoming year’s Income!!
And you DO NOT pay Social Security on $100,000 of income… I believe it is only up to $97,500
And SHOW us all where that person doesnt get any more than he low income person who gets a “measely” $20,000!! I have never known ANYbody who made $20,000 in Soc. Security benefit!!
My dad paid into it from the very beginning, and made barely $1,200 a month!! ($14,400)
So, SHOW us Max… How much did you have to make in Income for all those years, to get $20,000 in Social Security??
It sure wouldnt be any low income wage earner!! NO WAY!!
Chas, we covered this before. You pay $0 Federal taxes.
Get over it. You are forever DEPENDENT on people who earn their own way in this world.
You can’t help it that your unable to pay your own way, your just born lazy. A genetic defect Chas. You should be on disability.
Heck Chas, you don’t even pay a part of the 3% in income tax that is paid for by the 50% of America that makes less then $30,000/yr!
How could you be anything other then Socialist?
You MUST look out for your own selfish interest Chas. That’s the Christian thing to do.
You don’t care what laws Hillary breaks, or how many lies she tells, as long as she promises more free Government handouts, YOU Chas, will vote for her.
Chas and JR, you are so full of crap or just ignorant of the Federal tax laws, that you have no business even discussing the EIC.
But go ahead, you just want to advertise your own stupidity, then keep making my day.
There is NOTHING “Earned” about the EIC.
Hey you all — Turn on the History Channel… Good show on Climate Change… Nearly all from credible scientists!!
The dead people, they don’t even know they are dead people.
And the Socialist, they don’t even know they are Socialist!
You do not get the credit if you have no income Max.
You are lying or you are misninformed.
Leave…it’s not much better in the private healthcare system either. I’ve waited in the ER after my mom had a stroke with her for almost 8 hours, and it takes days, sometimes more than a week to get my patient’s scripts filled if they have to be approved by a doctor, and it’s not at all unusual to have to wait several weeks or even several months to get an appointment with a doctor. The problems you talk about are all through the healthcare industry. If you have private insurance..then you also have the battle of getting them to pay claims and approve necessary procedures…that’s another whole battle in itself.
Our entire system needs to be overhauled. We do have great healthcare in this country, if only we could have access to it and afford it.
I note Max did not protest my assessment of him. Hey it’s ok Max. Lots of people can do what you do.
But there was a time Amercans were made of sterner stuff.
What do you call the Unearned Income Credit, where someone receives $3,000 from the Federal government as an “income tax refund” when they paid $0 income tax, if it isn’t Socialism?
Posted by: Max | November 11, 2007 at 07:43 PM
You do not get the credit if you have no income Max.
You are lying or you are misninformed.
Posted by: J R | November 11, 2007 at 07:55 PM
I never said what you claimed JR. Your attempt at twisting my words is another example of stupidity. Care to demonstrate your stupidity again?
Alas, I tire of toying with the idiots.
It was fun while it lasted though.
Nearly all from credible scientists!!
Posted by: Chas. | November 11, 2007 at 07:53 PM
That a great vote of confidence and make me feel warm and Fuzzy. Just stopped by to see if the idiots were still posting and sure enough they were.
Max sorry you left so early. JR just can’t get that part about not paying taxes and still getting a ‘tax’ refund being backwards.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DEMOCRATS & REPUBLICANS
Fred Thompson and Hillary were walking down the street when they came to a homeless person. The Republican, Fred Thompson, gave the homeless person his business card and told him to come to his office for a job. He then took $20 out of his pocket and gave it to the homeless person.Hillary was very impressed, so when they came to another homeless person, she decided to help. She walked over to the homeless person and gave him directions to the welfare office. She then reached into Thompson’s pocket and got out $20. She kept $15 for her administrative fees and gave the homeless person $5.You now understand the difference.JR this one is for you.
. She then reached into Thompson’s pocket and got out $20. She kept $15 for her administrative fees and gave the homeless person $5.
You now understand the difference
now I do. why did Fred let Hillary get away with that he must have thought he was still a lobbyist….
Musharraf probably has a few billion of US taxpayers dollars in a secret bank account somewhere.
U.S. Aid to Musharraf is Largely Untraceable Cash Transfers
By Spencer Ackerman – November 7, 2007, 5:05PM
After Pervez Musharraf declared martial law this weekend, Condoleezza Rice vowed to review U.S. assistance to Pakistan, one of the largest foreign recipients of American aid. Musharraf, of course, has been a crucial American ally since the start of the Afghanistan war in 2001, and the U.S. has rewarded him ever since with over $10 billion in civilian and (mostly) military largesse. But, perhaps unsure whether Musharraf’s days might in fact be numbered, Rice contended that the explosion of money to Islamabad over the past seven years was “not to Musharraf, but to a Pakistan you could argue was making significant strides on a number of fronts.”
In fact, however, a considerable amount of the money the U.S. gives to Pakistan is administered not through U.S. agencies or joint U.S.-Pakistani programs. Instead, the U.S. gives Musharraf’s government about $200 million annually and his military $100 million monthly in the form of direct cash transfers. Once that money leaves the U.S. Treasury, Musharraf can do with it whatever he wants. He needs only promise in a secret annual meeting that he’ll use it to invest in the Pakistani people. And whatever happens as the result of Rice’s review, few Pakistan watchers expect the cash transfers to end.
About $10.58 billion has gone to Pakistan since 9/11. That puts Pakistan in an elite category of U.S. foreign-aid recipients: only Israel, Egypt and Jordan get more or comparable U.S. funding. (That’s only in the unclassified budget: the covert-operations budget surely includes millions more, according to knowledgeable observers.) While Israel and Egypt get more money, Pakistan and Jordan are the only countries that get U.S. cash from four major funding streams: development assistance, security assistance, “budget support” and Coalition Support Funds. Pakistan, however, gets most of its U.S. assistance from Coalition Support Funds and from budget support. And it’s those two funding streams that have minimal accountability at best.
