Tuesday:

WEll your ancestors were never sold and split from family, hung from a tree and casterated, told to drink from another fountain, denied the right to vote.

thats probably true, but how do we hang on and move on at the same time?

Okay, so we have a black president, is that it then???? Is that the pinnacle that says to the world that we have finally moved on???

Can we celebrate this historic landmark and finally move on?

Tuesday:

I am one of those peole too... i would never give a dime to one of those "highway homeless".... if they can spend 10 hours a day begging for cash, they surly can do something more productive to society, right?

I will however give my money to my local community (church or other private) to help those that are truly in need!


So the local churches helps all their members, and then for the atheists you have other local private sector help, then... and only then... does the government come in and help the rest that falls through the cracks... government last resort, not first resort!

You hear libarals yelling about act locally, think globally.... well i agree... but when the feds take my money to help people, it is not specific to helping someone in my local community, but if I am left with that money to help out my local community, and everyone is left to help out their own communities, we wouldnt need the feds to do much for us at all!

What is so historic about it anyway???

Only thing I can think of that is historic is that it is the first black person, right?

How are we to become a so called color blind society when we celebrate something based strictly on race?

I think you are both wrong.... I think it is the MAJORITY of the visible so called "homeless" that you see at the highway intersection are frauds!

The really desperate homeless, the ones who truely need our help, are not the visible ones on the intersection.

But the fact that they can make so much (frauds or not frauds) testifies to how generous the private sector is and can be, just the opposite of what you say the private sector is?

Tuesday: I am currently visiting in Florida and there are "homeless" on every highway exit ramp and street corner with their sigs begging for money...

there was a news report here that most of them make between 40 to 80 THOUSAND DOLLARS per year!!!! They also showed one girl with her "daughter" on hidden camera getting done with her begging, and then going around the block and dropping the kid off at her real family, and then herself going back to her home!


The private sector wants to scream at the homeless man begging for food to get a job.

You are part of the private sector, and that is not you is it???

I guess we have finally found our common differences..... you think the federal government is better equipped to take care of us than the private sector, and I couldnt disagree more!

Tuesday:

Do you think homeless people got that way on purpose.


Who duped you into believing that the federal government is the only/best solution to our problems?

The federal government is a huge beaurocratic mess, they cant do anything without triple copies in duplicate, you always hear stories of how they paid $1000 dollars for a hex nut or whatever, they cant even pay their own bills etc etc....


I am not saying just let everyone fend for themselves, or to not care for homeless and other disadvantaged.... but you make it sound like if the Federal Government doesnt take care of us that nobody can/will????

There is a private sector way to help take care of us!!!!! The private sector is WAY more efficient than the federal government ever was or will be! How can you sit here and complain about the government so much....".they govern to us what THEY think is right but never actually see what the people feel about it."..... yet your solution for everything is more government?!?!?!?!?!


We CAN take care of people in need, and we CAN do all the things you want in life WITHOUT the involvement in the Federal Government!

Private companies, local communities, churches etc, all would do a far better job at helping this society than the federal government can ever do!

Like I said before.... you have been duped by liberal media etc into believing that conservatives/republicans dont want all the same things that you want, that we are mean and uncaring blah blah blah.... but in reality what the difference is, is that you have been duped into thinking that it is the federal government or nothing, and the reality is that there are many other solutions other than relying on the federal government to do everything for us!

Tuesday:

Life would be a mess without goevernment.


I completely disagree with this assumption.... to me, the more government, the bigger the mess!

anastasia:

you keep wanting to "lump" everyone...liberal OR conservative...I am really niether..

Unfortunately, what you are stuck with is basically a 2 party system.... I dont find myself falling into step with everything conservative and with nothing liberal. But we have to vote with the side that takes us in the best overall direction we are looking for..... my opinion, if you crave less government and more personal responsibility, its clear that the republicans will give that to you better than democrats will!

Tuesday:

but don't think government should be telling everyone what to do.


