WORDS of WISDOM by

Richard E. Walrath 2005

 

 

On the subject of the Iraq constitution draft

Quote:

Chapter 1

Article 2: Islam is the official religion of the state and is the main source of legislation. No law that contradicts its rules can be issued. This constitution preserves the Islamic identity for the majority of Iraqis and respects the rights of other religions.


It would be hard to imagine how things could have turned out worse in Iraq. The last thing cristyun right-wingers wanted was a country whose laws are based on Islam. Iraq is not going to be a democracy. It's going to be a theocracy.

-Walrath 07-26-2005
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On the subject of John Roberts vs. Julia Roberts

Times and things change. Slavery at one time was legal in this country and the right to hold slaves was upheld by the Supreme Court. Most people--but not all—would say that decision by the Supreme Court was wrong.

I think Bush picked the wrong Roberts. Instead of John Roberts, he should have nominated Julia Roberts. She had lots of legal experience as a law student in The Pelican Brief and she would have kept the woman's seat Sandra Day O'Connor is now vacating.

I wonder how much time the Supreme Court justices spend arguing and discussing law before making a decision. I think when they sit down to go over a case; they know how it's going to come out.

-Walrath 07-26-2005
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On the effect revaluing Chinese currency would have on the trade deficit

I think about the basket of currencies that China is going to use in revaluing the remenbi which means, I think, the people's money.

They're going to kick it way up 2.1%! I wonder how much of an effect that's going to have on the United States trade deficit of nearly $700 billion this year.

 
In the meantime, Kodak and HP are laying off 25,000 employees.

-Walrath 07-21-2005
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On what it would take to unite the Democratic party.

The Democrats are never going to have an issue to unite them until Roe V. Wade is overturned. That may be enough to rev them up. That would give the issue back to the Democrats. But I don't think the Repugnants will ever do that.

The way it is now, they have the issue and they're smart enough to realize that over-turning Roe V. Wade would cost them votes. They don't want to overturn it--the idea is just to keep talking about it and let the dumb right-wingers think that's what they're going to do.

-Walrath -07-21-2005
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On the latest medical scandal in Ohio

New scandal in ahia. BWC has been over-paying hospitals for years for the injuries suffered by workers. Hospitals have been kicking back hundreds of thousands of dollars to state officials for their political campaigns.

Watch for breaking news!

-Walrath 07-11-2005
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On the subject security in Iraq

I think even right-wingers are beginning to get the picture. The idea now is to give people the impression that the Iraqi are ready to take over the government and provide the security the country needs.

If 135,000 trained American troops have been unable to provide security for Iraq, it's not likely that Iraqis are going to be able to do that before next year.

But as long as Bush can come up with some face-saving slogan, that will be enough for his right-wing base. They are never going to admit that they have been totally wrong from the beginning.

Item now on Drudge Report says that secret plans are now well advanced to pull out British and American troops from Iraq.

I think this will happen before next year's election.

-Walrath 07-10-2005
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On the subject of the London subway bombings

How long have British troops been in Iraq? That's about how long the terrorists have been planning to bomb the London subway. That's why, Bush says, its better to fight the terrorists in Iraq than it is over here.

I wonder what Tony Blair says? British troops are fighting the terrorists in Iraq, but it didn't stop them from bombing the London subway, did it?

-Walrath 07-09-2005
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On the increase to the DJI after the London bombings

Terrorists blow up the London subway killing dozens of people and injuring 900 others, and the United States stock market has its best week in about a month or longer.

Bush invaded Iraq after the 911 attack by Osama bin Laden, headquartered in the country known as Afghanistan. What country is Blair going to invade now? There already are British troops in Iraq.

Go figure.

-Walrath 07-08-2005
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On the subject of the VA budget shortfall

Are only veterans eligible for health care at the VA? I suppose that makes some kind of sense with a billion dollar short fall in the VA budget. But I think that means that most dependents of veterans probably have a tough time paying for their own health care

Unless you're in a group plan, you're pretty much out of luck. Individual plans cost a great deal of money and the benefits don't amount to that much. There's at least a $1000 deductible and after that it's an 80-20 split.

If you have any pre-existing conditions, for get it--you can't afford the premiums. Unless you're young and healthy, you're out of luck.

-Walrath 07-07-2005
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On the subject of the Fed interest hikes

Rates have been going up every time the Fed has met for the last nine times, so that is/was not too hard to figure. The thing is getting into a fixed means a couple of thousand dollars of closing costs, not to mention, you're starting all over again with almost all of your payment going for interest.

-Walrath 07-07-2005
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On the subject of what's not taught in school

Kids are taught to memorize and when they can't remember, they don't know what to do. They never learn the why of anything.

Why is almost always more important than what.

-Walrath 07-05-2005
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On the subject of the water shortage in Iraq

This is the hottest part of the summer in Iraq. It was 92 here in Columbus the other day. I don't think I've seen a day when I looked at the temperature in Baghdad that it was less than a hundred in the past month.

I don't know how anybody lives in a place where the temperature is 100 F day after day even with AC and water. Half of the country is unemployed which means if they are anywhere they're in their homes with no water and not even a fan.

Once in a very great while the power has gone off here in the summer for maybe an hour or so. The first thing you think about is the food in the refrigerator and the freezer. What do they do in Iraq for food? Where do they keep it if they have any? Without electricity, their freezers and refrigerators--if they have--aren't good for much.

You never see anything on TV about how a family manages to stay alive assuming they aren't bombed or shot.

-Walrath 07-04-2005
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On the subject of equal pay

Do you think anyone believes that, even adjusted for inflation, George Bush should be paid eighty (16) times as much as George Washington whose salary was $25,000?

What is that guy getting paid 16 times as much as George Washington for?

Babe Ruth was getting $50,000 a year when Herbert Hoover was president and he was getting less than $50,000.

When asked about this, Ruth said, Yeah, but I had a better year than he did.

Come to think of it, I bet all of Babe Ruth's years were better than those of Hoover's.

-Walrath 07-03-2005
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On the reason why the national debt increased significantly during the last two days of June 2005

The 30th is the end of the month, and the end of the quarter.  For many firms, it's also the end of the fiscal year--not the government fiscal year, but for others.

That may have had something to do with it. But it's hard to tell. I don't think we’ve had straight numbers in the last four years.

It's probably to buy water. Water by the jug for 24 million people costs a lot of money, especially in the summer in Iraq when the temperature is well over 100 F. It was 110 or 112 yesterday.

I don't really see how that situation can go on much longer the way it's going now.

People can live without electricity and AC even in temperatures well over 100 F as they are now. But they can't live without water to drink. Trying to bring in water for millions of people is not possible.

Something is going to have to change very soon.

Bush has already proven that there is no way the United States can afford to stay in Iraq. The insurgents have cut off the oil supply there which was supposed to supply enough oil to keep oil prices down. Take a look at the price of oil now and what it was before the Bush invasion of Iraq.

Now the insurgents are cutting off the water supply in Iraq. The country is on its way to becoming a basket case. Keeping 25 million people alive is beyond the capability of the United States.