The “budget support” package is the lion’s share of U.S. economic assistance to Pakistan — and it’s not spent in conjunction with any U.S. agency. “It’s a cash transfer,” says Lisa Curtis, a South Asia analyst at the Heritage Foundation who used to work on the South Asia desk at the State Department and for Sen. Richard Lugar (R-ID). “That goes directly to the Pakistani treasury.” It totalled around $200 million each year until earlier this year, when Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) plucked $75 million of out of it and put it in an education fund for USAID to administer. In theory, budget support is supposed to free up the treasuries of the four countries that receive it for investing in their national infrastructure. But in practice, recipients can do with it whatever they like. “The notion is it gives them greater flexibility on how to use the money,” explains Craig Cohen, vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The trade-off is accountability.”
In Pakistan’s case, the only oversight is an annual agreement, known as the Shared Objectives statement, whereby top State Department and Treasury Department officials receive from Musharraf deputies — usually Prime Minister Shawkat Aziz — an explanation of how Musharraf intends to spend the money. The agreement is reached entirely in secret. “A good question is what are the objectives we’re basing this budget support on,” Cohen says.
Accountability also suffers in the Coalition Support Funds. According to Rick Barton of CSIS, who spearheaded perhaps the most comprehensive report on the murky world of U.S.-Pakistan ties, Pakistan has gotten over $6 billion in Coalition Support Funds since 9/11, with disbursements rising to total about $100 million a month. This, too, is a direct cash transfer. “The Coalition Support funding is basically a sort of a handshake deal between militaries,” Barton says. “We don’t have good sense where it goes. … we don’t ask a lot of questions, and we don’t have a lot of record-keeping. ”
Only about ten percent of the $10.58 billion since 9/11 has gone toward development aid and humanitarian assistance, according to the CSIS report — even after Pakistan suffered a devastating earthquake in October 2005. “Close to 90 percent goes to the military-led government,” Barton says. “Some of it is directly into the military, and the other pieces go into the Musharraf government.”
In Pakistan, the military runs not just the government, but major sections of the economy as well. Joshua Hammer recently reported for The Atlantic that the Pakistani military owns large stakes in the country’s “banks, cable-TV companies, insurance agencies, sugar refineries, private security firms, schools, airlines, cargo services, and textile factories.” Mainlining largely untraceable money into the Pakistani treasury helps this system perpetuate itself — even as widespread public discontent, from both moderates and radicals, boils over. It also sends the signal that the U.S. prefers to have relations with Pervez Musharraf rather than the Pakistani people.
“The whole orientation of policy and assistance provided since 9/11 is that he’s the indispensable leader,” says Cohen. “And the money runs through the central government and that leader.”
Musharraf probably has a few billion of US taxpayers dollars in a secret bank account somewhere.
U.S. Aid to Musharraf is Largely Untraceable Cash Transfers
By Spencer Ackerman – November 7, 2007, 5:05PM
After Pervez Musharraf declared martial law this weekend, Condoleezza Rice vowed to review U.S. assistance to Pakistan, one of the largest foreign recipients of American aid. Musharraf, of course, has been a crucial American ally since the start of the Afghanistan war in 2001, and the U.S. has rewarded him ever since with over $10 billion in civilian and (mostly) military largesse. But, perhaps unsure whether Musharraf’s days might in fact be numbered, Rice contended that the explosion of money to Islamabad over the past seven years was “not to Musharraf, but to a Pakistan you could argue was making significant strides on a number of fronts.”
In fact, however, a considerable amount of the money the U.S. gives to Pakistan is administered not through U.S. agencies or joint U.S.-Pakistani programs. Instead, the U.S. gives Musharraf’s government about $200 million annually and his military $100 million monthly in the form of direct cash transfers. Once that money leaves the U.S. Treasury, Musharraf can do with it whatever he wants. He needs only promise in a secret annual meeting that he’ll use it to invest in the Pakistani people. And whatever happens as the result of Rice’s review, few Pakistan watchers expect the cash transfers to end.
About $10.58 billion has gone to Pakistan since 9/11. That puts Pakistan in an elite category of U.S. foreign-aid recipients: only Israel, Egypt and Jordan get more or comparable U.S. funding. (That’s only in the unclassified budget: the covert-operations budget surely includes millions more, according to knowledgeable observers.) While Israel and Egypt get more money, Pakistan and Jordan are the only countries that get U.S. cash from four major funding streams: development assistance, security assistance, “budget support” and Coalition Support Funds. Pakistan, however, gets most of its U.S. assistance from Coalition Support Funds and from budget support. And it’s those two funding streams that have minimal accountability at best.
The “budget support” package is the lion’s share of U.S. economic assistance to Pakistan — and it’s not spent in conjunction with any U.S. agency. “It’s a cash transfer,” says Lisa Curtis, a South Asia analyst at the Heritage Foundation who used to work on the South Asia desk at the State Department and for Sen. Richard Lugar (R-ID). “That goes directly to the Pakistani treasury.” It totalled around $200 million each year until earlier this year, when Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) plucked $75 million of out of it and put it in an education fund for USAID to administer. In theory, budget support is supposed to free up the treasuries of the four countries that receive it for investing in their national infrastructure. But in practice, recipients can do with it whatever they like. “The notion is it gives them greater flexibility on how to use the money,” explains Craig Cohen, vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The trade-off is accountability.”
In Pakistan’s case, the only oversight is an annual agreement, known as the Shared Objectives statement, whereby top State Department and Treasury Department officials receive from Musharraf deputies — usually Prime Minister Shawkat Aziz — an explanation of how Musharraf intends to spend the money. The agreement is reached entirely in secret. “A good question is what are the objectives we’re basing this budget support on,” Cohen says.
