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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (59156)	3/22/2005 8:03:40 AM
From: lorne	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 81568

chinu......"the CIA report which says that the US will loose its advantage to China and India by 2020 should serve as the writing on the wall for those evangelicals."..... What advantage is the CIA referring too? Economic, military etc. Was/is clinton an evangelical?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (59156)	3/22/2005 1:51:54 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 81568

May be of interest to you. When rich Democrats lock the plantation Star Parker March 22, 2005 President Bush's Social Security initiative has gotten off to a shaky start. However, polls indicate voters are warming up to the idea of personal retirement accounts. It's time for the Bush administration to start making crystal clear the core principles that distinguish its approach on Social Security reform from that of Democrats. Whereas Bush is selling his reform under the theme of an "ownership society," I would call the Democratic alternative the "plantation society." The "plantation society" is characterized by a wealthy class of owners who want to limit the choices, opportunities and freedom of working-class Americans. According to public record, one of every three members of the Senate and one out of every four members of the House are millionaires. Despite popular stereotypes of Republicans as the party of the rich and Democrats as the party of the working class, the wealthiest member of the Senate (John Kerry of Massachusetts) and the wealthiest member of the House (Jane Harman of California) are both Democrats. Of the top six wealthiest senators, five are Democrats. The ownership society has certainly found its way into Congress. But the wealthy Democratic owner class shows little interest in spreading the wealth and opportunity around. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, worth $16.3 million, is an appropriate spokesperson for the plantation caucus. This past week she stood at a press conference with other Democratic leaders stating uncompromising opposition to personal retirement accounts. The Democrats' message: No negotiation on Social Security until "privatization is off the table." Certainly, Pelosi seems quite comfortable in her ability to manage her own millions. However, the thought of working Americans retaining a few thousand dollars each year of their own earnings to invest in a personal retirement account is so outrageous to her she won't even discuss it. The argument that a private account, ultra-conservatively managed, could at least double the retirement income produced by the current Social Security system doesn't seem to interest Pelosi. Nor does the idea that this would be privately accumulated and owned wealth. When America's political class debated emancipating slaves, an issue that dampened enthusiasm for the idea was the thought that these slaves could simply walk off the plantation and integrate into the nation and live as free people. The owner/masters of today's Democratic plantation reject all attempts to roll back government and give working Americans more choice and freedom. The response is the same whether it's personal retirement accounts or choosing where to send your kid to school. Anything reducing government control gets rejected. Ironically, most personal-retirement-account proposals simply make this option available. But even allowing the option gives too much freedom to working Americans for the Democrats. Apparently, we're all so dumb that not only can't we manage our own money, but we shouldn't even be given a voluntary option to do it. My elderly mom serves coffee in a local convenience store to earn a few dollars to supplement the pittance she gets from Social Security and the few extra hundred dollars per month she started getting after my dad passed away. He worked all his life. If he could have put all the money he paid in Social Security taxes into a retirement investment account over all those same years, my mom would be in a different situation today. However, Pelosi wouldn't have wanted my dad to have the option to keep and invest his own money. I'm sure she would have thought that he wasn't as smart and clever as she is and shouldn't be allowed to manage his own money. The black poverty rate today is double the national average. Black-household wealth is a fourth of the national average. Blacks suffer double jeopardy as a result of the work over the last half-century of welfare-state liberals like Pelosi. First, Social Security payroll taxes take away the few extra dollars that low-income workers could have otherwise retained to build wealth. Second, and perhaps even worse, welfare-state liberals have educated a whole generation of blacks that they can't take care of themselves. Skills in areas such as money management may be in deficit today. But they are in deficit because they weren't learned, and they weren't learned because of hanging on the government plantation. When do we let these folks off this plantation so they can finally start learning the essential skills for improving their lives? Social Security reform, with a crucial central component of personal retirement accounts, is being threatened by elitist Democratic liberals. They preside over a government plantation over which they do not want to relinquish control. It's time to let the slaves free. Transforming taxes into ownership is an important way to do it. worldnetdaily.com

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (59156)	3/23/2005 2:09:33 AM
From: Orcastraiter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

I wonder if this nation does not have more important things to attend to Nothing more important than tending one's flock, oh good shepard. Orca

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (59156)	3/23/2005 7:41:35 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 81568

Gaddafi calls Israelis, Palestinians idiots Reuters News Service March 23, 2005 chron.com ALGIERS - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi grabbed the spotlight at an Arab summit today, calling Israelis and Palestinians idiots for seeking separate states and saying the U.N. Security Council was a terrorist organization. ADVERTISEMENT The Algerian hosts of the two-day meeting gave the maverick leader a star role on the closing day, allowing him to vent at length on Arab grievances about international relations. He said the world should thank Syria for maintaining peace in Lebanon and argued that what he called "Islamic terrorism" was mainly the result of the West's cultural arrogance. The Arab leaders are expected to relaunch later in the day an Arab peace plan offering Israel normal relations in return for withdrawal to the 1967 borders and a Palestinian state. But Gaddafi went against the grain, preaching the minority view that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is for the two peoples to live together in a single state. His targets, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, took it lightly, chuckling at his one-hour speech. But he drew sustained applause for airing views which many Arabs express in private but which their leaders rarely utter in public. Among the dignataries present was U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose own speech was conventionally diplomatic. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the host of the summit, hailed Gaddafi's frankness, if not his statesmanship. "I believe most of his opinions and ideas are real and correct but the difference...is that I am responsible for the state and the people," he said. "If an ordinary person (speaks like that) it doesn't matter, but I am responsible and I do not want to harm my people." Gaddafi said Israel had no right to exist because the Palestinian inhabitants of the country never accepted it. But he added: "I cannot recognise either the Palestinian state or the Israeli state. Don't be angry, Abu Mazen, but the Palestinians are idiots and the Israelis are idiots." The Israelis were wrong to try to hold on to the West Bank in the face of Palestinian attacks and the Palestinians were wrong not to have set up their own state after 1948, he said. "OPPRESSION AND INJUSTICE" "The solution I think is to have a single state. We cannot have two states," added Gaddafi, who noted that he is now the longest serving Arab leader. He took power in 1969. Gaddafi dismissed the argument that poverty is at the root of violence by militant Islamists and pinned the blame on "oppression, injustice, arrogance, insults, contempt and the humiliation of this (Arab) nation." "How come we are considered to be children, with no law or social relations? ... This creates a million bin Ladens." "Listen to us," he said, addressing Europe and the United States. "If you ignore us, you will lose in the end... If they want to combat terrorism, they should respect the Arab world." The Arab summit agreed to back Egypt in a bid for a seat on the U.N. Security Council but Gaddafi said they should work instead to enhance the authority of the General Assembly. "This is a terror council, not a security council. It is a terrorist organisation. Why should we expand it?" he asked. After a final closed session, the Arab monarchs and presidents will relaunch their Middle East peace initiative of 2002, to send the world a message of peaceful intentions. Israel said on Monday that the plan was a "non-starter" and Arab states should start negotiations without conditions. The Arab summit will send a small group of Arab leaders to present the plan to the Quartet of international mediators -- the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia, Abbas told reporters. Annan told the Arab leaders, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, that the killing of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri might need more investigation, beyond an initial U.N. inquiry, whose findings he will release soon. He also said he expected Syria to withdraw all its troops from Lebanon in time for parliamentary elections in May. But Gaddafi warned: "When Syria troops pull out, you'll see what will happen. It's better to have the guns of Syria than the guns of other regional countries."