This country can't afford Bush and his war very much longer. He should resign.

-Walrath 07-03-2005
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On the subject of attacking Washington D.C.

There might not be anybody left to vote, but there would definitely be somebody left in the government. They've all got bunkers, and safe, secure places to hide in, or planes to fly away in with Bush leading the way.

-Walrath 07-03-2005
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On the subject of Americans supporting the troops

Sounds like they hired extra readers to censor emails over the holiday--especially ones containing articles about burning gas and oil.

The insurgents in Iraq have moved on now to cutting off the water supply there since amuricans are doing such a good job for them by consuming so much gas and oil.

And how are Americans supporting the troops over the holiday? AAA has just announced that Americans will set an all- time record of miles traveled over the three-day holiday. Price of oil and gasoline may be at an all-time high, but that's not going to keep Americans home. Support the troops by traveling that extra mile this weekend.

-Walrath 07-02-2005
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On the subject of Valerie Plame

Karl Rove is being fingered as the guy who spilled the beans to Novak two years ago about Valerie Plame being a covert CIA agent. What I want to know now is where is the story about Bush knowing for two years who it was in the White House who gave out this information?

Can't anybody in the media even go back to see what Bush is on record as saying about this? Words like, "how much he wanted to get to the bottom of it. He was having a complete investigation, cooperating with the Justice Department.

What a joke he and the media are!

-Walrath 07-02-2005
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On the subject of VA funding

There was an item in the news today about the VA being a billion dollars short in their budget. Congress is going to pass a "supplemental" to make up for the shortage. Nobody stated what caused the shortage, but 40,000 wounded soldiers in Iraq might be a good place to start.

That was never anything mentioned about that.

-Walrath 07-02-2005

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Meanwhile, Back in Ahia...

Things are going just great in ahia -- er,
Ohio -- there's talk now that our renowned Governor, Bob Taft, may be thinking of resigning. That's a small fish compared with the one we need to catch, but at least it would be a step in the right direction.

Democrats are running ads already about the Noe rare-coin investment scandal. The Repugnants, for now, don't have too much to say. They've followed the Taft plan of cutting income taxes and raising property taxes, which will cut funding for schools.

But, hey -- when you're trying to come up with a plan to bring business into Ahia, what's a few schools here and there? Something's got to give.

Right after graduation, far too many of the smart kids cut and run anyway. People can't get out of ahia fast enough as population barely stays the same.

There are a lot of old people in Ahia who don't have much else besides their homes. A property tax hit them the hardest. What they ought to be doing is raising income taxes on top incomes in order to provide services to the state.

People might be willing to stay in Ahia if they did that.

I'll turn out the lights when I leave...

Richard Walrath, 26 June 05
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Help Yourself to the Good Times

It's always been amazing to me just how little amurkans will settle for. A fill-up at the gas station when gas was around a dollar a gallon, or less, meant trading stamps, a glass or a mug, getting your tires checked, your windshield cleaned, free cup of coffee, and you didn't even have to pump your own gas.

Big Bidness figured out a long time ago that amurkans don't need special care; they don't need to be waited on. They are can-do, do-it-yourself- types. Now, when people go grocery shopping, Big Bidness has them not only buying their groceries, but checking them out, bagging them and hauling them to their cars.

Can it get any better than this?

Richard Walrath, 27 June 2005
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Is There a Doctor in the House?

More and more, people see doctors, not when they're ill, but when it's convenient for doctors to see them. They dutifully queue wherever they're told to, and like a bunch of dumb sheep they just head in any direction they're pointed. Without even a murmur, the sheep, especially the sick ones do whatever they're told to do.

A doctor's visit used to be a low-expense item. I had a doctor once who charged on the basis of how long it had been since his patients had last paid him a visit. The longer it was, the more he charged. His reason was it would take him longer to find out what was wrong with them. He may have been right, but the idea didn't seem to catch on.

Now, a visit to the doctor's office may cost as much as $100. Medicare won't pay this much, so doctors look elsewhere to pick up the difference. Insurance plans won't pay this much, either, so the "elsewhere" ends up being poor people who don't have insurance or Medicare and don't have the $100 either. They solve the problem by waiting until they have to go to the ER of some hospital.

Sometimes we wonder how many tests and drugs are really necessary. The
United States is the most heavily medicated society in the world, and still has more ills, aches and pains, and things wrong with it than almost any other. Not to mention, it leaves nearly 50 million without any health insurance.

The system is all backwards and will still be backwards whether or not I have a doctor, see a doctor, or never see a doctor. I don't see much change happening in the future because most people just won't speak up or speak out about the inequities. And, until people realize just how back- wards our health care system is, it will remain all backwards.

If a person needs to see a doctor, it should not be a choice between going to the ER or waiting two weeks. That's what we have today, and that is just plain wrong.

It doesn't have to be that way, but I don't expect it will change. If it does, I'll be at the head of the new line to change things. I hope you will join me.

Richard Walrath, 27 June 2005

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Things are Looking...Up?

It is almost funny to see what passes for news on TV and then read about the deals the Republicans are pulling every day that never make it to the little screen.

Big news in Ahia for the second week in a row is all about rare coins. Seems like the director of Workers' Compensation has been investing the $50-billion fund in rare coins--not considered one of your safer, conservative types of investment.

But it gets worse -- millions of dollars have been lost or are missing -- $10 to $12 million, it seems. That's bad enough, but Republican campaigns have been funded, would you believe, from the coin fund?

Some folks have suggested that I get out of Ahia while the getting's good, but the way I see it, Ahia has been down so long that people who live here think they're looking up. I thought we had touched bottom last November, but this may be it. The Columbus Dispatch made some liberal noises during the campaign, and then settled down and endorsed Bush. It will be interesting to see if the rare-coin scandal hangs around for the election next year.

I can't leave Ahia now -- I keep telling myself that things have been bad so long, they have to start getting better. Besides, with all that's happened here since the last selection, there ought to be enough for the Dems to sweep all state offices next year -- if they can find some bodies to run. For example, if the same people who voted for Gore in 2000 had voted for Kerry in 2004, that would have been enough to beat Bush. Actually, less than that would have done it. Kerry picked up votes in Ahia this time and a switch of 60,000 votes would have done it.

Where Democrats are really weak is in state and local elections. They ought to have a sweep in Ahia next year, but it's hard to win without somebody to run. Currently, they don't hold a single state office. It's hard to beat somebody with nobody.

Richard Walrath, 7 June 2005
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The Feds' "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Economic Policy

Sometimes it's difficult to tell what the Fed is up to. Or, more important -- why. Right now, it looks like it's dealing in something called "monetization," which is like paying off your credit cards by check, and then being able to cover the checks with more credit card debt (cash advances). That's considered to be inflationary -- not something you would do while raising interest rates, like Alan Greenspan has been doing a nudge at a time -- at least you wouldn't think so.

