The Respectfully Republican Conversation

Linda, there's a video on YouTube that a woman, after hearing Obama speak before he won the nomination, say, I DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT PAYING MY RENT OR BUYING GAS...something to that affect.  She said, IF WE HELP HIM, HE'LL HELP US. I have no idea where she got her info.  Perhaps Gore told her he'd pay for her heating.

Shirl, you have a wonderful Christmas!!!  Merry Christmas!

This whole bank thing just ticks me off ... those Democrats who pushed and pushed for the bailout, pushed the Republicans into voting for it and look where it has gotten us: NOWHERE.  I was watching a news show ....  not even ONE homeowner has been helped by that Hope project.  Apparently only 300 some-odd applications and no approvals.  The fees are too high and the mortgage companies won't agree to the reductions required. 

Another Take the Money and Run project of the Ding-a-lings. 

Talk about CORRUPT ....  My favorite Democrat:  Nancy Pelosi! 

Read this:

"SNOPES" VALIDATES THE BELOW


FACTS:


Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's home district includes San Francisco .

Star-Kist Tuna's headquarters are in San Francisco, Pelosi's home district.

Star-Kist is owned by Del Monte Foods and is a major contributor to Pelosi.

Star-Kist is the major employer in American Samoa employing 75% of the Samoan work force.

Paul Pelosi, Nancy's husband, owns $17 million dollars of Star-Kist stock.

In January, 2007 when the minimum wage was increased from $5.15 to $7.25, Pelosi had American Samoa exempted from the increase so Del Monte would not have to pay the higher wage. This would make Del Monte products less exp ensive than their competition's.

Last week when the huge bailout bill was passed, Pelosi added an earmark to the final bill adding $33 million dollars for an ‘economic development credit in American Samoa '.

Pelosi has called the Bush Administration "CORRUPT" ? ?

How do you spell "HYPOCRISY" ?

May health either come to or remain with you.  Let Santa find your home with ease, and may all the banks accidently mark your credit cards bills as paid.  Merry Christmas to most, happy holidays to others, a better New Year to all.

Merry Christmas ladies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I post one picture somewhere, and Moody points out that I am quite rotund enough to serve as a windbreak for several people, two cars and one small house. 

It is the bravery, intelligence, and humor of the Ladies on these boards that I have hid behind.  Whien I first came here, I was scared for my wife, stupid in what Breast Cancer was, and lost in what to do.  I am still all those things, but much less thanks to all of you.   

Maybe Obama thinks that no one will notice when he makes political appointments during the holidays. Maybe he thinks that people will think that he is being bipartisan by bringing in an Illinois republican(in name only) into his cabinet. Remember he has a plan to improve America's infrastructure, probably the same way they do it in Illinois: if you make big contributions, you get big contracts.Maybe Obama calls this change you can believe in. While the rest of us are in a holiday mood, one reporter is still on the job:

chicagotribune.com

Governor waxes poetic, but Combine rolls on

John Kass

5:21 PM CST, December 20, 2008

You've heard of "Dead Man Walking"?

That was Dead Meat talking to the nation on Friday, letting America-and the Beltway media that have willfully ignored political corruption in Illinois-know just how low our politicians will crawl.

"I will fight. I will fight. I will fight," said Gov. Rod "Dead Meat" Blagojevich, his hair helmet remarkably relaxed as he proclaimed his innocence.

Portraying himself as the victim of a "political lynch mob," he promised to fight impeachment until his last breath, sending a none-too-subtle message to politicians in Illinois and Washington.

The governor's message?

Better make me a good offer, boys, and be quick, or this bucket I'm lugging will spill and everybody will get their loafers wet.

The thing is, the Illinois slop bucket has already begun to spill.

With the nation distracted by Dead Meat's manic performance art, President-elect Barack Obama made a fascinating announcement.

Obama selected outgoing Illinois U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Combine) for the post of secretary of transportation, putting LaHood in charge of Obama's planned trillion-dollar public works bonanza being sold as a jobs bill.

"Every dollar that we spend, we want it spent on projects that are there, not because of politics, but because they're good for the American people," Obama said. "If we're building a road, it better not be a road to nowhere."

Not because of politics? What does the great reformer take us for, a bunch of chumbolones?

What Obama forgot to mention is that with LaHood in charge of the roads, they'll lead to one place:

Bill Cellini.

