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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zoltan! who wrote (15664)	3/18/2000 9:28:00 AM
From: PROLIFE	Respond to of 769667

Want to see the bottom line on the gun deal?? Excerpt from the DMN. In exchange, the federal government, two states and a dozen cities agreed to drop the company from any current or future lawsuits alleging liability for gun-related crimes. Ed Shultz, president and chief executive of Smith & Wesson, said the company's reversal maintains its "future viability" by ending several pending lawsuits and lets it "continue to produce products that can be sold to ordinary citizens without threatening their Second Amendment rights." "To us, it made sense and is the right thing to do," he said. The president said he hoped the move would force other gun makers to follow suit. Likewise, Bruce Reed, the White House domestic policy adviser, suggested that the step, while maneuvering around the Republican Congress, dallasnews.com There is a reason Clinton has jumped in the face of congress, and the NRA, and a reason he has been pounding on the podium....it was this deal. This is no "11th hour" deal as he would like the country to think. He has been working on it a long time and when he is about to sue Smith and Wesson out of existence, has the package wrapped up, then he starts his ""media"" campaign. It is called """legacy building"" Wonder how that tactic would work with lying rapists??

To: Zoltan! who wrote (15664)	3/18/2000 11:44:00 AM
From: Brian P.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

<<if there were any principles left in journalism, at least a dozen high-profile print, Web and TV reporters would have been fired outright or put on probation by now because of their gross mishandling of the McCain boomlet, which they effectively created to disrupt the campaign of Gov. George W. Bush. >> A couple of observations: The above rant sounds Stalinist. Initially impressed with her seeming originality and boldness, I ceased taking Camille Paglia seriously after I sat down and read her books and columns over time and discovered among other things the cheap bullying techniques she uses to savage people, and her intellectual incoherence and pretentiousness. While she can be deadly accurate about feminists and it is fun to see her skewer their pretensions, I find absolutely laughable her habitual, inveterate recourse to the most utterly discredited, embarrassing, quack-Freudian shibboleths to explain people. Doesn't she realize that this stuff has been thoroughly discredited and is the most shameless kind of name-calling? Nabokov observed a long time ago with deadly insight the totalitarian character of Freudianism, how it is the 20th-century twin brother of Stalinism, and the above quotation reveals Paglia's real temperamental leanings. Her obsession with the physical aspects of people and what they supposedly reveal about them is positively Nazi. I find her attacks on McCain incoherent, mean-spirited rants serving mainly to create straw-characters in "the theatre of Camille". I find that article on Rush Limbaugh's attacks on McCain revealing--and it lowers even further my estimation of Mr. Limbaugh. As for Maureen Dowd, I don't see her as anything but cheap entertainment either--sometimes she is on target and sometimes she is just off and in poor taste, straining for effect. I am the first to agree with Dowd that if McCain has a weakness it's his temper. I don't think it's a fatal or disqualifying weakness but the flip side of his strengths and, contrary to the dagger-in-the-night Republican whisperers I think he's basically a strong-willed, sane, decent, intelligent man with a healthy sense of humor who with the right advisers would make a wise and good President. I think he's quirky--not your usual "safe" white bread Trent Lott/George Bush kind of guy. But we could use a give-em-hell-Harry kind of guy who can break a few eggs to make the omelet we need in Washington. Their are enough checks and balances in our system that I think we can turn the McCainiac loose with good, creative results!

To: Zoltan! who wrote (15664)	3/19/2000 2:56:00 AM
From: lawdog	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 769667