But nothing seems to make sense anymore. For example, how do you plummet from creating 273,000 jobs in one month to just 78,000 in the next month? How does unemployment go down during the month that created only 78,000 jobs? I think we've had smoke and mirrors for the last four, now going on five, years. It's sad, but it's getting harder and harder for Americans to believe anything put out by the Bush administration anymore.

Greenspan is not looking well these days. I mean physically. But he doesn't look good, either, on any of his economic predictions. Bondholders the world over are saying that a recession is on the way. We're getting very close to an inverted yield curve when short-term and long-term rates are equal to each other.

Greenspan says not to worry -- all that means something different this time around. But the thing that is worrisome this time around -- is that he doesn't say what it means. Or how it's different.

Richard Walrath, 7 June 2005

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You Can't Handle the Truth!

You really wonder just how bad the news would be if you got the real numbers. For March, the job numbers came in about half of what had been predicted and the previous month's job growth was revised downward.

I think the idea is getting through to everybody that they want us all to stay home -- easier to watch people and keep track of them better when they stay home

Just how bad is it when they reveal only 100,000 or so jobs for March? Bad as that is, is that the real number? Or, did they feel that was the worst news that the economy could stand?

Who knows?

-Walrath,
5 April 2005
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If Only...

If there had been a Democratic majority in the House after 911, I 'm sure booosh would have been impeached. At the very least, there would have been an investigation by a House committee controlled by Democrats.

All the stuff that the Repugnuts and the media have swept under the rug would have been shown on TV day after day. Likewise, the same thing if the Democrats had been in control of the Senate.

Control by the Repugnants of the House, the Senate, the White House, and the Supreme Court amounts to a dictatorship. They can do almost anything they want to because they're in control. On top of that, they're in bed with Big Bidness.

Only in amurka.

-Walrath
5 April 2005
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No Place Like Home -- Especially if You Don't Have One...

That drawdown on home equities that we're reading about accounted for as much as 25% of consumer spending last year. This is 1929 all over again except it's homes and real estate. People are buying and flipping homes, just looking for the bigger fool.

This activity is concentrated in the east and west coasts in blue states except for
Nevada, where activity is furious -- 38% gain in housing prices last year.

Red states, except for
Florida, aren't that much involved -- houses there are priced under $100,000 and there is little activity in places like Nebraska.

When the bust comes -- and barring a miracle it will come -- I guess the idea is that only the people in the blue states will suffer.

-Walrath
6 April, 2005
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The Best Laid Plans...

This is not working out as the Repugnants expected. And, it just keeps not working out more every day. Polls show people think that Congress should have stayed home and not gotten involved in the Terri Schiavo case.

The next step was to have been to use the Schiavo case as a lever to get the Bush conservative judges appointed. That doesn't look so likely now, either.

It may not even be necessary for the Democrats to use the filibuster to stop the Bush appointment of right-wing judges. The Repugnants may decide it's too risky to try to change the rule of 60.

Or Not.   -Walrath
6 April 2005
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Where Have All the Good Guys Gone?

If Bush has done nothing else, his war on
Iraq has made it abundantly clear that the Army cannot recruit enough manpower and/or woman power to fight a war by using only volunteers.

To field 150,000 troops in
Iraq, back-door drafts have been used, National Guard troops now make up close to 40% of the boots on the ground and, still, the Army is running short of needed personnel. Now they are talking about suiting up the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) -- veterans who have already served their time -- as well as suggesting that perhaps illegal aliens crossing our borders might be enticed to volunteer if the prize at the end of the tours is US citizenship.

One dimwit on a call-in show today pointed out that the Army was not meeting its quota because it has raised the number needed by 20%. Duh? Troops are being withdrawn from
Germany and elsewhere around the world in order to scrape by.

But just what would the right-wingers do if
North Korea crossed the 38th Parallel again? Nuke 'em? You're talking now about dropping bombs on South Korea. The people there are on our side, remember?

Including the costs of the war in
Iraq, the United States is now spending on defense close to $500 billion a year--an amount nearly equal to that spent on defense by the rest of the world. The Soviet Union went broke trying to match military expenditures of the United States.

But now that the threat of nuclear war with the
Soviet Union is now in the distant past, we are spending more, by far, for a war in Iraq, a third- or fourth-rate power, against insurgents.

And for this, the
United States is spending close to a half-trillion dollars a year. This all must be just a bad dream.

One can only hope...  -Walrath 7 April 2005
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Sometimes the Domestic Product is -- Really Gross...

GDP is the value of the sum of all goods and services produced within a given accounting period--month, quarter, or year. Producing those goods or services with fewer employees increases productivity. In theory, you could produce everything with robots and reduce payrolls to, effectively, zero.

But somewhere along the way, you have to find somebody to buy and pay for all the crap, junk and stuff you're producing. That's where people and jobs come in. Or, in the case of amurka, where jobs get exported to other countries.

We're about at the end of the line. People who have money don't have room for any more cars, and the price of homes has begun to level off. Holding down the number of jobs has kept inflation in check, but I don't see inflation as the problem.

I think we're headed the other way.  -Walrath
9 April 2005

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On the bill to allow oil drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge

If they pass the Alaska Dig bill tomorrow which they won't, it will be five years before anyone will ever see a drop of oil from ANWAR. Any oil coming out of
Alaska is going to be shipped to Japan. Why would you run it all the way to refineries in amurka?

We don't have any refinery capacity, anyway. What would we do with it? The whole idea is another booosh sop to Big Bidness. Walrath 03-18-2005/pj
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On the rising price of gasoline

It's not up to $2.50 yet in ahia, but it's over $3.00 now in
California. Oil is going to $100 a barrel. OPEC is not going to pump more oil just to keep the price of gas down in amurka. Pumping more oil drives the price of oil down and reduces their revenue.

Why would anybody be interested in doing more work and making less money? Corrected for inflation, the price of oil would be about $90 a barrel.

Idiots keep talking about the need to produce more. The answer is to use less, and get busy on alternative fuel research. Digging holes in
Alaska is not going to solve the oil problem.

It makes about as much sense as the boooosh plan for private accounts to save Social Security. – Walrath 03-18-2005/pj
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On Tom DeLay

If they really keep up the pressure, they might actually accomplish something on DeLay. If he is indicted, he has to give up his position as Majority Leader.

That's not enough of a payback for beating Daschle, but it's a start. 03-17-2005/pj
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 On raising the Social Security cap to tax those making over $90,000.00

If people making more than $90,000 don't object to the tax, how many people can there be who aren't in favor of it?

Extend the benefits, too. Tax them, as well, when they reach the upper limits. What you don't want to do is make Social Security a welfare plan by providing it only to lower incomes.

If the rich are receiving the benefits, they won't call it welfare. –Walrath 03-17-2005/pj
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On the lack of news about Bill Clinton's recovery

Bill Clinton hasn't been in the news much since he got out of the hospital. I haven't seen or heard anything at all about him. Hillary is going head-to-head with Greenspan who now wants people to believe everybody was wrong about the surplus and the tax-cuts.

