Re: Bush planning nuke attack on Iran?


"JB" <JayBeeee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:B6OdnRFbr_-Kg6LZnZ2dneKdnZydnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Richard Morris wrote:
"JB" <JayBeeee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ZKOdnZPQ7_V-naLZRVn-tg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Richard Morris wrote:

snip

Tell me how you are better off since the year 2000 ...

Well, where should I start? Since 2000:

1) We have welcomed two beautiful boys with a third child due in May.
2) My wife and I purchased our first home for our family in 2001.
3) Our earnings have increased in each consecutive year 2000-05.
4) We're nearly out of debt (excluding mortgage).
5) I've turned down numerous good job offers.
6) We paid more in taxes in 2005 than we earned in 1999.
7) Neither of us had health insurance in 1999. Since 2000, we have.
9) My wife just got a promotion. Even so, we're hoping she can stop
working for a few years and stay at home with the kids. If all continues
to go well, that may happen this year.
9) We've saved more for retirement and for our children's educations than
we ever had before.
10) We give more to charities and to our church (financially speaking,
since two working parents of small children don't have much spare time to
volunteer)
11) We've helped other people by hiring them to do work that we don't have
time to do and have even given them raises.


So, let me ask you this: how much credit do *we* (my wife and I) deserve
for all of the aforementioned points and what the *** does any of it have
to do with who has lived in the White House since 2000??

If you do not understand the connection between government policy and
practice and the economy with respect to how it impacts business and labor,
then perhaps you should take a course in basic economics. It is nice that
you are doing well. Certainly individual initiative is the major factor in
it ... but I think that you may be the exception rather than the rule, and
the Federal deficit is going to create major problems for us in the future.

I must say that I am not clear that everything adds up in your case,
however. You bought your first house five years ago and are considering
purchasing a second house ... you drive a relatively expensive car ... you
pay for your own health insurance plan and invest in your own retirment
system. You say you have two incomes ... but it is not clear to me how your
wife has managed two maternity leaves in the past six years, with a third
pregnancy, and has been recently promoted. You will excuse me if all of
this sounds just a bit too good to be true. If it is true, then I would
suggest that you are extremely fortunate to be in the income bracket that
you are in. A little investigation on your part will show that probably 99
percent plus of working people don't achieve those earnings. And no, don't
give me the line about how they just need to work harder, etc. etc. There
isn't room for everyone at the top.

Feel safer?

Yes, I do. In fact, I feel safer than I would if Gore or Kerry had won
either of the most recent Presidential elections.

And can you point to the evidence that shows that you *are* safer, and
that DHS and FEMA are on top of their ***?

Why is bin Laden still at large?

Because we haven't found him yet [duh]. We have, however, found,
captured, or killed many of his associates.

I judge the quality of someone's work by the results that they achieve. How
do you judge?

Better off economically?

Yes, I am. In fact, I just quit a great job today to start an even better
one in two weeks. I will be making more money than I ever have in my
career with much better long term opportunities. And, again, the
government had nothing to do with it.

If you are, then enjoy it while it lasts ... the massive deficits will
catch up with us sooner or later. The rest of us barely manage to hold
our own while company after company tries to dump their pension plans

I don't have a pension plan. I never have. I consider saving for my
retirement to be my responsibility. If my employer makes contributions,
that's an added benefit.

And I consider negotiating with my employer to set up a defined benefit
retirement plan in lieu of salary to be my responsibility as well. People
look on retirement plans somehow as gifts. They aren't. You pay for them
as an employee because you accept the future benefit in lieu of current
salary.

and the current administration continues to threaten social security.

I really like your use of the word "threaten". You say it as though the
program's existence were somehow guaranteed to today's young workers.

It is.

I've got news for you....it's not. It's basically a Ponzi scheme. Social
Security is even less viable for today's workers *without* the changes
that Bush (and, prior to 2004, many Democrats) was proposing.

Sorry. That is simply not true. More right wing propoganda.

Got health insurance?

Yes, I do. Very good insurance, indeed. In fact, I earn it.

Everyone who has a health plan through their employment "earns" it. I
accept health coverage in lieu of salary.

Better hang on to it if you can ...

I plan to. If I continue to work hard, that should not be a problem.

Heh. Of course you earn it. But tell me why so many people can't afford
it?

a serious illness could wipe you out otherwise, and the new bankruptcy
laws pushed in by the current administration won't let you off the hook.

I know people who abused the old bankruptcy regulations to avoid paying
creditors. Do you think that is okay?

I don't know *anyone* who abused the old system. The research done at the
time of the proposed legislation indicated that a significant percentage of
bankruptcies were brought about by catastrophic health problems.

Curious that businesses are still off the hook, however. They can still
escape their creditors.

Like watching the price of gasoline double in six years?

Nope, you've got me there. And, yet, I still *choose* to drive a SUV.

Has the price of *anything* gone down?

Sure. Digital cameras, televisions, computer equipment, telephone bills,
clothes, and stocks (just to name a few).

Ah, another satisfied Walmart shopper.

Can you afford to buy a house?

Yes, we own a house. If all goes well, we may buy another.

Most young families can't any more. Single people certainly cannot.

Feeling well represented in Washington?

Not really. My Senators are Chuck Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The majority of the people are not feeling that way.

Isn't it wonderful that everyone will be able to go into an voting booth
in a ~6 months? We will see, in November, if you're correct.

Small wonder when we start seeing our elected representatives on trial
for corruption ... for betraying the people that they represent for
money.

Eating one bad apple will never cause me to stop enjoying apples.

Penalties should be death for treason, imho.

Well, at least you're showing your true stripes.

Yep ... I happen to love my country ... and to see elected representatives
sell their votes to protect special interests and to line their own pockets
is the ultimate betrayal of the public trust. On the other hand, you don't
seem to think it is much of a problem.

I can go on ...

I'm sure you could. You've got lots to complain about and it seems
everything someone else's fault.

Actually, it is your fault, and people like you.

the war on drugs that is costing us billions of dollars and locking up
people for what should not be a crime ...

On this point, we can agree. However, has GW Bush really made the war on
drugs a centerpiece of his administration? Certainly not.

You know, in terms of domestic policy it is hard to see exactly what GW Bush
*has* made as a centerpiece of his administration other than piss money
away.

the dangerous attitude that might makes right .... the attempt to sell
off national forest land, and to open our national parks up to commercial
activity ... the ineffectiveness ... the lying ...

All that was taking place long before 2000.

No. Even if it were, that wouldn't make it right at the present time, would
it?

Was it a lie when Bill Clinton said the following in 1998?:

"And they [Iraq] will be all the more lethal if we allow them to build
arsenals of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the missiles to
deliver them. We simply cannot allow that to happen.

There is no more clear example of this threat than Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
His regime threatens the safety of his people, the stability of his region
and the security of all the rest of us.

<edit>

This includes nearly 40,000 chemical weapons, more than 100,000 gallons of
chemical weapons agents, 48 operational missiles, 30 warheads specifically
fitted for chemical and biological weapons, and a massive biological
weapons facility at Al Hakam equipped to produce anthrax and other deadly
agents.

Over the past few months, as they have come closer and closer to rooting
out Iraq's remaining nuclear capacity, Saddam has undertaken yet another
gambit to thwart their ambitions."

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/02/17/transcripts/clinton.iraq/


Yep ... diplomatic solutions ... sanctions ... inspections ... UN
involvement. Thanks for making the point that it was probably not necessary
to initiate military involvment in Iraq at this time. Other options were
available. We probably could have done much better to focus on terrorism.
Or do you not read carefully?

I am curious just exactly what brought you to rec.music.gdead.






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