I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
First...?
No. There won't.
I've never been so excited.
Why can't democratic leadership hammer this issue?
Why can't they hammer any issue?
Fuckit, I'm moving to Spain.
ok, really, I'm just gonna go ride my bike.
Fuckit, I'm moving to Spain.
May I come with you?
Coburn may be crazy, but he's honestly crazy.
This is a simple point that every American family already knows: You can't spend money you don't have. What we need to know to exploit this issue is what spending, exactly, Club for Growth thinks if "fat." Head Start? WIC? Iraq? (Oh wait, that last one's not on the books....)
Why am I thinking airline security and meat inspectors are going to see big budget cuts as a result of W's refusal to raise taxes?
You can't spend money you don't have.
That's just crazy talk.
Okay, I figured out Delay's reasoning:
Step 1: Taxes are evil. So nobody pays taxes
Step 2: (tell you later)
Step 3: Everybody wins!
How's that star wars thingy progressing?
This is probably Karen's pet, so can't cut this either:
Comment
The PR campaign for Brand America
James Harkin
Saturday September 17, 2005
The Guardian
In a barely reported incident last week, two bombs exploded almost simultaneously in the Karachi outlets of Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald's. With no sign of an exit strategy from its war in Iraq and one of its major cities reduced to a swamp, things only seem to go from bad to worse for Brand America. Fear not, however, because some of America's brightest young graduates, toiling away in Madison Avenue advertising agencies, are working selflessly to stop the rot.
Article continues
For the last 50 years, marketers of American brands were happy to ally themselves with the values of their home country - Coca-Cola, Marlboro and Levi's were paraded as affordable slices of Americana - and consumers everywhere in the world took them at their word. In turn, those brands became willing ambassadors for the values which America wanted to portray as its own: liberty, for example, and material prosperity.
Since the end of the cold war, however, most big US brands have concluded that their homeland is as much of a hindrance as a help. Maybe it was the launch of Mecca-Cola in 2003, a soft drink aimed at cashing in on anti-American sentiment in the Middle East, that finally put the breeze up Brand America. With the insulting tagline "No more drinking stupid, drink with contentment", the ads for Mecca-Cola not only offended the marketers at Coca-Cola but also ruffled a few feathers at the US state department.
Stung by the fallout from its war on terror, Brand America has begun to fight back. Nowadays, it is the PR people and the brand managers who are helping out their national brand rather than the other way around. Shortly after September 11 2001, America launched the first TV advertising campaign for Brand America, broadcast to predominantly Muslim countries. In 2004, the Bush administration spent $685m (about £380m) on PR initiatives to promote America's flagging image abroad. Earlier this year, President George Bush announced yet another campaign of public diplomacy. America, it seems, is to be a listening brand. "America's public diplomacy should be as much about listening and understanding as it is about speaking," said the PR woman appointed by Mr Bush to head the campaign. "I'm eager to listen and to learn."
Yes, maybe they still get the props from the media, but real conservatives I know are damned upset with the Bush Repugs over the way they spend money.
Jay C,
Step 2 is that faith-based accounting....
There you go again, you crazy pay as you go Dems. Didn'y you pay attention when Uncle Ronnie proved that reckless deficit spending is the only way to ensure a sound economy?
That's exactly where they will propose to cut back spending.
Food Stamps, Medicaid, education, mass transit.
Things which are already underfunded.
Of course the black hole that is Iraq won't even be touched.
Better tax&spend than don'ttaxespecciallytherich&spendwithoutend.
The "true conservatives" who went along with these neocon hacks can fucking blow me.
Step 1: Taxes are evil. So nobody pays taxes
Step 2: (tell you later)
Step 3: Everybody wins!
DeLay is an Underpants Gnome?
That's why the Democrats need to resort to some theatrics.
Such as sending a bill to every household for their share of the Chimpy/GOP Congress debt.
It's at about $10,000 per individual now.
The bill should be enclosed with a letter detailing where the money went and the annual interest rate. And noting that it's owed to a Communist regime with the second-biggest nuclear stockpile in the world.
And close with a line such as: "The Republican Party and George W. Bush - putting your freedom and security in hock to Communist dictators since 2001."
The trick is making sure that Shrub doesn't get to "dine and dash" on the federal debt tab.
He's going to, you know.