Not everybody, said Hillary to Greenspan. He would have you believe that everybody was in favor of those trillion dollar tax-cuts for the rich and Bid Bidness. –Walrath 03-16-2005/pj
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On credit card debt owed by members of Congress

Some of the House members make more than $150,000. But the thing is why would you carry a balance and pay interest on it? Interest rates on
credit cards aren't cheap.

Some of the members of the House carry some pretty hefty balances on their cards. If they're paying interest on these balances, they are really in bad shape.

But these may be interest free balance transfers where the card companies try to snooker you in with offers too good to be true. You take the money and then can't pay it back when the time comes. Then, it's no longer interest free.

This is the modern check kiting deal that cost the Democrats the House in 1994. –Walrath 03-16-2005/pj
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On the 15% COLA reduction for the European troops

I would think there would be screams. When I was in the military, there were not that many men who were married. Those who were always having a tough time even before the war.

Families left at home now taking a 15% pay cut won't be able to survive. They'll be the first ones up for the new booosh bankruptcy bill.

Support the troops!!! –Walrath 03-16-2005/pj
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On incentives for voting yes on the bankruptcy bill

Well, the bill passed by the Senate was going to pass whether or not any of the Democrats voted for it. After the House passes its version of the bill, the bills go to conference where a compromise bill has to be agreed upon before it goes back to both bodies for an up-or-down vote.

There may very well be some kind of deals that have been made or will be made because 37% of the Democrats agreed to vote for it. I don't know what they are or what they could be.

Maybe we'll find out later on.-Walrath 03-13-2005/pj
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On profits made by credit card companies

banks and credit card companies have been raking in the dough in the past four years. Consumer spending as well as consumer debt is at an all-time high, and people are stretched to the breaking point.

One reason given for passing the bill now is that bankruptcies were expected to explode in the coming months even before the bill was passed.

Ahia had more bankruptcies last year in its history. Even more are anticipated this year. Over half of the household are a paycheck or so away from being broke. –Walrath 03-13-2005/pj
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On the bankruptcy bill vote

Recapping --there were 55 Republicans and 18 Democrats, and one independent voting for the bill making a total of 74. The 19 that voted for the bill are Baucus, Bayh, Biden, Bingaman, Byrd, Carper, Conrad, Inouye, Jeffords, Johnson, Kohl, Landrieu, Lincoln, Nelson (Fl), Nelson (NE), Pryor, Reid, Salazar, and Stebanow. Twenty-five Democrats voted against it.

Why, in particular, did the Minority Leader, Reid, vote for the bankruptcy bill when the majority of Democratic senators did not? What kind of wimpy leader is that? –Walrath 03-13-2005/pj
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On the win for credit card companies and loss for consumers

An industry makes $30 billion, that’s a Billion with a B, a year on its credit cards, and it's got to tighten up on people who go bankrupt except for those who have lots of money.

REpublicans and wimpy Democrats pass a bill that's going to put the screws to the people who go bankrupt because they lost their job or ran up huge hospital bills just for the fun of it and then went bankrupt because they didn't have any health insurance.

Same bill lets millionaires park their money in asset trusts in some states so their money is protected. Why would anybody be for the bill except those I've just named? –Walrath 03-13-2005/pj
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On the lack of legislators to fully read bills prior to voting on them

Senators are able to get a copy of the bill to read if they want to, I think. But they don't read most bills, anyway. Their staff does that and tells them about it.

But you can read about the bill and its provisions even if you don't have a copy of the bill. You can find out that all the banks and credit card companies have lobbied for it for the last eight years.

You can find out that the bill has "asset protection states" in it where you can put your money in trust and then go bankrupt. You can buy a house for a million dollars which remains free and clear when you go bankrupt.

You can look at the wimps and flakes--19 of them--who voted for the bill. The bill was going to pass whether or not Democrats voted for it. They voted for it because they need the money for their next election campaign. –Walrath 03-13-2005/pj
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On the nine SC justices that determine the law for the entire country
The Supreme Court is supposed to rule on the law. They decide the same way everybody else does.

The only difference is if there are five of them who think the same way that becomes the law.

Then their law clerks get the job of coming up with material to support the decision. Sometimes, like in 2000, the decision is so bad there is no precedent for it. But that doesn't change anything.

Boooosh still got into the White House.-Walrath 03-13-2005/pj
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On the Brazilian oil company Petrobas

Petrobas is making money with 1.7 million bpd--that's more than they're getting out of
Iraq. You don't hear anything more about how much oil Iraq is producing. Have they stopped altogether? -Walrath 03-14-2005/pj
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On raising interest rates to eliminate the budget deficit

Greenspan can raise interest rates all he wants, but it's not going to get rid of the booosh budget deficit. Getting rid of the booosh tax-cuts for the rich and Big Bidness would do that. –Walrath 03-12-2005/pj
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On Fidel Castro and
Cuba

The United States has been trying to starve Castro for the last 50 years. He's an old man who just refuses to die. –Walrath 03-11-2005/pj
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On the prospect of a sugar shortage

Price of coffee is going up, so that may reduce the amount of coffee that is consumed. If so, sugar consumption will go down. Seems like a bad time for sugar producers to raise the price of sugar.

What do people use sugar for? Nobody bakes anymore--that's what cake mixes are for. Cereals even for adults come loaded with sugar now.

Sugar costs as much as it does in this country because of agricultural subsidies to the farmers who produce it in this country.

If everybody goes out and buys up all the sugar they can find, I think they may be able to create a shortage. –Walrath 03-11-2005/pj
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On the perfect world

The Perfect World is here. It's as bad as I've ever seen it, but to right-wingers, it's perfect.

Drug companies in the
United States lose money if states and people buy their drugs in Canada, and now the Federal Government is going to make sure people and states pay the top price.

These are people who don't have a lot of money and they don't have insurance that pays for drugs unless you count the rinky-dink booosh prescription plan that starts next year designed to funnel more money into drug manufacturers.

But nobody says a word. –Walrath 03-11-2005/pj
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On the seizure of drugs purchased from
Canada by the State of Illinois

Illinois was one of a few states that were going to start bringing in prescription dugs from Canada.

Of course, the seizing of the drugs by Federal agents is pay-back for the way
Illinois voted in the last election.

I'm sure the media will just keep this new under wraps.

Wouldn't you think that the Democrats or MoveOn or George Soros could organize all the people in all these states who were trying to do something about the incredibly high cost of drugs?

I watch the news, and read through three newspapers everyday plus time on the net and I never even saw anything about this.

Why is something like this allowed to be buried? –Walrath 03-11-2005/pj
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On interest rates

The rich always make money, but most people aren't rich even if they have investments. Interest rates are beginning to move up pretty fast. The housing boom is not going to last. That is where a lot of people have been putting their money. Buying and selling houses even before they are built.

The average price for house is now getting close to $200,000. That tells you that middle income people aren't buying very many.

Income tax time may be the breaking point. –Walrath 03-11-2005/pj
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On Bush and
Lebanon

The turnaround in ebonyavalon, as booosh calls
Lebanon, was a real eye-opener. When people came out to protest the presence of Syrian troops, the networks all went ape showing pictures day after day.

