Saturday, February 12, 2005

More double-talk

It's hard to say what is worst about Bush: the sheer insanity and profligacy of his policies, or his utter debasement of reasoned and logical political discourse - never a strong point of politics in a mass society at the best of times, but now approaching a sub-nursery school level.
This buffoon has been yammering about how Social Security is "flat bust, bankrupt," etc., due to a $10 trillion infinite horizon fiscal gap. Plus more self-congratulatory blather about how he doesn't leave problems for future Americans to deal with, and the people should demand this from their leaders, etc.
Meanwhile, the unfunded Medicare prescription drug benefit that he strong-armed through Congress, totally unfunded and originally estimated to cost $16.6 trillion in the infinite horizon, is already proving costlier than expected. There is talk in Congress about reducing it - refreshingly, coming in the main from Republicans, who did not want such a huge expansion of government outlays even if they held their noses and went along with it for political reasons.
So we get today the headline: BUSH VOWS VETO OF ANY CUTBACK IN DRUG BENEFIT. He's standing tall to defend what he calls, with characteristic modesty, this "landmark achievement."
The utter debasement of political discourse is shown by the complete impossibility of reconciling these two sets of things that he says within hours, or even I suppose minutes, of each other. There evidently is no need for the man's statements to be even minimally logically consistent and defensible. This is how societies crash and burn - when reasoned discourse has vanished from the decision and discussion process. (Well, maybe I am being too hyperbolic, since this is just Bush, not the totality of our political process.)
The reason he can even try to get away with this inconsistency is that the Medicare prescription drug benefit has no dedicated funding whatsoever. So he can deny that it's "bankrupt, flat bust, broke" because he lacked the minimal responsibility to even try to provide dedicated financing for it. Had he done so and thus been slightly less irresponsible, he would have to treat its condition as worse (even though it would actually have been better), if the dedicated financing proved to be insufficient. But provide zero funding, unlike the case of Social Security, and you are home free.

26 comments:

JoshSN said...

Says the first vetoless President since Garfield.

Long live the memory of "Guardian President" Stephen Grover Cleveland! FDR beat him by 51, but had an extra term to get his 635.

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed reading your Blog about flea market in ohio. I also have a Blog/Website about flea market in ohio come check it out!! Have a great day!

Anonymous said...

I just came across your blog about Motivation to complete my work on the subject. Thanks for your thoughts!

Anonymous said...

I just came across your blog about Optimal Wellness to complete my work on the subject. Thanks for your thoughts!

Anonymous said...

I just came across your blog about Emotional Wellness to complete my work on the subject. Thanks for your thoughts!

Anonymous said...

What are your 50,000 thoughts a day creating?
Our thoughts create our reality. This is a simple truth known by all people involved on the spiritual path. It is one of the most taught universal principles in the personal development field. Yet it is one of the most misunderstood!
People practice visualisation, affirmations, they use hypnosis, subliminal programming or countless other tools to transform their lives. However they fail to recognise one key area in their lives that hinder these wonderful techniques from being effective.
They sit day after day visualising their perfect scene and yet nothing happens. Why? They have followed all the instructions to the letter! They have chanted and imagined! They have formed a colourful, vibrant scene in their minds and affirmed that this is their reality. Then all of a sudden things get worse! What is going on?
Would you like to know the secret? Would you like to know why these people get no results? Would you like to hear one powerful statement that explains everything?
Yes?
Good. I will tell you why these people get no results or even opposite results to those they are aiming for -simply because of the following truth. Consciously controlled thoughts such as visualisations do not materialise - ALL thoughts materialise!!!
Most people believe that if they visualise for 10 minutes a day their lives will magically transform. This is not the case. You must change your core thinking. You think approx. 50,000 thoughts a day. How many of those thoughts are working against your ten minute visualisation?
You can control the thoughts that enter your mind by changing the way you view the world. You can decide which thoughts you give energy to and which thoughts you discard.
The thoughts that you follow and give energy to become more dominant than the thoughts you discard. Your subconscious mind records these as your dominant picture on the issue at hand. You then move towards this picture because your subconscious mind starts making your outside world reflect the picture that you have stored internally.
Your mind should be on whatever you want. The picture you need to have is a positive vision of you already having achieved your goal. To realise this vision you need to focus and concentrate. Remember thoughts are real, they create your reality.
Let's say you have been visualising a new house. You spend your ten minutes in meditation picturing yourself living in your dream home. You finish your session and get up feeling positive that you will achieve your goal. Then during the day you get a heating bill through the post and exclaim "Oh no look how expensive this is I cannot afford to heat this house". Where is your focus in the present moment? What are you affirming? You are telling your subconscious mind that you cannot deal with what you have. You are affirming that your life is not how you want it to be. If you knew without doubt that within a week you would be moving to your new home would you honestly be worried about a heating bill? Perhaps other doubts creep in like "I should be happy with what I have", or "I will never get this house looking the way I want it" and so on and so on.
These thoughts that are not aligned with your goal. You are not giving complete attention to what you want. Whilst you are dealing with these other lines of thought your attention is not on your goal.
If you are aware of your thoughts you will suddenly realise that you have spent much more energy on counter productive thoughts than on creating a dominant picture of the goal you want.
Point your focus in the direction of you're the life you want. Think about what you want NOT what you don't want. It's that simple.
Your focus determines your reality. Change your focus and you change your life. personal development