Accountability also suffers in the Coalition Support Funds. According to Rick Barton of CSIS, who spearheaded perhaps the most comprehensive report on the murky world of U.S.-Pakistan ties, Pakistan has gotten over $6 billion in Coalition Support Funds since 9/11, with disbursements rising to total about $100 million a month. This, too, is a direct cash transfer. “The Coalition Support funding is basically a sort of a handshake deal between militaries,” Barton says. “We don’t have good sense where it goes. … we don’t ask a lot of questions, and we don’t have a lot of record-keeping. ”
Only about ten percent of the $10.58 billion since 9/11 has gone toward development aid and humanitarian assistance, according to the CSIS report — even after Pakistan suffered a devastating earthquake in October 2005. “Close to 90 percent goes to the military-led government,” Barton says. “Some of it is directly into the military, and the other pieces go into the Musharraf government.”
In Pakistan, the military runs not just the government, but major sections of the economy as well. Joshua Hammer recently reported for The Atlantic that the Pakistani military owns large stakes in the country’s “banks, cable-TV companies, insurance agencies, sugar refineries, private security firms, schools, airlines, cargo services, and textile factories.” Mainlining largely untraceable money into the Pakistani treasury helps this system perpetuate itself — even as widespread public discontent, from both moderates and radicals, boils over. It also sends the signal that the U.S. prefers to have relations with Pervez Musharraf rather than the Pakistani people.
“The whole orientation of policy and assistance provided since 9/11 is that he’s the indispensable leader,” says Cohen. “And the money runs through the central government and that leader.”
You know the funny thing, Chas.
From what you’ve told me about your pension, you’ll be making more than Max when you retire.
That’s the thing about our system of capitalism. It rewards . . . uhm . . . capital.
Granted, it takes some fore-thought and discipline to save money and not to spend it.
But the simple fact is that earning interest on investments is a helluva lot easier than working for a living.
And people that make money that way shouldn’t be further enriched by the tax code, which is the way it is now.
Musharraf probably has a few billion of US taxpayers dollars in a secret bank account somewhere.
U.S. Aid to Musharraf is Largely Untraceable Cash Transfers
By Spencer Ackerman – November 7, 2007, 5:05PM
After Pervez Musharraf declared martial law this weekend, Condoleezza Rice vowed to review U.S. assistance to Pakistan, one of the largest foreign recipients of American aid. Musharraf, of course, has been a crucial American ally since the start of the Afghanistan war in 2001, and the U.S. has rewarded him ever since with over $10 billion in civilian and (mostly) military largesse. But, perhaps unsure whether Musharraf’s days might in fact be numbered, Rice contended that the explosion of money to Islamabad over the past seven years was “not to Musharraf, but to a Pakistan you could argue was making significant strides on a number of fronts.”
In fact, however, a considerable amount of the money the U.S. gives to Pakistan is administered not through U.S. agencies or joint U.S.-Pakistani programs. Instead, the U.S. gives Musharraf’s government about $200 million annually and his military $100 million monthly in the form of direct cash transfers. Once that money leaves the U.S. Treasury, Musharraf can do with it whatever he wants. He needs only promise in a secret annual meeting that he’ll use it to invest in the Pakistani people. And whatever happens as the result of Rice’s review, few Pakistan watchers expect the cash transfers to end.
About $10.58 billion has gone to Pakistan since 9/11. That puts Pakistan in an elite category of U.S. foreign-aid recipients: only Israel, Egypt and Jordan get more or comparable U.S. funding. (That’s only in the unclassified budget: the covert-operations budget surely includes millions more, according to knowledgeable observers.) While Israel and Egypt get more money, Pakistan and Jordan are the only countries that get U.S. cash from four major funding streams: development assistance, security assistance, “budget support” and Coalition Support Funds. Pakistan, however, gets most of its U.S. assistance from Coalition Support Funds and from budget support. And it’s those two funding streams that have minimal accountability at best.
The “budget support” package is the lion’s share of U.S. economic assistance to Pakistan — and it’s not spent in conjunction with any U.S. agency. “It’s a cash transfer,” says Lisa Curtis, a South Asia analyst at the Heritage Foundation who used to work on the South Asia desk at the State Department and for Sen. Richard Lugar (R-ID). “That goes directly to the Pakistani treasury.” It totalled around $200 million each year until earlier this year, when Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) plucked $75 million of out of it and put it in an education fund for USAID to administer. In theory, budget support is supposed to free up the treasuries of the four countries that receive it for investing in their national infrastructure. But in practice, recipients can do with it whatever they like. “The notion is it gives them greater flexibility on how to use the money,” explains Craig Cohen, vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The trade-off is accountability.”
In Pakistan’s case, the only oversight is an annual agreement, known as the Shared Objectives statement, whereby top State Department and Treasury Department officials receive from Musharraf deputies — usually Prime Minister Shawkat Aziz — an explanation of how Musharraf intends to spend the money. The agreement is reached entirely in secret. “A good question is what are the objectives we’re basing this budget support on,” Cohen says.
Accountability also suffers in the Coalition Support Funds. According to Rick Barton of CSIS, who spearheaded perhaps the most comprehensive report on the murky world of U.S.-Pakistan ties, Pakistan has gotten over $6 billion in Coalition Support Funds since 9/11, with disbursements rising to total about $100 million a month. This, too, is a direct cash transfer. “The Coalition Support funding is basically a sort of a handshake deal between militaries,” Barton says. “We don’t have good sense where it goes. … we don’t ask a lot of questions, and we don’t have a lot of record-keeping. ”
Only about ten percent of the $10.58 billion since 9/11 has gone toward development aid and humanitarian assistance, according to the CSIS report — even after Pakistan suffered a devastating earthquake in October 2005. “Close to 90 percent goes to the military-led government,” Barton says. “Some of it is directly into the military, and the other pieces go into the Musharraf government.”