Then the people supporting Syrian troops being there started showing up, and there were twice as many as they were the first time.

All of a sudden, ebonyavalon has dropped off the radar screen. –Walrath 03-11-2005/pj
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On cutting welfare programs in order to continue farm subsidies

In a way, The U.S. is like a family that has financial problems because the father drinks and gambles and there's not enough money to pay the bills. So the man decides the answer is not to buy bread anymore.

Farm subsidies are in the billions. The food stamp money for hungry people cost millions of dollars.

There just aren't enough savings in the places that help people. To cut the deficit, cut the subsidies golng to the rich and Big Bidness. That's where the money is going. –Walrath 03-11-2005/pj
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On raising interest rates

Boooosh wants to extend the tax-cuts and add to them. The deficit is going to keep getting bigger, and we're going to have a financial crisis before he gets out of office.

Greenspan keeps raising interest rates to keep the dollar from falling which continues to fall because of the huge boooosh budget deficits.

At some point not far away, rising rates are going to cause a recession. The answer then will be to start lowering interest rates. Greenspan hopes rates will be high enough by then so that he will have room to start lowering them. –Walrath 03-11-2005/pj
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Cutting the deficit by cutting expenses

At some point, the growing booosh deficit is going to get some attention. Cutting expenses like food stamps, Medicaid, education programs, and Medicare don't even get close to solving the problem.

The only thing that will do is to increase taxes on those who have the money to pay for them. Re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titantic would not have prevented its sinking, and adding a National Sales Tax won't solve the booosh deficit problem, either.

The market seemed a little worried this week---Dow down nearly 200 points. –Walrath -3-11-2005/pj
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On Articles and Answers

Articles and Answers is a beacon, a lighthouse, for all our readers to show them the way, to guide their thinking and keep them informed about where they are going.

Articles and Answers keeps people from drifting into rocks and dangerous shoals where their minds can be mired by false and misleading words and thoughts.

Articles and Answers lights the way for you today and every day.
-Walrath 03-07-2005/pj
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On how legislators pass bills

I don't think they ever read any bills. They depend on their staff to do that and advise them on how to vote. They talk to other senators, and their leaders--Majority and Minority-- tell them how they want them to vote.

What they're all thinking about now is how this Social Security bill is going to play in next year's election.

I don't think whatever they pass, it's going to help Social Security, assuming anything at all gets passed. –Walrath 03-07-2005/pj
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On lack of planning for war

Not being ready for war seems to happen every time the
United States goes to war. But in the case of Iraq, this was not a war of necessity; Iraq was a war of choice.

But the
United States wasn't ready and still had no plan. Iraq was just supposed to give up because it was invaded by the United States. –Walrath 03-06-2005/pj
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On the Hagel plan to raise retirement age from 67 to 68

The idea that people can work longer because they're living longer is specious at best. It depends on a whole lot of factors including the health of the person, what kind of work they've been doing, as well as how the employment situation is.

If you're a Senator, you can hang around until you're 100--Strom Thurmond did—and somebody will prop up in a chair so that you can continue to draw your pay.

There aren't a lot of real jobs like that.-Walrath 03-06-2005/pj
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On the election in Iraq

The Shiites got a majority of the votes in the election, but it takes two-thirds to form a government according to the interim constitution. The Shiites have been trying to form a government with the Kurds. So far, no luck.

I think the way it works is the Shiites would get the prime minister position, and whoever they form a government with, get the position of the president.

That sorta leaves the Sunni--the ones who are the insurgents--to continue to fight the war.

Was that the plan? –Walrath 03-06-2005/pj
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On working past retirement age in order to collect higher benefits

Waiting almost always is a bad idea. People die while they're waiting, and after they wait, they may die before they make up the money they could have had by taking the lesser amount sooner.

If you wait and if you live a long time after waiting, maybe you can come out ahead.

Then, again, maybe not. –Walrath 03-06-2005/pj
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On raising the Social Security earnings cap

Raising the cap above $90,000 does not cost people making $90,000 and below anything.

Something like 60% of the households--not individuals, but households—have incomes below $50,000. Less than 10% of the households in the country have incomes above $90,000.

They're never going to raise the cap to $200,000, but it would not hurt 90% of the people in this country. It wouldn't hurt the other 10%, either. They can afford it. It would just take a little of the edge off on the boooosh tax-cuts for the rich and Big Bidness.

The plan that gets the highest approval is to raise the cap on earnings above $90,000. The only people against this plan--would you believe--are those who make more than $90,000. That's less than 10% of the people.

I'm sure booosh wishes he had never mentioned the idea and the Repugnuts wish Lindsey Graham who suggests capping it off at $200,000 would go away. Come to think of it, I haven't heard much about Senator Graham lately and his idea.

Imagine taxing people who have the most money! –Walrath 03-06-2005/pj
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On the Bush Social Security Plan

What the booosh plan is really all about is a way to scam the amurkan people. The money they contributed to FICA through the payroll tax--particularly, since the big increase Greenspan presided over in the eighties--has all been spent, most recently for the booosh tax-cuts for the rich and Big Business.

The idea now is wipe that debt away by adding trillions of dollars more to pay for the start-up costs of the so-called private accounts which do exactly nothing to make up for the Trust Fund which has been spent and the funding necessary to continue Social Security payments in the
future. -03-07-2005/pj
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On the release of the Hagel Social Security plan

Last week it was going to be released Monday, today. Today is Monday, but now it's going to be released Thursday. I think they leaked enough of it out to find out he doesn't have much of a plan.

The only plan worth talking about is one that puts money into Social Security to make up for the Trust Fund that was spent to give the Rich and Big Bidness tax-breaks.

That means tax increases for somebody-- a lot of somebody’s. Anything else just amounts to more bush bu**sh*!!! –Walrath 03-07-2005/pj
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On the ability to relate to those in need

Not having money to buy the things you need is only understood by people who are going without or have gone without the things they needed.

That's something booosh will never understand. –Walrath 03-07-2005/pj
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On the subject of brainwashing

Part of the plan is to heavy up the news on
Syria with the idea being this helps raise the approval rating of booosh. So he's on TV every hour or so telling Syria what they have to leave Lebanon at once.

The amurkan tax-payers are paying for all the boooosh propaganda about his SS plan and Chuck Hagel is going to come out with his idea on Monday.

So far, booosh is losing big, but I don't think it's over yet. –Walrath 3-05-2005/pj
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On the lack of security in Iraq

You really have to wonder about security over in Iraq when they assassinate the judge who was going to try Saddam Hussein. –Walrath 03-01-2005/pj
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On the subject of private insurance

This is the whole idea behind private insurance--cherry pick the people you want to cover and leave the rest to fend for themselves. Those left out either can't find anyone who will insure them and if they do find a place, they can't afford the premium.

If they, somehow, scrape up enough to get insurance, the rates keep going up until people drop the insurance because they can no longer afford it.

About that time, they have an illness and end up bankrupt because they can't pay the hospital and doctor bills.

