Good post Pessimist. It is going to take a very long time to undo the damage that this WH has done to America and it's relationships with other countries. The one thing is that we have got to make sure they never get the control and power again, ever! If the Democrats get back any power, the fight will continue with the right-wing extremists. These types are not going away. Just yesterday, Pat Robertson said that there is no place in the Constituation or any other documents that mandates a separation of Church and State. It's that kind of propaganda that we will have to continually fight against, no matter who sits in the WH.
Posted by Judith at April 26, 2006 06:38 AM
The Party's Over
It's time to call it a day
They've burst your pretty balloon
and taken the moon away
It's time to wind up
the masquerade
Just make your mind up
the piper must be paid
The Party's Over
The candles flicker and dim
You danced and dreamed
through the night
It semed to be right
just voting for him
Now you must wake up,
all dreams must end
Take off your makeup
The Party's Over
It's all over, my friend
Speak for yourself, buddy,I've always been a good American and never EVER had anything good to say about Reagan or any of the Bushes. Or Clinton or Gore for that matter. Alex De T-- was a fop, and had no idea what he was talking about and I cringe when anyone quotes him. This country has NEVER been great, it's been tolerable, like England. The only great country is the one in your head. Any country that would allow things like Bush and Cheney in political office, and Reagan before them, deserves the shitty government it gets.
Posted by Mal Feasance at April 26, 2006 07:13 AMMy mom died with holes in her shirt, a VW diesel rabbit in the garage and a wad of cash investments. She used to cut paper towels in half to use, rinse them and hang them to dry. She survived the depression and applied its lessons all her life. She demanded value of herself, her family and her lifestyle. Your post is absolutely right on Pess. There is a whole lot of work to be done even after we get the addiction recognized and treated. But Bush's answer of "go out and go shopping" will surely put another nail in the coffin the Rep's have built.
Posted by mainsailset at April 26, 2006 07:14 AMBlaming the present administration only distracts from the real issues. While they may have made things worse, they are responsible for trends that have been ongoing for 50 years.
Since the end of WWII the US has transformed itself into a high consumption country which depends upon favorable access to raw materials and weak trading partners. In addition it has increased the degree of militarism as part of the federal budget. This has caused the basic services needed to maintain a competitive position in the world to be underfunded. We are seeing the results now in a declining scientifically trained workforce, breakdowns in our infrastructure and the loss of basic industry.
These trends have continued with only small changes in spending allocatins regardless of which party has the majority. Hoping that a Dem administration will change things significantly is not realistic.
A new bottom up effort is needed to deal with the reality that the US can not be for much longer the dominant economic world power. With 6% of the world's population we cannot expect to use 40% of the resources. China, India, the EU and perhaps a new Russian federation will all be strong economic rivals.
To see how the federal budget is slanted towards militarism visit this web site:
Federal Pie Chart
Of course the disastrous, almost literally insane "policies" of the last 5 years have (rather quickly) come home to roost. That was a given; they could not "succeed", and it is a sign of the utter worthlessness of our national leaders that they were allowed to be undertaken. What an enormously deep hole they have placed us in....
But my question is how can the nation move forward to solve the difficult problems it faces (and the slew of new ones created exclusively by Bushco) with 35-45% of the population now self-identifying as "conservative" ("reactionary" is the more accurate term, but whatever).
These people's brains are utterly poisoned with the toxic, foolish ideas that the only way to solve every problem is with a "market-based" solution; that the federal government should not receive tax dollars and is not competent to solve any problem; and that any government regulation should be imposed piecemeal by the states.
None of our great national problems can be solved under such a framework of ideological idiocy.
Add in the enormous number of American religious zealots whose brains are addled with the medieval idea that the iron-age Christian Bible somehow contains the exclusive answer to every social problem and issue of the twenty-first century, and you can see that we are saddled with a substantial block of citizens whose religio-ideological thinking is so blocked, backward, prejudiced and constipated that they will violently oppose any real steps towards social and human progress in America.
One cannot get anywhere with such an anchor holding back the ship of state. It is of course possible that the coming economic catastrophe will somehow influence the "thinking" of our fellow "conservatives". But not without a lot of money being spent to endlessly explain progressive ideas and philosophies, much like this "conservative" rubbish was peddled for over a quarter century.
And the Religious Fundamentalists will never be on board with actual human progress, no matter what.
Posted by euzoius at April 26, 2006 07:43 AMrobertdfeinman, great analysis by you and great site---thanks!
Posted by euzoius at April 26, 2006 07:48 AM"We are going to have to grow up, to stop buying in to the idea that happiness comes from expensive and destructively wasteful toys."
How true ... and perhaps the most immature people at the top need to be setting the example. Where in God's name do these people think they have the right to book a $5,000 a night room???? Thank goodness Mick Jagger had the b***s to stand up to this president who thinks he's a king. At least Mick Jagger will be paying for the room(s) with his OWN money!!! In prosperous, peaceful times, it might hold water, but with all that is going on now??? He truly does live in a bubble.
Posted by jra at April 26, 2006 08:20 AMjra: Last night, on "The Factor", O'Reilly suggested banning Mick Jagger from ever entering the US because of a past drug conviction, for his outrageous behavior of not giving up his room to a deranged simion bomber.
O'Reilly, and people like him have helped to put this country into the black abyss euzoius and Robert D Feinman accurately describe above.
Posted by TIKI AL at April 26, 2006 10:37 AMO'Reilly suggested banning Mick Jagger from ever entering the US because of a past drug conviction....
Can we ban Limbaugh as well?
Posted by ann at April 26, 2006 10:38 AMpessimist,
If I may mke a suggestion: to bolster your "progressive" arguments, you should avoid quoting a man who toured the US during an era when the "nanny state" government was not in existence. You should probably limit yourself to quoting Marx, Engels, Che, Castro, and maybe even Osama (....after all, like the "progressives," he also believes that the war is for oil).
By-the-way, if this war was all about oil, why am I paying $3.50 at the pump?
Posted by Bagley at April 26, 2006 12:35 PMBy-the-way, if this war was all about oil, why am I paying $3.50 at the pump?
Maybe you should ask Laurence Lindsey, Bush's senior economic advisor in 2002 who said:
As for the impact of a war with Iraq, “It depends how the war goes.” But he quickly adds that that “Under every plausible scenario, the negative effect will be quite small relative to the economic benefits that would come from a successful prosecution of the war.”
“The key issue is oil, and a regime change in Iraq would facilitate an increase in world oil,” which would drive down oil prices, giving the U.S. economy an added boost.
By-the-way, if this war was all about oil, why am I paying $3.50 at the pump?
Because this administration that you support is the most incompetent in American history.
Posted by herbal tee at April 26, 2006 01:40 PMBecause the Iraq occupation (as expected) failed spectacularly and the markets are terrified of Nero's bellicose saber rattling about regime change in Iran, the world's fourth largest producer.
Duh.
Bush supporters are firing pop guns at this point. But don't worry, I'm sure we're at another turning point on the road to overwhelming success in Iraq.
And our creation of a limited welfare state (social security, medicare, AFDC) to help our poor was us "ceasing to be good?" Who thinks like this?
Posted by euzoius at April 26, 2006 03:31 PM