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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (366389)	1/10/2008 9:41:08 PM
From: J_F_Shepard	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577883

You are amused in strange ways....

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (366389)	1/11/2008 12:52:29 AM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577883

Every single smearvet claim was a total disgusting obvious lie. And now the new Bushies are trying it all over again, against Obama today, claiming he is a Muslim radical. But like with the smearvets slander, pretending they had nothing to do with it at all". Even blam,ing it on Hillary. What fascist traitors Bushie rightwingers are. Just the worst most immoral Americans I have ever seen in my life. Disgraceful villains of the lowest order. They all deserve to be tarred, feathered and run out of the country, for real. We would be so much better off without them all.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (366389)	1/11/2008 6:56:37 AM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 1577883

Middle-Class Capitalists By DAVID BROOKS In 1974, a group of economists and journalists got together in a bar and launched supply-side economics. It was a superb political and economic package. It addressed a big problem: stagflation. It had a clear policy focus: marginal tax rates. It celebrated a certain sort of personality: the risk-taking entrepreneur. It made it clear that the new, growth-oriented Republican Party would be different from the old, green-eyeshade one. Supply-side economics had a good run, but continual tax cuts can no longer be the centerpiece of Republican economic policy. The demographics have changed. The U.S. is an aging society. We have made expensive promises to our seniors. We can’t keep those promises at the current tax levels, let alone at reduced ones. As David Frum writes in “Comeback,” his indispensable new book: “In the face of such a huge fiscal gap, the days of broad, across-the-board, middle-class tax cutting are over.” The political situation has changed, too. Republicans used to appeal to the investor class with economic policies and the working class with values, crime and welfare policies. But that formula has broken down. The workers are walking away from the G.O.P., and the only way to win them back is by listening to their economic concerns. As a result, smart Republicans are groping for a new economic model, and as they do, Republican economic policies are shifting. The entrepreneur is no longer king. The wage-earner is king. As the presidential campaign rolls into Michigan, it’s clear that Republicans are adjusting their priorities to win back the anxious middle class. The Republicans who are reaching toward this new model still sound very different from Democrats. They never describe American workers as victims. They never describe globalization as a remorselessly punishing process. They argue that individuals can still control their own destinies, provided they work hard and get educated. They believe it would be a catastrophe if the U.S. abandoned free trade or adopted a European-style safety net and suffered European tax rates. But they envision a different role for government than the 1980s Republicans. “Americans aren’t afraid of competing in a global economy,” says Douglas Holtz-Eakin, John McCain’s economic adviser, “They’re afraid they’re doing it by themselves. They want a government that is on their side.” In this new model, government is sort of like Vince Lombardi, setting a context that allows individuals and families to compete. There are four main spheres of policy innovation. First, a human capital agenda. The U.S. needs a more skilled work force, but for the first time in our history it is getting a generation no better educated than its parents. To remedy this, Ramesh Ponnuru of The National Review proposes an increased child tax credit to reduce the stress on young families, the seedbed of human capital. Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina proposes tuition tax credits for families earning less than $75,000. The G.O.P. presidential candidates vow to spend more on scientific research and to take on special interests like the teachers’ unions. If schools can’t fire bad teachers and reward good ones, then nothing else we do to improve education will do any good. Second, Republicans have embraced health care reform. While Democrats emphasize the uninsured, Republicans emphasize cost control. They understand that it’s not a question of protecting health markets from government takeover. Government already controls and distorts health care. It’s a question of straightening out the system so that it is clear who is paying and for what. Mitt Romney supports private insurance enforced by a universal mandate. McCain talks about paying for outcomes rather than tests to cut down on unnecessary procedures. Mike Huckabee promotes an activist agenda to reduce obesity and prevent chronic illness. Third, Republicans are putting together pieces of what you might call a resiliency agenda to help families withstand setbacks. McCain would subsidize the wages of workers who were laid off and forced to take lower-paying jobs. President Bush has proposed $3,500 personal re-employment accounts. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama supports $1,000 at-birth savings accounts, so that every American has assets to fall back on. Romney has a plan to aggressively increase savings, and Fred Thompson proposes a federal 401(k). Finally, Republicans are shifting their emphasis from tax cutting to fiscal rectitude. McCain, Huckabee and Thompson emphasize spending control and dealing with the monumental problem of entitlements. Middle-class workers don’t worry so much about investment incentives. They worry that their government is fiscally decadent and fundamentally irresponsible. This spring Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam will publish “Grand New Party,” a book about efforts to win back the so-called Sam’s Club Republicans. The book will be groundbreaking, but the campaign can’t wait. Republican candidates are shifting focus right now.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (366389)	1/11/2008 10:24:41 AM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577883

Calif. governor proposes deep cuts By AARON C. DAVIS, Associated Press Writer Thu Jan 10, 6:15 PM ET ( I hear he's cuttin' Manson loose in the OC! ) SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency in California Thursday, and released a state budget proposal that would close an estimated $14 billion gap by cutting education funds, releasing inmates and closing dozens of state parks. The emergency declaration forces lawmakers to vote on many of the cuts within 45 days, instead of waiting until the new budget year begins July 1. If they take no action, they cannot address other state business. The $141 billion plan would give schools 10 percent less money, release 22,000 inmates and shut 48 state parks. Cuts or freezes in funding for children of welfare recipients and elderly, blind or disabled people also are in the plan. "This is a budget that doesn't please everybody, I know that for sure," Schwarzenegger said. "But the bottom line is I think this is the fairest way to go." California faces a $3.3 billion deficit for the current fiscal year if no action is taken, and projects an $11.2 billion shortfall next year. Economists have long advocated measures to control spending as a way to bring California's revenue and expenditures in line — unless the Republican governor reneges on his promise not to increase taxes. Major cuts to education and social programs, however, will be difficult if not impossible in the Democrat-controlled Legislature. State agencies and programs would be cut by 10 percent. Education would lose more than $4 billion, cuts that would require the Legislature to suspend provisions of a voter-approved initiative that guarantees a minimum funding level for schools. That proposal drew immediate criticism from Democrats and educators. A group of parents also demonstrated outside the governor's press conference, holding signs and chanting that the state must protect its children. "The governor's budget takes a giant step backwards," state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said in a statement. "Our state shouldn't punish our children for its grown-ups' mistakes." Cuts to the prison system would come through the early release of inmates determined to be "low risk" who have less than 20 months remaining on their sentences. Only prisoners serving sentences on nonviolent, non-sex-offender crimes would be eligible. He also proposed eliminating active supervision of 18,522 parolees and making it far more difficult to return lawbreakers to prison. In all, the cuts and weakened parole policy were expected to reduce the state's prison population by 35,000 in the next two years. Republican lawmakers have been critical of any attempt to release inmates early and reacted angrily. "The governor is unequivocally proposing to jeopardize public safety to balance his budget, when he's always said he would never do that," said Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, a Republican. Schwarzenegger also will resubmit a proposal the Legislature rejected last year to cut benefits for the children of welfare recipients if their parents fail to get jobs. The state's medical coverage for the poor would be cut by $1 billion, mainly by eliminating dental coverage for more than 3 million. The $14.5 billion shortfall rivals the one left by Schwarzenegger's predecessor, former Gov. Gray Davis. Schwarzenegger covered that gap with loans and other fixes, then glided on borrowing and an unexpected surge in state tax revenue, but now has far fewer options to bring the state's spending and revenue in line. The cuts outlined by the governor are larger than what Democrats expected. They are pushing for a combination of cuts and tax increases. "It's the governor's day of reckoning," said Steve Maviglio, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, a Democrat. "And it won't be pretty."