Only in amurka –Walrath 03-05-2005/pj
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On old age and Greenspan

Old age may be catching up with Alan Greenspan. Don't tax the things, he says, that are bought mostly by the poor. What in hell is he talking about? What does he think the poor buy? The same things everybody else buys-- food, clothing, shelter, transportation to get to and from a job--if they have one.

Does that mean no tax on gasoline? How about cars? TVs are in the homes of 99.5% of the people--no tax on TVs?

What I think Greenspan was trying to say is, Don't tax the things that the poor have to spend most of their money on.

Make sure that the poor work and eat and save their money for their old age because their social security plan is about to go up in smoke, if he and booosh have their way.-Walrath 03-05-2005/pj
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On the Republicans backing off from the Bush Social Security Plan

Grassley and Frist are backing off, and Delay sounds very doubtful. I think they realize that they would have to raise the cap on earnings above the $90,000 current figure as Lindsey has been suggesting right along.

That's an increase in taxes of 6.2% on the richest people in the country--a very high price for the REpugnuts to pay.

My guess is they'd rather just drop the whole idea now and go on to something else--like bombing
Syria. –Walrath 03-01-2005/pj
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On Bungling Social Security
Opportunity

Well before 911, there were all kinds of opportunities for George Bush to implement his Social Security "plan," and it would have easily passed. All he had to do was take the so-called surplus as far as the eye could see, and put it into Social Security.

Bush would have been a hero. When the recession came, he still could have had a tax-cut -- but, hopefully, not just the $1.4 trillion tax bonanza for the rich and Big Bidness -- and he could have been a hero again.

When you think about it, few people have had as many chances as Bush has had to succeed -- and bungled them so badly. -Walrath 02-27-2005
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On the subject of little things

A good example of why things are so bad in this world is people let the little things go, and the next thing you know, the little things have become bigger.

Just think how much better the world would be if all the little things suddenly became better.

We aren't going to do much about the big things, but we can do something about the little things - Walrath 02-27-2005/pj

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On Iraqi rations

I wonder how many people in amurka know that weekly rations in
iraq are the only way Iraqis stay alive. As I remember, Paul Bremer wanted to eliminate rationing but soon found it was the only way people in Iraq were going to be kept from starving.

Lots of publicity about tomorrows election, but no mention of where the people are going to vote, or how they are going to find out.

According to an NPR interview with an Iraqi election official the polling places are where people pick up their weekly rations.

After two years of occupation, the Iraqi people are still on weekly rations - Just like they were under the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. -Walrath
01-29-2005
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On the aborted railroad track suicide attempt

How did they catch this guy who left his car on the railroad tracks? Did he just happen to pick a train that was being pushed by instead of pulled by the engine? If the engine had been in front of the cars, the damage and loss of life would probably have been much less. –Walrath 01-29-2005
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On the number of government jobs under Bush

I wonder just how many more government jobs are today than there were four years ago. Then take a look and see how much bigger the government debt is today than it was four years ago. –Walrath 01-28-2005
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On the P&G buyout of Gillette

P&G is buying Gillette for something like $57 billion-- but P&G is off the hook so far as having to give away razors because New England beat Pittsburgh. Gillette is headquartered in the city of
Boston.

That's bad news for all the Gillette folks who live in
Boston. Can you imagine living in Boston and having to move to Cincinnati?

That's if you get to keep your job—6000 jobs are going to be cut.

Just another example of Big Business--merge and cut costs. Best way is to cut the payroll. You don't need two headquarters for one company.

There go a lot of jobs at Gillette that pay a lot of money. –Walrath
01-28-2005
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On the election in
Iraq

The Kurds are against whoever wins the election on Sunday--they don't like the Sunni or the Shiites who don't like the Kurds who want their own country.

Only an idiot would think Iraq could be united and form a government –Walrath 01-28-2005
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On the columnists on the White House payroll

Today, we find another paid mouthpiece for boooosh-- you have to wonder just how many there are still buried in the woodwork and under the rocks.

Maureen Dowd ran a column this week in the NYT saying that she had a lot of Christmas bills to pay, and she could use some extra money--her column, she said, was for sale.

She offered to write about all kinds of things if the price was right. –Walrath
01-28-2005
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On
Ohio's 20 electoral votes

Columbus and Franklin County were solidly against booosh. The Dispatch ran another front-page story on ahia about its incredibly poor record in education. Tuition at public colleges and universities is the highest in the country.

The state has fewer college graduates per capita than any other state. Where did all the booosh votes come from?

How do Repugnants continue to get elected year after year when the state
continues to down hill? –Walrath
01-28-2005
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On legislation to charge .17 for plastic grocery bags in San Francisco

BYOB--bring your own bag. That may be the idea behind this seventeen cent charge for a plastic bag.

Stores could save a pot-full of money if they did not have to furnish bags. Convert 100% to self checking and customers can do everything themselves. Shop, check out the stuff, bag it, and carry it to their cars.

Business has got customers doing most of the work now--might as well go all the way. –Walrath
01-27-2005
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On how to win a war

I think the thing to do is wait for Castro to die and then invade
Cuba. There's better than a 50-50 chance that the United States could have that place under control in less than a year. -Walrath 01-27-2005
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On the Senate vote on Rice's confirmation

Thirteen (13) is a respectable number of dissenters -- that's about a third of the Democrats in the senate. I'm sure all Repugnants voted for Rice -Walrath
01-26-2005
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On
China's 9.5% GDP increase

There's not much that is cheerful in the news anywhere you look. If you're in
China, you may be happy. They just had a very good year -- 9.5% increase in GDP, and they don't owe every other country in the world - Walrath 01-25-2005
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On market fluctuations

The price of oil is a big factor. OPEC may decide to produce less,
Russia can no longer be counted on, and almost every country in the world is looking for a way to stick it to the United States.

Then on top of that you have the speech boooosh gave on Thursday. -Walrath
01-25-2005
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On the war on drugs

Looks like we’re spending over 50 billion dollars a year, state and federal. That figure probably includes the cost of keeping a million or more people in prison. It costs more to keep a person in prison for a year than it does to send him to college.

There's not enough money for school, people can't afford to send their children college, millions and millions of people are without health insurance, but we can spending billions of dollars every year chasing drugs. –Walrath
01-25-2005
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How stupid can amurkans be?

We can't afford to continue wasting money that way. People are going to do drugs whether they're legal or not. It just costs a lot more to make them illegal. They gave up on Prohibition after thirteen years, I think.

How much longer is it going to take before they give up on drugs? –Walrath
01-24-2005
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On the 80 billion supplement for
Iraq

Lawrence Lindsey was right on the money saying the initial war costs in
Iraq would be between $100-200 billion, so they fired him. I wonder what people would say if they knew it was going to cost a trillion dollars before the United States gets out of Iraq. -Walrath 01-24-2005
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On the media

We have a right-wing propaganda machine in this country made up of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh for examples. The rest of the media are bought-up, bought out, or bought-off. Newspapers are read by only one out four person -- the other three either can't or don't read.

People in
England pay about $200 a year for a license to watch TV. You can go to jail if you watch TV without a license!

