Arkansas Blog

Tjhanks for sharing Max!

"I'd love to hear what you think has caused such an alarming number of our fellow Americans to fall into the Sarah Swoon."
...
our blog tag team rightwingnut wisemen answered that question lipstick on a pitbull hypnotics and old code words like gay marriage adoption god black muslim fear Lesbian socialism free speech communism ignite and delight the dunderheads
ps
this is a troll protest with no punctuations no capital

If I were in the mood to laugh about this silly valley girl with a house full of kids and no recognizable skills other than fertility, I would laugh at the statement that she sounds like "someone who has no first language".........but somehow it isn't funny.

A few days ago on "The View" they had a segment about things you just cannot believe that Whoopi called "What the hell??" All I can think of to describe my thoughts about anyone anywhere entertaining for one single second the idea of Sarah Palin holding any office EVER, is "What the Hell???"

We've watched with more than a little angst for years as the picture of our imaginary economy became ever more clear revealing that it was, as most of us suspected, built on nothing and ready to go down that circle drain at a moment's notice. Now, with the election and re-election of GWB, a man so challenged he couldn't put together an intelligent paragraph if his life depended on it, we find a segment of the population enamored with a woman just as ignorant??? Are we really this stupid?

Some of the people who admire this woman and think she is God's gift, are people I love and I'm sick at what is happening to the ability of some to think and comprehend reality. This just can't be happening........

Max, a lot of people don't know this: Sarah P is opposed to the coalfired elec plant at McNab (let's get the location right, it's NOT at Fulton, just NEAR Fulton).

ARK. BLOG: Damn. Wish I'd known that before. So that's why you supported McCain.

The Republican Party is alive and well. It's just the Democratic branch of the Party is the present winner. It's membership is strong in Arkansas with some being re-elected who wear Democratic labels.
They will all continue on the national level in the same direction (bailouts, handouts, subsidies, record budget deficits, record national debt, healthy military/industrial complex, lagging health care, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer). No one really believes the boat will change directions in the national stream, do they?

"At a time when money is the end justifying
almost any means, when white-collar crime
is a ho-hum sort of problem, when the mentaly
ill are left to fend for themselves on the streets,
when those educating our children get less
respect than a ballplayer, when a large percentage
of people are too lazy to vote, much less study the
issues, maybe our inept, lazy, crooked Congress is
doing exactly what it is supposed to do: Represent
the people."

Deanne Gilbert
Kirkland, Wash.

You have to wonder about the future of a political party that can run only on the evaporating fuel of racial hate and hate of gay folks. Hate energizes only for so long, and then people wake up and wonder why they shot themselves in the foot by letting so much fall apart while they had their moment of hate.

You have to wonder about the future of a political party whose base has folks whose best argument against gay marriage is that letting two people of the same sex marry will open the door to men marrying horses. Have to wonder about party that can generation such "ideas" and retain the loyalty only of those ignorant and venal enough to be swayed by such "ideas."

Ah, Fulton, Louie. The northern most end of the Great Red River Raft that had the Red River blocked and stopped Freeman's exploration journey up the Red two hundred years ago. Must have been one heck of a site to see that big river with one huge log jam that stretched about a hundred miles.

But it gave the Army Corp of Engineers something to do. Captain Shreve came a-calling, set up his base of operations at the south end of the log jam and went to work. No long jam, no Shreve'sport. When I was a young man living in Hempstead County I would sit on the bank of the Red River, pulling in catfish and gar, and wondered what that river must have looked like back in those days. Ah, for a working time machine.

Keep standing in the way of basic human rights, Republicans, and you will be as irrelevant as all the other inbred 'me me me' lookalike gangs...and you will deserve your decline. But I hope not. We need more than two viable Parties to get our country out of its current messes, not less. Give the Democratic politicians unlimited rule and all the power/money they can handle and...they'll be today's GOP without all the isms. (Obama's election didn't erase my memory of our horrid DC Dems and their culpability in President Shit for Brains' anti-Constitution Regime.)

