Bugs's Blog

Using statistics from the US Department of Labor and averaging unemployment figures per party leadership, the numbers reveal an interesting phenomenon. Since 1947, unemployment always rose during Republican leadership and fell during Democratic leadership. Red arrows represent Republican presidencies and blue arrows represent Democratic presidencies. Remarkably, all of the blue arrows are turned down, indicating a fall in overall average unemployment, and all of the red arrows are pointing up, representing a rise in overall average unemployment from one party to the next.

The two lowest levels of unemployment took place during Democratic leadership and the two highest levels of unemployment took place during Republican leadership.

Every argument can be made from, “he inherited that” or “the previous president did this”, but the numbers don’t lie.  There were wars, the “.com boom”, 9/11, and all kinds of factors which influenced unemployment, but the bottom line is during every Democratic presidency, overall unemployment fell and under Republican leadership, unemployment ALWAYS rose.

President Bush and the Republicans have already earned a new red arrow pointing up.  As did his Republican predecessors, President Bush will end of his term leaving a higher, much higher, unemployment rate than former President Clinton handed him just eight short years ago. 

We could discuss Reaganomics and the how they sent GW Bush, Sr. to the bench or we could talk about how President Bush is leaving the White House under the same dark economic cloud as his father.  We could talk for hours about how money doesn’t trickle down while poverty gushes upward, but the light bulbs in some peoples’ minds are permanently burned out and enlightenment is a foreign concept.

Surely people must realize by now the only difference in President Bush’s failed economic policies and Reaganomics is President Bush’s economic policies failed much faster than Reaganomics failed. His tax cuts to the rich, hands off economic leadership, and lack of foresight are having a far more devastating effect on our economy than the legacy of his father’s failed economic policies.

I guess some people just don’t learn.

That brings me down to my buddy Senator McCain. Senator McCain continues preaching status quo Republican economic policies without offering any change in direction. Unless Sen. McCain starts talking about taxing those who can afford to be taxed and replacing incentives to oil moguls to make billions off hard working Americans with incentives to bring down the price of fuel, he doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in a hot oven of winning these elections.

As long as the Republicans refuse to release their ideology of allowing the wealthy to keep more while taking more from the poor, they will continue to produce the economic failures of our present and their past.

Wayne

I’ve been staying away from the politics of the FOX4 blog mostly because, when discussing politics, a lot of members become so uncivilized.  Besides, with the current state of our country and Sen. McCain’s inability to win, the Republicans have successfully eliminated the need for left wing rhetoric; dang. 

The right-wingers are still hard at work banging their heads against brick walls and I do admire their commitment to what’s right OR wrong.

In any debate or cordial discussing, the first person to sway from the subject and resort to personal attacks is the loser.

If politics were a debate, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are definitely the losers. 

Republican nastiness is everywhere. A.M. talk show airways are filled with hours of right wing infomercials regurgitating conservative barf; candidates are already whining and trying to blame the media for their inevitable demise, and supporters of Sen. McCain are spreading fear, lies, and mountains of misinformation.

Three weeks of petty personal assaults is proving to be self defeating if not catastrophic for the Republican Party.  Almost simultaneous with the Sen. McCain’s jump in the mud, a huge percentage of undecided voters decided to vote for Sen. Obama.

Examining individual backgrounds and beliefs of supporters of either party is a duel edged sword especially for the Republicans. No doubt, along with large numbers of upstanding middle class Americans who support the Democratic Party, many liberal radicals support the Democratic Party.

On the other hand, standing side by side with the dwindling number of Americans who still support the Republican Party is every white supremacist in America.

The right to be who we are and support whomever we choose is a right which should not be scrutinized or held against those candidates we support.  Most pundits say the Republicans are lashing out in desperation; desperate times call for desperate measures even if those measures are aimed at dividing and weakening a country in need of becoming stronger.

More so than ever, the right wing machine of the Republican Party is being greased by white supremacists, radical fundamentalists, the extremely wealthy, and idiots who think Sen. Obama is an Arab.  Politics create odd bedfellows and form unthinkable, dangerous alliances. Such is the case of the modern day Republican Party.

To make matters worse, the Republican Party was in such a rush to nominate a token woman for Vice President, they neglected to take into consideration all of Gov. Palin’s failures and faults.  Her ignorance has essentially buried the Republican Party’s run for the White House.

Wayne

I got this card for Christmas from a “Republican” friend of mine. She said as soon as she saw it, she thought of me.

"Evolution or Intelligent Design? You Decide!"

I hope everyone is having a great evening!

Bugs

Here’s a link to an article which appeared recently in the NY Times. The article is called, “At Street Level, Unmet Goals of Troop Buildup”.

The article is a LONG in-depth look at the surge from both US military officials and Iraqis.

I was just wondering what those who take the time to read the article feel about what the authors have to say.

Please refrain from attacking the NY Times as being some evil right arm of a vast liberal conspiracy and take the article at face value. There are many good interviews with Iraqis and military officials. I’m searching for intelligent fact based reasons to dispute this article.

As always everyone is welcome to comment, but personal attacks and insults will be promptly (err …as soon as I get back around to checking the post) deleted.

I hope everyone is having a great day! Bugs

Footnote: I post this under “Politics” because there seems to be a consensus that the war in Iraq has more to do with politics than anything else.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED BY THE BLOG POLICE.

As a writer, I find censorship vile and threatening. I understand civility requires an amount of self censorship and restraint, but I don’t understand censorship purely for the purpose stifling what someone else has to say.

Not lately, but in the past I’ve made some harsh statements regarding immigration and neo-con mentalities. I’ve NEVER turned off my comments out of fear how a member might respond or reply.

There are three choices I can make when I see a comment which I find disagreeable or offensive. I can respond; I can ignore the comment (which is my favorite choice), or I always have the trusty never failing option of my delete button which speaks volumes to the contributor (talk about ruffling feathers).

I can understand why some people choose to turn off their comments (no one likes being personally attacked), but the problem with turning off comments is that I can’t hear what people think about what I posted. As much as I dread getting slammed, I look forward to hearing what people (especially those who agree with me) have to say.

Keeping that in mind…

Carl Rove: I think (which has absolutely no impact on the world) Rove is a carpet bagging snake oil salesman and am not one bit surprised that he’s not willing to go down with the ship.

Moral Majority: There is no such thing as the moral majority. Claiming moral superiority is immoral to begin with.

Iraq: Iraq has been one big Republican created and defined fiasco from the very beginning. VP Cheney requested detailed information on the locations, layouts, and productivity of oil fields in Iraq two months PRIOR to 9/11 which is an indication the administration was planning to invade before we were attacked.

For all the corruption, misuse, and exploited realities surrounding the war in Iraq, we might as well keep on writing blank checks and not asking any questions

The term “fight them there or fight them here” should actually be, “create them there and then let our kids, grandkids, and their kids fight them here.”

Impeachment: Should they be impeached? Most Americans know there are plenty of valid allegations to begin impeachment proceedings against the Bush administration, but impeaching our leaders leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouths and wastes a lot of valuable resources.

We only have one more year to deal with this mess before Democrats take complete and meaningful power bringing America back to the peace loving, world respected, united, and opportunity filled country most of us grew to love over the eight years of the previous administration.

I’m not really in the mood for a deep political or philosophical debate on any of the above subjects. Unless I’m getting paid, I don’t like making my brain work so hard (at least not today).

Now that being said, I’ll leave my comments turned on and have my hand on the delete button.

Everyone have a nice day, Bugs