perfidy

Agreed. Wrong strategery altogether.

If five deferments do not equal two tours of duty, does my summer building latrines in Mexico equal 1.613 years in the National Guard, or what? What's the conversion rate here?

Whoever Karl Rove 's paying off in the Kerry campaigning isn't getting enough for his brillian work. He really needs a raise.

What looks ridiculous is a President who, after four years in office, can't come up with anything remotely resembling an agenda for the next four years. Yeah, I read the speech, 'cause God knows it's too painful to sit through him actually trying to read it.

Oh wait -- I have the perfect issue for Bush! SAFER TAX CUTS.

I was worried about Bush's deliver, but most of the commentators felt that he did a good job. I agree. It was one of his best speeches, delivery-wise.

Whether you agree with what he says in the speech or not, he did lay out a progam - tax reform, social security reform and other domestic issues on the domestic side; and continuing the war on terror on the foriegn policy side.

Kerry still hasn't said much beyond I"i'll let you know when I'm in office" for his ideas for fighting terror; and raising taxes is not exactly my idea of a fantastic domestic agenda.

We know you think the President is ridiculous, Ross; but do you think Kery's constant drum beat of three purple hearts and a silver star is actually making the case that he is qualified to be president? I think his campaign is going to be in serious trouble should he keep with that line.

Going to be? I'm afraid the Kerry campaign slipped on a Vietnamese banana peel when those Legionaires stood and turned their backs on him during his speech to them.

They badly misjudged the Vets anger at what he did. They haven't forgotten, and they sure as hell haven't forgiven. One co-worker told me "that SOB called my old man a war criminal".

The finances of this country are going to hell, and the vote-holding citizens of this country can't think of anything better to yap about than war medals from thirty years ago. The vast majority of that particular drumbeat comes from the chickenshit SAFETY REPUBLICANS, who prize perceived personal safety over actual liberty, and prize their pseudo-intellectual superiority complexes, vis-a-vis those not held in rapture by the Rove talking point list du jour.

If the level of discourse doesn't rise, believe me, you'll all get what you deserve. Is that a threat? Hell, no. I hope somebody decides to pull back on the stick, given that the plane is headed straight for the ground.

Five years until the boomers retire. Tickety tock.

GWB is a joke as a President. No significant accomplishments, can't point at any policy successes. No agenda for a second term. Major attacks on the fundamentals of the country. One scandal after another. Destabilization of national finances. Rapidly approaching record-high levels (to be hit in two or three years) of the debt/GDP ratio, surpassing the previous record-setting debt acquired fighting a world war over many years against an evil power that had a pretty good shot at winning.

Please cease the wearisome pretense that _restoring_ the top tax rates in any way, shape or form affects you, or anyone you know. Same goes for the inheritance tax.

I can give every lower and middle class tax payer a $1000 tax cut in no time, by giving them back the social security surplus. But then the upper end of the income scale would have to pick up more of the tab for the federal government's general fund and, you see, they don't _want_ to. Since they write the checks that drive the politics over the cliff, they get their way.

There's no doubt that Bush's tax cuts have made some people safer. Yup, those top 1-percenters have extra cash in their pockets. That's an extra foot or two on the wall around the gated community. Razor wire too! On special, and tax deductible.

It's homeland security on the gated community scale.

Ross:

As usual, your assessment of all the key details is correct in every way. The only thing that will prevent this running amok will be the election of Kerry. Better to have a lying demi-socialist poseur without a single enunciated idea than this stupid and scandal-ridden bastard we've presently got.

But wait! That seems increasingly unlikely at this point, as the rubes of the right pay needless attention to his silly and amateurish medal prevarication. At least we've got his home movies, made back when he started his presidential run, in 1968. This helps us to pretend along with him that he's the guy we can count on to keep the Huns at bay.

So, when is the revolution scheduled to begin? Which of the bourgeois bastards is scheduled to be the first to lose his or her head? I missed that memo, apparently. But I've been away from email for most of the day, so it could have arrived without my knowing it.

It occurs to me that I might be coming off as a bit angry, or elitist here. ;)

So be it (at least the elitist part)...I can't help it.

It's been strange month or two for me. I don't get called _dumb_ very often. But it's happened a half dozen times in the last month or so, with the political season heating up. It comes from the republican regulars in my life who, steeped in Fox propaganda, declare certain things to be nonsensical, and anybody who believes them to be "stupid", or "dumb". It usually starts with the phrase "every body knows that...", followed by "tax cuts are good for the economy", or "inheritance taxes hurt everybody", or "Bush is a decisive leader"; take your pick. Then comes "democrats are just stupid; they have no idea how any of this works in the _real_ world". You can create your own variation of that last one, but I've heard a half dozen lately.

At this point a little competitive spirit usually sparks in me. That little spark is driven by the silly notion that we should really try to understand what's going on, look at the evidence, and make decisions based on tractable concepts. Being who I am, I can usually pull out a few statistics on the issue at hand, and engage in the discussion.