Everyone has a right to basic human needs...stuff like equality, food, shelter and healing. I hope we bring our gay brothers/sisters to our table and our uninsured/under-insured to the same basic healthcare that the rest of us enjoy. True story: About two weeks ago a woman (late fifties) was rushed to Conway's emergency room by her grown children because she was going in/out of blindness and was unable to feel her legs. The emergency room staff told her she'd had four mini-strokes/90% blockage in more than one place. They then 'drugged her up' and sent her home with instructions to see her doctor in the morning. All because she didn't have insurance. I'm not medically literate...at all; but if her situation wasn't life-threatening (the ONLY standard that keeps hospitals from tossing out all the uninsured) then...heaven help us. She lived to see her doctor, he told her she needed IMMEDIATE surgery. Well, she is scheduled for surgery next July...thanks to a non-profit charity that's trying to help America's ill. It will be a miracle if she makes it. I put treatment like that with torture, Guantanamo and all our isms.

So, Rush/Sean/Sarah/right-wing bloggers, keep blathering on about 'family values,' about how great our country is, about the mythical Free Market, about our mythical 'great' healthcare system, about godly wars, about Club Gitmo, about denying others COMPLETE equality, about YOUR god...while the rest of us are living with/watching those around us suffer horribly 'cause they don't have health insurance...'cause they don't have access to all the 'little' niceties, like a legal marriage, like a safe healing place to lay your head when your body is sick and hurting. Your actions, Republicans, say more than all those phony words about inclusion, love and family values.

I hope Republicans wise up...I hope they honestly love their god/fellow humans as much as they claim. I am so ashamed that my country is allowing this 'woman' to die solely because she doesn't have insurance.

Cartoon. clicky

Unfortunately the Republican Party I used to belong to has been taken over by the extreme religious zealots and the Bush Cronies who raped and pillaged the economy. Yet the Democratic Party does not represent me... what is an independent like me to do?

I believe in a strictly balanced budget with federal taxes to not exceed 30%. I would prefer to give up the income tax in favor of the FairTax system. I read the Fairtax proposal, and the rebuttals, and I see evidence that it will work and be more fair than income tax. Taxing the rich prevents them from investing in our country... we need to reward investment, not punish it.

I support the concept of the social safety net but after years of working in Medicare and Medicaid (plus other programs) I see our current welfare system as hopeless. We created a welfare system that traps people in it, not encourages them to work their way out of it. In Biblical terms, we are giving them fish, not teaching them to fish. And as such, they are dependent upon the government to take care of them in perpetuity.

I do not believe in special rights for blacks, gays, women, latinos or any other special group. I am a white Catholic man married to a beautiful Korean woman. We have different cultures, but learned to mesh them together into a fun combination. We need to learn to get along, without special quotas for the "disadvantaged du jour."

I beleive that we should each have an equal chance at success. That does NOT mean we all have the same outcome... each person should be responsible for themselves.

I strongly do not believe in government health care as a single-payer system. Again as I stated above, I worked in that system for years, and saw the worst examples of corruption and mismanagement ever. I do not want a government beancounter deciding if I live or die.

I believe we needs the liberals to be our conscience and the conservatives to be our work ethic (classic conservatives, not the Bush Cronies.) When they meet in the middle (such as the Clinton years with Gingrich and Dole in the Congress) the results are good. Liberals have many good ideas, but we must weigh in the cost to the country as a whole.

Maybe I live in a fantasy world. The Repubs no longer represent me, but Pelosi does not either, so where do I fit in? For whom do I vote?

We need a Bull Moose Party again.

How about another cartoon before I head off to be with the Elders. Clicky

I'm with you Slinger. I haven't left either party. They left me. But I have no where to go. The Third Party people I occasionally vote for don't have a chance. No money. Guess we are doomed.

"I do not want a government beancounter deciding if I live or die."

sorry slingerland too late we have bean counters deciding already be it government by proxy

enter in a casket blinded by the light
friends and family gather by my side tears falling break silence
make a stream for me comments of remembrance form my sea

why is all this happening dead but im not gone i shouldnt sing this weeping organ song

if i could change what ive done i would change it all never answered suicide its call

now im being punished eternally awake will i feel the dirt fall on my face

now its too late its way too late now its too late its way too late

troll protest
tp it does a body good

Slinger,

Define "special rights".

Is a constitutional amendment establishing the fight to vote for women a "special right"?

Is a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery a "special right"for possible slaves?

How come a possible law ensuring legal protections others enjoy considered a "special right" for the group denied that right?

Gays pay the same tax as straights to Social Security yet do not receive the same powers as straights. Upon my death my wife will continue to receive benefits due to my SS taxes but a gay couple which may have been even more committed to each other and for a longer period of time will not receive that same benefit.

In that case who has the "special right"?