In Pakistan, the military runs not just the government, but major sections of the economy as well. Joshua Hammer recently reported for The Atlantic that the Pakistani military owns large stakes in the country’s “banks, cable-TV companies, insurance agencies, sugar refineries, private security firms, schools, airlines, cargo services, and textile factories.” Mainlining largely untraceable money into the Pakistani treasury helps this system perpetuate itself — even as widespread public discontent, from both moderates and radicals, boils over. It also sends the signal that the U.S. prefers to have relations with Pervez Musharraf rather than the Pakistani people.
“The whole orientation of policy and assistance provided since 9/11 is that he’s the indispensable leader,” says Cohen. “And the money runs through the central government and that leader.”
Musharraf probably has a few billion of US taxpayers dollars in a secret bank account somewhere.
U.S. Aid to Musharraf is Largely Untraceable Cash Transfers
By Spencer Ackerman – November 7, 2007, 5:05PM
After Pervez Musharraf declared martial law this weekend, Condoleezza Rice vowed to review U.S. assistance to Pakistan, one of the largest foreign recipients of American aid. Musharraf, of course, has been a crucial American ally since the start of the Afghanistan war in 2001, and the U.S. has rewarded him ever since with over $10 billion in civilian and (mostly) military largesse. But, perhaps unsure whether Musharraf’s days might in fact be numbered, Rice contended that the explosion of money to Islamabad over the past seven years was “not to Musharraf, but to a Pakistan you could argue was making significant strides on a number of fronts.”
In fact, however, a considerable amount of the money the U.S. gives to Pakistan is administered not through U.S. agencies or joint U.S.-Pakistani programs. Instead, the U.S. gives Musharraf’s government about $200 million annually and his military $100 million monthly in the form of direct cash transfers. Once that money leaves the U.S. Treasury, Musharraf can do with it whatever he wants. He needs only promise in a secret annual meeting that he’ll use it to invest in the Pakistani people. And whatever happens as the result of Rice’s review, few Pakistan watchers expect the cash transfers to end.
About $10.58 billion has gone to Pakistan since 9/11. That puts Pakistan in an elite category of U.S. foreign-aid recipients: only Israel, Egypt and Jordan get more or comparable U.S. funding. (That’s only in the unclassified budget: the covert-operations budget surely includes millions more, according to knowledgeable observers.) While Israel and Egypt get more money, Pakistan and Jordan are the only countries that get U.S. cash from four major funding streams: development assistance, security assistance, “budget support” and Coalition Support Funds. Pakistan, however, gets most of its U.S. assistance from Coalition Support Funds and from budget support. And it’s those two funding streams that have minimal accountability at best.
The “budget support” package is the lion’s share of U.S. economic assistance to Pakistan — and it’s not spent in conjunction with any U.S. agency. “It’s a cash transfer,” says Lisa Curtis, a South Asia analyst at the Heritage Foundation who used to work on the South Asia desk at the State Department and for Sen. Richard Lugar (R-ID). “That goes directly to the Pakistani treasury.” It totalled around $200 million each year until earlier this year, when Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) plucked $75 million of out of it and put it in an education fund for USAID to administer. In theory, budget support is supposed to free up the treasuries of the four countries that receive it for investing in their national infrastructure. But in practice, recipients can do with it whatever they like. “The notion is it gives them greater flexibility on how to use the money,” explains Craig Cohen, vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The trade-off is accountability.”
In Pakistan’s case, the only oversight is an annual agreement, known as the Shared Objectives statement, whereby top State Department and Treasury Department officials receive from Musharraf deputies — usually Prime Minister Shawkat Aziz — an explanation of how Musharraf intends to spend the money. The agreement is reached entirely in secret. “A good question is what are the objectives we’re basing this budget support on,” Cohen says.
Accountability also suffers in the Coalition Support Funds. According to Rick Barton of CSIS, who spearheaded perhaps the most comprehensive report on the murky world of U.S.-Pakistan ties, Pakistan has gotten over $6 billion in Coalition Support Funds since 9/11, with disbursements rising to total about $100 million a month. This, too, is a direct cash transfer. “The Coalition Support funding is basically a sort of a handshake deal between militaries,” Barton says. “We don’t have good sense where it goes. … we don’t ask a lot of questions, and we don’t have a lot of record-keeping. ”
Only about ten percent of the $10.58 billion since 9/11 has gone toward development aid and humanitarian assistance, according to the CSIS report — even after Pakistan suffered a devastating earthquake in October 2005. “Close to 90 percent goes to the military-led government,” Barton says. “Some of it is directly into the military, and the other pieces go into the Musharraf government.”
In Pakistan, the military runs not just the government, but major sections of the economy as well. Joshua Hammer recently reported for The Atlantic that the Pakistani military owns large stakes in the country’s “banks, cable-TV companies, insurance agencies, sugar refineries, private security firms, schools, airlines, cargo services, and textile factories.” Mainlining largely untraceable money into the Pakistani treasury helps this system perpetuate itself — even as widespread public discontent, from both moderates and radicals, boils over. It also sends the signal that the U.S. prefers to have relations with Pervez Musharraf rather than the Pakistani people.
“The whole orientation of policy and assistance provided since 9/11 is that he’s the indispensable leader,” says Cohen. “And the money runs through the central government and that leader.”
While Max is screaming like a John Bircher about “SOCIALISM,” the reality is that WORK is not rewarded in our economic system.
Max, who works his ass off, is going to have utlimately less to show for it that the carefully managed portfolio of Chas.
But don’t let that change your mind or anything, Maxie Baby.
Just keep firing away at the imaginary threat of socialism while the capitalists steal you blind.
You all did me a favor getting Max on board while I was away.
How LONG did I post of the working people who stupidly vote Republican? I come back and here is my example.
The Approval Rating for the Liberal Socialist Democrat Majority Congress:
Congressional Job Approval
Approve 23.6% Disapprove 65.4%
According to http://www.realclearpolitics.com
Congress Sucks!
You gotta love it.
Here’s a working stiff that lives in Iowa, defending to the death Paris Hilton’s right to a tax cut.
You are such a tool.
