you are absolutely right.

Just when you think the GOP can't top itself with another outrageous demonstration of cruelty to the vulnerable and fealty to the wealthy, you get this.

I've given up all hopes that the republi-cons would hit some moral low. They keep going lower and the folks just love it. If a male prostitute who services the White House doesn't budge the red states, nothing will.

They support the idiot son of George Bush and those linked to him. Period. No depredation wheeled out by these scum is so great as to cause a loss of support from the white cracker base. The really interesting question is becoming how low will they go.

The really interesting question is becoming how low will they go.

To answer myself: Taxing troops $234. each year as a "fee" for veterans benefits. That's pretty dang low.

The media really is to blame for a lot of this.
It has been pointed out before that as long as network news is run as a form of entertainment instead of news there will be extensive coverage of the latest Michael Jackson perversion trial while the perverted bankruptcy bill gets almost no mention.

We all know that the bankruptcy bill is what really matters to people's lives, yesterday, on a lower thread I wrote about a neighbor of mine who may suffer for this bill dispite his efforts to keep good credit.
Stories like that of my neighbor do not sell,
alleged pediphilia by washed up pop stars sells.

It is likely that if we get any media coverage of the changes mentioned in this post it will be about the importance of 'food independance', which presumabally can't exist without huge agra-corporations getting subsidies. It is likely that there will also be stories 'exposing food stamp abuse' and the problem of childhood obesity, as if cutting food aid to provide balanced meals for poor children is somehow going to solve the youth obesity problem.

As long as there is not a strong liberal alternative in the media the combanation of the GOP noise machane (Rush et.al) and celeberty based news is going to ensure the public stays in the dark about things that really matter in their lives. This lack of infomation is also bad in that congress will not be held accountable for what some have called 'fee per service' legislation (more bluntly political whoring) which is rampant on Capitol Hill currently. To paraphrase what Krugman said on the Daily Show last week "When an American loses his job and his health insurance then gets sick, the current infomation the news media is giving him will lead him to blame married gay terrorists for his bankruptcy."

The push to bring Air America to free (non subscription) radio is a start in the right direction. Another rake for the muck is of course the internet. We are in an infomation lag where the concequences of todays political action won't show up for a while. It is our job to keep communicating alternatives to the controlled, wealth worshiping and feudalistic vision of America that has been effectivily inposed on America scince 911.

The media really is to blame for a lot of this.

Who do you think the media really works for and what purposes do they serve?

If you want to blame someone for Bush blame other Democrats. Blame liberals. Blame yourself.

The media??

/snark

Aren't the Republicans marketing this scheme to cut food stamps and school lunches as a poor diet?

(Sarcasm alert)

Hey Anon,

Your real courageous to not even use a pen name.
As for myself I was clear on my points, so who do you think the media work for?

As for self-blame I have none I worked for several candidates (some of whom won) last November. Nevertheless, your pitiful attempt at an attack allows me to elaborate again on the importance of communications. The blogs matter and non-mainstream media matter, what doesn't matter is sniveling cowards who won't even use a fake name.

America by the numbers
by Michael Ventura

02/03/05 "ICH" - - No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will be labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2 billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the delusion is ineradicable. We're No. 1.

Well...this is the country you really live in:

* The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).

* The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

* Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).

* "The International Adult Literacy Survey...found that Americans with less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all of the other countries'" (Jeremy Rifkin's superbly documented book The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, p.78).

* Our workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!

* "The European Union leads the U.S. in...the number of science and engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream, p.70).

* "Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest producer of scientific literature" (The European Dream, p.70).

* Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science Foundation. The agency will issue 1,000 fewer research grants this year (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004).

* Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent last year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56 percent, Indians 51 percent, South Koreans 28 percent (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004). We're not the place to be anymore.

* The World Health Organization "ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. ...37th." In the fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the United States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots less.

* "The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens" (The European Dream, p.80). Excuse me, but since when is South Africa a "developed" country? Anyway, that's the company we're keeping.

* Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary American deaths a year. (That's six times the number of people killed on 9/11.) (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)

* "U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower" (The European Dream, p.81). Been to Mexico lately? Does it look "developed" to you? Yet it's the only "developed" country to score lower in childhood poverty.

* Twelve million American families--more than 10 percent of all U.S. households--"continue to struggle, and not always successfully, to feed themselves." Families that "had members who actually went hungry at some point last year" numbered 3.9 million (NYT, Nov. 22, 2004).

* The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba scores higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).

* Women are 70 percent more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).

* The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is murder (CNN, Dec. 14, 2004).

