Man, we've been back for three whole days and we haven't had a single smidgen of controversy yet. I don't have anything particular insightful to say -- my feelings at this point are approximately like Kymm's, except it's been six days since she wrote that and it's now becoming pretty clear that we aren't going to be able to ignore this man and he WILL be allowed to do plenty of damage. But I thought I'd just open up a general topic for cheering, moaning, bitching, whining, gloating, and baiting, so y'all can get back into the swing of things.

Have at it.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2001

Answers

I swiped this from Rob, but it cracked me up last night ... go to Google and type in "dumb motherfucker," and see what you get.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2001

I'm just so sad. While I voted for Gore, which by no means is something I'm entirely proud of, I *am* proud that I did NOT vote for George Bush.

Now, as I watch him remove clinic funding, I just want to scream "I TOLD YOU SO!" The bulk of what most clinics do is provide birth control and health checks so women don't have to have abortions...pull the funding from them and you are increasing the number of abortions by reducing women's options.

And need we go into the destruction wrought upon the public school paradigm, if we remove money from them to provide a piddly-ass (yes, I made that up) voucher that won't even begin to cover a year of tuition? What are the kids who can't afford the other $8K a year supposed to do? Use the old nasty textbooks left behind at the school that no longer has the funding to buy new ones? Geesh! The rich get richer and the poor get poorer and less educated. For the most part, Education=ability to make $.

The public school is a three-way system whereby the parent, the teacher and the community provide equal doses of support. A wiser approach would be to create legislation that encourages volunteerism. Maybe offer employees 8 hours a month of leave time they can use to volunteer in their community...people without kids can go work at a soup kitchen and parents can go into their kids' classrooms.

Oh, and I'm just soooo thrilled at the prospect of a Pentacostal Christian as the attorney general. I'll grant you he's prettier than Janet Reno, but he's so icky, if I got started critiqueing him for his stand on gun control, women's reproductive rights and the like, this would be a LOT longer. So like if he doesn't get his way, is he going to start speaking in tongues?

And the kicker...now GW is skirting the whole issue of campaign finance reform because if he got on the bandwagon, he'd lose a lot of money for his re-election bid.

Well, you can't say he's not ambitious.

Your friendly neighborhood candy-assed liberal, wendy

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2001

I wish I could stick my head in the sand for four years. It's gonna be bad.

I hope that Dubya is smart enough to realize that if he tries that same bullshit in America, he's going to hear it. I, for one, find it utterly irresponsible that he is doing that (cutting fund when abortions thing) to countries that can't afford their own people, let alone the babies that are going to come alone. And don't even get me started on the lack of women's rights.

Somebody over in another unnamed forum brought up the idea that it appears that some Republicans want to protect a life until it exits the womb and then turn their backs on it by cutting welfare. That, to me, is the perfect example of what is wrong with the idea of criminalizing abortion.

Can't talk about it much more or it's going to hurt my heart. Man, I can't believe this is happening. Ugh.

(Makes me wish I'd gotten more involved.. next election, I probably will.)

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2001

What kills me is that the reason he can't make the same prohibition here is because organizations in the US are protected by their constitutional freedom of speech. (the ban includes any organization that so much as tells a woman that abortion is one option on a menu of alternatives she might have even if they don't perform them.)

I'm probably being way too idealistic again, but if you believe in the rightness of upholding the Constitution (and shouldn't you, if you're the President??) - then wouldn't you believe in the ethical correctness of preserving those same rights in your dealings with people who are not legally protected by it?

(No, don't give me examples where we haven't... I know. I'm just saying that we *should* and I don't even see this primarily as a choice issue or a women's issue - our President doesn't stand by the spirit behind the Constitution he's sworn to uphold and that should give everyone pause, regardless of their stance on abortion.)

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2001

I got this in my email, obviously replicated, but I liked it. It's called, AT LONG LAST, OUR NATIONAL NIGHTMARE IS OVER.