I have found that in most cases when one spouts off against "special rights" it is commonly a code word phrase which really amounts to allowing a group not to receive normal rights other groups enjoy.

Great post by former Republican Frank Schaeffer at Huffington Post today: please click bluename.

Quotes:
"The Republican Party is only a step away from becoming the fringe of the fringe, identified more with cross-burning weirdoes wearing hoods, folks like the Alaska secessionist party, all those gun owners stocking up on assault weapons before the 'Socialist/United Nations/Obama/Muslim' conspiracy comes to fruition, than with anything remotely like a serious national political force."

"The Religious Right, the racists, the anti-gay hate-mongers are now not only marginalized but thoroughly out of step with even members of their own former constituency."

"What's the best defense against the rube/Palin voters derailing the Republican Party forever? If the statistics of who voted for whom are correct, the education of white people in the deep South and their economic empowerment is the best answer. Maybe it will take a black Democratic president to figure out some affirmative action program that can get our southern born-again white underclass into colleges and thereby save the Republican party."

"So, Rush/Sean/Sarah/right-wing bloggers, keep blathering on about 'family values,' about how great our country is, about the mythical Free Market, about our mythical 'great' healthcare system, about godly wars, about Club Gitmo, about denying others COMPLETE equality, about YOUR god...while the rest of us are living with/watching those around us suffer horribly 'cause they don't have health insurance...'cause they don't have access to all the 'little' niceties, like a legal marriage, like a safe healing place to lay your head when your body is sick and hurting. Your actions, Republicans, say more than all those phony words about inclusion, love and family values."

Posted just because I think this should be repeated....

We need more Dick Cavetts in the world.
Always have.

"and the "right" to harass individuals who financially supported the anti-Prop. 8 movement"

Ummm, it is called a boycott and is a tactic used by the right all the time against various individuals and corporations. Why can't the supporters of Prop 8 do the same. How about that extortion letter sent to business owners who gave money to defeat Prop 8?
Pot, kettle, black.

BTW, the old lady story is a strawman. She was not attacked. The cross was knocked out of her hand and she was yelled at by some idiots. It was not a nice way to act BUT it was not a physical attack.

Most people outside the age range of say 12-15 years of age have little interest in viewing carnival freekshows more than once. The fact the Sarah Palin show continues to attract can be easily explained after taking a moment to observe the crowds she attracts. They all possess mental ages similar to Sarah's own .......about age 12 I'd suppose.
In fact, when one notices those lining up at the Sarah Palin tent, I feel I'm being generous in assigning them a 12-year-old mental age. Political pundits, conservative republicans, ArDemGaz
editorial staff,MSM 'talking heads' and the majority of Arkansas' voters rarely demonstrate the judgement, intellect and maturity of the average 12-year-old. I apologize to all the 12-year-olds I've so heedlessly offended.

Citizen1, let me explain what I mean by "special" rights. I don't mean the rights you wrote of.

I mean situations where preferences are given... where quotas are given based on race or other values. For example, employment: I object to giving jobs to a lesser qualified white/black/gay/whatever SOLEY on the basis of the applicant being white/black/gay/whatever.

Growing up I watched my father lose two promotions solely because he was not black. My father was more qualified, but 1970s tokenism ruled, and in both cases, the lesser qualified employee was eventually fired for bad job performance. That was unfair in so many ways:

Unfair to my father because he was more qualified.
Unfair to the black employees who were put in positions they could not handle.
Unfair to the company who had to absorb the financial loss.
Unfair to the stockholders who received lower earnings.

In my current business, my customers are all "green" to me and to not think so is stupid. I do not prefer Catholics over Protestants. Koreans over Blacks. Straight over gay. They are all human beings under the eyes of God and deserve a basic amoutn of respect.

Thanks for letting me clarify what I meant.

Then I guess you'd really understand how blacks feel after CENTURIES of discrimination in this country, slavery or second-class citizenship, and not even being allowed the opportunity of applying for many jobs much less being considered for a job.
Glad to know you can feel about 0.1% of their pain.

Dick Cavett has always been a favorite interviewer of mine and what he says about Sarah Palin is on the mark. I'd love to see him interview her! Well worth reading and I'll be passing it along to others too.

When I argue for universal healthcare I'm arguing against my own selfish interests because I have always had GREAT private insurance and; I know that my GREAT care would inevitably be lessened by the inclusion of 45 million Americans (at least for awhile). But just as we decided as a culture to not let parent-less children rot in huge orphanages, to not let folks kill themselves, to not let people starve on our streets, to not let any child go uneducated...we need to decide that letting people die/SUFFER HORRENDOUS PAIN because they don't have money/insurance is just as inhumane/un-American as all those other things. As a culture, we're suppose to be moving forward, not backwards.

