Robber Barons and Trust Busters

Please come back TR. We need someone just like you in todays America.

Lonna sent me this:
Frist Plans Secret Vote to Raise Debt Limit
Submitted by Srinu Sonti on March 6, 2006 - 4:43pm.

It seems Majority Leader Bill Frist is up to his old tricks again. Late last week Frist planned a secret vote to raise the nation’s debt limit and place America in further financial peril.
Currently, the nation’s debt limit is $8.18 trillion. Treasury Secretary Snow has urged Congress to increase it to $9 trillion. Frist and Co., would rather you NOT know that he wants to increase the nation’s debt, so he has planned to wait until Senators jet off for yet another recess, and at the last minute call a voice vote, thereby making taking this important debate off the record. (CQ Today, 3/2/06)
Workers Already Losing Benefits…..
In order to avoid hitting the limit, Treasury Secretary John Snow has already stopped investments in one of federal workers' 401(k) options, called the G Fund. (Belleville News-Democrat, 2/26/06) In fact, today Snow warned Congress that he has taken “all prudent and legal actions” to avoid triggering the $8.184 trillion statutory debt limit and again strongly urged passage of an increase “immediately.” The letter went on detail that Snow had tapped civil service retirement AND disability funds to temporarily stave off the debt limit. (CQ Today, 3/6/06)
So while this seems like an issue that only folks in Washington care about, it should not be. Because it was GOP Senators who pushed for $40 billion in cuts to federal programs, including Medicare, education and agriculture support programs to name a few. The measure was amusingly called the “Deficit Reduction Act.” (S 1932, Senate Vote 363, 12/21/05) So if they cut the deficit, then why is the country running out of money?
There’s the matter of that little tax cut…..
The GOP now wants to pass $70 billion in tax breaks, predominantly for the wealthy, in the form of capital gains and dividend tax cuts. (HR 4297, Senate Vote 10, 2/2/06)
So now, given the GOP is working to make their friends richer, and is willing to borrow more to do it, one has to ask, where’s the money going to come from? The Charleston Gazette has the answer, “Americans need to know that the current one-party rule in Washington lives on credit cards -- and today's children will be stuck with the tab.”

I watched some of the debate on the debit limit on C-SPAN the other night. This has been done 3 or 4 times during the Bush reign. Amounting to trillions of dollars. I know many just cringe when I say these people are robbing you blind and you don't care....Typical fanatical pol speak. No REALLY!!!! These guys are robbing you blind!!!!!

As President, Roosevelt held the ideal that the Government should be the great arbiter of the conflicting economic forces in the Nation, especially between capital and labor, guaranteeing justice to each and dispensing favors to none.
Roosevelt emerged spectacularly as a "trust buster" by forcing the dissolution of a great railroad combination in the Northwest. Other antitrust suits under the Sherman Act followed.
Roosevelt steered the United States more actively into world politics. He liked to quote a favorite proverb, "Speak softly and carry a big stick. . . .

Coffee Table

Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level then beat you with experience.

Civil War

As a person that works with words I am frequently consulting the dictionary. I understand this is not usual. I would be willing to bet that half of the non academically involved people look up anything in the dictionary all year long. I understand that. My point is I may be able to offer some insight here.
We all know what they have done to the word "liberal" . If you haven't read it go look it up. That is basically what most liberals I know are refering to when they call themselves such. Whatever monster the people on the right have created is purely a character they have created in their own head. A cartoonish figure.
Now it appears that they are doing the same thing with "civil war".

A war between factions or regions of the same country.

A state of hostility or conflict between elements within an organization: “The broadcaster is in the midst of a civil war that has brought it to the brink of a complete management overhaul”.

I heard Rep. Dan Burton(N-Ind.) say we do not have a civil war in Iraq. I have heard a number of others trying to say the same thing lately.

What I find with my research is the Shias' and the Sunnis' fighting each other over power in the state and how the government will be formed. Hundreds have been killed on both sides by the other. What is that? There is an argument to be made on how far it goes but to say there is no civil war..or hasn't been for many months, is pure illusion. Who's doing the killing then? Is it all the "terrorists", dead enders, a few Baath hangers on?