WASHINGTON, DC--Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the door on eight years of Bill Clinton, president-elect George W. Bush assured the nation in a televised address Tuesday that "our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over."

"My fellow Americans," Bush said, "at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us."

Bush swore to do "everything in [his] power" to undo the damage wrought by Clinton's two terms in office, including selling off the national parks to developers, going into massive debt to develop expensive and impractical weapons technologies, and passing sweeping budget cuts that drive the mentally ill out of hospitals and onto the street.

During the 40-minute speech, Bush also promised to bring an end to the severe war drought that plagued the nation under Clinton, assuring citizens that the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years.

"You better believe we're going to mix it up with somebody at some point during my administration," said Bush, who plans a 250 percent boost in military spending. "Unlike my predecessor, I am fully committed to putting soldiers in battle situations. Otherwise, what is the point of even having a military?"

On the economic side, Bush vowed to bring back economic stagnation by implementing substantial tax cuts, which would lead to a recession, which would necessitate a tax hike, which would lead to a drop in consumer spending, which would lead to layoffs, which would deepen the recession even further.

Wall Street responded strongly to the Bush speech, with the Dow Jones industrial fluctuating wildly before closing at an 18-month low. The NASDAQ composite index, rattled by a gloomy outlook for tech stocks in 2001, also fell sharply, losing 4.4 percent of its total value between 3 p.m. and the closing bell.

Asked for comment about the cooling technology sector, Bush said: "That's hardly my area of expertise."

Turning to the subject of the environment, Bush said he will do whatever it takes to undo the tremendous damage not done by the Clinton Administration to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He assured citizens that he will follow through on his campaign promise to open the 1.5 million acre refuge's coastal plain to oil drilling. As a sign of his commitment to bringing about a change in the environment, he pointed! to his choice of Gale Norton for Secretary of the Interior. Norton, Bush noted, has "extensive experience" fighting environmental causes, working as a lobbyist for lead-paint manufacturers and as an attorney for loggers and miners, in addition to suing the EPA to overturn clean-air standards.

The speech was met with overwhelming approval from Republican leaders.

"Finally, the horrific misrule of the Democrats has been brought to a close," House Majority Leader Dennis Hastert (R-IL) told reporters. "Under Bush, we can all look forward to military aggression, deregulation of dangerous, greedy industries, and the defunding of vital domestic social-service programs upon which millions depend. Mercifully, we can now say goodbye to the awful nightmare that was Clinton's America."

"For years, I tirelessly preached the message that Clinton must be stopped," conservative talk-ra! dio host Rush Limbaugh said. "And yet, in 1996, the American public failed to heed my urgent warnings, re-electing Clinton despite the fact that the nation was prosperous and at peace under his regime. But now, thank God, that's all done with. Once again, we will enjoy mounting debt, jingoism, nuclear paranoia, mass deficit, and a massive military build-up."

An overwhelming 49.9 percent of Americans responded enthusiastically to the Bush speech.

"After eight years of relatively sane fiscal policy under the Demo crats, we have reached a point where, just a few weeks ago, President Clinton said that the national debt could be paid off by as early as 2012," Rahway, NJ, machinist and father of three Bud Crandall said. "That's not the kind of world I want my children to grow up in."

"You have no idea what it's like to be black and enfranchised," said Marlon Hastings, one of thousands of Miami-Da! de County residents whose votes were not counted in the 2000 presidential election. "George W. Bush understands the pain of enfranchisement, and ever since Election Day, he has fought tirelessly to make sure it never happens to my people again."

Bush concluded his speech on a note of healing and redemption.

"We as a people must stand united, banding together to tear this nation in two," Bush said. "Much work lies ahead of us: The gap between the rich and the poor may be wide, be there's much more widening left to do. We must squander our nation's hard-won budget surplus on tax breaks for the wealthiest 15 percent. And, on the foreign front, we must find an enemy and defeat it."