Allowing gay folk access to a legal marriage is not creating anything special, it's simply including fellow citizens in the same rights, the same lives that we have. Which is what a 'civil' society does. They've been excluded because of certain folk's religious views...not because of any valid threat to the public good (which should be the standard for deciding public matters). And that's not right.

" Taxing the rich prevents them from investing in our country... we need to reward investment, not punish it."

Couldn't disagree more. RIch don't get rich or stay that way without the sweat of many a lower income folks labor.. and many protection advantages they often do not deserve. Also, the last thirty years (since reagan) has proved once and for all.. that rich don't invest or trickle down on their own accord... unless they are encouraged to do so by government.

In todays world, most new rich get that way due to government contract money or other government investment. been that way since at least the early days of railroads...and war machine expenditures. Government should regulate the rich and direct them towards investing in their country as a whole. It always works out best when this is the case..even for the rich, if truth be told.

The current bailout is a perfect example.. trillions in newly printed money and billions more given to the rich.. first and foremost (supposedly) to keep the banks a lending. Which they are not doing.

The rich just spent years creating false investments (derivatives, CDO's, trumped up mortgages valuation etc.) rather than invest in tangibles or real markets/futures. Destroying millions of peoples homes, trading away American labor, taxing through speculation all of our commodities, looting everything from pensions to the treasury along the way... and they are also doing it by feeding of our MIC, Homeland Security money (among other areas), including invasion of our rights to privacy for profit.. such as the whole FISA debacle. Right to privacy is the constitutional issue of our times..not gun ownership..which republican voters, among others, fail to grasp at all our liberties peril.

Look at the US chamber of commerce, which is supposed to non partisan.. they spent many tens of millions this year on political candidates and issues/lobbying.. and they spent more than two thirds of their money on republicans... while trying their best (successfully) to keep children from receiving health care. s-chip

As for the single payer vs continued private/exclusionary system... there is no doubt single payer is the only affordable means to providing care for everyone... there are far to many examples of other countries with less resources doing it successfully. Government healthcare costs much less overall.. insurance companies are in it for profit, not care.. and currently government is only caring for those whom insurance will not handle.

As for the whole affirmative action argument... don't worry.. white folks are going to be the minority in America very soon.

What are the possibilities of this occurring? Click on Cato

Just called the phone number of an obviously Republican household--based on their answering machine message. It went something like this--"if you speak English, please leave a message. If you don't speak English, go back to wherever you came from".

With an attitude like that, the Republicans will definitely lose even more definitively in the future as the country becomes more of a melting pot. I think they are still of the mindset of the earlier centuries when "melting pot" meant more a a mixture of Caucasians from European countries. Now more than ever, America is a melting pot of many races, cultures and ethnicities. If the Republicans remain so narrow-minded they will never be able to win an election again. The country is not a bunch of rich, old white men and shouldn't be run by a group of them either. Rich points out that in addition to those white guys Letterman mentioned that "Those occasional counties that tilted more Republican in 2008 tended to be not only the least diverse, but also the most rural, least educated and slowest-growing in population."

Unfortunately, Arkansas falls into that category and Republicans leave hate messages on their answering machinges.

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." ‑ 1 Corinthians 13:11

Gee....my keyboard didn't shock me, nor did typing words from the Bible cause my fingertips to burn...I take this as a good sign!

As we prepare to enter the Obama years above all I hope this Bible passage becomes true. Only a childish person could believe in Sarah Palin. At best she'd be a good person to be at the head of your local Amway pyramid. She has no place in government and that's not due to her gender. I know 20 women far smarter than I am who could be the next VP with their eyes closed. Sarah Palin doesn't fit that category on her best day.

But back to spaking, understanding, and thinking like a child.....we MUST STOP! We must find a way to force the unthinking half of our population to think as adults. Our country is dying and at times like this...it's not child's play. The ways of our government must be shown in the light of day. No more hidden agendas, no more funny math, no more lobbyists, no more fake issues, no more pretend candidates or office holders.