TV is free in amurka, but then look at what you get for nothing. Someone said that you get what you pay for, but you really don't. You almost always end up paying more for what you get. TV would probably be better in this country if we had to pay for it.

$200 a year to find out what is happening in this country and the world seems like a small price to pay. -Walrath 01-24-2005
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On the inflated number of Iraqi voters

They can tell people in this country anything they want to about the election in Iraq. People don't know anything about it. The election will be called a huge success regardless of how few people vote.

Iraq has 25 million people with at least five children per household. How many voters can you get out of that combination? Four or five million, tops, if every adult votes which we know isn't going to happen.

There will be a total of a million votes altogether, maybe, including votes from the
United States and every other country where, they say, Iraqis live and are entitled to vote.

But even that is really stretching the numbers. There are no UN observers scheduled to be present in
Iraq for the elections there. Who is it in this country that is safe-guarding the election?
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I haven't heard anybody mentioned.

Who's going to know the difference? Who's going to tell them? The media? They are bought-out, bought-up, and bought-off.

But the war will continue to go on.-Walrath
01-23-2005
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On the never ending list of US casualties

The number who died on 911 was under 3000. I wonder at the rate that soldiers are being killed in
Iraq how long it will take to equal that number.

There is no way out now except to leave. –Walrath
01-23-2005
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On the
U.S. draft

There's been a draft going on in this country (reserves and National Guard) for at least a year,—the only people who can get drafted, though, are those who have already served.

If you've never been in, you don't have to worry about being drafted. All you have o do is stay home and support the troops. –Walrath
01-23-2005
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On the strategy of marketing a name

The New England Patriots play in Foxboro Stadium which is located approximately 30 miles south of
Boston. Most of the people in New England live in Massachusetts so it would make sense to locate it there.

Calling the team New England instead of Boston Patriots probably gets more people to come to games as all six states, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Maine claim the Patriots as their very own.

A marketing strategy, for sure. -Walrath
01-23-2005
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On the subject of Flu vaccinations

For a place as large as the
Ohio State University Hospitals and Clinics to
announce they have no flu vaccine when other states are facing an oversupply is a scandal of epic proportions.

You do have to wonder what amujrkans spend their time thinking about. It's against the law to import drugs from
Canada or elsewhere because they are cheaper. The FDA says that they can’t guarantee their safety even though these drugs are manufactured by the same companies in both Canada and the United States.

The United States is the same country that came up with about half as much flu vaccine necessary and now some states are reporting that they have an over-supply which they will have to throw away while other states like Ohio still report shortages.

In fact, if you call the Ohio State University Clinic, the first thing you will hear is their recorded announcement that they don't have any flu vaccine, so don't bother to ask.

What kind of nonsense is this? How can this be possible? And how can there be newspapers and TV channels and networks that don't report this?

Why isn't this a lead story around the country? This is the state that decided the election. This is the state that is on the front-page of the Dispatch this morning about the incredibly poor job picture in ahia. This is the state that is run by Republicans forever.

This is the state where people stood for hours in the rain to vote and were unable to because of a shortage of voting machines. This is the state that can't even get flu vaccine for its people when it's about to be thrown away in other states.

Where is the outrage?

It appears that private physicians have access to flu vaccine. It's state and public agencies that don't have any.

Is the idea for ahia to save money by not making flu shots available to those on Medicaid and those who would normally receive the vaccine through state agencies? -Walrath -01-22-2005
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On the Bush inauguration speech

I didn't listen to it, read it, or watch it, but it's hard not to hear bits of it even when you try to avoid it.
Iraq is not a big enough blunder, booosh is talking about eliminating tyrants all over the world. I hope he doesn't get us in a war with China. -Walrath 01-22-2005
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On the DJIA

January gets a bad name with the stock market is down the first month of the year. In most years when that happens, the market is down for the year. We'll see what happens next week.

The outcome of the Iraqi elections may be hanging over the market. -Walrath
01-22-2005
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On the Bureau of Land Management decision to OK oil drilling in
Alaska

http://www.articlesandanswers.com/v-cgi/feeds.cgi?feedid=13&story_id=598533

It won't produce even a barrel of oil in the next four years, but I expect that booosh will end up by drilling holes in
Alaska. -Walrath 01-22-2005
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On the January snowfall

It’s really nice to look out the window and see all that white snow with the blue sky and bright sun. It's all I can do to hold myself back from going out there and shoveling it.

Compared to every other place, we didn't get that much snow--six inches at most which is a lot for Cowlumbus, ahia, but nothing like the two feet or more other places got.

I think the weather is trying to tell us that four more years of boooosh are going to be as bad as if not worse than the last four. -Walrath
01-22-2005

Editor Note: Two feet? I personally shoveled 30"....
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On VA Healthcare

This is the cover Story featured in the January/February 2005 issue of the Washington Monthly.

It doesn't sound much like what is really going on in VA hospitals.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0501.longman.html -Walrath
01-20-2005
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On closing the borders from the 29th to 31st

Closing the borders? Why wouldn't the borders have been closed long ago? Why would you wait until not to close the borders?

The insurgents are already in
Iraq. What good is it going to do to close the borders?

Even if they could. -Walrath
01-19-2005
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On the upcoming elections in
Iraq

All eyes are going to be on the elections in
Iraq on January 30, and the news and noise is all about Iran. The news about Iran is to take people's minds off the elections in Iraq on January 30.

It's like pain-- you can stand just so much, and then you don't feel any more pain. You forget your toothache because your headache is so bad.

I'm sure they're going to make as much noise as possible about the Iraqi votes here in the
United States. But that's not going to solve the problems in Iraq.

People there are going to stay home by the millions.

The media will tout the election as overwhelming success, but there's no way that is going to happen.

They are going to be a disaster. –Walrath
01-17-2005
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On the swearing in ceremony

There's a swearing in ceremony for boosh on Thursday. When are they going to hold the swearing at booosh ceremony? –Walrath 01-17-2005
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On Bush's plan for Social Security

Everything booosh has touched so far has been a disaster, and still the amurkan people cry for more. The biggest disaster of all may be his plan to abolish Social Security as we know it. –Walrath
01-17-2005
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On the possibility of war with
Iran

Iran has lots of oil, but starting a war with Iran is not going to create any for the United States. Less oil is coming out of Iraq now than there was before the United States invaded Iraq.

There will be less oil coming out of Iran if the United States invades Iran.-Walrath 01-17-2005
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On military assistance from the UN

The United Nations doesn't have an Army as such. Member nations can volunteer troops for specific missions and there is a small force available.

I don't think the
United States can look for any kind of military help from the UN as long as boooosh is in the White House.

He wants to go it alone, and alone is where he's going to be. –Walrath
01-17-2005
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On the unveiling of the 555-seat airbus

Full load is 555 passengers--20% more than Boeing's biggest. That's a lot of people if one of those planes goes down. –Walrath
01-17-2005
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On the possibility of war with Iran

It's hard to believe that the
United States, with as much trouble as they're having with Iraq, would want to start a war with Iran.