"The insanity is over," Bush said. "After a long, dark night of peace and stability, the sun is finally rising again over America. We look forward to a bright new dawn not seen since the glory days of my dad."

(Al back) The worst thing is, stripped of the sarcasm, there seems to be a little too much truth in this to be comfortable...

Al of NOVA NOTES.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2001

That's from the Onion, by the way.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2001

Sorry, that was just sent in email to me, with unattributed source. If I had known I could have just linked to it, I wouldn't have taken up the bandwidth/space.---Al of NOVA NOTES.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2001

I'm going to take strong issue with 'sustained peace overseas'. The military has never been spread so thin in so many hostile environments at one time as they have in the past eight years. There are a lot (LOT) of military people who bounce from one high-risk zone to another and are only home long enough to do their laundry...for years and years on end.

"Peace" means a lot more than whether or not a guvmint person has decided to call it war or, ehem, 'peacekeeping'.

Don't ignore the good, yes... but don't give into political babblespeak and ignore the reality of what's behind it, either.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2001

Let me put in context what I mean to say. I'm reading "Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking Glass World" by Eduardo Galeano, which lists the offenses of globalization against "the South" (Galeano objects to the term "developing nations" on the grounds that this is like calling a dwarf a "child"). The U.S. exports low-paying, dead-end jobs to the South so that $20 Mickey Mouse t-shirts are assembled by Asian women in sweatshops who get $1 a day for working around the clock.

And we're not doing so great on the medical front in general. Let's not even consider how many deaths in Africa from AIDS could be prevented for a few hundred dollars a year. I read through "Parasite Rex" over the Christmas weekend, and among the many unexpected things I learned was that *millions* of people in "the South" live with infestations of intestinal worms, which are potentially life-threatening and always debilitating, because there's no funding for CHEESECLOTH to strain drinking water and remove the cysts in which the worm larvae grow. According to the author, basically one year's income for a NY law partner could wipe out a true scourge that affects millions.

I don't mean in any way to belittle the concerns raised by Wendy and Emily -- I was just thinking when I was reading their posts that it's just one more drop in the bucket.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2001

That's actually a good point, Tom, and one that's occurred to me before. Sometimes I wonder whether all the concern over abortion rights and funding distracts us from the generally abysmal state of our health care system in general and the way we approach health care aide overseas. Maybe we're supposed to be distracted.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2001

I contributed to and participated in the Bush campaign. I'm am very proud to see him in the White House. In just his first week he's set an example of dignity and statesman ship that we haven't had in a long time.

The thing I like the best is that he's probably the most honest politician we've had in the White House since Ike. He is doing exactly the things that he said he'd do when he was campaigning. No one who knows him is surprised, and no one who trusted him has been disappointed.

I know a lot of folks here are wrapped around the axle about abortion, and if you want to jump over to 3WA we have spirited discussion going there. I just want to point out that Bush said he'd two things with respect to abortion:

1) No federal funding of abortion related activities. 2) A ban on partial birth abortions.

He's done number 1, and you can expect him to introduce legislation to do #2 at some point over the next year.

Beyond those two things, he's not going to introduce any legislation. How do I know? Because he said so, and he's always done the things he said. If that's not enough for you ( and I can understand not wanting to trust politicians ) he's never been a hard core pro-lifer, especially since his wife is pro-choice. So try not to blow things out of proportion.

He's also done more honest listening in the last week than the previous occupant did in 8 years. It was interesting to note that on inauguration day, President Bush made one speech that lasted less than 15 minutes. The outgoing President made four speeches that totaled about two hours.

He's brought in a team of experienced adults to run the various departments.I think we're in for eight years of boringly good management of the executive branch.

Jim

PS: He's not going to steal the silverware when he leaves.

-- Anonymous, January 27, 2001

I was in Whistler, B.C. the past few days and on the CBC news they had interviewed Fidel Castro...what struck me funny was he said "I hope President George W. Bush is not as stupid as he appears to be" this was in reference to all his plans during his time in office. I'm curious- was this on the news in the states?