The "true conservatives" who went along with these neocon hacks can fucking blow me.
Jay C.
Is that you Steve?
The wordfusion things are worse when I can't spell.
My first child was pretty seriously premature, and I was a student at the time. We qualified for Wic which meant, since I was nursing, food for us rather than for her. Eggs, milk, cereal, etc. didn't have to come out of our regular budget, and that helped a lot. Could we have made it on the money we were earning? Possibly, but it would have been harder We pulled $80 out of the bank on Sunday for gas and food, and if it didn't last until the next Sunday, we were in trouble. And yes, WIC is one of those programs that'a always threatened.
Shhh, NTodd, nobody else knows that Delay is an underpants gnome...
...he ole-stay all of my oxers-bay...
..can't talk about it, I can see him peeking out of the linen closet!
Jennifer - I love that idea. Send it to Howard Dean!
Jay C. - some real conservatives don't and didn't go along with the neo-cons.
Mr. Tena - a real conservative - voted a straight Democratic ticket in '04. First time ever.
Still, after years of total Republican rule during which the president has failed to veto a single bill and House Democrats have been completely stripped of any ability to do anything, nothing will stop the Republicans for being portrayed as the party of fiscal restraint.
Um, how is this article portraying Republicans as the party of fiscal restraint? It's not. Quite the opposite.
Fuck fiscal restraint.
The Republicans couldn't wait to throw money at the CPA, billions and billions in cash on pallets handed out in paper bags. Billions and billions unaccounted for to this day.
Americans were expected to give a standing ovation every time a friggin' school was painted in Eye-rack. The schools! The schools!
And now, when the time comes to invest in infrastructure IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY they start talking about fiscal restraint.
Republicans won't build schools or hospitalsIN THEIR OWN COUNTRY but they'll throw billions of additional dollars in Iraq.
Fucking idiot yahoo crackers. I truly hate these fucking people. I truly do.
DeLay is an Underpants Gnome?
Yeah, and we're all Tweeked.
Good morning, batses.
OT --
As a self-professed unreleased Dylan snob, I've been eh on a lot of the "official" bootleg releases -- but the new collection is da berries!
Just sayin'....
...he ole-stay all of my oxers-bay...
That's why I advocate not wearing pants.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 - The drive to pour tens of billions of federal dollars into rebuilding the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast is widening a fissure among Republicans over fiscal policy, with more of them expressing worry about unbridled spending.
Republicans with wide fissures. What a scary thought.
And more: Despite pissing off every nation on Earth, despite wasting away tens of thousands of soldiers on pointless wars, despite over-extending the military so far that it is incapable of responding to a real military threat, despite taking no meaningful action as nuclear weapons proliferate 'round the globe, and despite the fact that Osama "wanted dead or alive" bin Laden sits peacefully in some country with the complete awareness of the director of the CIA,
Republicans will continue to be portrayed as the party that is militarily tough.
OT
Why are so many children still separated from their parents in the Gulf Coast?
Right on, Tena. Same with some of my family out West.
"I like his low-taxes program, but I can't get on board with his 'kill brown people' platform..."
Gore speaks:
http://www.commondreams.org/view...iew...s05/0912-
32.htm
The FDA has appointed a male veterinarian to replace Dr. Susan Wood as Director of Women's Health.
Sure shows what this regime thinks of women!
Terry C, Feminazi Moonbat | Email | 09.17.05 - 11:07 am | #
For the third time - I just can't understand why something like this just gets by, under the radar. It is so blatently anti woman and easy to understand, we should be hitting them with a chair on it.
NYMary..
Your are completely wrong here:
"This is a simple point that every American family already knows: You can't spend money you don't have."
The whole credit industry is built on the belief that you can buy things you can't afford. Especially the credit card industry.
Credit and debt is as american as apple pie. Everyone does it from bond issues, to lay away plans... from hostile take overs to M&A... of mega corporations. Without credit there is no america.
I think Congressional Democrats should hold hearings in a basement broom closet there and get to the bottom of this.
Maybe they can find a MSM type that will cover it if the security forces in the Congress let them attend.
Pat Toomey is a fascist bastard!
He's almost as batshit crazy as Ricky Retardo.
widening a fissure among Republicans over fiscal policy
They can join the club. We've been told for the last four and a half years to bend over and spread our fissures wide -- and told to damn well like it or else.