The debate about legal abortion is over, as is the choice of the colors of our flag. Jesus may belong somewhere, but not in governmental decisions that effect millions of Americans. Until it can be proven that gays and non-whites are subhuman, they should be treated as equal Americans. Initiated Act 1 and Prop 8 won this time but will not stand the Supreme Court or the test of time. They are the Dred Scott decision of our time, but will pass away quickly.

Next year we must quit acting like fussy kids on the playground and work together to fully enter the 21st century at last and pull ourselves out of the Cheney-Bush mess. Obama has proven since day 1 that he is a deep thinker and a reasonable man of great intelligence. May it rub off on all of us! Let us quit worshiping ignorance and each of us make a personal effort to grow smarter with each passing year. Our time is almost over....our work of the future must be to leave a country that is good to our children and grandchildren. That will never happen as long as we speak as a child, understand as a child, think as a child.

We must digest the facts that the United States will soon no longer be the dominant nation on earth and that the rule of white men is over. We must learn to share and to trust and to turn away from the kind of silliness and hatred currently displayed by the Republican Party. They're poison and we're on our last legs.

Keep Jesus as your friend if you must, but make facts your new savior. Quit spreading lies and hate and clean up your own yard before attacking the neighbor...in fact...do us a favor by not attacking your neighbor at all. To all adults....come out come out wherever you are! We have a world to save and we can't do it using the mental processes of a child. Adults Unite!

>>...frayed syntax, bungled grammar and run-on sentences that ramble on long after thought has given out completely are a candidate's valuable traits? <
Dick Cavett

Tell me how this differs from what's been in the White House for the past eight years?

Oh, OK. I must admit she doesn't have an MBA from Harvard.

Bush created oil companies (which failed).

Palin taxes oil companies and redistributes the oil revenue.

That's a pretty big difference.

The woman is a wild-card in addition to being the only proven Socialist on the ticket.

.

Cato,
Fairly likely. In fact, there have been discussions (even negotiations between the Bush and Obama folks) regarding pre-emptive pardons for administration officials. It would be unprecedented, and I'm not sure if it could stand up to a Supreme Court challenge. However, the pardon would hold the standing of an executive order (and we all know how much of a fan Bush is of those executive orders), so the court battles would be lengthy and expensive just to indicte a person that receives one. You can expect that several players of the Neocon game will be getting one in their stocking this Christmas.

MT & Zelda, y'all are hatemongers plain and simple.

Zelda, some doctors are idiots. that's one reason they have malpractive insurance. A july surgery? Imagine how long it would be before she would get a surgery in a state-run system. You think Obama's going to make the government a well oiled machine?

"Then I guess you'd really understand how blacks feel after CENTURIES of discrimination in this country, slavery or second-class citizenship, and not even being allowed the opportunity of applying for many jobs much less being considered for a job.
Glad to know you can feel about 0.1% of their pain."

yes, Jake. I think you're on to something. Blacks were oppressed for so long that we OWE it to them to give them opportunities over whites now. oh brother. tell you what. Go to your bank account and take out all $116.72. Hand it to the nearest brotha and tell him thanks for all the hard work. then maybe you can stop feeling guilty about what your great, great, great , great grandpappy did once upon a time and move on with your life.

and for you DBI, you consistently quote the Bible when it's convenient to make a point. God may not have struck you down. that would have been an easy out for you. wonder why your life is so shitty? now you know. quit looking for everyone else to blame and take some responsibility.

Jake the Snake said:
>>>>

Horse hockey.

Jake, my Irish/Italian ancestors were not welcomed when they came over here because they were "foreign" and Catholic. They were forced to live in slums and weren't allowed to apply for many jobs. But they learned English... fought for the Union... worked hard and worked their way up. Catholics worked hard and became doctors, lawyers, policemen... pretty much everything. Even pezzonovante govenment bureaucrats.

Blacks today have exactly the same opportunities. But they have to work like the rest of us. But based on your faulty logic, we as a nation should probably call all Catholics a special class and givem them Affirmative Action benefits, right?

Affirmative Action had the right instints but the wrong approach. Tokenism put less qualified people into jobs causing everybody to dislike it. Tokenism makes blacks LOOK inferior... in tokenism, personal ability has nothing to do with success, only your skin color.

But from now on, I'll make sure my employees are only Catholic. After all, I have to make up for the way white Protestant Anglos treated Catholics 150 years ago (yes, I'm being sarcastic.)