-- Anonymous, January 28, 2001

I am in denial, pure and simple. I can't think of that moron as our president, and I shudder to think what the next four years will bring. I do have hope that this election (which has excited more political interest in the public than anything else during my lifetime) will wake up people who don't usually concern themselves with politics, and I don't think we'll make the same mistake twice.

I heard this rumor: that the White House staff removed all the "W"'s from the computer keyboards in the White House before Dubya moved in. I'm not sure how true that is, but it's a brilliant practical joke - think how unnerving that must be to Dubya! Not that he needed unnerving - ever since the election was declared officially in his favor, he has looked scared as hell. Better watch what you wish for, you just might get it!

-- Anonymous, January 28, 2001

Removed the W's (or from what I understand, turned them upsidedown and glued them on), posted signs from a SNL routine on the doors, from what I understand, sprinkled the stack of paper in the copy machines with various gags (some reports say lewd, others say unflattering caricatures). Dubya is asking that a big deal not be made of it - some of his staff is totally outraged.

I suppose I'll take two seconds to be grownup and say, yea, spending out tax dollars to damage government equipment is wrong.

ehem. and then I'll start laughing my butt off again. This kind of thing isn't uncommon in 'friendly' exchanges of power.

The Air Force base where I went to high school used to belong to the French, and then the Canadians (or maybe vice versa, can't recall)... at any rate when it was handed over to US authority, the outgoing crew wasn't thrilled...so they turned over all the keys to everything on base - in one single giant oil drum. Unlabeled.

His staff would do him a big favor if they lighten up.

-- Anonymous, January 28, 2001

A sign from God?

-- Anonymous, January 28, 2001

A sign from God?

Sorry, but I do believe that I'm going to get the coveted God endorsement...

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

"Sorry, but I do believe that I'm going to get the coveted God endorsement...

-- Rob Rummel-Hudson"

Not unless you stop slacking and update more often!

God

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

Jill...

That bit about Castro's comments was on the news in the U.S. Wasn't that funny!? What guts.

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

I haven't paid much attention to world leaders since the Dalai Lama was deposed.

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

By no means, has Clinton's reign been perfect, but I am deeply saddened we have such an anti-choice president in office. Abortions suck...no doubt about it, but the so-called partial birth abortion...geesh, if you're that pregnant, I can't imagine that any woman would want that procedure unless things were dire. In which case, it should be a health decision between a woman and her doctor and the government should keep its big fat nose out of her uterus. It's a horrible choice to be in a position to make and so few women would have that problem, that it needs to be out of the greasy hands of a bunch of "good old boys."

Compassionate conservatism, my ass! What's the last republican federal legislation that vaguely broached "compassionate?" Yeesh.

I do not forsee that Bush will do a damned thing about the healthcare issues raised here, nor do I predict that things will improve with the military.

I do predict a recession. I do predict some good old-fashioned trickle-down Reaganomics. I predict gaffes of monumental stupidity, chalked up to him being such a "down home" kinda guy.

I think I'm going to go to graduate school for a few years, until we can vote him out of office.

This whole California power thing is another source of irritation. I'll grant you that Gov. Gray Davis is a big wimp who is only looking to preserve his political career, so his aspirations for the presidency might come to fruition. But Gee W., rather than using some political pull to get some level of back-up plan on the federal level, basically has made it clear that rather that he'd rather let California swing in the breeze, so that Gray looks bad. And a freakin' republican STARTED this mess....another presidential hopeful, Pete Wilson.

That cuts it, I'm going to grad school.

Your friendly, neighborhood candy-assed liberal,

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

A wolf in sheep's fittings

`With a new president comes new office decor for the White House. But the peaches and cream scheme doesn't fool Jonathan Glancey.'

From the Guardian last week.

