LowerCaseRepublican

Isabel Allende...nice. Currently reading: Buddhism: Plain and Simple Queued: Big Lies by Joe Conason Marijuana Myths Marijuana Facts by Lynn Zimmer and John Morgan [There's like a dozen more that I have to read that I got for Christmas]

Scientifically, it'd be a good experiment. But at the cost, especially with a deficit and underfunded schools etc. there are, at least in my eyes, better places to put the money.

Well, yeah...since the people in FL are still off the rolls like we were talking about.

Moon base: WTF? Bush, you underfund education and want to waste money going to Mars and putting a base on the Moon? Honestly, the first thing I thought when I heard that story was "How much cocaine did he do in what period of time to come up with this idea?" As for death penalty research, 1549, I got some stuff but it's in my room at school [i'm at home until the 18th] PM me as a reminder and I'll give you the details when I get back. And I concur with Nuke, capital punishment is nowhere near uniform in giving it out. I personally like the moratorium Ryan put on the death penalty as governor because it needs a massive overhaul. And I heard Halliburton was fired, I was just getting on them for gouging, haha.

Star Wars missile defense has shown the same amount of promise when Reagan started it. Quite slim. I don't condone Clinton's funding of it either when there are much more important things to spend said money on. I am glad we concur on the mini nukes. As for the torture equipment, the report comes from the Asia Times, Manila Times and Amnesty International http://www.punkvoter.com/home/home.php The links are on this page [i'd post them here but I have 56k at home and my pages load slower than molasses in an igloo in January haha] As for capital punishment, it is not a deterrant to crime. In many cases, people are exonerated after convicted or unfortunately, after their death. Also IIRC, the execution and all it's costs [appeals and all that et al] actually costs more than life inprisonment. With the idea that the state can kill, it undercuts their authority by telling others that they cannot. I don't see any moral high ground saying "You murder and we the people will kill your ass" kinda statement. The unreliability of it plus I think many want to be martyrs or want to die are reasons I am against it. By making them live in maximum security, in my eyes, it can be a much harsher punishment than sticking a needle in their arm or other forms of execution that are out there. With the Halliburton reference, it's not so much about the money amount but the principle of the matter.

Nuke, the tests only work when they put homing devices on the missiles. It can't work when dummy missiles are fired up and no homing devices are used. Being the collegiate book nerd that I am, I actually read a lot about it and the report results. North Korea: Kim Jong Il may be crazy...but he's not stupid. He's got a posh setup for himself in N. Korea [note: not saying that I condone what he is doing at all there]...He would not jeopardize that by actually shooting a missile at the US cuz he'd get smashed in about .01 secs and he knows it. It's just a means for him to try to curry favors out of it showing his power; much like the US jockeyed for power in the world community after it first showed off the nukes in August 1945.

Let's not forget Operation Ignore of Bush having a task force that never met, never read intelligence reports etc. But yeah, that had nothing to do with it.

Holy s***! I just got floored reading that!

Don't misinterpret hate for justifiable outrage. They actually do have quite a few alternatives...if any person actually takes the time to read their positions on their specific campaign web pages. There is actually a lot of bickering among Republicans as well. Many traditional Republicans, not neo-cons, were and are actually against the PATRIOT Act and are looking for a full repeal. [i.e. Ron Paul, one of the few Republicans I agree with on certain issues] Take also the infighting going on about gay rights and the amendment saying "Marriage = one man + one woman". There are a lot of different conservatives fighting over that in their party. Every political party has infighting to an extent, it's not just something of the Democrats. A lot of their answers are essentially cleaning up Bush's messes in the environment, the destruction of civil liberties, etc. And Republicans are moving towards today's issues? Is that why Bush and Co. say there is no "global warming"? Or that we need to repeal the clean air laws? Oh I know, giving cops the ability to have subpoena power [a fun new aspect of PATRIOT II that they want to pass] Or using millions to create tactical nukes? Or bunker busting nukes? We haven't learned from the problems of depleted uranium? [read the work of weapons expert Doug Rokke on the subject] Please, I don't mind a little Dean bashing but for f***'s sake at least admit the shortfalls of your own candidate and don't act like his farts don't stink. The Republicans, and especially Bush and Rove have lots of skeletons in their closets and their policies are quite lacking and very poor and short sighted. Hell, I hate Dean cuz he supports NAFTA amongst other things and I agree...he can be quite the no-neck having waffler.

Baggs, there is the advisory board over which the governor holds a LOT of sway into what decision. It's a scary thing when the advisory board doesn't even meet, they simply phone in their decision. He technically could act independently of the decision made by the advisory board as well by simply rejecting their finding if the guy was innocent [or vice versa] I mean, look at the case of Henry Lee Lucas to see how much sway the governor has over the advising board and what they decide.

