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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (14394)	10/29/2003 5:49:16 PM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793625

Knock this kind of attack off, will ya, MSI? You have been getting a bit shrill lately. Its easy to feel this way though. Take the state of California. We pretty much ebb and flow with high tech business, as well as defense. Well, both industries are going like gangbusters right now. The new internet companies are blowing out their top line, and the older firms like Intel are posting incredible results, not exactly as much profit as 2000, but certainly in range of the late 90s. So- booming business, booming state and workforce right? Thats what we had in 97, right? WRONG! Arnold is going to have to get a federal bailout for state UI, it is broke and one billion $ is needed (according to local news this AM, maybe he can pull a rabbit out of a hat but either way, the UI system is broke, same with all state coffers). This is trickle down economics at its finest. Everybody's broke but three guys at the top, and a few select FOBs (friends of bush)

To: LindyBill who wrote (14394)	10/29/2003 9:02:01 PM
From: MSI	Respond to of 793625

Let's take it a step at a time, and change the words to avoid the sense of shrillness: Re: "slave wages", wages in real terms haven't improved in 30 years. the average is still under $9/hr., while the GDP has tripled. Let's call those "low wages". In fact, there are serious consequences to a wage base that eliminates worker options. Avoiding wealth transfer is a good idea. Better to indentify why wages stay low while GDP triples. Even better, identify when such wasn't the case, and why. A lot of things have conspired to create that situation, we're in the Information Age where education is required. But the same was true in the 50's, when average wage increased dramatically, along with GDP, due to public policies of encouraging education. This isn't a "conspiracy", any more than a Dell laptop running at 1GHz at a cost of 1/10000th what the 1980 price for that amount of computer power is a conspiracy. These are not personal attacks. Gov't and industry advance their own agenda. The point is that depressed wages are not espoused by any conspiracy, it is a confluence of interests that promote policies to depress wages and depress education. Those who gain most from centralized power are gov't and industry across the board, anyone who benefits from low wages. Even my little engineering company gained from H1B visas until I discovered the larger picture. I didn't conspire with anyone, I acted in my own interests, and watched legislation flow in Washington from likewise interested but much larger companies. The truth doesn't have to be "conspiratorial" in the space-aliens mold. These are conclusions that should be arrived at by analysis and we shouldn't be afraid to look directly at these policies and results. I keep harping on the book by a conservative, "Dependent on DC", but it's a good introduction. This trend increases the proportion of the economy that is expropriated into Washington, mostly by deception and extortion (witness Rumsfeld's recent admission of $2 Trillion "missing" at the Pentagon, almost $20,000 for every household). Let's take this one point at a time: the proportion of our GDP in taxes is steadily growing regardless of who is in the WH. If you disagree that this is by distortion and deception, I disagree. The Rumsfeld admission of $2 trillion "missing" is a good case in point. This isn't a personal attack, both parties are complicit in failing to oversee this criminal level of negligence. newhouse.com Re: Norquist, read him sometime, and tell me what you think of his thesis

To: LindyBill who wrote (14394)	10/30/2003 8:35:54 PM
From: MSI	Respond to of 793625

Trent Lott ups the ante "...across the top of the banner, which was clearly professionally made and not hand-lettered, were the block-letter words "SUPPORT PRESIDENT BUSH." Through the center of the banner were black outlines of a fighter aircraft, a tank, an M-16 rifle, a .45 caliber pistol, an attack helicopter, a surface-to-air missile battery, and a thermonuclear bomb. Underneath these images were two more block-letter words: "TRUST JESUS." "The sentiment apparently finds resonance with Senator Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi. The Wednesday edition of The Hill carried a story about GOP concerns over the manner in which the post-war war is unfolding. The trepidation is understandable; more American troops have been killed in the 'Mission Accomplished' phase of the war than in the war itself. Lott responded to the crisis in Iraq by saying, "If we have to, we just mow the whole place down, see what happens." truthout.org