I agree that McCain has hurt the GOP by his divisiveness. He gave the Dems a tremendous boost and the Media cheered I'll have to disagree with you here. A lot of moderate Republicans resented having a weak candidate thrust upon then by the GOP establishment. McCain is twice the man that GW is and hasn't lived a life of privilege. He's a much more palatable person, bad temper and all. I have a serious problem with the direction of the GOP and have serious doubts about it's future as a party after the fiasco we just witnessed. Rush, the GOP establishment, the religious right and a few wealthy Texans(a very small percentage of people who are members of the GOP) decided that Dubya would be our candidate and stopped at nothing to achieve this end. These individuals caused the divisiveness in the GOP. They forced GW down our throats. And they will eventually doom the GOP to a party of yesterday if they can't stop acting like the party of the privileged few. I would describe it as alienation and not divisiveness. Alienation in the sense that the 2000 primaries deeply angered many Republicans (myself included). McCain was the better candidate. Many see Bush as a puppet, with someone else pulling his strings. He's also someone who knows how to repay favors. Frankly, I'm frightened by the thought of a Bush Presidency and what it would mean for the vast majority of Americans. I encourage all McCain supporters to vote against Bush. I've been a lifelong GOP supporter, but I can't see a future in this party. Many issues that were part of the GOP platform have been absorbed into the new moderate Dem. party. All that the GOP really has left is conservative social issues. Which to a large extent are repressive and backwards. These are the major problems Bush has: 1. He won't focus on paying down the national debt and shoring up SS. At one time, those would have been hallmarks of a Rep. platform. Now we have Bush trying to buy voters with an unrealistic and dangerous tax cut. Eliminating the estate tax won't happen for reasons I'd be happy to expound on. Simplify the tax code. The last time that was attempted we ended up with a worse mess than we started with. I promise you, it would just happen again. Additionally, poll after poll indicate that tax cuts just aren't a high priority for American voters this year. So the biggest weapon in Bush's arsenal is worthless. STRIKE 1 2. He's going to be labeled as a willing puppet to the religious right. This might sound great to Promise Keepers, but I assure you that 2/3 of Americans don't want Pat Robertson calling the shots. STRIKE 2, Gore labels Bush as a tool of the far right. 3. Gun control. With Clinton bringing the gun manufacturers to their knees it's becoming obvious who can get things done in Washington. Most Americans don't see anything wrong with gun locks. And, contrary to Bush's position, it isn't hard to enforce gun lock laws. In fact, gun locks would make it easier to prosecute negligent gun owners. If someone gets shot with their gun, they are liable to some degree. You don't need "gun lock" police. The harm, i.e. kids shooting kids, is far greater than a mild inconvenience of installing gun locks. Again, Bush can be painted very easily as a pawn of the NRA. Bush should get as far away from the NRA as possible, the NRA looks like a bunch of paranoid wackos. Clinton wants kids shot???? But, Bush won't because the NRA is part of that "old" GOP that is really weighing the party down. STRIKE THREE. Bush is already out, but the strikes go on and on. 4. Campaign finance reform. Granted, both Bush and Gore are targets. But, Bush is making a complete ass out of himself by disregarding those who supported McCain's reform platform. Agree or disagree with McCain on this, but a very large percentage of Americans are tired of big money buying our political system from us. Most Americans are only now beginning to realize the severity of the problem. McCain brought the cause as far as it's been to date and it will most likely become an increasingly important issue as awareness grows. The cat's out of the bag, so to speak, and it's not going away. This is the GOPs biggest problem (but not necessarily GW's biggest). 5. Bush knows nothing about foreign policy. International issues are of the greatest importance during the next presidency (largely because of neglect by this administration). Face it. Bush doesn't know squat about foreign policy and, once again, the thought of Bush making decisions based on information given to him by his "friends" (for their own gain no doubt) is scary. Gore beats Bush on foreign policy hands down. Will the voters care? Probably not, but if tensions with China develop over Taiwan it's possible. Besides, if you read international newspapers you'll find that Bush is a joke. Nobody takes this man's credentials or abilities seriously. Internationally, that's a problem 6. The more people are exposed to Bush, the less they like him. This, I would assume, is because he really is a spoiled rich kid. He's out of touch with 99% of America. He was born on third base and thought he'd hit a triple. Gore seems to have the opposite effect. He may be bland, but he's not offensive and attacks like a tiger. There's a good chance that Gore will eat Bush alive by November. If Bush can get enough people to spend BIG on his campaign he has a slim chance of staying with Gore, but it's going to take do or die mentality and will require unquestioning support from the entire GOP and most independents (which Bush has already created doubts of with his disrespectful treatment of Sen. McCain). 8. The press HATES Bush. They don't trust him because he won't give them adequate access. And for good reason. He's can't stand on his own two feet. In sum, the GOP was out of its mind to abort McCain. McCain was saying a lot of things people wanted to hear. You can't blame McCain for the sorry state of the GOP. Clearly I don't like Bush. Being Governor of Texas makes Bush qualified to be Lt. Gov. of Texas (which is where the real power is in TX anyway). I won't vote for Bush and if the GOP pisses me off enough, I won't vote for any Republicans. If the GOP continues on its present course, count me out.