It's more neospeak is what it is.

Detention Camps

Interesting we are having the big "ports" debate while this is going on.

A recently announced contract for a Halliburton subsidiary to build immigrant detention facilities is part of a longer-term Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of "all removable aliens" and "potential terrorists....... According to a 49-page Homeland Security document on the plan, ENDGAME expands "a mission first articulated in the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798." Its goal is the capability to "remove all removable aliens," including "illegal economic migrants, aliens who have committed criminal acts, asylum-seekers (required to be retained by law) or potential terrorists."

Wow! As I remember those Acts were extremely unpopular with the people and eventually rolled back. We have to do this all over again? ! Pre 9/11 mindset might serve them well.

Later, the New York Times reported that “KBR would build the centers for the Homeland Security Department for an unexpected influx of immigrants, to house people in the event of a natural disaster or for new programs that require additional detention space.” [Feb. 4, 2006]

In a view that I am sure will shock my liberal brethern, I could deal with it if they wanted to lock up illegal immigrants. It is a whole other post. I could also get behind building things to house something for emergencies and disasters. I get worried about it when I see "for new programs that require additional detention space. "

Despite the Posse Comitatus Act’s prohibitions against U.S. military personnel engaging in domestic law enforcement, the Pentagon has expanded its operations beyond previous boundaries, such as its role in domestic surveillance activities.

I hate to be disrespectful but I don't trust these guys any more than I'd trust George Micheal in the bathroom stall. Gee Ron, why would you say that!?

It is relevant that in 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced his desire to see camps for U.S. citizens deemed to be "enemy combatants." On Feb. 17 of this year, in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld spoke of the harm being done to the country's security, not just by the enemy, but also by what he called "news informers" who needed to be combated in "a contest of wills." Two days earlier, citing speeches critical of Bush by Al Gore, John Kerry, and Howard Dean, conservative columnist Ben Shapiro called for "legislation to prosecute such sedition."

Maybe cuz I'm already eligible....Sorry Donald Rumsfield, no harm will ultimately come from the truth. Only reform along realisitic lines. ....Oh come on Ron, they'd never lock up "Real Americans"!

With this expanded surveillance, the government’s list of terrorist suspects is rapidly swelling.
The Washington Post reported on Feb. 15 that the National Counterterrorism Center’s central repository now holds the names of 325,000 terrorist suspects, a four-fold increase since the fall of 2003.

If that happens to be a list of people in America that would be slightly more than 1% of the people who currently fit into the "terrorist" category. Here is the offical terror central if you want to keep track. I don't see me on the list yet but the prisons aren't finished.

This is another one of those things that need not be a secret. We the people need to talk about this. We need to revisit proper restraint.

Sunday Editorial

For You


I was having a conversation with someone last night when the show "Cops" was on. We got into a discussion of police. The good the bad. I said most I had run into had been reasonable and just trying to do a job. In a perfect world of freedom there would be no police that demand adherence to a standard. Unfortunately we as human are not capable of such a society. In the long run the only cops I have no respect for are the ones who exceed their authority. You know the ones. They have a badge so they can do whatever they want and you are a "criminal" so you are slime.
Many on the right wonder where this visceral "Bush Hate" comes from. This has a lot to do with it. The man exceeds his authority without a thought. He has the Badge an by God he'll do as he damn well pleases. The man never has had anything like an electoral mandate. As a matter of undeniable fact, he had FEWER votes than his challenger the first time. You would think this would tell you that he should consult with congress for something like the will of the people. Not for this bunch. From CIA outing leaks to secret wiretaps, laws and commissions. From compiling phoney evidence to force a war to questionable election tactics, this man, to some of us, has abused the daylights out of his position. If you don't agree you are "slime" to them, something to be eliminated. Just like a bad cop on the street he must be taken off before he does any more damage to our society and our country.