Eureka Springs said:
>>>>

Eureka, I spent a lot of years working for other people, scraping by until I could start my own business. Even now I still consult a lot with the old company to bring in some extra cash. Please let me show you where I am building on other people's backs:

When I hire a plumber, I pay him the going rate for the job. When I hire an electrician, I pay him for his skill. When I hire a roofer, I pay good money for a good job. I pay my HVAC guy to keep the tenants' heat on.

In my rental properties, I do not accept HUD Section 8, nor will I do so. I don't need to suck at the government's tit to make my fortune. And I know a lot of others like me; people who started restaurants. People who worked their asses off to scrape through college. Therefore I would respectfully disagree with your statement that "most" get rich through government contracts.

But I absolutely agree with you that many have done so. And I strongly agree with you that the bailout is a f'ing disgrace. If I made bad business decisions, there would be nobody to pick me up. I'm sick of the Bush Cronies. Let them go out of business. let Chase fail. Let GM fail. Let Ford fail. Let Wachovia fail. They made stupid decisions for the fast buck, and don't waste my tax money on them.

Eureka and Zelda both spoke of a single payer health insurance system. That's another place I disagree. I worked enough years in Medicare/Medicaid to see fraud and corruption on a rampant scale (especially Tennessee.) Medicare will go broke in 11 years, Medicaid soon after. Giving all insurance over to the feds is like bailing them out... and how long until they mismanage the health care system into Britain's?

Or worse... can you imagine being denied a life saving treatment because of your voting record? I can. It has happened in other countries. Or a bit of humor: think about the clerks at the Revenue Dept when you want to register your car tags. Do you want THEM to decide what medical treatment you're allowed to have?

Like I said, the liberals make a good conscience. All of you make me think about my positions. Perhaps I am being negative, but my training taught me to look for the worst outcome and prevent it.

Well, I will say this... if everyone is covered under single payer, there would be much more public scrutiny of the program..and there would be far less ability or reason to deny someone care due to BS such as their party affiliation.

That argument reminds me of Reagan singling out a few welfare folks driving caddy's... using those examples is no reason to end up decades later continuing to deny dignity to tens of millions.. because of a few bad apples. All the while a a couple of thousand bad apples at the top of the pyramid are burning and looting everyones treasure... using much the same rationale you do now.

I cannot for the life of me, imagine the corruption inside medicare/caid is anywhere near what it is in the private insurance arena. However, corruption wherever it lies.. should not be the excuse which keeps us from doing the right thing..and first and foremost caring for all (including 50 million with no coverage) should be the at the top of the list.

Gallup poll finding that while only 45 percent of Americans want to see Palin have a national political future (and 52 percent of Americans do not),

Almost the exact same numbers as for Hillary?

Again, you ignore centuries of slavery. The points about Irish, catholics, etc., pale in comparison to that institution's impact on blacks in our country. Affirmative Action, like any large bureaucratic program designed to correct social ills, had its minor flaws but overall it provided an avenue for many deserving blacks to gain employment that was being denied them based on their race.

The horse hockey mainly lies in comparing a relatively short term social bias against a major, centuries long bias like slavery. Only the American Indians struggle and suffering can compare and even that comes in second when you consider that Indians did fight back, had periods of independence, and never really were enslaved.

Rather than give Affirmative Action a blanket endorsement (it does have problems - both perceived and real), I ask you to click on my name for an in-depth look at Affirmative Action from a research viewpoint. It is supportive but quite critical. Data indicates there are still problems for women and minorities when it comes to getting fair treatment in the work place.

Janet Helms said it best: "The myth that only women and minorities benefit from these policies appears to be fueled by society's denial of our nation's history of many forms of specifically targeted discrimination, especially racial and cultural. Thus, for affirmative action policies to continue, and to work more effectively than in the past, it is necessary for Americans to begin a dialogue about (a) what affirmative action should accomplish, particularly with respect to racial classification and culture in our society, and (b) proof that all Americans stand to gain from these policies. It will not be an easy dialogue.

However, the process of developing and implementing affirmative action policies that are perceived as being fair and equitable requires that Americans learn to discuss society's racial and cultural ills seriously, accept their responsibilities for either maintaining or eliminating discrimination, and identify all the true beneficiaries of affirmative action. "

If you are looking for the worst outcome and you wish to do so with a good conscience, then after weighing all the pros and cons of affirmative action and checking what research shows on its impact, then consider what happens if there is no program to keep employers from using race as a reason to bar someone from employment.

Like you, I believe that tokenism should be avoided whenever possible, but discrimination should be rooted out of the workplace and education system with all due haste and diligence. Tokenism is a problem but discrimination is a menace.