Anonymous said...

I am here because of search results for blogs with a related topic to mine.
Please,accept my congratulations for your excellent work!
I have a auto insurance ontario site.
Come and check it out if you get time :-)
Best regards!

Anonymous said...

Your blog I found to be very interesting!
I just came across your blog and wanted to
drop you a note telling you how impressed I was with
the information you have posted here.
I have a auto insurance quote
site.
Come and check it out if you get time :-)
Best regards!

Anonymous said...

Cool Blog! If you get a chance I would like to invite you to visit the following cargo liners blog, it is cool to!

Anonymous said...

Hi Blogger, I found your blog quite informative.
I just came across your blog and wanted to
drop you a note telling you how impressed I was with it.
I give you my best wishes for your future endeavors.
If you have a moment, please visit my best insurance company ratings site.
Have a great week!

Anonymous said...

I am here because of search results for blogs with a related topic to mine.
Please,accept my congratulations for your excellent work!
I have a bad credit card site.
Come and check it out if you get time :-)
Best regards!

Anonymous said...

Hi there Blogger, a real useful blog.Keep with the good work.
If you have a moment, please visit my startup business financing site.
I send you warm regards and wishes of continued success.

Anonymous said...

Hey Fellow, you have a top-notch blog here!
If you have a moment, please have a look at my bad credit commercial loan site.
Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Hi Friend! You have a great blog over here!
Please accept my compliments and wishes for your happiness and success!
If you have a moment, please take a look at my calgary auto insurance quotes site.
Have a great day!

Anonymous said...

Hi Friend! You have a great blog over here!
Please accept my compliments and wishes for your happiness and success!
If you have a moment, please take a look at my calgary auto insurance quotes site.
Have a great day!

Anonymous said...

Hi Blogger, I found your blog quite informative.
I just came across your blog and wanted to
drop you a note telling you how impressed I was with it.
I give you my best wishes for your future endeavors.
If you have a moment, please visit my calculator home insurance mortgage site.
Have a great week!

Anonymous said...

Hi Friend! You have a great blog over here!
Please accept my compliments and wishes for your happiness and success!
If you have a moment, please take a look at my california automobile insurance company site.
Have a great day!

Anonymous said...

I am here because of search results for blogs with a related topic to mine.
Please,accept my congratulations for your excellent work!
I have a california individual health insurance site.
Come and check it out if you get time :-)
Best regards!

Anonymous said...

This message might not relate to your blog. I am building a web site to help people find out why they do things to create problems in their life. I will let you be the judge .. spiritual poetry

Anonymous said...

BUILD YOUR LIST, WIN THE WEEKLY DRAW, EARN MONEY! Learn more about it here: low cost referral marketing site. It pretty much covers low cost referral marketing related stuff and it is FREE to join.

Anonymous said...