Mr. Tena - a real conservative - voted a straight Democratic ticket in '04. First time ever.
Tena | Email | Homepage | 09.17.05 - 11:18 am | #
I believe I know some more people like this in Tennessee (although they won't admit it), but I'm afraid that says as much about today's Democrat politicians as it does about the fascist neocons.
Mr. Tena - a real conservative - voted a straight Democratic ticket in '04. First time ever.
Tena | Email | Homepage | 09.17.05 - 11:18 am | #
I believe I know some more people like this in Tennessee (although they won't admit it), but I'm afraid that says as much about today's Democrat politicians as it does about the fascist neocons.
Jay C - Mr. Tena will go off on Bush at times when even I keep my mouth shut. He's not been shy at all in berating people we know who voted for Commander CooCoo Bananas.
And it's the money, honey. Trillions have just been pounded down rat holes. We're looking at a hell of an economic mess. I don't know if the country will be able to pull out of it in my lifetime.
As for Bush not vetoing anything - What the hell does George W Bush know about budgets, or economics?
Fucking idiot yahoo crackers. I truly hate these fucking people. I truly do.
Phredd
I hope they all die horrible deaths, honest to god.
Let them suffer like they make other people suffer.
I hope they all die horrible deaths, honest to god.
Let them suffer like they make other people suffer.
Terry C, Feminazi Moonbat
No, no, Terry, don't be shy, tell us what you really think.
Dog-walking break
a good 75-90 minutes of dog walking awaits me, and the canines are getting restless, so keep an eye on things while i'm gone,...
cheers, chers...
"Armaments, universal debt and planned obsolescence--these are the three pillars of Western prosperity"--Aldous Huxley
Couldn't BushCo save a lot by refusing to pay the national debt and threatening to bomb anyone who objected? Sort of an integrated fiscal/military approach.
"Armaments, universal debt and planned obsolescence--these are the three pillars of Western prosperity"--Aldous Huxley
one smart guy, that one...
reduces it to a sentence, irrefutable, and irrebuttable...
brilliant, fuckin brilliant...
There are plenty of things that could be cut from the Federal budget to help pay for Katrina.
All those pork-barrel patronage road projects like Ted Stevens' stupid $500,000 brigde in Alaska, for one, could be cut. The savings could be used to employ the same construction workers in rebuilding NO infrastructure.
So the real question here is will all those Pug senators/congresspeople give up all those giant slabs of pork that have been slapped on their plates in this tikme of total Republican rule? I wouldn't bet on it. And yes, a VERY large stink should be made about it by the Democrats.
As to tax increases, I saw a poll somewhere that said 76% of people don't think we should increase taxes to pay for all this. Clearly, the Noise Machine has done an incredibly brilliant job of promulgating the toxic meme that no matter how many times we say we only want to increase taxes on really rich people, somehow we will increase taxes on everybody. That, or the economy will just wither away and die overnight if we make it just a wee bit harder for mega-billionaires to buy their second yachts. This is bought hook, line, and sinker, despite the record-breaking growth that occurred immediately after Clinton raised taxes on the rich in 1993!
We have to find a way to break through this programming. It should be a top priority. But I don't think Democrats should be floating the idea of tax increases yet. Rather, I think we need to wait until thos "fiscally responsible" Pugs propose their iunevitable regressive tax increases, then paint tham as the unfeeling predatory elitists they are by asking why they want to put this new burden on the little guy and not on those who can afford it. When they pull out the inevitable "economy will die" bullshit, we BLUDGEON THM TO DEATH with the real history of what happened to the economy after Clinton raised taxes on the rich.
Any questions?
Dang!
Sorry to shout like that.
Apparently I mis-closed my bold tag.
It should only have applied to the word "regressive"
more coffee.....
Yes, blerb, I have a question: Did you remember to close all of your tags? 
Fucking idiot yahoo crackers. I truly hate these fucking people. I truly do.
Phredd
I hope they all die horrible deaths, honest to god.
Let them suffer like they make other people suffer.