Sorry about URL connection on previous post. Click on name. Type Key gets ornery at times and chose to do so during last post.

Core Republican values are NOT defined by liberals. The core values are small government, low taxes and strong national defense.

I think that what is told us in Matthew 24th chapter of the bible is right upon us...
Ye people need to forget the past and worry about your future because it looks sad.

Ye can't put the blame on the republican party but you can put the blame squarely on the shoulders of Bush and his cronies.
I never thought a self serving greedy man would ever get to be leader of our not so Christian nation.
If we are not a Christian nation what are we? A nation of bastards that don't have a God.

About 1/3 of my health care dollar goes to fund insurance companies. Single-payer eliminates a large part of that. There's no consumer free market in our current system. It is designed and operated to make the largest income possible for insurance and related companies, not to optimize the cost of health care to our society.

Matthew 5 pretty much is in opposition to every aspect of the Republican party platform.

No arguments there, strange, but the omissions are glaring. What about the core values as to balanced budgets, deficit spending, national debt, businessmen thinking, law and order, abortion and gay rights in America? Bush preached all these conservative values but noow he's a corporate socialist, throwing hundreds of billions of dollars at corporations that screwed up. We won't even discuss the budgets he submitted to the Congress other than to mention they were patterned after the two previous fiscal conservatives in the White House: his father and Reagan.

Republican governors did quite well in recent elections. We'll see the pendulum swing the other way in 2 years after people realize the huge mistake it was to give DemonRATS control of the congress and the Presidency. Enjoy it while you can.

Chasv - Bush has done a much better job than Kerry would have ever done. Bush's biggest problem is in his willingness to bend over backwards to work with DemonRATS. He failed to stick to conservative principles, and as a result the Republican party had to pay a price. Bush has faced an unprecedented personal attack from moveon.org, which will be spending over 20 million over to ensure that he gets no credit for anything he has accomplished. Given Bush's poor communication skills, he has allowed the moveon.org idiots to drive public opinion and blame him for many things that the DemonRATic controlled congress has grave responsibility. John McCain isn't much of a Republican. He wanted Joe Lieberman as his VP, and he is a RINO who has worked with DemonRATS at every opportunity, particularly when it gets his name on major legislation. If he had been elected, he would be doing the business of the Democrats in congress and taking the blame for their idiotic policies. At least with Obama in charge, the Democrats can get the full blame for their stupid policies.

It is so typical that a conservative blogger whose many entries involve defining, demeaning, and and dissing the liberal viewpoint takes on the mantle of self-righteousness and declares it is unfair for any liberal to define conservative core values. PUH-LEASE!!!!

This country has spoken strongly in the last election that it is tired of those who have controlled our nation and the Republican Party over the past 8 years. You may complain about those you think might be controlling Obama and the Democrats, but the electorate has said it is fed up with those it knows have been controlling Bush and the Republicans. No amount of excuses, denials, fear-mongering, or smears can change that fact.

They say that money talks and bullshit walks. The Republican Party was bankrupt in values and the country told them to take a walk. No amount of excuses, denials, fear-mongering, or smears can change that fact.

The country voted to show that they were tired of excuses, denials, fear-mongering and smears. And.......no amount of excuses, denials, fear-mongering, or smears can change that fact.

"The use of profanity is nothing more than a weak mind trying to express itself."

"Profanity is the common crutch of a conversational cripple." ~ Jay Alexander

"It is no harm to be an ass, if one is content to bray and not kick." ~ Mark Twain

It was the Republicans and Bush's moving from those core values that people rejected. That is why I and several million more conservatives stayed at home.

Severus, it's not him doing a better job than so and so but I know it is him and others who made a trillion and half dollars on the oil price gouging.
Bailing out aig and others was a high crime against the working tax paying citizens of this nation..
I don't know what's keeping this country from sinking in the sands of time. O, yeah I know, it is the working citizens that is keeping this ship afloat.

I believe our country is in trouble because they learned how to cheat, lie, steal and destroy at some college university. They learned to get all they can from the tax paying citizens any way they can and do it with impunity. They are rotten people given over to reprobate minds.

Those conservative social values that you talked about have done pretty well with the voters. Even those who voted for obama voted to keep marriage to one man and one woman.