When we talk about higher taxes, or public education, or welfare, or regulations, universal health care, or any of a host of other liberal ideas and agendas, you ARE talking about the government telling people what to do!!!

When you vote for democrats, in general, you ARE voting for the government to tell you what to do, and for the government to have more control over your life!

This is one reason I say you ARE a closet conservative, because you seem to want a lot of what conservatives want, yet you vote exactly the opposite way to get er done?!?!

Again, I think there is a huge misconception, perpetrated by the LIBERAL MEDIA, and HOLLYWOOD TYPES IE Michael Moore, all left over hippie idealists, who have so many duped into thinking that conservatives are some big bad evil mean thing?

Thats why I say take a listen for 2 weeks to this Boortz guy, you will find yourself agreeing with just about everything he says, and he will tell you that democrats and liberalism are NOT the answer to your queries!

Tuesday:

I bet Chuck comes on here and says Liberals started the discipline scare , just like the ink color change.


hahahah... ive been too busy to comment lately but have been reading most everything.....

Well, they did start all that crap, along with no keeping score in ball games etc....

What I think though is that you, and many like you are not really true liberals at all, you just have been fed too much crap about what a conservative is... helping big bad oil companies, and not looking out for the little guy etc.... but I think the more you are educated about what liberals really stand for and what conservatives really stand for, you will realize that you have way more in common with conservatives than you do liberals, and that you are really a closet conservative, but you just dont know it yet!

Like I said before... find neil Boortz on the radio/internet, and listen to him at work for a couple of weeks, and I bet you find yourself thinking how logical and how many times you find yourself agreeing with what he is saying, and it will change the way you look at the world, and you will realize that you have way more in common with conservatism than you ever thought!

Jim Dandy:


Sad but true,and peace puts them out of a job


LMAO... I thought you were referring to the US government!

(V):

Give them the choice to be what they want,


Well isnt that called democracy???? Do you really believe that the only reason the Iraqis have formed a new government and held free elections etc is because the US forced them into it?

(V):

It sounds like something from the Art of War. And a basic strategy towards peace.


Right, except when our enemy is basically hopeless and desperate due to living under brutal dictatorships and the like, we are not allowed to "force" our life on them to help them achieve a society that breeds hope and prosperity, thereby ending their desperate desire to be our enemy!!

We are supposed to just allow them to breed more and more desperate hopeless future terrorists, and do nothing but spend our money time and other resources to feed them when they get hungry!

Bernice:

Nice campaign speech....

He is already finding out that great speeches and great platitudes and great promises, and being the first black president are all nice, and might get you elected, but the reality is that he will be able to do nothing special, either good or bad, He will not fulfill most of his promises, and he will be another average Joe president, despite the best efforts of the media and hollywood to make it otherwise.

anastasia: Good time for a stealth attack then?

anastasia: not so much a jab as an attempt to be funny....

what you got, and how come you arent sharing????

Bernice: We are united states, but as you can clearly see from our elections, we are currently a very divided America as well!

I think we are common in that we all (Majority/most of us) believe in freedom and democracy and all the trimmings that go with those.... but how exactly all that looks is where the differences come into play.

What is the specific role of the Federal Government? How much is too much how little is too little?

There are people at all points on the spectrum, and because we all get a vote, we tend to mostly stay somewhere in the middle, with slight ebbs and flows over longer periods of time.

In the long term, these differences are good for the country. What sucks is in the short term, when brother is against brother or some particularly polarizing event IE Iraq pops up, but overall it is a good thing having different views because we are fortunate enough to all believe in a system that is second to none!

Jim Dandy:

Well,than I suppose no poll can ever be taken at face value,cuz that poll seemed pretty straight forward.


unfortunatly that statement is too true!!!!

Like I said before... if I got a call asking about Bushs approval near the end of his Presidency I would have been one of the 93 percent who disapproved.... but that doesnt really tell you anything except that a lot of people disapprove of him!

