“Watch out, Steve, I’m a conservative!” was said to me a day or two ago by someone I quite like and respect.
Maybe so, but last time I looked up the word (for a post on this blog), the word “conservative” in no way embraced the kind of radical ideological extremism and impatient, bullying arrogant pig-ignorance this President and Administration have inflicted on the planet.
Let me be blunt:
George W. Bush and the present “conservatives” in power are not conservative by any stretch of that word’s definition. If you can demonstrate to me otherwise, I am listening -- but first, please, look up the word “conservative,” and let’s agree to adhere to that word’s common English language definition as our starting point.
From the time it was evident -- truthfully, the first time I heard him speak -- that George W. Bush had delusions of adequacy, it has been an offense to even imagine the man as our President.
He has proven that first impression correct every single day since.
This is not prejudicial, nor is it some sort of partisan fealty to some opposing party (it isn’t, I’m independent, and that don’t mean “Independent,” thanks). This is just keeping my eyes & ears open, seeing and hearing what we all see and hear, and remaining honest with myself.
I am tired of having used toilet paper (excuse me, is that our Constitution and Bill of Rights?) crammed in my mouth daily by blinkered tools insisting that if I don’t like the taste of fresh ass-wipe, I am by definition “unpatriotic.” We having all been force fed shit for over five years (not counting the Reagan and prior Bush presidencies, of course), and all we know today better than we knew five years ago is that (a) shit tastes like shit and (b) Bush is not a conservative. If you fail to recognize either (a) or (b) as valid, by all means, go & enjoy enjoy your daily diet of dung, but don’t tell me it’s “good,” or “American,” and fuck you if you think me unpatriotic.
Just thought I’d get all that right out in the open, in case I had been in the least bit vague at any point.
Have a great weekend!
Maybe so, but last time I looked up the word (for a post on this blog), the word “conservative” in no way embraced the kind of radical ideological extremism and impatient, bullying arrogant pig-ignorance this President and Administration have inflicted on the planet.
Let me be blunt:
George W. Bush and the present “conservatives” in power are not conservative by any stretch of that word’s definition. If you can demonstrate to me otherwise, I am listening -- but first, please, look up the word “conservative,” and let’s agree to adhere to that word’s common English language definition as our starting point.
From the time it was evident -- truthfully, the first time I heard him speak -- that George W. Bush had delusions of adequacy, it has been an offense to even imagine the man as our President.
He has proven that first impression correct every single day since.
This is not prejudicial, nor is it some sort of partisan fealty to some opposing party (it isn’t, I’m independent, and that don’t mean “Independent,” thanks). This is just keeping my eyes & ears open, seeing and hearing what we all see and hear, and remaining honest with myself.
I am tired of having used toilet paper (excuse me, is that our Constitution and Bill of Rights?) crammed in my mouth daily by blinkered tools insisting that if I don’t like the taste of fresh ass-wipe, I am by definition “unpatriotic.” We having all been force fed shit for over five years (not counting the Reagan and prior Bush presidencies, of course), and all we know today better than we knew five years ago is that (a) shit tastes like shit and (b) Bush is not a conservative. If you fail to recognize either (a) or (b) as valid, by all means, go & enjoy enjoy your daily diet of dung, but don’t tell me it’s “good,” or “American,” and fuck you if you think me unpatriotic.
Just thought I’d get all that right out in the open, in case I had been in the least bit vague at any point.
Have a great weekend!
posted by SRBissette at
9:56 AM
5 Comments:
Spot on Steve. Cheers to the various Republican senators (there's a couple here and there) who have openly come out and said they disagree with Bush's policies. (Maybe they knew letting the 'crazies in the basement' up for air was a bad idea). Actually, jeers to them too as they could have put up a stronger fight. I know Senator Byrd is usually cutting in his criticism. Maybe the others are afraid of being Wellstoned.
Hey, I'm back...
OK, I been thinking - Now why is it okay for you to tell us dung-eaters not to tell you that what we believe in is "American"?
hey don't forget opinons are like u know what... everyone has one and they all stink at one time or another...that's what makes this country great our ability to express. hey hb3 is wellstone like welloiled..yesdear
Well, Dave, there's opinions, and there's facts.
Let's look at a few, and then see if this fits anyone's view of "conservative":
* President Bush has not vetoed any spending-related bill in five years. Not one.
* In the meantime, though, he has racked up the greatest national deficit in US history, period.
* In fact, for the fourth year in a row, the Bush Administration is seeking to raise the U.S. government's debt ceiling. It's already up to $8.18 trillion -- is the sky the limit for this President?
Congress is likely to pass this request for a higher debt ceiling, as failure to do so would likely cause a federal default by March, precipitating a global economic crisis that would rattle bond markets, force interest rates higher and shake the economy to its now-shaky foundations. Heaven help us when the next hurricane season hits, if the nation survives the economic blow of the winter weather in all its extremes, from floods and wildfires to the slow, steady home crisis of dealing with escalating fuel and heating oil costs.
* This deficit has grown by over $2 trillion under Bush, and that's not factoring in the surplus he inherited and immediately squandered (see below). Among the "fuzzy math" relevent to all this is the budget deficit for the current fiscal year being cited by the White House as being "only" $333 billion -- trumpeted this very week by our Prez as a sign his economic strategy was "working" -- but that $333 billion figure is a sham, neither inclusive of the cost of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wars, nor factoring the additional expenditures to "fix" the alternative minimum tax. Furthermore, entitlements were cut by $39.7 billion (the decisive vote cast by Vice President Cheney last month) to offset Bush's latest planned tax cut for the wealthy, which will clock in at over $100 billion. As you all know, he is again pushing for those cuts to be permanent. Thus, the deficit is growing and will swell incredibly, whatever the President says this and next week as he ballyhoos his "accomplishments" and "fiscal record."
* Let's look at that record, shall we?
$236 billion the surplus President Bill Clinton left President George Bush. $8.146 - $8.18 trillion (sources vary, but not by much; all agree it's already well over $8 trillion) is the current debt under President George Bush.
To accurately quantify the sum squandered by this Administration, however, one must add the surplus to that deficit, which no one does -- President Bush pissed through that before 9/11, granting his much-desired tax cuts to the rich under the guise of "boosting the economy," though during the same time period we have all seen CEO salaries, benefits, and severance packages inflate beyond belief while employee benefits and retirements have been truncated, cut and/or defaulted (in order to subsidize those further benefits for the CEOs -- do the math). Furthermore, most current corporate CEO benefits include the corporation paying their taxes in full -- who needs the cuts?
* Over 6 million working Americans have lost their health insurance since President Bush took office. In this same period, health insurance and care costs have skyrocketed, and those Americans still insured have annually had to pay more for plans that provide less, not greater, coverage. A health care and personal economic crisis is inevitable, and approaching with alarming rapidity.
* Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan played along with this Administration from the beginning of Bush's term in office, but that has soured. What he said in April 2005 is even truer today: "...the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, in which large deficits result in rising interest rates and ever-growing interest payments that augment deficits in future years. ... Unless that trend is reversed, at some point these deficits would cause the economy to stagnate or worse."
Per usual, once one gets into the real numbers, the silence is deafening.
These are emotional arguments, by and large, and all they do is neatly derail the real issues we should be focused upon.
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