The “DUH! I Didn’t Know That” Defense
SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton responded to allegations Sunday that her presidential campaign had planted questions during public appearances.
At a media event in Waterloo, Iowa, Clinton responded to a reporter’s question about two separate incidents, one that occurred this week at a biodiesel plant in Newton, and the other in April on a farm outside Fort Madison, both in Iowa.
“Well it was news to me” Clinton said. “And neither I nor my campaign approve of that. And it will certainly not be tolerated.”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,310417,00.html
Congress has not passed the Fiscal Budgets that were due 10/1/2007.
If they don’t get these all passed this week, then Congress will not pass the 2007-08 budget until 2008!
Thanksgiving break, then December there’s campaigning and another break at Christmas.
What a worthless Congress.
Bet they pass funding for Iraq this year though.
And thank God, they passed that $25 Billion Water bill!
They aren’t running
I’m not running for office JM/Capn.
I’m not a publicly paid Bureaucrat.
You JM/Capn, can attack me as a private person all you want.
Those personal attacks on me JM/Capn, do nothing to defend Hillary.
But go ahead, flame away at me all you want.
It doesn’t make Hillary look any better, and just makes you look bad.
Make my day! Flame away!
CapnAmerica, sto[ being silly. You trash capitalism, yet you are a capitalist.
If you have a retirement account that invests in the stock market, you are a capitalist. If you own mutual funds, you are a capitalist. We all have an interest in making sure that we get a good return on our capital. If we didn’t have a market that rewards risks with our capital, we would never have enough money to be able to stop working.
Use of capital enables us to provide the millions of jobs that provide for our country’s people.
It’s trendy on the left to be a socialist. But it has no substance.
Congress has not passed the Fiscal Budgets that were due 10/1/2007. Posted by: Max
The 109th congress never did pass 9 of the spending bills in 2006 for 2007. They just passed them on to the 110th congress.
Wow, great come-back, Max:
“I’m a private person not a public figure so I can be played as a shill for moneyed interests.”
Yeah, that makes sense . . . if one is a CONservative, I guess.
During Condoleezza Rice’s appearance on This Week, she encountered a pesky little visitor who just wouldn’t take shoo! for an answer. As Secretary Rice talked about important world issues, she was repeatedly accosted by the fly, even catching the attention of host George Stephanopoulos.
FOXNews’ Bill O’Reilly has opened his own investigation into the matter, stating he has proof this was a trained, far-left, liberal fly, most likely financed by George Soros, the Daily Kos/Media Matters smear sites, MSNBC, Rosie O’Donnell and the Clintons. Not to worry, Homeland Security says Secretary Rice was never in any danger and terrorism has been ruled out. The suspect has also been added to the no-fly list. : )
outlander–
Should Warren Buffett pay less in taxes as a percentage of his income than his secretary does?
Warren Buffett doesn’t think so.
Yet he does.
That’s not capitalism. That’s socialism for the rich.
It’s trendy on the left to be a socialist. But it has no substance.
Posted by: outlander | November 11, 2007 at 09:24 PM
Outlander I fear you will upset the jjjjjs. They have very short fuses and then start using the cap and hysterical laughter, then personal attacks until you get tired and just go away. And in this way they declare themselves victors.
I used to be a liberal and then I grew up.
I used to be a liberal and then I grew up.
Posted by: ksgrm | November 11, 2007 at 09:30 PM
If that is what “growing up” means, I hope I never do.
xxx,The reason that black babies are dying at a rate over 2 1/2 times higher is that black mothers are committing abortions at a rate 3 times higher. The physical, mental, and emotional scarring afflicting the mothers is proven in 20 years of studies to be a major risk factor in later premature birth. Premature birth contributes to a host of medical problems in the infant, including cerebral palsy and infant mortality in the first year of life.If abortion ended in America today, the killing of babies would still continue for another twenty years.
See Max, even Outlander knows I am not a Socialist… What is wrong with your capability of seeing truth when it stares you in the face?? I have a retirement portfolio, therefore, according to Outtie, I am a Capitalist!!
Max, you just HAVE to go read up on what Socialism actually is…
CapN is right — You yap on and on like an old John Bircher… And you make no more sense than they do with their outmoded, false allegations…
Interesting, ksgrm.
Because I used to be a conservative until I wised up.
I used to wear a Nixon button and campaign for the Repubs.
But once I started earning my own paycheck and seeing through all the right-wing lies about “the virtue of selfishness” (Ayn Rand), I quickly realized that the societies that were doing the best were the ones helping each other the most.
“We are determined to make every American citizen the subject of his country’s interest and concern; and we will never regard any faithful law-abiding group within our borders as superfluous. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
Franklin Roosevelt, 2nd Inaugural Address
The reason I know you are wrong, Max, is because what you keep ranting about comes closer to a definition of Communism or Collectivism.. NOT Socialism… And there IS a huge difference!!
But, please, dont take my word for it… LOOK IT UP!!
I’m Not The Only One Pointing Out Hillary’s FLAWS:
Senator Barack Obama kept on the attack against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, accusing her of running a “poll-driven campaign” that avoided tough questions. He said on Sunday that he would increase the amount of income subject to Social Security taxes.
Obama’s remarks capped a weekend in which the leading Democratic contenders spoke to thousands of Democrats at the annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner here Saturday night, where Mrs. Clinton suggested that Mr. Obama did not have the experience to be president. The skirmishing between the two continued on Sunday, with Mr. Obama, on “Meet the Press,” echoing remarks he had made at the dinner.
“I think that what Senator Clinton’s been doing is running what’s considered a textbook Washington campaign,” he said, “and what that says is that you don’t answer directly tough questions. You don’t present tough choices directly to the American people for fear that your answers might not be popular, you might make yourself a target for Republicans in the general election.”
Eric Thayer for The New York Times11/10/07
Well, its about time for the reich wing nuts to come out of hiding from under their bridges, so I am going to call it a night!!