Except that the other guy (or girl) never picks it up. Right after calling me stupid, they're incapable of engaging in the argument at even a _baby_ talk level. And this happens _after_ I've had to go through the distasteful process of finding common ground, trying to meet a statement like "all the goddamn immigrants are ruining this country" halfway, to establish a dialogue.

People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

The thing that just doesn't convey in these political discussions is that I am READY TO CHANGE MY OPINION, if you can justify yours. Show me the numbers.

Patton: I don't recall saying that the election of Kerry is going to solve all these problems. We are in a lesser of two evils situation, and Kerry is decidedly the lesser of two evils. Where is the conservative outrage at Bush's ridiculous fiscal policies?

What does "demi-socialist" mean? I can't keep track of the slurs, sometimes. I am reliably informed by Fox that Kerry is a socialist, a tax-and-spender, a flip-flopper, a liar, and a member of a vast 30 year conspiracy to capture the Presidency.

Maybe we're due for a good policy thread.

And now if you'll excuse me, THIS liberal elite is gonna tweak his new big screen TV, figure out how to get HD NASCAR, and maybe knock back a beer. Screw you guys, I'm goin' home. ;)

Did you get the impression I was smacking on Kerry? Good. But I was surely not smacking on you, other than in a purely "Good points. I totally disagree, but good points." sort of way. As for Kerry solving all known problems, of course you didn't say it. I did, though I didn't mean it - I'm convinced he's constitutionally incapable of holding an opinion long enough to solve any non-trivial problem. But again, I defend your right to an opinion, including the one you have.

That said, I'll grant you that we're in a lesser of two evils situation, as I don't buy into any petition for sainthood on the part of Mr. Bush. I particularly dislike Bush's fiscal policies, and also his refusal to use the power of the veto. McCain-Feingold, for instance, should have been vetoed, and not left to a constitutional test. I'm still unable to make the leap past my earlier stated position, namely that if John Kerry is the answer, it must have been a stupid question. (Here, "stupid" is used in a highly generalized manner, not in any way directed at a reader or writer on this thread).

Regarding "demi-socialist", it's a phrase I pulled out of the air while trying to be cute. A Google search, however, indicates that there are 14 pages in the world that make reference to the phrase, and that, in context, I used it pretty much as I'd intended. In particular, I see an old reference to Canada, by an Amherst student, as demi-socialist. But in a good way.

We share an attribute, you and I (among perhaps many), in that we'd both be open to changing our opinions. I'm not a rabid supporter of anything, other than common sense, and I try hard to avoid offenses against it. I pretend to know precisely what you mean when you say something like

Please cease the wearisome pretense that _restoring_ the top tax rates in any way, shape or form affects you, or anyone you know.

...and it translates to me as "every body knows that... the top tax rate doesn't matter". You see where I'm going with this? I think that it's better to make assertions with a lilt at the end of the sentence, to ensure that the listener knows it's a call to discussion, not something intended to stifle discussion. And sometimes, I've even been able to live up to that goal.

NASCAR? Uggh. I've never understood the fascination for NASCAR. But enjoy the beer, sir.

.... and you call y'self a Texan!
Nascar is racing without all the bullshit... just a few dozen men in terribly fast cars, racing in a circle... drafting, bumping, slingshotting and rubbing paint at 200 miles an hour. Like baseball, which at its essence is a series of battlesof will and wit between two men only, the essence of NASCAR is in two (or more) drivers each trying to conquer fear and physics for the sake of one extra inch of advantage. The crashes are just icing on the cake.

As for you, sir Ross, yeah. I think it IS time for a policy thread. Good to have you back!!

Sorry, J - I don't understand the fascination with baseball either.

Now, before you get all into ed-u-ma-cating me on the subtleties and nuance, I enjoy watching baseball, just like I enjoy watching NASCAR - for about 30 seconds at a time. In fact, it's just like almost anything else on TV, which I can seldom stomach for long at all. Reruns of old Looney Tunes with my daughter are among the few exceptions.

Baseball's fun to watch live, and I'm sure the same can be said of NASCAR, or curling, for that matter. Many of my friends in the Southeast treat NASCAR the way folks used to treat the Dead. And I fully respect that predilection. I just don't share it.

Please forgive me this minor transgression against intelligence and good taste?

NEVER! Nuance! The perfect symmetry of the diamond! The encircled squared circle of the banked oval! Country music... Nascar.... baseball... next you're gonna tell me you don't follow high school football either!

;)

I can certainly dig not enjoying watching sports on television. It takes a certain mindset (an ability to deaden the senses) which not everyony shares. That you can't take sitting and staring probably speaks very well for the richness of your inner life. Gentle sarcasm aside, not being a fan of racing or baseball just means that you wouldn't enjoy certain saturday afternoons at mi casa, nothing more.

Speaking of... did you ever get a chance to check out some of the country music that we recommended to you a while back?