THE SOCIAL SECURITY CON GAME....If there's any single area where conservatives have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, it's in convincing the populace that government sucks. Sure, they got a great kickstart from Vietnam and Watergate, but it was decades of railing against waste and fraud and incompetence that finally won the day for them. [my emphasis]
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Ain't it the truth. That's what I don't get about the average Joe Republican. He's one of those guys who's supposed to hate big government, hate deficit spending, hate nation-building. Yet, with all that, he voted for Bush and is proud of it. How the average Republican guy on the street (as opposed to the ones feeding at the government trough) can convince himself to look the other way as Chimpy runs up the deficit, increases the size of the federal government to record levels, and undertakes this nation-building folly in Iraq is incomprehensible to me. How can 51% of this country refuse to see the obvious? Quoting the Sister:
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You might be wondering, as I was, what the “inefficient or redundant programs” to which Bush was referring are. It turns out, his choices finally clear up what he really means by “compassionate conservative”—basically, conserving all your compassion in favor of pork barrel spending and unjust wars.
[. . .]
Do you remember, back when Bush asked for his first supplemental for the Iraq war? $87 bil, I think it was. Rememember when the Democrats bitched about the growing buget deficit? What was his response? Congress should put a cap on discretionary spending. Now, back in the old days, the Repub congressweasels would have toed the line. This bunch act like kids who were just given the keys to the candy store. So now, Chimpy has a plan to cut the deficit in half in 5 years.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's budget will propose slashing grants to local law enforcement agencies and cutting spending for environmental protection, American Indian schools and home-heating aid for the poor, The Associated Press learned Saturday.
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According to figures obtained by the AP, Bush would slice a $600 million grant program for local police agencies to $60 million next year. Grants to local firefighters, for which Congress provided $715 million this year, would fall to $500 million.
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The Environmental Protection Agency's $8.1 billion would drop by $450 million, or about 6 percent, with most of the reductions coming in water programs and projects won by lawmakers for their home districts.
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So, not only is the EPA's budget getting cut (something you'd expect from the Repubs of any era), but the heroes Bush loved to pose with on the campaign trail are getting it hard and dry too.
So, I ask you, where have all the traditional Republican values gone? I mean, even Nixon got us out of Vietnam. Now they're all gung ho to 'bring democracy' to the brown people of the Islamic world. Well they're gung ho if it's other peoples' kids going to war.
"For the record, I did in fact mean it. I wrote it here. As for why my sorry a** isn't in the kill zone, lots of people think this is a searingly pertinent question. No answer I could give -- I'm 35 years old, my family couldn't afford the lost income, I have a baby daughter, my a** is, er, sorry, are a few -- ever seem to suffice."
Jonah Goldberg, war supporter extordinaire, yet the poor bastard has a kid and bills and a big ass, and none of those folks who are killed and wounded over there have families or bills or anything like that. He gets a good slapdown from Juan Cole.
Goldberg helped send nearly 1500 brave Americans to their deaths and helped maim over 10,000, not to mention all the innocent Iraqi civilians he helped get killed. He helped dragoon 140,000 US troops in Iraq. And he does not have the courage of his convictions. His excuse is that he couldn't afford to take the pay cut!
So, my deal is, when are these people gonna wake up? I truly thought that Iraq going down the tubes after 'Mission Accomplished', they'd come to their senses before the election. But when I read something like this:
From Omaha:"Moocher!" a Bush supporter yelled [at a privatization protester].
(via Omaha World Herald)
That's what Bush supporters believe in their hearts.
Never mind that I paid into the system to support my mother and father—and yours, and the Bush supporters. That's "mooching."
Fuck 'em.
And we're worried about civil war in Iraq? It seems as if half the population has been taken over by the body snatchers. It also looks to me the Fascists who are in control of this government will not go quietly into the night. They've worked too hard to consolidate power. Somehow I get the funny feeling something will happen (before the end of Bush's second term) that will enable the Republican machine to hold onto control of the government. It's what worries me most about this administration. They're doing so much to 'change the rules' instead of working within the guidelines of the Constitution and in collaboration with the Congress. It seems to me (maybe I have my tinfoil hat on) a serious waste of effort if the Democrats retake control and undo it (which they certainly will). From the way they've brainwashed most of the population, hijacked the media and a religion, and protected their contrubutors, they plan to stay a long time, regardless of how badly Chimpy's policies ruin this once-great nation. I mean, Hitler did basically the same things and it took a world war to remove him.