Terry C, Feminazi Moonbat | Email | 09.17.05 - 11:25 am | #
I gotta say that the most frustrating thing about this whole situation is that even given a miracle and this nation somehow stays afloat and the rest of the world doesn't slide into chaos, as well, and we reclaim civilization for the human race, these fuckheads will NEVER pay for the near catastrophe they precipitated. The very ignorance that allows them to be blind followers of evil also allows them to remain oblivious to the damage they cause. They will never feel guilt, regret, or anything resembling humility.
That's my pride talking, I know, and unproductive, but I really wish there was a special hell for these people to contemplate their wickedness for eternity.
Did you remember to close all of your tags?
I refer you embarrasedly the immediately following post... 
"The FDA has appointed a male veterinarian to replace Dr. Susan Wood as Director of Women's Health."
This just represents what the repukes have always thought about women--just another cow.
I hope they all die horrible deaths, honest to god.
Let them suffer like they make other people suffer.
So you advocate death as well as rape? Somebody tell gordo, quick!
"The FDA has appointed a male veterinarian to replace Dr. Susan Wood as Director of Women's Health."
Rove's snarky way of showing that they do indeed respect "vets?"
Here is an unconscionably easy way to help a progressive candidate.
Go here:
http://tools.democracyforamerica....com/housevote/
And vote for this guy:
http://www.brucebraley.com
I gotta say that the most frustrating thing about this whole situation is that even given a miracle and this nation somehow stays afloat and the rest of the world doesn't slide into chaos, as well, and we reclaim civilization for the human race, these fuckheads will NEVER pay for the near catastrophe they precipitated. The very ignorance that allows them to be blind followers of evil also allows them to remain oblivious to the damage they cause. They will never feel guilt, regret, or anything resembling humility.
Justice is not about payback, or retribution.
It's about caring for the poor, the powerless, the dispossessed. The "widow and the orphan," in the metaphor of the Hebrew prophets.
Those who don't care to help, or want only to hurt, will be taken care of in time. The only justice we can effect, is for the "widow and the orphan."
It's enough work on its own.
This thread is remarkably gordo-free...
Conservatives are packin' a roll of quarters over the NOLA rebuild...
...more info upstairs.
The retribution thing, however, is beginning to seem more attractive . . .
Ha ha ha
Three of the craziest lunatics in the republican party at each other's throats!
WACKO WINGNUT CAGE MATCH! Can we get Santorum in the pit too?
Damn, Jeffers,
Just when I was really getting up a really good wild-eyed snot-slinging retribution hard-on, you ruin it with caring for the poor and defenseless and widders and orphans and what hard work that all is.
(Shuffles away with head down.)
And then there's this snippet from Reuters...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Saturday underscored his goal of a massive rebuilding effort to make storm-battered Gulf Coast communities "better and stronger," brushing aside growing Republican worries about the impact on the budget deficit...(http://today.reuters.com/news/
default.aspx)
As if Republicans were the only ones thinking about the impact of debt and deficits.
Democrats should be hammering this home.
You have to remember that in this context "fiscal restraint" doesn't mean, er, fiscal restraint. It means "your tax dollars aren't wasted on those lazy blacks." Pretty much every noun the GOP uses has that same meaning...
From WaPo
"An administration official said the White House and Congress will look for specific spending cuts, starting with about $20 billion in savings identified in the president's 2006 budget
...
Some of those cuts would hit precisely the programs the lawmakers want to expand. Among the programs slated by Bush for cuts were Medicaid, which he now wants to extend to evacuees, and the Army Corps of Engineers, which is faced with the huge burden of repairing levees and dredging waterways wrecked in the storm."
what a great plan
"Republicans will continue to be portrayed as the party that is militarily tough." + "the Republicans for being portrayed as the party of fiscal restraint." = republican supporters are deluded nutjobs.
Democrats need to start running ads now in local papers about the liberal spending of big government Republicans.
The big concern the Bush administration has is that it used the highway and transportation bills as incentives to pass his CAFTA legislation. If he were to go and revoke portions of the bill to raise funds for Katrina relief efforts, he would find senators ready to lynch him now over broken promises, and later when CAFTA's effects hit. The payback would be simple, too - an acceptance of the Democratic proposal for an independent investigation.
"Who's in Charge" - Atrios.
Thanks in part to Atrios and Kos, we can rest assured it won't be a Democrat in 2008.
The Atrios legacy is the gift that keeps on giving to the Democratic party.
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