* "Of the 20 most developed countries in the world, the U.S. was dead last in the growth rate of total compensation to its workforce in the 1980s.... In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate grew only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1 percent" (The European Dream, p.39). Yet Americans work longer hours per year than any other industrialized country, and get less vacation time.

* "Sixty-one of the 140 biggest companies on the Global Fortune 500 rankings are European, while only 50 are U.S. companies" (The European Dream, p.66). "In a recent survey of the world's 50 best companies, conducted by Global Finance, all but one were European" (The European Dream, p.69).

* "Fourteen of the 20 largest commercial banks in the world today are European.... In the chemical industry, the European company BASF is the world's leader, and three of the top six players are European. In engineering and construction, three of the top five companies are European.... The two others are Japanese. Not a single American engineering and construction company is included among the world's top nine competitors. In food and consumer products, Nestlé and Unilever, two European giants, rank first and second, respectively, in the world. In the food and drugstore retail trade, two European companies...are first and second, and European companies make up five of the top ten. Only four U.S. companies are on the list" (The European Dream, p.68).

* The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last decade (CNN, Jan. 12, 2005).

* U.S. employers eliminated 1 million jobs in 2004 (The Week, Jan. 14, 2005).

* Three million six hundred thousand Americans ran out of unemployment insurance last year; 1.8 million--one in five--unemployed workers are jobless for more than six months (NYT, Jan. 9, 2005).

* Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea hold 40 percent of our government debt. (That's why we talk nice to them.) "By helping keep mortgage rates from rising, China has come to play an enormous and little-noticed role in sustaining the American housing boom" (NYT, Dec. 4, 2004). Read that twice. We owe our housing boom to China, because they want us to keep buying all that stuff they manufacture.

* Sometime in the next 10 years Brazil will probably pass the U.S. as the world's largest agricultural producer. Brazil is now the world's largest exporter of chickens, orange juice, sugar, coffee, and tobacco. Last year, Brazil passed the U.S. as the world's largest beef producer. (Hear that, you poor deluded cowboys?) As a result, while we bear record trade deficits, Brazil boasts a $30 billion trade surplus (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

* As of last June, the U.S. imported more food than it exported (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

* Bush: 62,027,582 votes. Kerry: 59,026,003 votes. Number of eligible voters who didn't show up: 79,279,000 (NYT, Dec. 26, 2004).
That's more than a third. Way more. If more than a third of Iraqis don't show for their election, no country in the world will think that election legitimate.

* One-third of all U.S. children are born out of wedlock. One-half of all U.S. children will live in a one-parent house (CNN, Dec. 10, 2004).

* "Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on movies, videos, DVDs, music, and books combined" (The European Dream, p.28).

* "Nearly one out of four Americans that using violence to get what they want is acceptable" (The European Dream, p.32).

* Forty-three percent of Americans think torture is sometimes justified, according to a PEW Poll (Associated Press, Aug. 19, 2004).

* "Nearly 900,000 children were abused or neglected in 2002, the last year for which such data are available" (USA Today, Dec. 21, 2004).

* "The International Association of Chiefs of Police said that cuts by the administration in federal aid to local police agencies have left the nation more vulnerable than ever" (USA Today, Nov. 17, 2004).

No. 1? In most important categories we're not even in the Top 10 anymore. Not even close.

The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, and delusion.

Reprinted from the Austin Chronicle.
www.citypages.com/databank/26/1264/article12985.asp

Again, stop using "mainstream media" and insert "Corporate media whores" and you have a better, clearer message about how things work.

My sarcasm wasn't levied at you so much as at everyone being personally responsible for these madmen gaining power. If the messenger works for Them then what the hell do you expect?

It just makes sense that if people can no longer afford shelter, food, and clothing, the corporations are going to need a helping hand to make up for the shortfall their revenues.

And George Bush is here for them. A safety net that saves their net.

3% was the difference.

good points made.

_______________________
sorry, but the truth is the Moderate taxpayers fear edges of R&L. Know most of you do not like Moderates. Moderates (esp. non-govt. employee Moderates) are not centrist- elitists.

The assault by Bush on American citizens continues. Rebecca Knight wrote this in June of 2002 Just think what can be added to this list since then. Cutting food stamps and school lunches is nothing more than the continuation of programs designed to undermine American citizens.