But, I still want to know if I can get one of Max’s really good paying $26,000 a year jobs??
DENY, DENY, DENY.
You and Hillary are still Socialists Chas, no matter how much you try to twist the English language.
Maybe that’s the problem, Carlos, hablo espanol?
ksgrm
I was once a Republican. THEN I worked for and with someone like you. Then I grew up.
It is strange to see the political party that hasn’t seen a tax increase it didn’t like, express amazement that middle class folks would vote Republican.
Allegedly against our financial interest.
outlander?
You are NOT rich?
And you vote Republican?
You never told us.
Do you enjoy being an idiot?
Of course Democrats in Congress think you graduate from middle class at $75,000 a year.
75 large is about twice what I have ever made outie.
You a climber like Max?
And, how does that square with your Christian beliefs? Do unto others have a meaning for you I don’t get?
What is middle class?
What is rich?
That’s been asked several times, and no Libs will answer.
Alot would depend on where you live. That’s one thing that strikes me as being unfair in the tax code, A person making 50,000 a yr. in N.Y. City, would pay at the same rates as if he lived in Po Dunk Ks.
Middle class is “I got enough”
Rich is “I can’t get enough!”
I once qualified the former. I’ve no desire to be the latter.
Same answers, all over again.
I’ve had enough.
“During Condoleezza Rice’s appearance on This Week, she encountered a pesky little visitor who just wouldn’t take shoo! for an answer. As Secretary Rice talked about important world issues, she was repeatedly accosted by the fly, even catching the attention of host George Stephanopoulos”Reminded me of an old woman I worked with, the fly kept getting in her face. She said “I’m tempted to tear a hole in my crotch, so the fly will leave may face alone!
Max, I got bad news for you… You are just plain WRONG about your idea of Socialism… Just plain WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!
And I am not going to explain it to you any more… Why dont you go find us all a good working definition of Socialism and post it up for everybody to read it??? Be sure to include the link??? Ok??? I have posted several different definitions from different sources… NOW its time for YOU to post a link showing that what I have posted many times before to be FALSE!! Got that??
Otherwise, you are like a hot air balloon… full of hot air when you are flying, and flat on the ground when youre not!! LOL Sorry, couldnt resist that one!!
Why is 401k gains (especially, and particularly) made on stock and mutual funds taxed as normal income, when if you had the gains in a regular stock investment it would be subject to 15% rate?
http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2007/11/open-thread-1-9.html#comment-89582516
Max, it depends on where you live; what your income is; and who is defining it… I would consider somebody who made $100,000 a year fairly wealthy… Bill Gates would consider that nearly poverty level!
It isnt really a numbers game, Max, and thats why you got a lot of this economics stuff all screwed up!! You gotta include things like demographics and average home values, and a whole lot of stuff to determine who is rich, and who isnt… What seems fairly clear, is that what used to be called a “middle class” is vanishing very fast…
What is middle class?
What is rich?
That’s been asked several times, and no Libs will answer.
Posted by: Max | November 11, 2007 at 10:00 PM
Max–
You keep asking it and I keep answering it, and then you say “no lib will ever answer it.”
Wiki says, “In 2006, the median annual household income according to the US Census Bureau was determined to be $48,201. . . . 19.01% of all households had annual incomes exceeding $100,000″
So the top 20 percent or so had incomes of 100 grand.
Roughly, 3 percent had double that: 200,000 a year.
In my opinion, to be minimally rich in the United States, a household would have to generate about 200,000 a year, the top 3 percent.
Over three million households earned over this amount in 2006.
A person making 50,000 a yr. in N.Y. City, would pay at the same rates as if he lived in Po Dunk Ks.
Posted by: The Phantom | November 11, 2007 at 10:03 PM
Gee, and that is what I would call perfectly fair.
Right, you’d live like a pauper in one location, and like a man of means in the other.
There is also something to be said for asking: What can you live on, and be comfortable with it?? That determines a lot of how rich YOU believe yourself to be!!
Obviously, somebody who wouldnt be comfortable driving anything less than a Luxury Lexus or Cadillac, isnt going to be comfortable with the same income parameters as one who is comfortable driving a nice, well equipped Chevrolet or Pontiac, or Ford, or Chrysler product…
Somebody who is comfortable in a 2 BR house, with 1 1/2 baths, a kitchen, dining area, living room, isnt going to require as much income as the one who desires to have a 5 BR, 3 bath spread, with 2-3 car garge; family/game room; in ground pool; all of the fancy add-ons (HD TV; Computers; Video games; Stereo equipment; etc., etc.,) That person is obviously not going to be comfortable on the same income as the previously mentioned person…
SO, it depends on one’s personal definition of what is comfortable as much (maybe more so) than some economist’s definition of what is rich, and what is middle class, etc.
BTW, Warren Buffet is still living in the same house as he bought over 35 years ago in Omaha; and I believe it is a 3 BR fairly simply designed bungalow style house… I’ve been past it a few times… definitely not a mansion, and yet he is one of the richest men on the planet…
Just depends on one’s own definition of wealthy really is…
See, it’s not how many breaths you might take; It’s what takes your breath away, that makes the biggest difference in Life!!
And that is NOT a Socialist position, no matter how you spin it Max!! Not even CLOSE!!
Just the facts Ma’am!!
One of the nation’s bigget problems is that there are currently far too many people who want to live a champagne kind of life, on a Falstaff pocket book!
Hmmmm — Thats the same way they used to say it when I was a kid!! Only thing now is, the age level for wanting that champagne kind of life is dropping fast, and so more and more younger folks are in deeper and deeper debt!!
Thus, the country is slowly going bankrupt!!
Why are 401k gains (especially, and particularly) made on stock and mutual funds taxed as normal income.
Contributions to 401K’s are made pretax. The investor has not paid federal,state,local taxes on their contribution, and if your employer provides a match – that is also made before taxes. Earnings grow tax free for a lifetime.