But I would have said I didnt approve of him because he had become a liberal, and a liberal might have not approved because of the Iraq war....

my very liberal brother would call me and say something like "look Bushd aproval is down by 93%, or whatever, and ask me what i thought about my guy now, how could I still favor him?

and he couldnt understand how I could still support Bush even though I was one who responded they didnt approve of him right now? I would be, because he has lost his conservative ways... and I could understand why his approval of bush hadnt improved, since now Bush was more of a liberal than before?....


Thing is Bush haters wouldnt even give him any credit when he did something they would normally approve of!!!

Poor guy couldnt win no matter what he did!!! Thats one reason I was so disappointed when he tried so hard sometimes to reach across the isle and be more liberal in policies, because liberals are all talk when it comes to reaching across the isle, they will never do it themselves, and they never really appreciate it when it happens for them!

Jim Dandy: I totally agree.... but they dont want them to fail simply to say I told you so, and get elected the next time, they truly believe his success (in implementing certain policies) would be Americas failure...


I can only say the same thing so many different ways for you.... but that poll represents so many different people with different ideals and different meanings for success and failure...

but since the poll likely includes more than 50% conservatives, I guess that many of the people who wanted him to succeed were conservatives but also many of them who want him to fail only said so because they believe his policies would mean bad things for this country, not that they wanted him to fail for the sake of failures sake.

Artful Dodger:

I would guess there arent too many liberals who took that poll that would be part of the 41%, but of that 41% there are plenty who responded that way who are not putting party before country, it doesnt have to be one or the other, and that is where Jim seems to miss the point here?

Jim Dandy:

Okay already.... yes, we all (large majority) want Obama to have a successful presidency!


All I am trying to say to you is the 41% in the poll were probably not saying what you were implying them to say! We all define success in different ways! If Obama made gay marriage legal in all states, some would mark that as a success that they could be happy with and others would see it as a success they would not be happy about, and in that context, there are many who would say they want Obama to not be successful!

Jim Dandy: Well you obviously dont understand our politics..... its not like we all have the same ideals and goals, and its just a matter of the best man for the job...

There are people who think abortion is murder and some who dont. There are some who think being gay is normal, some who think it is deviant, there are some who think a free market economy with few government regulations is best, others disagree....

When a liberal is successful at implementing their agenda, it goes against most everything that a conservative believes is right, and visa versa... its a constant tug and pull process... Hoping Obama fails in implimentation of some of his policies for a conservative is not shooting ourselves in the foot, as much as it would be a victory!

Czuch: i think I need to change this to "I have a question?" Since I forgot there arent any liberals in here, just conservatives and smart independents who always vote their conscience and make up their opinions on a case by case basis, yet vote for democrats 99% of the time, heheheh....


Anywho.... back to the point.... anyone else see the irony in Obamas "spend our way out of recession" policy? Sounds a bit like the trickle down economics to me? Havent we heard so much about how trickle down economics doesnt work? Is that only when it is a conservative doing it?

Jim Dandy:

Half of the country did not vote for Obama because they do not believe that the implementation of liberal policies will be good for the country!

Therefore, some people could be hoping they are wrong, and that his policies will work...?

Jim Dandy:

on whatever scale unsuccessful Presidents are judged in a bi partisian way

I would say that a bipartisan assessment of a presidents success would be based on how well they were able to implement their policies?

Again, since this poll was Fox news people, many/most are conservatives, or at least a very high majority of those who responded that they didnt want him to be successful, and those people could merely be saying they want Obama to fail in the implementation of his policies, based on the fact that they already disagree with the basic concept of his policies based on the fact that he is a liberal and they are conservatives!

rod03801:

Thanks Rod, i thought I was losing my mind here....

I think Jim believes that I am just trying to spin things and that it should be obvious to me what is meant here, but I truly dont think it was!

Jim Dandy:

"do you want Obama to succeed in implementing a liberal agenda and policies"

You cant see that as being considered a success for Obama?