By: Rebecca Knight - 06/12/02 in www.Liberalslant.com

Assault on the Environment
- Cut the Environmental Protection Agency by $500 million.
- Let corporate polluters off the hook for cleaning up the toxic messes they leave behind, making John Q. Taxpayer foot the bill.
- Cut funding for research into cleaner, more efficient cars and trucks by 26 percent.
- Canceled the 2004 deadline for automakers to develop high-mileage prototypes.
- Abandoned his campaign promise to regulate carbon dioxide levels.
- Rescinded rules mandating energy efficiency regulations for air conditioners and heat pumps.
- Cut funding of renewable energy source research by 50 percent.
- Put pressure on state officials to open up national monuments for oil and gas drilling, coal mining, and clear-cut timber harvests.
- Proposed elimination of marine protections for the channel islands of California and the coral reefs of Hawaii.
- Eliminated funding for the Wetlands Reserve Program, which encourages farmers to maintain wetlands habitat.
- Abandoned his campaign pledge to invest $100 million in rain forest conservation.
- Abandoned his campaign promise not to put nuclear waste in the Yucca Mountains of Nevada.
- Cut funding for research into renewable energy sources by 50%.
- Pulled out of the 1997 Kyoto Treaty global warming agreement. Recently admitted that global warming is a reality, but has no plans to work to avoid it.
- Proposed to curtail the ability of groups to sue in order to get an animal placed on the Endangered Species List.
- Approved a controversial plan by Interior Secretary Gale Norton to auction oil and gas drilling operation.
- Announced intention to open up Montana's Lewis and Clark National Forest to oil and drilling.
- Proposes to re-draw boundaries of nation's monuments, which would technically allow oil and gas drilling "outside" of national monuments.
- Took steps to abolish the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
- Allowed Interior Secretary Gale Norton to shelve citizen-led grizzly bear
re-introduction plan scheduled for Idaho and Montana wilderness.
- Proposed to reverse regulation protecting 60 million acres of national forest from logging and road building.
- Proposed to ease permit process, including environmental considerations, for refinery, nuclear, and hydroelectric dam construction.
- Proposed to give government the authority to take private property through eminent domain for power lines.
- Refused to fund continued cleanup of uranium-slag heap in Utah.

Assault on Health Care and Public Safety

- Suspended rules denying government contracts to companies that violate government regulations, including environmental and workplace safety rules.
- Rescinded a proposal to give the public information about public health and safety consequences of chemical plant accidents.
- Reduced the Community Access Program (for people without health insurance) by 86 percent.
- Suspended a rule requiring pharmaceutical companies to test whether their products are safe for children.
- Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.
- Cut a program that provided prescription contraceptive coverage to federal employees, though it still pays for Viagra.
- Cut $35 million in funding for doctors to get advanced pediatric training.
- Proposed to eliminate a federal program, designed and successfully used in Seattle, to help communities prepare for natural disasters.
- Repealed workplace ergonomic rules designed to improve worker health and safety.
- Banned federal aid to international family planning programs that offer abortion counseling with other independent funds.
- Closed the White House Office for Women's Health Initiatives and Outreach.
- Gutted the White House AIDS Office.
- Cut the Community Oriented Policing Services program.
- Continues to hold up federal funding for stem cell research.
- Refused to fund continued litigation of the government's tobacco company lawsuit.
- Is seeking the dismissal of class-action lawsuit filed in the US against Japan by Asian women forced to work as sex slaves during WWII.
- Earmarked $4 million in new federal grant money for HIV and drug abuse
prevention programs to go only to religious groups and not secular equivalents.

Assault on the Needy

- Cut $60 million from a Boys & Girls Club of America program for public housing.
- Cut child-care to low-income families moving from welfare to work.
- Cut $15.7 million earmarked for child abuse and neglect investigations.
- Cut $200 million of work force training for dislocated workers.
- Cut $700 million in capital funds for repairs in public housing.
- Cut federal spending on libraries by $39 million.
- Blocked rules that would require federal agencies to offer bilingual assistance to non-English speaking persons.
- Makes sure convicted misdemeanor drug users cannot get financial aid for college, though convicted murderers can.
- Signed a bill making it harder for poor and middle-class Americans to file for bankruptcy, even in the case of daunting medical bills.
- Helped kill a law designed to make it tougher for teenagers to get credit cards.
- Proposed elimination of the "Reading is Fundamental" program that gives free books to poor children.
- Eliminated funding for the "We the People" education program, which taught school children about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and citizenship.
- Reduced the Low Income Home Assistance Program by 40%; it aided low-income individuals who need assistance paying energy bills.

Assault on the Budget

- Abandoned his campaign pledge not to tap into Social Security funds.
- Passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut, 43% of which will go to the wealthiest 1% of Americans.
- Proposed defense budget that exceeds the defense budgets for all other countries combined.