Cellini, the Republican boss of Springfield who has been indicted in the Blagojevich scandal for allegedly shaking down the producer of the movie "Million Dollar Baby," is a strong LaHood ally. Cellini runs Sangamon County, and LaHood has enjoyed Cellini's political support.

They also joined to help oust the last true reformer in Illinois politics, former Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, the Republican who was denied an endorsement from his own state party after he brought federal prosecutors to Illinois with no connection to the bipartisan Combine that runs things here.

Republican money man Cellini is not only the Chicago political connection to machine Democrats and Mayor Richard Daley's City Hall-and a Blagojevich fundraiser-he's also the boss of the Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association.

They're the guys behind the guys who pour that hot sticky stuff on the roads, but don't get their cashmere sweaters dirty and drive black Escalades to the job site, before wheeling off for some osso bucco at Volare or other fine restaurants. They're interested in federal highways, aren't they?

But all that is future politics, waiting to spill from the Combine's bucket, and in the meantime, there was Blagojevich, in his frenzied mind the victim of our coarse appetite for innocent political blood, invoking Winston Churchill and calmly reciting Rudyard Kipling.

In his mind, the governor is not the man we thought he was. He's not the guy who was wiretapped by the feds, then charged with trying to sell Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder, or who tried to shake down a children's hospital, or who pressured the Chicago Tribune to fire editorial writers.

Instead, he's a hero who has not lost his head and can be called a man, my son.

"I'm dying to answer these charges. I'm dying to show you how innocent I am," Blagojevich said, a study in casual outrage.

Then he proceeded to recite "If," Kipling's poem that is reprinted on millions of graduation cards given to boys in 8th grade, usually with a $50 bill inside, telling them how to grow up to be men.

"If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you..." Dead Meat recited, thrilling TV news producers, his head still, his voice clear.

It was a touching performance, not as emotionally charged as his defense lawyers screeching that this was an honest man, and that they were honest men who would tell reporters the truth about everything.

But it was touching nevertheless. Especially that Elvis salute at the end, when he walked off without answering questions.

Though he clearly invoked the courage of the Brits at the height of their empire, the one thing I didn't think about as he spoke was Churchill during the Battle of Britain.

Instead, watching Dead Meat, I was thinking of the guy in the ShamWow commercials on late-night TV.

ShamWow, the magical fabric that mops up 10 times its weight in liquids. The guy on the commercial pours cola on a white carpet and presses the ShamWow to the fluid and presto. It's mopped up. Yours for only $19.99.

Like Dead Meat, the ShamWow guy also knows the value of repeating the theme three times. Only he doesn't say, "I will fight! I will fight! I will fight!" He says, "ShamWow! ShamWow! ShamWow!"

And if Dead Meat fights to the last breath, as promised, politicians will need boatloads of ShamWows to sop up what's going to spill.

jskass@tribune.com

Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune

Jaedeen, You should go post your accusatory things over on the dem thread. This is the Republican thread where complaints against Dems and support of Republican ideas are the crux of the thread.

Just like when I go over there, I ask an honest question or a post of agreement. Your stance is one of argument. 

After 2 years on the board and 41 posts ... it seems you only come over to the heat threads.  hmmm $$$

"Why is it that every time a Bush gets in the WH the banks fail?"

I'll take a wild guess.  Because the people won't stop reelecting a Barney Franks and Maxine Waters who are on the banking committee, and they never see evil with their good friends at Fannie and Freddie?

So our Dept. of Transportation head might be in league with a Bill Cellini, whoever that is.  I can see that Chicago corruption can go national now.  All the Governors will get a visit from some hood making them an offer they can't refuse.  Yo Gov, you got some roads that need repair?  We got your roads right here.  Throw in a bridge and we'll make worth your while.

Does this mean that a Bill Cellini is going big time, and we'll hear all about him in the future?

This Post is suppressed because you are ignoring Rosemary44.

This Post is suppressed because you are ignoring Rocktobermom.

My posts stay on the boards longer this way.  Rosemary, you've been on ignore almost as long as she has.

So any speculation on which goons Bush will pardon pre-trial to keep his nose clean?  That's what his daddy did, you know.  I think he'll pardon Scooter Pie for sure. 