Tell me what you mean and then I can respond better

Jim Dandy:

Dont make it so difficult then.... tell me exactly what you think the results mean? You seem to think it is not vague or unobvious, I think it has different interpretations...

Jim Dandy:

So, to be clear then, you are interpreting the results to say that 44% of the respondents in this poll want the "Obama Presidency" to be an overall failure?

If this is true, I would think that most of those 44% are conservatives who want Obama to fail at implementing liberal policies that makes our country lean more in an overall liberal way!

Jim Dandy:

Spin away

I think you are doing a spin of your own, making it sound like 44% of the people in this poll are putting party before country by hoping that Obama fails, right?

Jim Dandy:

Also, I wouldnt be surprised if way more than 44% of democrats wanted the Bush presidency to fail, so dont try to put this "party before country" idea all on conservatives either!

Jim Dandy:

I think you are wrong, I think maybe the 59% were voting with that in mind, but my guess is that of the 40%, they had other things in mind....


my example of bushs popularity.... some people were against him because of Iraq others like myself were against him because he was too much like a democrat, same poll same results but completely different stories.

Jim Dandy:

Has "party" surpassed "country" ?

hahaha.. I would say that was the case with Bush haters and Iraq!!!

Jim Dandy:

I'd rather explore the 41% of Fox viewers who wish your President to not succeed

Thats what I am trying to explain to you.... maybe they dont want him to succeed at making our country more socialized, i would be one of those people too!

Jim Dandy:

There is no way Fox would get a 59% Yes vote if it meant his agenda

You might be surprised... I think even conservatives are not happy with the economic direction of the country right now, and if that is what is meant by "succeed" then I am sure thats what these conservatives who want him to succeed are talking about?

Like my latest posts suggests.... spending our way out of this mess might work in the short term, and would be more favorable to conservatives than lets say, giving all the poor people 5k or something like that...


Like I started out saying.... these polls are no good because they are not specific enough, and what what seems obvious to you what is meant by "succees" others have a complety different idea of what it means!

I have been wondering.... Obama wants to spend our way our of this recession, and I havent heard any libs complaining about this plan, but I have often heard liberals complain about "trickle down economics", a staple of conservative policy....

But isnt this proposed government spending spree really just a form of trickle down economic policy?

I havent thought this through yet, and its not anything I have heard anywhere, just a thought I had recently, that I would like to discuss and explore a bit...

Jim Dandy:

I'm a little shocked that so many Fox viewers hope Obama does not right the ship.

See, thats the problem..... you see "succeed" as righting the ship

But my guess is that out of those 44% who dont want Obama to succeed they have different views of what success means.

Since Obama was the most liberal senator, my guess is that conservatives look at Success for Obama to mean that he succeeds in making this country more socialist, or more liberal in nature!

So if you are a conservative of course you would not want to see him succeed at making this country more liberal in nature, right?

Jim Dandy:

Do you want Obama to succeed


The thing with polls is they just dont really tell us anything.

What does success mean?

Its like asking if you like Bush..... when Bushs popularity was at all time lows it wasnt because we all hated him for the same reasons..... some of us hated him because he lost some of his conservative ways, which you would think would make liberals like him a bit more, but liberals hate him so much that even when he acted like a liber they wouldnt admit to liking him!!!

Charles Martel:

Well after all that's been done, I'd still take Bush over gore and Kerry


Uhmmm... can you give us a spread sheet to back that up please? ;)

Jim Dandy: Yeah, credit for being a biased news reporter with an agenda....

Jim Dandy: Not true... she asked and he tried to answer, she just doesnt like the answer she was getting...


Reporters also lose sight of the fact that they are there to REPORT, not make the news, she is a typical "left wing biased news media" referred to often here, who is first and foremost a Bush hater! She asked then interrupted him.. he is the president for christ sakes, she is the one showing absolutly no respect, why should he let her even in the room?