Assault on Accountability

- Appointed John Negroponte, an un-indicted high-level Iran/Contra figure, to the post of United Nations Ambassador.
- Appointed Otto Reich, an un-indicted high-level Iran/Contra figure, to Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs.
- Nominated David Lauriski, an ex-mining company executive, to post of Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health.
- Will no longer seek guidance from The American Bar Association in
recommendations for the federal judiciary appointments.
- Appointed recycling foe Lynn Scarlett as Undersecretary of the Interior.
- Appointed Diana Roth to the Council of Economic Advisers, who does not believe there is a pay gender gap.
- Appointed Kay Cole James, a opponent of affirmative action, to direct the Office of Personnel Management.
- Appointed John Bolton, who opposes nonproliferation treaties and the UN, to Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.
- Nominated Linda Fisher, an executive with Monsanto, for the number two job at the Environmental Protection Agency.
- Nominated Michael McConnell, leading critic of the separation of church and state, to a federal judgeship.
- Nominated Terrence Boyle, an ardent opponent of civil rights, to a federal judgeship.
- Nominated Harvey Pitts, a lawyer for a teen sex video distributor, to head the SEC.
- Nominated John Walters, a strong opponent of prison drug treatment programs, to be Drug Tsar.
- Nominated J. Steven Giles, an oil and coal lobbyist, for Deputy Secretary of the Interior.
- Nominated Bennett Raley, who advocates repealing the Endangered Species Act, for Assistant Secretary for Water and Science.
- Nominated Ted Olson, who has repeatedly lied about his involvement with the Scaife-funded "Arkansas Project" to bring down Bill Clinton, for Solicitor General.
- Forced out Forest Service chief, Mike Dombeck, and appointed a timber industry lobbyist.
- Fails to clearly define "war on terrorism," abandoning campaign promises to always have an exit strategy and not get the military involved in nation building.
- Bush and Cheney both contact Daschle requesting a limited and secretive investigation of 9/11.
- Cheney refuses to comply with requests to turn over documents on energy policy to Congress.
- Bush signs executive order against the release of previous administrations' documents.
- Proposed use of nuclear weapons in war.
- Proposed "strike first" policy for conducting "war on terrorism" without
Congressional approval.
- Restricts civil liberties by passage of the Patriot Act.
- Allows Ashcroft to expand FBI power to investigate American citizens.
- Waits eight months to acknowledge a warning received about 9/11 attacks.
- Restricts media coverage of "war on terrorism."
- Restricts administration criticism by labeling questioners as unpatriotic or traitors.
- Admits that terrorist attack warnings are sometimes used to reduce political criticism.

Sorry, I didn't realize it would be that long.

Anon,

Thank you for answering my question. Your points are well taken. Nothing personal, I just learned last year to always respond to attacks. Thanks for the advice.

Alex,

Your correct. I work with several dozen co-workers and we have a minority who are passionate on politics.
We the passionate are 'left' roughly 2 to 1 and some fridays after work we get together and drink 'importados'.
A friendly but spirited debate usually happens.
But the majority at work ARE moderates who are open to reason.

Steve,
We're doing much better down here in GA. The Dem's just smacked down Sonny's effort to reinstate Jim Crow laws and government funding of churches. Sonny basically legalized embezzlement of government funds and has been working at destroying representative government. He also has been making these laws that completely destroy the privacy of citizens. Of course, all of this makes Sonny have an approval rating of about 41%. We're working diligently to get rid of the cancer in the Gold Dome.

The media really is to blame for a lot of this.

WHA? The Reich Wing Corporate Media?

Nooooooooooooo. Of course not!

All that Armstrong Williams, Marie Gallagher, Guckert "soft-balling," fake town-hall meetings, fake news videos, FAUXNEWS, MSGOP have NOTHING to do with dumbing down, misinforming, and misleading the US electorate.

It doesn't mean a thing that MSNBC is owned by General Electric, one of the greatest war profiteers in history. Nah. MSNBC had NO interest in the misleading Iraq-War build up.

And it means nothing that FAUXNEWS is Murdoch owned, and Clear Channel now uses FAUX for its "news."

And military bases primarily show FAUXNEWS.

Nah - Don't mean a thing. Propaganda never molded the ignorant masses to do things against their own interests, and against democracy.

Corporate media - what does that have to do with fascism?

Nothing at all - LOOK! There's Michael Jackson! There's Martha Stewart! There's Scott Peterson!

What bankruptcy bill? Oh that one - the one that already passed? Guess we missed reporting on that.

LOOK! Here's a video clip of the Leader with military families and waving flags! Doesn't that make you all patriotic & nationalistic?

Get Rid of All Handouts...Let the people learn how to depend on themselves rather than handouts.