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Politics : Welcome to Slider's Dugout -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: orkrious who wrote (17404)	5/14/2009 9:30:37 AM
From: SliderOnTheBlack	11 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50024

re: ["It's an outrage. However, what Slider said isn't exactly true. There are some people who won't take him seriously unless he has his facts correct....Congress' retirement benefits are an outrage, but some people will read what you wrote and disregard it because a one or two-term congressman gets no pension,"] Puh-leeze.... Was it like I told America there were "57 States?" "It is wonderful to be back in Oregon. Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it." -- Presidential Candidate Barack Obama latimesblogs.latimes.com -------------- Was it like I stood before America in the Caterpillar plant in my home state, and told both workers, and the American public that my proposed stimulus plan would not only stop the layoffs, but allow Caterpillar to rehire workers they just laid off... Only to have the CEO of Caterpillar have to go on national television the same day to deny it, and say - no, that's not true, we will continue with the 22,000 layoffs? blogs.abcnews.com -------------- Was it like I stood before union workers and promised them that I'd repeal part of NAFTA, only to have my adviser (Austan Goolsbee) tell the Canadians privately, not to worry, because it's just campaign rhetoric? abcnews.go.com laborradio.org article.nationalreview.com --------------- Was my post about the pension plan of Congress, or the "outrage" over politicians who filled their pockets with banking lobby money, and then rolled over and rubber stamped bank legislation for the next ten years allowing unregulated derivatives via the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, the repeal of key components of Glass Steagal, the SEC removal of leverage limits & the allowance of self-regulation by the Wall Street investment banks, the use of Fannie & Freddie as a toxic waste dump, the use of the rating agencies as rubber stamps, ultimately allowing them to crash not just the U.S. economy, but the global financial system as well... while collecting hundreds of millions in ill-gotten gains? The single most insignificant point of my entire post, was the pension plan of Congress. And you want to nit-pick the semantics of Congress' pension plan? Okie dokie... re: Pension Plans For Members Of Congress: senate.gov senate.gov c-span.org The term for a U.S. Senator is six years, and they are "fully vested" after five years. But, a Congressman would need to serve 2 two year terms, and one year of a third term. And their retirement annuity may not exceed "80% of his or her final salary." Mea F'n Culpa... Hopefully this won't ruin my political aspirations, SOTB PS: And how about that Dick Cheney? Given all the torture memos, videos, photos, and the new revelations about Cheney's use of "private hit squads" that reported directly to him... "Children sodomized at Abu Ghraib, on tape" salon.com "Executive 'assassination ring' reported directly to Cheney" rawstory.com minnpost.com Keith Olberman on Cheney Assassination Squads... youtube.com Wouldn't you think that the one guy in the entire world, who would ride quietly off into the night, never to be heard from again (in a country without a US extradition treaty)... would be Dick Cheney? But, Nooooooooooo Cheney's all over the Sunday talk shows and openly criticizing Obama's policies? boston.com Riddle me this... What entity, with obviously more political power than Obama, would give Cheney the confidence to not just "not worry" about prosecution, but the chutzpah to go on National Television and rub it in Obama's face? Chew on that one for a while. And yet again, the Obama sheeple are left holding another empty campaign promise bag, and they're not too happy about it... thenation.com freerepublic.com "... human rights groups took issue with Mr Obama's declaration – issued alongside the memos – that agents who had used methods regarded as torture would not be prosecuted. Amnesty International said: "The US Department of Justice appears to have offered a get-out-of-jail-free card to people involved in torture." It added: "Torture is never acceptable and those who conduct I should not escape justice." The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the freedom of information lawsuit in California that left the administration feeling it had no choice but to disclose the memos, wrote an open letter to Eric Holder, the Attorney General. It demanded he appointed an independent prosecutor "to investigate who knew about and authorised the Bush administration's torture policies" and bring prosecutions if warranted. Reaction in the Middle East suggested that Mr Obama's effort to build bridges with the Muslim world in the wake of Mr Bush's "war on terror" and conflict in Iraq would be adversely affected. The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights in Cairo said the decision would encourage other nations to let abuses pass. "Obama told us he will hold to account the people who committed a crime or a human rights violation," he said. "So this is a wrong signal to the perpetrators of human rights – especially Third World countries."