Jim Dandy: Helen Thomas Asks President Bush Why He Went to War
Thomash3-22

At the White House Tuesday, veteran correspondent Helen Thomas took President Bush to task on his reasons for invading Iraq. It was the first time Bush had called on Thomas, known as the "First Lady of the American Press", in three years. [includes rush transcript]

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* White House press conference, March 21, 2006

Rush Transcript
This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
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AMY GOODMAN: We return to President Bush's news conference. Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas asked President Bush what some analysts called the most direct questioning he's ever received on his reasons for invading Iraq.

HELEN THOMAS: I'd like to ask you, Mr. President, your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is, why did you really want to go to war? From the moment you stepped into the White House, from your Cabinet—your Cabinet officers, intelligence people, and so forth—what was your real reason? You have said it wasn't oil—quest for oil, it hasn't been Israel, or anything else. What was it?

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: I think your premise, in all due respect to your question and to you as a lifelong journalist, is that, you know, I didn't want war. To assume I wanted war is just flat wrong, Helen, in all due respect—

HELEN THOMAS: Everything—

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Hold on for a second, please.

HELEN THOMAS:—everything I've heard—

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Excuse me, excuse me. No president wants war. Everything you may have heard is that, but it's just simply not true. My attitude about the defense of this country changed on September the 11th. We—when we got attacked, I vowed then and there to use every asset at my disposal to protect the American people. Our foreign policy changed on that day, Helen. You know, we used to think we were secure because of oceans and previous diplomacy, but we realized on September the 11th, 2001, that killers could destroy innocent life. And I'm never going to forget it. And I'm never going to forget the vow I made to the American people that we will do everything in our power to protect our people.

Part of that meant to make sure that we didn't allow people to provide safe haven to an enemy. And that's why I went into Iraq—hold on for a second—

HELEN THOMAS: They didn't do anything to you or to our country.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Look—excuse me for a second, please. Excuse me for a second. They did. The Taliban provided safe haven for al-Qaeda. That's where al-Qaeda trained—

HELEN THOMAS: I'm talking about Iraq—

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Helen, excuse me. That's where—Afghanistan provided safe haven for al-Qaeda. That's where they trained. That's where they plotted. That's where they planned the attacks that killed thousands of innocent Americans.

I also saw a threat in Iraq. I was hoping to solve this problem diplomatically. That's why I went to the Security Council; that's why it was important to pass 1441, which was unanimously passed. And the world said, 'Disarm, disclose, or face serious consequences'—

HELEN THOMAS:—go to war—

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH:—and therefore, we worked with the world, we worked to make sure that Saddam Hussein heard the message of the world. And when he chose to deny inspectors, when he chose not to disclose, then I had the difficult decision to make to remove him. And we did, and the world is safer for it.

AMY GOODMAN: That was President Bush answering Helen Thomas at the White House on Tuesday. Commonly referred to as the "First Lady of the Press, Helen Thomas is the most senior member of the White House Press Corps. She has served as a White House correspondent for some 57 years and has covered every president since John F. Kennedy. It was the fist time President Bush has called on Helen Thomas in three years.

Jim Dandy: There is a history there, between the two of them, and she blew it awhile ago as far as getting him to answer any of her questions, it all her own fault and it has more to do with her class than his.....

(V): You guys asked for a list... didnt say it had to come from someone who hates bush?

Jim Dandy: Well, are liberals the only ones to have valid opinions of Bush then?

Bernice: Like we have been talking about lately... its all opinion, I dont see any lies in his opinions, but at least if you read in here you are not one of the unsuspecting anymore!

Bernice: Fred Barnes is a conservative leaning political columnists.... Having helped relations with your country doesnt depend on his popularity there.

He isnt very popular here right now either, but he still has done things that have helped our country.

Popularity changes a lot... remember Bush approval rating at one time was something like 93%?

Bernice: One on the list even describes Bushs enhancing relations with your country!

(V): See if you can find it, I probably remember it wrong, but it seems like it was something either with Clinton, or maybe papa George?