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Politics : Support the French! Viva Democracy! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (4486)	1/6/2004 9:23:09 AM
From: zonder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7834

This is funny. No sad. Well, tragic... BUSH'S RESUME George W. Bush The White House, USA EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE: LAW ENFORCEMENT: I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver's license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been "lost" and is not available. MILITARY: I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam. COLLEGE: I graduated from Yale University with a low C average. I was a cheerleader. PAST WORK EXPERIENCE: I ran for U.S. Congress and lost. I began my career in the oil business in Midland, Texas, in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas. The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock. I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money. With the help of my father and our right-wing friends in the oil industry (including Enron CEO Ken Lay), I was elected governor of Texas. ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS: I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union. During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America. I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money. I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history. With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida, and my father's appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President after losing by over 500,000 votes. ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT: I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record. I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one billion dollars per week. I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury. I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history. I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period. I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period. In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues every month. I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. My "poorest millionaire," Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her. I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. President. I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations. My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. History, Enron. My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision. I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or prosecution. More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate rip-offs in history. I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed. I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history. I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts. I appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any President in U.S. history. I created the Department of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States government. I've broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history. I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission. I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law. I refused to allow inspectors access to U.S. "prisoners of war" detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention. I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election). I set the record for fewest number of press conferences of any President since the advent of television. I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year period. After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history. I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history. I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind. I am the first President in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. citizens, and the world community. I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families -- in war time. In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq, then blamed the lies on our British friends. I am the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%)view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security. I am supporting development of a nuclear "Tactical Bunker Buster," a WMD. I have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice. RECORDS AND REFERENCES: All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my father's library,sealed and unavailable for public view. All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view. All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review. PLEASE CONSIDER MY EXPERIENCE WHEN VOTING IN 2004.

To: epicure who wrote (4486)	1/6/2004 12:54:54 PM
From: cosmicforce	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 7834

I just had a 20 minute talk (that evolved into a discussion of Bush) with a colleague that has just returned from China. We compared notes, noting differences and similarities between the China I visited 15 years ago and the modern industrial China to which my company is exporting jobs. He made a very keen intuitive observation. He noted that the U.S. was the "China" for Europe 50 - 100 years ago and that while Europe re-invented itself over the past century, the relative standard of living for middle-class Europeans has gone down relative to those of similar professions in the U.S (based upon material measurements alone - standard of living should also include "soft" factors as well like infant mortality and vacation hours and one can argue that they traded leisure for hard cash). We were a cheap labor pool and Europe survived us. We'll have to do a similar thing with China and our current asset is managerial competence. What makes this commentary on-point, relative the the "S" factor, is that, by definition we have 50% of our people with below average intelligence. IQ scores are pretty much the same all over the world. So, what are we going to do with 150 million people that are sub-literate and unable to learn the tools of managerial competence? Enter the "McJob". We can expect more people to live a shitty existence here in the U.S. The good news is that if you are rich, you may soon be able to get an English-as-first-language maid or gardener. The bad news is that if you aren't in the upper 15% of intellect, don't expect much. I've made the exact argument that the author did, namely, how do you explain an act of corruption that has 5 interconnected parts, each of which only contributes a fraction of the corruption, to a person with an IQ of 99 or less? The simple answer is you can't. My conclusion is that things will have to get so bad that it becomes obvious to almost everyone that we have a huge problem. That should happen in Shrub's 2nd term, unfortunately. I drew a parallel to Nixon, where nothing he did in the first term was so bad that he lost the incumbent advantage. The "left" (everyone who was not a crony, rich, reactionary or an adle-headed joe six-pack chewing up the fat fed to them) was too far from center to be an effective opponent, so we got Nixon and Watergate. Dubbya represents a worse threat because he is not the brains of the operation. One can guess that Cheney and the Neo-cons simply direct the marginally intelligent Bush into making their decisions by biasing the information he gets. If Bush, the Media and the People never see any protestors, then expect that Dubbya will continue to act and say the things he says with utter confidence that he has a "mandate". I'm depressed now... thoroughly. Try to have a good day.