Thanks, strange. As I have said more than once, the Repubs of today are not the old traditional Repubs of Taft/Dirkson days and the same can be said of today's Democrats. Neither party can win elections from strictly their home base. About 38 % of the voters say they are Democrats, about 36 % say they are Republicans and 26 % of the voters say they are independent. And.....there are not permanent majorities in America. It will swing back to the GOP eventually. Voters are fickle.

It wasn't the Republican Party that sponsored and approved the Community Reinvestment Act. It wasn't Republicans that spoke in favor of IGNORING the recommendations of regulators to place greater controls on Fannie and Freddie. The Community Reinvestment Act removed the regulations governing the granting of home loans. It was Fannie and Freddie that bundled these bad loans with good ones and sold them as securities in a deceptive scheme to hide those bad loans to investors who bought those securities. The house came tumbling down because social engineers wanted to give home loans to people who had no possible way of paying them off.

Strange, Max B has posted more than once evidence refuting the role of Fannie and Freddie. Other bloggers have called you out on it numerous times and you remain like a jack in the box.

86% of the failing loans for the past 7 years were made by private firms.

When Freddie and Frannie were being reined in guess which U.S. Senator killed it?

Hint, he was from Tenn.

.

THANKS SEVERUS. AND CHASV. BET YOU ALL DIDNT KNOW YOU HAVE BEEN VISITED BY THE OMNICIENT ROYM.... OH YES THE MURTISHAW AMONGST US. AT LAST. NOT JUST MINIONS.
FULL OF IT AS USUAL

SLINGERLAND AND LEFTWING.. MUSIC TO MY EARS. AT LAST A GLIMMER OF LIGHT IN THIS DARK
DEMORAT BLOG. THANK YOU

THANKS SEVERUS. AND CHASV. BET YOU ALL DIDNT KNOW YOU HAVE BEEN VISITED BY THE OMNICIENT ROYM.... OH YES THE MURTISHAW AMONGST US. AT LAST. NOT JUST MINIONS.
FULL OF IT AS USUAL

SLINGERLAND AND LEFTWING.. MUSIC TO MY EARS. AT LAST A GLIMMER OF LIGHT IN THIS DARK
DEMORAT BLOG. THANK YOU

THANKS SEVERUS. AND CHASV. BET YOU ALL DIDNT KNOW YOU HAVE BEEN VISITED BY THE OMNICIENT ROYM.... OH YES THE MURTISHAW AMONGST US. AT LAST. NOT JUST MINIONS.
FULL OF IT AS USUAL

SLINGERLAND AND LEFTWING.. MUSIC TO MY EARS. AT LAST A GLIMMER OF LIGHT IN THIS DARK
DEMORAT BLOG. THANK YOU

THANKS SEVERUS. AND CHASV. BET YOU ALL DIDNT KNOW YOU HAVE BEEN VISITED BY THE OMNICIENT ROYM.... OH YES THE MURTISHAW AMONGST US. AT LAST. NOT JUST MINIONS.
FULL OF IT AS USUAL

SLINGERLAND AND LEFTWING.. MUSIC TO MY EARS. AT LAST A GLIMMER OF LIGHT IN THIS DARK
DEMORAT BLOG. THANK YOU

SORRY FOR THE DOUBLE CLUTCHING ENTRIES. YOUR SITE SAID TO TRY AGAIN. AND SO I DID.. LOOKS LIKE 3 TIMES. TILL IT TOOK. MY NOT BAD, JUST FOLLOWIN ORDERS

Well, LA, join the club. Several of us have double or triple-clutched due to this site's idiosyncracies. BTW, does anyone remember ol' Lumberjack from many moons ago? I think Whackjob 1-ad nauseum is the reincarnation of same. Style and substance are the same.

"It is no harm to be an ass, if one is content to bray and not kick." ~ Mark Twain

"It is a harm to be a WideAss, especially if one continuously and endlessly brays mindlessly."
- Roy Murtishaw

By my count Mr. ALL CAPS, you missed the lesson in kindergarten labeled learning to count :

" SORRY FOR THE DOUBLE CLUTCHING ENTRIES. .....................LOOKS LIKE 3 TIMES."

Three identical kudos from you is a little extravagant however,......... but I'm flattered to have you as such a fan! I suppose your ALL CAPS style is a clever way of giving me a Palinesque
"SHOUTOUT."

One more thing, WideAss. The next time you're attending kindergarten class you might want to check out the spelling of the word, "OMNISCIENT". Cheers.
Omniscient enough to know how to use a dictionary