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

I'm not much of a Bush fan, but I do agree with some conservative opinions. Now that the majority of readers have already decided how they feel about me, let me put my two cents in anyway.

Explain how a tax cut will deepen the existing ecomonic slowdown, which began last spring. I'd like to understand the reasoning behind this. I could see a possible effect on inflation, but that's about it. More money in consumer's hands tends to boost spending, boost the economy, and in the long run, boost tax revenues. There's nothing trickle-down about cutting taxes across the board.

---------

I'm not relgious, in fact I'm agnostic on my most optimistic days, but is partial-birth abortion really defensible? At some point you have to recognize the the fetus is more than just part of the mother, and therefore under the protection of our existing laws. I don't know when that point is, but we shouldn't simply ignore it because it's hard to determine.

Ken

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

Partial birth abortions happen later in the pregnancy, i.e., a woman probably knows that she's pregnant and is planning to have a to-term pregnancy. Only about 9% of all abortions occur after the first trimester. Any abortions that happen after the first trimester are typically because there is a serious medical issue that affects the health and well-being of either the mother and/or the baby.

A so-called partial birth abortion would typically occur in the second trimester, i.e., the fetus isn't viable outside the uterus. If you're in your second trimester and you discover that you or your baby are facing some kind of irreversible serious medical concern, I would think that common sense would dictate that that kind of choice would be made between a woman, her partner and her doctor after a great deal of agonizing.

With the very small numbers of second and third trimester abortions that occur, it's not like everyone's having irresponsible sex, getting knocked up and deciding to have an abortion at 5-6 months along or something. Something happened, like maybe really bad results from an amnio (that typically occurs at 4 months) or toxemia for the mom...something bad or maybe she's diabetic and her sugars are too brittle and it's posing too much risk to both the fetus and herself.

I don't think anyone thinks abortions are a great idea, but a second trimester abortion is because something went terribly wrong with the pregnancy, and to me, a mother of two, that's something that should be left between me, my husband and my doctor to figure out, so I do what's best for me, my baby and my family. It won't do my baby much good, for example, if I go into insulin shock and die and often, you can't predict how a pregnancy will go.

That's just my opinion and really abortion seems to be an issue of opinion. I think that if there's so much opinion about it that the government should butt out and let people make the best choices they can for themselves with the help of their doctors.

If you disagree, keep it off of here and send me an email.

Gotta go feed my baby,

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

This thread is looking kind of dead (rhyme not intended), but just thought that I'd put my liberal two cents in. I'm a political science major so during the fall quarter all we discussed was the presidential election. Although, that's pretty much what everyone discussed everywhere. I remember arguing with two hard core republican co-workers about Bush's tax cut plan which seemed to be their main source of support for the man(?). When I explained to them what exactly the break down of his tax cuts would be and who would be receiving them, they refused to believe me. One day, I came into the office and was speaking to one of these guys who had done some further research into Bush's tax plan and realized that as the average middle class citizen, he'd be getting about a 48 dollar tax cut. I laughed all day.

Ah, yes, then there's good old Ashcroft. Has anyone ever read The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood? (If you haven't you really should. It'll scare the political crap out of you, except maybe if you're republican). Anyway, now that this guy has been approved by Senate, I'm convinced that no longer will our country exist as a democracy/republic but as a theocracy. Isn't anyone else disturbed by the amount of religion in politics? I'm not just talking about the Shrub and Ashcroft. I was extremely distressed and pissed off at the presidential inaugaration when they had a Christian minister get up to lead the country in prayer. While I think that may be our only hope in the current situation, I think it was completely inappropriate. Also, the long standing tradition of swearing on the Bible. Bleh. I know people feel strongly the other way than I do. I respect people their religion, I just feel that the government should do the same by not flinging Christian symbols and ideals everywhere.

I'm gonna stop now before I get too riled up. :)

-- Anonymous, February 03, 2001

"The Handmaid's Tale". Man, I knew it was just a matter of time before it was brought up.

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2001