Well, if I'm put on ignore, it's good to know I can say whatever I like about our Jaedeen.    She's like a pet peeve which never seems to go away.  If she's just here to take swipes at Bush, then what after Jan. 20th? 

Here is a good one ... who knows who Dems will target later but they will be wishing they could keep blaming Bush!!!

=====

"Somewhere, deep down, tucked away underneath their loathing for George Bush, in a secret place where the lights of smart dinner-party conversation and clever debating-society repartee never shine, the growing hordes of America-bashers must dread the moment he leaves office.

When President Bush goes into the Texas sunset, and especially if he is replaced by an enlightened, world-embracing Democrat, their one excuse, their sole explanation for all human suffering in the world will disappear too. And they may just find that the world is not as simple as they thought it was.

It's been a great ride for the past six years, hasn't it? George Bush and Dick Cheney and all those pantomime villains that succour him - the gay-bashing foot soldiers of the religious Right, the forktailed neoconservatives with their devotion to Israel, the dark titans of American corporate boardrooms spewing their carbon emissions above the pristine European skies. Having those guys around for so long provided a comfortable substitute for thinking hard about global challenges, a kind of intellectual escapism.

When one group of Muslims explodes bombs underneath the school buses of another group of Muslims in Baghdad or cuts the heads off humanitarian workers in Anbar, blame George Bush. When Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, denounces an imbalanced world and growls about the unpleasantness of democracy in eastern Europe, blame George Bush. When the Earth's atmosphere gets a little more clogged with the output of power plants in China, India and elsewhere, blame George Bush.

Some day soon, though, this escapism will run into the dead end of reality. In fact, the most compelling case for the American people to elect a Democrat as president next year is that, in the US, leadership in a time of war requires the inclusion of both political parties, and in the rest of the world, people will have to start thinking about what is really the cause of all our woes.

Take a look at the miserable mess that is unfolding in what is supposed to be the "West's" fight in Afghanistan against the Taleban and al-Qaeda. Afghanistan was, remember, unlike Iraq, "the good war". Within days of September 11, 2001, all the European members of Nato readily signed up to assist America in righting the wrongs of international terrorism by defeating the Kabul regime and its allies.

Even after the alliance fell out over the Iraq war, those who opposed that conflict reiterated their dedication to winning the one in Afghanistan. When the Spanish socialists pulled their nation's troops out of Iraq in 2004, they insisted they were fully committed to the war against the Taleban.

But what is the state of that struggle? These days, despite the notional presence of a Nato force involving more than 15 countries, only a handful - Britain, the Netherlands, Canada, and plucky Lithuania included - are putting anything like the effort required in terms of resources and willingness to take the fight to the enemy.

Others - such as the Germans and the French - will commit troops and equipment but won't let them fight, preferring noncombatant roles. Last week the Italian Government collapsed because some of its members actually want to make friends with the Taleban. European countries are not failing to fight the war in Afghanistan because they don't like George Bush. They lack either the perception of the threat or the will to deal with it.

President Barack Obama will find that when he wants to make good on his promise to win the war in Afghanistan, EU leaders will be much happier explaining how their new constitution will enlighten the world.

This escapism is not confined to President Bush's critics in Europe, as the current battle over Iraq in Congress demonstrates. The Democrats have majorities in both houses. They could, if they wished, move to end the war in Iraq, which most of them - having once supported it - now oppose. They could vote to cut off funding for US troops and force the Pentagon to bring them home.

But they won't do that. That would involve taking responsibility for a dangerous war. They would much rather, carp and cavil and pass "nonbinding" resolutions that express dissatisfaction with the war but leave the actual job of ending it to the Bush Administration.

But it's likely that sooner or later a Democrat would have to have his or her "Nixon Goes to China" moment. Just as Bill Clinton discovered in the 1990s, when the Europeans were happy to sit back and let Serbs slaughter Bosnian and Kosovan Muslims, a Democrat will find a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the task.

In the dread modern vernacular of management-speak, the Democrats need to take ownership of American leadership in a turbulent world. Though it can be fairly argued that President Bush's incompetence has made things worse, the challenge of radical Islamism was not invented by the Bush Administration.

Even as some future Democratic president proclaims his commitment to renewing alliances, he is sure to be greeted with all kinds of explanations as to why the Europeans are just not quite ready to make that a joint ownership. When that moment comes, everyone will be urgently wishing they still had George Bush to blame. "

amen rock!