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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (69052)	12/16/2004 10:28:32 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Jimbo: You have a source on the book reading? Shoot, if I am reading 2 or 3 a week, I've gotta be carrying a lot of never- reads on my back. WR

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (69052)	12/16/2004 10:35:08 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 89467

"While the rest of the developed world leaves the US in the dust, and the developing nations close the gap, Bush is turning the US into a third world country." Left Behind The trouble is with a simplistic black-and-white view, coupled with aggressive self-righteous certitude a la Bush is that it will inevitably be the gray areas that will be your downfall. Bush divides the world into good and evil and launches a holy war against evil. This works well with his political formula of favoring cronies with juicy defense contracts and in turn getting great political contributions from them. Coupled with the propaganda genius of the evil Karl Rove, this strategy has worked beautifully and has allowed the Bush mob to seize control of all branches of government and consolidate an ever greater stranglehold on the US, gradually turning it into the world's largest tinpot dictatorship. This strategy works fine within the closed system of US politics. However, Bush is playing on the world stage. The Muslims of the Middle East are a good choice as the foe upon which Bush can act out his war president fantasies because the enemy is militarily weak and easy to bully around. And they happen to live on the world's greatest oil deposits, which they are likely to claim as their own if Bushco doesn't step in and do something about it. Bush has chosen the Muslim nationalist world as his "evil" and has engaged in a "war on terrr" that threatens to be endless. Bush has chosen an enemy as fundamentalistically dogmatic and stubborn as himself and now has the US locked into battle with an old family friend/nemesis Saddam Hussein. It is a battle that seems less winnable every day. War is a disruption of the human process, a state of arrested development, investment in a nonproductive enterprise. As Bush drains the US resources on his unwinnable war, the rest of the world is moving ahead. China, India, Europe are all building their economies, innovating, creating better standards of living for their people, building prosperous, strong societies. As they all move into the new century, Bush has the US wrapped up with Muslim extremists, together engaged in pulling the world back to the 15th century. The universe stubbornly refuses to live up to Bush's fantasies about what it is. In his simple good-vs-evil view, "You're either with us or against us." But the countries of the world remain largely neither with nor against, but on the sidelines of Bush's absurd war, building their strength while Bush depletes that of the US against his equally recalcitrant foes. While the rest of the developed world leaves the US in the dust, and the developing nations close the gap, Bush is turning the US into a third world country. Americans are poorly educated, largely uninsured, increasingly poor and unemployed. The economy is faltering. The country is increasingly under the control of a small group of superrich. The US' foreign policy of piracy is alienating the rest of the world, isolating the US and weakening it both politically and economically. While Bush unravels the economic and moral foundations of the country, the US falls farther and farther behind the rest of the world. It will take a long time to undo the damage of the Bush administration. The Bush mob may be the ones to finally destroy the American dream once and for all davidcogswell.com

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (69052)	12/16/2004 12:49:07 PM
From: J.B.C.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

Jim Willie legend-in-his-own-mind is being factually dishonest...the leading cause of illiteracy in the US is immigration, legal and illegal. Jim

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (69052)	12/16/2004 2:01:06 PM
From: abuelita	Respond to of 89467

seems like lot are not aware of greek mythology either. Now they're saying the Olympics were 'indecent'? By JOHN DOYLE, GLOBE & MAIL UPDATED AT 1:57 PM EST Thursday, Dec 16, 2004 Around this time, it's customary to consider the year gone by. What were the highlights? What happened that we would rather forget? Indeed, do we remember anything at all from the hurly-burly and the hubbub? Well, we all remember the Summer Olympics, right? The little blue cow, the dorky Canadian guy traipsing around Europe with his Tim's mug? Does any of this ring a bell? Okay, good. Now, if you concentrate, you might even recall the opening ceremonies for the Olympics. It was the usual sort of thing -- thousands of years of history and culture being encapsulated in a stage show, one that featured people in costumes. Television commentators were kept busy explaining the symbolism and hoping that the press releases from the host country were accurate. In the case of the Athens Olympics, the ceremonies included actors representing Greek statues and some of these statues were of naked fellas or topless women. The actors weren't actually naked or topless, of course, but these aspects of Greek antiquity were suggested or symbolized in the outfits worn. It turns out that, in the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is looking into the carrying-on, on the grounds that it might have been "indecent." Honestly, I'm not making this up. The FCC recently confirmed that it had requested tapes of the opening ceremonies from NBC, following complaints. There was no indication of how many complaints had been received from people unfamiliar with Greek statues and, presumably, outraged by the Greek appreciation of the human form. Mind you, this news arrives at an auspicious time. As you probably know, the FCC has been very busy investigating "indecency" and levying fines against broadcasters. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the FCC's fine against the Fox network and an allegedly "indecent" scene in its reality series Married by America. I also pointed out that an intrepid reporter had used the American Freedom of Information Act and discovered that the action against Fox arose from a small handful of complaints. This entire fandango began with FCC head Michael Powell's startling assertion earlier this year (during the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" fuss) that the number of complaints to the FCC had soared. He said that in 2003 total complaints numbered 240,000, compared with a mere 14,000 the year before. Initially, Powell's assertion gave the impression -- to both politicians and the press in the United States -- that the American public had become very concerned about "indecency" on TV. It seemed to signal a shift in the culture, one that gave succour to the Republican Party. Now, it turns out that all that complaining to the FCC is the work of one activist, right-wing group. MediaWeek has been looking into the FCC's sudden mania for reacting to complaints and fining American broadcasters, and the trade magazine dutifully examined the complaints. It discovered that 99.8 per cent of the complaints in 2003 came from a single group, Parents Television Council. The magazine also estimates that this year, up until Oct. 1, a full 99 per cent of complaints to the FCC about indecency came from the same group. There is something seriously weird about this. Contrary to the impression created by Powell, and repeated by pundits across the United States, there is no sudden shift in public attitudes to what American viewers see on network TV. The shift is simply a matter of one group being relentless in bombarding the FCC with complaints. I don't know where the complaints against the opening ceremonies of the Olympics originate, but they only add to the absurdity. At this time of the year, when we consider the year gone by, it is also good to remind ourselves that not everything happened exactly as it seemed.

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (69052)	12/16/2004 8:47:58 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Respond to of 89467

I'm with Wharf Rat. I want to see your backing for your claims. in USA, avg #books read in adult lifetime ??? answer: ONE BOOK You gotta admit that's PRETTY GOOD for the illiterates you claimed these people to be. Illiterates can't read AT ALL. USA illiteracy rate: highest of all 17 industrialized nations Source? Also, how was it measured? Where? Who was and was not included in the study? 05/03/2004 "Orwellian Financial Newspeak" gold-eagle.com financialsense.com; Quoting leftist sources proves nothing but that you know how to post links.