Over a lifetime, these funds were protected from democrats.
At old age, when you finally start drawing out those UNtaxed dollars, you finally are paying taxes on them.
The withdrawals are treated as ordinary income, which “supposedly” is a lower amount (AGI) than in your productive working years, so you should be in a lower tax bracket.
Don’t worry. All this discussion will be mute once Hillary and the democrats fail to renew this tax break. (It isn’t just about the rich).
Right, you’d live like a pauper in one location, and like a man of means in the other.
Posted by: The Phantom | November 11, 2007 at 10:21 PM
Phantom, you would really complicate the tax code, if it allowed for cost of living variations by locale.
I agree the tax system is totally screwed up and unfair. But that everyone making the same amount, be taxed at the same rates is fair. But there are so many complications to the tax code that if we both make the same, based upon a myriad of factors – we don’t pay the same. (even more nuts)
If, for instance, your guy in NY itemized deductions, because NY has HIGHER state and local taxes, he should be able to deduct more than you in po-dunk Kansas. Does that make it more fair for you?
I was referring to the portion which was just earnings from your investment. I can see where you would treat employee and employer contributions (pre-tax) as ordinary income. The other (except from interest earnings accounts) could be profits from stock investment funds.
I was reading a brochure the other day that told a rather interesting parable about what is happening in much of our society…
It was about a soon-to-be-retired service type of worker… 64 yrs. old… owned his own house; owned his own car; plus a pickup for work; wife worked as a waittress in a fairly upscale restaurant… The man was a life long janitor!! A Janitor!!
He was the child of immigrant parents, from Hungary I believe…
His DREAM in life was that his children would all be successful professional people, and not have to live life like he had lived it!!
His DREAM came true… His son went to college, and law school, and became a lawyer… Lived in an upscale housing area; drove several expensive automobiles; had 4 kids; all the extras…
The son was up to his eyeballs in mortgages, debts, car payments, maxed out credit cards; cell phones for every body in the family — But he didnt live “poor” like his mother and father.
The daughter went to college; graduated as a Social Worker; made about $35,000 a year; owned her own home, in a moderately priced neighborhood; husband was a manager of a retail store; He made about $40,000 a year; They had two children (adopted); their house was nearly paid for; they had only one credit card for vacations and convenience; never had it maxed out; and were living quite comfortably.
The son and daughter both lost their spouses fairly young; one to a tragic illness; the other in an accident…
The father had always asked his daughter, “Why dont you guys get better jobs, and move into that neighborhood with your brother? Look at everything he has!!”
The old man had seen his dream come true… Both of his children had become professionals… left the old neighborhood…
After the son’s wife died, within about 6 months, he and his 4 children, were back living with mom and dad… He was still with his law firm; but without his wife’s income, he didnt have enough income to pay for all of those extras….
Nobody said even one word about the situation….
Except for the daughter… She asked a most important question — likely from her Social Worker environment: What would happen if all of the children of janitors and waittresses grew up to go off to colleges, and became professionals??
Who would be left to be the janitors, and the waittresses, and the cooks/chefs, and all of those jobs that all of the parents hoped their children would move away from??
Somehow, I think that’s a valid question… Who WILL be there to do those jobs, when all our kids move on to be professionals?
At least you didn’t say “Only the Rich pay taxes”.
If they were all professionals, they would be a dime a dozen, and all still be poor.
Well, Mama calling, Phantom has to disappear.
“Pro Rata” comparisons of tax burden always get messy.
The guy make 20,000/year being taxed a lower rate will always have less dynamic income than the person making 100,000 year taxed at a higher rate.
Let’s say the 20K guy has 16K left after taxes and the 100K guy has 60K income after taxes.
The dynamics of 16K is obviously less than 60K. That is, the options of buying “stuff” with 60K available is more attractive than buy “stuff” with 16K.
Even though the “rate” of tax is higher for the 100K income person, the dynamic of what is left after taxes is more viable than the “rate” of lower incomes.
It’s like having small logs versus large logs on a fire. The smaller logs will be consumed faster. In order to compensate for the rate of usage, one would go to larger logs.
Thusly, the dynamic potential of the larger log will always be more suitable for the task at hand.
Hey Max, you are in very good company calling Hillary a socialist.
Hillary Clinton: Still Socialist After All These Yearsby Deroy Murdock
The ever-cautious Clinton occasionally exposes her true ideological core. “We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good,”
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=22716
That money belongs to the shareholders of the company. No one else. Some of that money might belong to me and some to my parents and some to the elderly couple that lives up the street. This is a glaring example of Hillary’s socialist agenda.http://bigdaddy.blog-city.com/finally_hillary_sets_the_record_straight__she_is_a_socialist.htm
The truth on Hillary’s socialist background…
Hillary’s activist work at Yale, monitoring the civil rights of the Black Panthers, won her a summer internship at the Berkeley office of attorney Robert Treuhaft in 1972. A hardline Stalinist, Treuhaft had quit the Communist Party in 1958 only because it was losing members and no longer provided a good platform for his activism. (Barbara Olson, 1999, pp. 56-57)
“Treuhaft is a man who dedicated his entire legal career to advancing the agenda of the Soviet Communist Party and the KGB,” notes historian Stephen Schwartz. (David Brock, 1996, p33)
http://www.stophillarypac.com/shp_contents/truth/
Hillary Clinton?s Socialist PlatformPresidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton outlined a broad economic vision Tuesday, saying it’s time to replace an “on your own” society with one based on shared responsibility and prosperityhttp://www.kxnet.com/getArticle.asp?ArticleId=127786
Hillary Clinton Proposes Socialist America In Speech To Trade School StudentsMay 30th, 2007 — budsimmons
http://bsimmons.wordpress.com/2007/05/30/hillary-clinton-proposes-socialist-america-in-speech-to-trade-school-students/
Hillary is a socialisthttp://www.againsthillary.com/2007/08/17/hillary-is-a-socialist-and-must-be-defeated-2/
»Hillary and The Socialist AgendaA few facts…to spread around.http://stophernow.wordpress.com/2007/10/14/hillary-and-the-socialist-agenda/
Hillary Clinton a Socialist?