Wow, you've got some great stuff aboutinternet making millionaire money online riches secret simple here on your blog.
Please come check out my site if you get a chance internet making millionaire money online riches secret simple

Anonymous said...

Hey you have a grea blog here I'm definitely going to bookmark you!
florida web design I have a web development site with a blog about development, web design, hosting and moreflorida web design Come check it out if you get time!

Anonymous said...

http://www.moneymakersecrets.com/firstmoneysecrets/ First Time To The Market affiliate casino
Enjoy the opportunity, change your life -affiliate casino. Don't Miss affiliate casino - Visit Today...http://www.moneymakersecrets.com/firstmoneysecrets/

Anonymous said...

Saw your blog about real estate finance - as it is along the same lines I thought I would share this link with you. We were paying far too much for family things like clothes for us and the kids, games consoles inc the new Wii and soon to be PS3, car insurance/home insurance/pet insurance, broadband, mobile phones, landline calls, home and garden items, camping equipment and utilities/loans etc - you name it, we were spending too much on it.

Then a friend of mine recommended a site called www.bargainplace.co.uk. We were able to get cheaper electricity, gas, mobile phone, broadband and loan deals at bargainplace. Thanks to my friend (and the site) I am saving something like £100 a month and can afford an extra holiday abroard each year. Booked of course on www.bargainplace.co.uk. Thanks bargainplace ;-) !!

Anonymous said...

Really great blog I've bookmarked it - now some really important bits of financial advice - as it is along the same lines I thought I would share this info with you.

We were paying far too much for items like kids clothes, games consoles, car insurance/home insurance/pet insurance, broadband, mobile phones and utilities/loans, free legal advice about debt etc. Then a friend of mine recommended a site called www.bargainplace.co.uk. We were able to get cheaper electricity, gas, mobile phone, broadband and loan deals at bargainplace. Thanks to my friend (and the site) I am saving something like £100 a month and can afford an extra holiday a year. Booked of course on www.bargainplace.co.uk. Thanks bargainplace ;-) !!

PS - I set up a website a couple of months ago and until recently I was getting no traffic at all. Then, I signed up to Linkreferral.com. Not only did I start getting visitors by the truck load, I also joined Affiliatewindow and am now making lots of money by partnering with companies like Argos, Next, John Lewis, Pixmania, Marks and Spencer, LX Direct, Littlewoods, Vodafone, phones4u, phones2u, Sky, NTL, Virgin Media, Talktalk, Woolworths, Empire Direct, ebay plus online gambling sites - you can make pot loads of cash.

Linkreferral.com is absolutelely free and has really helped my business take off.

PLUS!! there are opportunities to make money from Linkreferral as well - sign up for free and check out the website and email received for details

Follow these free tips and you won't go far wrong - that brand new BMW or Mercedes might just be around the corner!!

Anonymous said...

.
.
.
.
.
.
Good blog - very interesting!! I liked it so much I'm going to share this hush hush advice with you. Ever wondered how your neighbours are driving around in their brand new BMW or Mercedes cars - with their kids dressed in all the latest named gear and foreign holidays aplenty?? Well they discovered the secret to the extra online income.

If you are looking for a free tool to attract loads of free links to your blog or website then congratulations I've got the solution for you - and it is FREE!!

My website specialises in web site application development and to drive traffic to my website I was searching around the internet for absolutely ages looking for SEO tools and ffa submission sites to fire my site up the Google search engine - unfortunately these doing work and in fact had the opposite affect plunging my site down the rankings like it had a heavy weight attached!!, then I signed up for this free superb traffic generating tool - I now have loads of hits to my websites/blogs and my site is shooting back up the Google rankings quicker than ever before.

Consequently this saw my affiliate commissions shoot through the roof - meaning lots of extra money coming in for my family - I bought my first Mercedes car on the proceeds of my online campaign.
Sign up now - it's free.
. Sorry if this information is of no use to you but seeing as you have the anonymous feature enabled I thought I should share this free bit of essential promotional advice with you and would hope you would do the same for me and others who want to boost their online internet income.

I hope the tool will serve you equally as well as it has me - it's free!!

Best of luck, cheers for now, dave.
.
.
.
.
.
.