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Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (3223)	5/23/2001 11:47:35 AM
From: jttmab	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93284

Not exactly sure what those first two paragraphs was directed at. Perhaps on some reflection it'll be clear. I need to go off for now, but I'll boomark your post. Two very brief points. I suggest you leave France to the French. I never did like it there nor do most of the people I've run into in Western Europe. On a light note:..In the last year, in Annapolis, I have not happened to encounter a toddler throwing a tantrum. I hope you're not suggesting that since I left the country, that tantrums by toddlers have subsided. Cheers, jttmab

To: Neocon who wrote (3223)	5/23/2001 11:15:20 PM
From: TigerPaw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93284

the largest investors are not individual anyway The pension funds, mutual funds, banks, insurance companies, and such have leaders. Those tend to be interlocking. I saw a study maybe 20 years ago which showed that nearly half of all corporate assets in the U.S. could be traced to insurance companies, banks, and the like which were ultimately controlled by the Rockefeller family. They only need to control 51% of some entity that controls the vote in an organization that controls the vote in another. Don't forget the charity endowments when counting the votes. They don't control day to day, they just make sure that a few key guidelines are followed. TP

To: Neocon who wrote (3223)	6/16/2001 4:40:53 AM
From: jttmab	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 93284

Paper assets are fairly unimportant. Most of the amassed wealth of individuals is in the form of real estate or portfolios. This structure suggests that portfolios are not paper assets. In either event, wealth does beget political access and the formation of policies directly and indirectly. It creates a form of political factions. It's worthwhile reading The Madison Letters, IV and in particular his piece on Public Opinion. Which also relates to your position of "leadership", with respect to governence in a prior post of yours. the standard of budget accommodations making a Day's Inn look opulent, the inability to find a decent supermarket, the queer problem with ice (plenty for chilling wine, practically none for my "iced tea"), and so forth. I have known two groups that have had events in England in the last year, and they had major problems with food or lodging at some point in their stays, so I suspect there are similar problems. Really serious stuff here. Far more important than the accumulation of wealth by a few. ... My son doesn't like ice in his beverages and gets all sort of grief in the States getting a drink without ice. I recall an instance [in Maryland] where they agreed to give him two-thirds of a glass of Coke to compensate for the absence of ice. You mention litter in the parks. In Washington, that has never been a major problem, certainly not in the main park areas. Even in New York, in Central Park, it .... I read your passage to my wife; we got a good laugh. We lived in Md for 25 years, up until last year. On a trip back this past Jan, I was impressed at how filthy the Baltimore-Washington area is. Granted, I would rather be robbed than shot, still, they are not completely well- behaved True. We had a front page assault a while ago. A group of teenagers were verbally harassing a couple in town; the man hailed a cab and one of the teenages head-butted the man. So you have assaults and England has assaults. [Population of the city is 70-80,000] I also sent you a link quite some time ago that did a fairly comprehensive comparison of the US vs. the industrialized countries that included a comparison of crime statistics and the US didn't fair well at all. A long while back, I escorted a French couple around Washington, as a favor to a friend. The wife, who had good English, raved about how much "freer" everything was in America. I was inclined to blow it off as a vacation illusion, until we met a woman who had immigrated from France several years before, and opened a boutique. She also had that sense of America as a place that was free in its very atmosphere. When I went to France, I could feel why that might be. It is possible that social order is better preserved in a country with more "Etatisme". But perhaps personal freedom is not. And, in that case, those with a taste for "free air" will thrive better in the States Pretty difficult to compare "free air". I'm not even sure why you imply that the US is more free, i.e., what's the basis? Referring again back to the link I sent earlier, there was a section that compared nations by the UN Human Freedom index that considers... "The United Nation's Human Freedom Index compares the amount of freedom that citizens of different countries enjoy. It considers the right to travel, assemble, and speak; the absence of forced labor, torture and other extreme legal punishment (such as the death penalty); freedom of political opposition, the press and trade unions; an independent judiciary; gender equality; and the legal right to trial, counsel of choice, privacy, religion and sexual practice." The US was fairly down the list [11 out of 13 at the time]. I note that you conservative are very big on non-substantive images, .e.g., "free air", "Etatisme", etc. Even your GW, touted as being some kind of a straight talking, no BS President. Positive and negative images, "sound science", "freedom loving people", "the true threats of the 21st century." He gets blasted on his environmental positions and he trucks out to a few national parks, with the appropriate attire to demonstate how much he cares about the environment. jttmab