Quotes from Hilary Clinton as reported
http://anamericanwarning.com/community/blogs/hillary/archive/2007/06/01/this-is-a-test-post.aspx
“I prefer a ‘we’re all in it together’ society,” she said. “I believe our government can once again work for all Americans. It can promote the great American tradition of opportunity for all and special privileges for none.” If this doesn’t spell out socialism, I don’t know what does.
http://anamericanwarning.com/community/blogs/hillary/archive/2007/06/01/this-is-a-test-post.aspx
Hillary Clinton, the Socialist Education Goddesshttp://www.counterbias.com/577.html
The person in Podunk Kansas would be in a fairly upper class strata of his/her community… The NYC person, making that same $50K would be in nearly poverty conditions in NYC, given cost of living expenses in NYC…
But the IRS tax “RATE” is the same for both!!
I have a hunch that the Podunk, KS person would find plenty of deductions as well — home mortgage; cost of health insurance;property tax deductions; vehicle expenses (not usually a problem in NYC); mortgage + insurance + property tax can nearly equal RENT in NYC (utilities are normally less in NYC, due to small size of apartments/small houses) [check the current price of propane in the rural communities of Kansas sometime], not to mention rural electric rates.
I would presume that by the time you hit a bottom line, the $50K in Podunk, KS, and the $50K in NYC would amortize out at fairly close to the same rate –
Thus — the IRS tax rate is basically “fair” for both localities. I base this having lived in Urban areas in the Eastern US, as well as many years in rural areas of KS, and NE.
The trade-offs are pretty uncanny!
“If this doesn’t spell out socialism, I don’t know what does.”
NO Amway… it doesnt!!
Where are you and Max getting these crazy wacked out definitions of Socialism??? Socialism isnt about sharing the wealth — What Hillary is talking about sharing the opportunity for individual advancement — That is the same VALUE as all of those old world immigrants came here to this country to “make a life” — My grandparents came here because in America everybody has the opportunity to “make it” Thats what my grand dad always said!!
He believed it so strongly, that he brought each one of his brothers here — one by one — And they all “made it” each in their own way!!
THAT is the American Dream!! How DARE you keep calling such a DREAM Socialism!!
You may rest assured American way, SOME aspects of socialism I quite carefully avoid and teach the same to my son.
Well heeled guy with car trouble? Pass ‘em by.
Fight for this nation? Uh yeah Why?
Someone wants to kill you or take from you?
I don’t see it as my problem.
Fight for this nation? Uh yeah Why?
Someone wants to kill you or take from you?
I don’t see it as my problem.
Posted by: J R | November 11, 2007 at 11:01 PM
Being dead, there is nothing more to be done.
Well, I hopefully have a few appointments in the morning… So, time to call it a night…
Good night; Good Luck; and God bless; whatever you conceive God to be!!
Blessings all!!
Special Blessings to Julie and MM
:)
And that’s it for me.
I’ll leave various nics to the night and the right to savage me.
And that’s it for me.Posted by: J R | November 11, 2007 at 11:29 PM
That may be more prophetic than you think.
Let’s us dance you and me “kansas”.
I’m here because fellow posters want me here. I’ve never pestered the editors. I’ve never had to.
I did not have to BEG as you did to be let back in here.
I want Kansas here.
From what I have seen so far, you have spent far more time pestering Kansas than I have seen him pester you.
How many nics do I post under Nathan?
How many times have I threatened to shut down the blog?
How often have I been banned by the editors?
Has “kansas” in any of his nics visited with you, shook your hand, welcomed you home?
Can you argue against our mutual friend XXX that “kansas” is the most destructive force ever to post here?
Oh he may agree you your politics. But I hope I’ve better earned your trust and your respect.
Oh and make NO mistake. He’s watching. This forum is his life.
Right now he’s watching you deal with me. He is afraid to.
I think I will leave you to him.
JR,
How do we know he is the troll?
How do you know he has been banned?
I am not saying it couldn’t be true, just wondering what makes you so sure of these things.
Have the editors told you something?
JR,
See, right there you are antagonizing him by saying he is afraid to deal with you.
I asked this question before, but it got buried.
You are always saying we need to figure out what causes terrorism.
So why don’t you try to figure out what causes kansas to do what he does and then try to stop it?
Last Wednesday,
“Alright Kansas is back!”
Posted by: Max | November 07, 2007 at 10:15 AM
Kansas “values” replies,
“No, I’m not back….No, I’m not coming back.”
Posted by: Kansas | November 07, 2007 at 10:17 AM
http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2007/11/open-thread-1-6.html#comment-89081088
How many posts has Kansas made since then?
You cons are so stupid. Support Kansas, go ahead. We all know you are too ignorant to stand without him.
I post as JM sometimes, but that’s because Kansas MADE me do it. And Capn America, and the rest. They MADE me do it!
The devil made me do it!
How do you know he has been banned?
Have the editors told you something?
Posted by: Nathan | November 12, 2007 at 12:15 AM
*****
Kansas himself said that he was banned.
Pay attention, will you?
By the way, Nathan, Kansas not only posted over my nic, but he set up a TypeKey account so he could post over a blue, underlined “CapnAmerica” nic.
And when someone clicks on the phony TypeKey nic, it looks just like my TypeKey nic.
Nathan, you really haven’t been paying attention, have you?
The post at 1:31 AM is not mine.
The editors can check this against my IP.
NOBODY makes me do anything.
“Those of you JMers on the left.”
I like that. Sort of sums up a core group on the WEblog altogether, since most of them use that same NIC.
Is that called NIC-switching, or multi-nic’ing?
I call it middle school behavior – but multi nicing would be right also.