On second thought, that is not so hard to believe after all. Maybe a war with
Iran will take people's minds off the war in Iraq which isn't going so well.

War with
Iran will be worse--there are twice as many Iranians as there are Iraqis. –Walrath 01-17-2005
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On the Abu Gharib investigation

Congress held hearings with Rumsfeld present, and that was the end of the investigation. Some enlisted men will spend several years in prison--I think their sentences will be reduced after this dies down--and whoever thought up the whole mess will go Scot free.

After all, if Generals were involved, they might tell who gave them their orders, and the next thing you know there might be a knock on the White House door.

Only in amurka.-Walrath
01-16-2005
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On Social Security

The year 2018 is the date they estimate when pay-in will no longer equal pay-out of Social Security benefits. But they don't want to talk about the hundreds of billions of dollars that people have paid in over the years that are in the so-called Trust Fund in the form of Treasury Bonds.

The reason they don't want to talk about that is because that money has all been spent. Currently, the deficit would be 200 billion more than the published amount if Social Security contributions were deducted. That's about the amount of the yearly Social Security surplus.

What are they going to use to pay Social Security pensions when the pay-out is greater than the pay-in?

Where do they get the money from? They have to borrow it--they can't use the money they've already borrowed-- that money has already been spent.

If they don't borrow it, they have to raise taxes, or just print it. –Walrath
01-16-2005
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More on Social Security

The government will need real actual money to pay Social Security pensions just as it does now. Now contributions come in each month and the government uses them to pay the pensions.

What's left, the government spends as fast as it gets it and puts IOUs in the Trust Fund in the form of Treasury Bonds. When contributions no longer are enough to meet the pension pay-outs each month, the government is going to have to either raise taxes or borrow more money. They can't use the Treasury Bonds in the Trust Fund. They already spent the money they got for those bonds.

Currently, Social Security contributions are running about 200 billion dollars more each year than the pay-outs. The boosh government reports the contributions as income and the pay-outs as expenses--no change in this procedure.

As a result, the reported deficit under boosh is approximately 200 billion dollars less than it would be otherwise. The "crisis" being talked about is what is going happen when Social Security is no longer kicking in 200 billion dollars a year for the government to spend.

Even worse, when that happens Social Security checks will still have to be paid out of the "trust" fund which has nothing in it except IOUs in the form of government bonds. That means the government would have to either borrow the money or raise taxes or use some combination of borrowing and tax-increases.

That's what the two trillion dollars they are talking about is for--to cover pensions when contributions no longer are enough to pay the pensions.

If you can't trust the government with the Social Security Trust Fund, why would you trust them to set up individual accounts for you?

How do you know they won't spend that as well?

I think boooosh will give up on his plan for Social Security and swap it for something else. The Democrats will be so happy they will given him whatever it is he wants. I don't think booooosh can win on his idea for Social Security. There is no way he can borrow the two trillion dollars necessary to do it.

This is a cause for the Democrats to fight to the last man or woman left standing, but I don't think they will do that.

The bought-up, bought-out, bought-off media--Armstrong Williams, for example-- will help boooosh out all they can. –Walrath
01-16-2005
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On the Abu Gharib dogs

The very presence of dogs in Abu Gharib says that they were there for something besides somebody's pet. How much of a reporter do you have to be to raise the question, What were the dogs there for?

The thing that bothers me on this scandal is the obvious cover-up that is going on. If I can ask a page full of questions which have yet to be answered on Abu Gharib, where are the media?

Can't they ask any questions at all?

From day one, I could see where this show was heading. There has been an obvious cover up from the beginning. Even the trial of Graner was a farce. His lawyer was afraid that Graner might get 15 years instead of 10. That's supposed to make you think Graner's lawyer did a real bang-up job.

Wouldn't you think somebody could see this farce and start asking questions?

How did attack dogs with nice new leashes get into the prison? Did anybody ever find out? Were they used to keep prisoners from escaping? Whose idea was it to have attack dogs in Abu Gharib? Where did the dogs and leashes come from?

What funds were used to buy the dogs and their leashes? Were these dogs trained when they arrived in Abu Gharib? Who trained them? Did they receive compensation for training these dogs?

I would very much have liked to have been on the defense team for Graner. These are a few of the questions that I would have asked.

The thing that bothers me on this scandal is the obvious cover-up that is going on. If I can ask a page full of questions which have yet to be answered on Abu Gharib, where are the media?

Can't they ask any questions at all?-Walrath 01-16-2005
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On Bush becoming a lame duck

The entire House is up for election in 2006. The in-party usually loses seats in a president's second term which in this case could mean losing both the House and the Senate--we hope.

So, at most, boooosh has two years, before he becomes a lame duck, but even that point of view may prove to be too optimistic for the Repugnants.

A lame duck can't do much and soon becomes what is known as a dead duck, or a gone goose. –Walrath 01-16-2005
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On the chicken wing fad

Now that everybody and his brother is selling chicken wings, what are they doing with the rest of all those chickens?

If everybody is selling wings, and everybody is eating just wings, who is eating the rest of all those chickens? –Walrath
01-15-2005
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On how to self-diagnose Alzheimer’s

Men who are in the early stages of Alzheimer's start losing weight--possibly because they forget to eat.

If you’re still eating, you probably don’t have Alzheimer’s. –Walrath
01-15-2005
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On FDA endorsements

The FDA is in the news again because it approved Celebrex which is
still on the market and Vioxx which has been shown to increase heart attacks.

Taking drugs that haven't been approved by the FDA may be a good thing--kind of an implied endorsement. -Walrath
01-14-2005
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On drug companies discontinuing shipments to
Canada if they sell to American

If the people who are getting prescription drugs from
Canada--just those people and nobody else--picked up the phone and called their senators and representatives, the lines would be clogged for days.

Why do people just allow themselves to be pushed and shoved around? –Walrath
01-15-2005
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On the definition of a wimp

To me, it takes more of a man to denounce war than it does to go get
your brains blown out or blow somebody else's brains out.

There are a lot of men who would rather go blow somebody's brains out than to be called wimps.

If it's a choice between being called a wimp and getting his own brains blown out, that's a little different.

The ones doing the wimp calling are usually the ones that aren't going anywhere. They just stay home and "support the troops." –Walrath 01-13-2005
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On our all "volunteer" Army

They couldn't get away with all the crap they're pulling if this were not an all-volunteer army. Just what is voluntary about being called back from the reserves or the National Guard is hard to say.

All the Generals insist a volunteer army is best--and it is, for the officers and generals. Draftees go back into civilian life and tell people just how screwed up everything was.

Volunteers don't do that. –Walrath
01-13-2005
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On problems with
U.S. voting procedures

The problem probably goes back more than 100 years. What this country has been doing for generations is bragging about its freedom, its democracy, and the right of its citizens to vote.

Lottery tickets have more control over them than votes do. A lost lottery ticket gets more attention in this country than a thousand lost votes.

Elections in this country are a joke to the rest of the world. -Walrath
01-01-2005

 

© 2005 Richard E. Walrath