What happened in Florida wasn't so much chads but more the removal of over 57,700 legal voters from the voter rolls. According to DBT Choicepoint [the company commissioned by Katherine Harris...who oddly enough had a conflict of interest being a local Bush organizer for the state and also holding her job in the government] and e-mails/calls from Harris said that they should not make sure that they have illegal people. There were people on the banned from voting list for things such as: FELONY COMMITTED ON JAN. 6, 2007. Choicepoint was also ordered by Harris to add people to the list with similar last names, first names, birthdays, social security numbers etc. without any fact that they were actually a felon. Choicepoint is covering their own ass in this since they are getting sued because the list, when read is 95% wrong. 95%!!! I'm not even counting the voters that were felons and got their voting rights back after serving their time [iL is such a state that does that] and Jeb Bush blocking their right to vote saying they had to get permission from him [which they do not have to do...and courts have told Jeb on 3 different occassions that he is violating peoples civil liberties] Bush wins by less than 600 votes...let's add in 60,000+ Democrats and whammo...we got Gore winning the Florida electoral votes and taking the Presidency. And oddly enough, it was the BBC, the news our our ally that broke that story and damn near every international media source ran with it after Choicepoint started speaking out and the memos started coming up from Katherine Harris and people got their hands on the banned list of voters that were legal [and the legal voters coming out showing their records were clean] I'm not gonna say that the Dems are lily white in voting but this mass removal is just sickening and the antithesis to democracy. And oh yeah, when Harris's #1 aide was asked about the 57,700+ voters removed...his response was to run into his office, live during a BBC interview, lock the door and not come out. Seems like somebody has just a little bit to hide. See IlliniBob, that's why others...Greens, Libertarians, Democrats and a lot of Republicans I know are angry about Florida that there was mass voter fraud. Cuz a lot of Republicans I talk to [got some friends in the Republicans/Libertarians since we work a lot against the drug war together] are very worried about voter fraud cuz it could have been their candidate getting screwed.

These are just a few of the stances he has that enrage most liberals: He fully supports the "Star Wars" missile defense shield that has been shown by numerous Nobel physicists as a total impossibility. Yet we pour billions into it. His advocation of creating mini nukes to be used in war is insane. As of 2002, Bush exported approx. $14 million in torture equipment [shackles, electrical prods, etc.] to countries like Saudi Arabia and Thailand who have been known and condemned since 1990 for their torture of their citizens. His support of the death penalty and execution of the mentally retarded as governor. His complete underfunding of schools while allowing Halliburton to gouge $63 million from taxpayers.

Not necessarily a book, I just have slower than molasses in mid-January 56K connection when I'm at home.

Using eminent domain as governor of Texas to get himself a bunch of money for a new stadium as a shareholder in the ownership of the Rangers is policy. His blatant lies during his governorship of TX are policy. His execution of people and being deemed as a "man without mercy" when he says he is a "compassionate conservative" is policy. Bush taking advantage of cruising by on his last name and then telling people that they need to earn their positions is yet again an example of his hypocricy in policy that he needs to rethink. Underfunding No Child Left Behind [and not making score adjustments for special ed kids...so a school with a lot of special ed kids has their test score overall lowered usually which = less funding for the school. I know this cuz a close friend of mine has 4 relatives that are teachers in school districts with lots of special ed students] Changing the drop out rates like he did as governor to start from 6th grade on so it made it look like drop out rates were 1-2% when they were around 20% is a lie in policy. Bush's AWOL status is important in policy because when it was his time to serve, he used every means he had thanks to his daddy being in the CIA and being rich to make him nothing more than a big chickenhawk. His previous dealings with oil interests are important because many of those same investors are major supporters of his presidential campaign. And when you see that he traded money for favors in TX, it is not illogical to think that he's doing the same in the White House. And hey, when is he gonna go after his buddy Kenny Lay of Enron [i say that in the fact that they actually were buddies when he was governor and they had lots and lots of private meetings together] And hey, if Clinton didn't have to fight off allegations that he may or may have not gotten a blow job, he could have done more. I personally think that Bush's lie to the world that has killed nearly 500 Americans so far and countless thousands of Iraqis is much more damaging...especially when he ran for President, Bush said that he would not engage our military "in what they call nationbuilding" because it was not what our military was designed for. Funny how a couple years later, we're in 2 countries doing something he said we wouldn't do. And don't yell "9/11!!11!!1!" cuz 9/11 had no impact on our going into Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.

They didn't win in 1992. They didn't win in 1996. And they had to cheat to win in 2000.

BTW, Carnegie Foundation said today that the Bush regime either "lied" or "overstated" evidence regarding Iraqi WMD and stated that Iraq dismantled weapons programs by the mid 1990s. Sounds again like King of the f*** Ups can't even find WMD....but he can find oil and allow his VP's old company to gouge us out of $63 million in overpricing oil.

Not bitter, just have a little insomnia this evening.

Yes, and we have such a beacon in our AWOL, cocaine addicted boozehound who, according to friends and bartenders, liked to get drunk, strip naked and dance when he was in the Texas Air National Guard. He is the biggest f*** up in the history of f*** ups. He's never done a thing right without f***ing it up. He got into private school because of his family name, not because of his personal abilities. The same way he got into Harvard and Yale. It's the same way that his score of almost "too dumb to fly" [if he scored one point lower on the exam, that would have been his status] and there are a lot of testimonials that there were a few hundred thousand people ahead of him in the wait list with higher scores but somehow W got in so he would never have to serve in country. Then after that, he ran every oil company he had into the ground...Arbusto, Hearken, etc. A little bit of questionable and possible insider trading saved him though and gave him money to get a share in the Texas Rangers. And hey, using the governor's "eminent domain" to get land for the new baseball stadium because he and the other investors didn't want to pay adequate price for said land? Yeah, just a bit illegal as a court has found and is making the investors pay the people back for that. And after that the team wallows in the basement of the division. Yet again, W f***s it up. When he became governor, in his race, he actually lied quite a lot in his campaign quite blatantly and was quite overtly in the pocket of various lobbies [i.e. oil and energy] Even his status as an evangelical Christian was a f*** up when Pat Robertson went on national TV and called him a "man without mercy" when W executed Karla Faye Tucker. And let's not forget his execution of the mentally retarded. That's real Christian. Hell, he f***ed up in 2000 when he didn't even win the election with the most votes. [And hey, Florida would have been won if Katherine Harris didn't remove 57,000+ LEGAL voters from the voter rolls that were almost all Democrats plus the questionable absentee ballots that were cast after Election Day and multiples for certain people being sent in and all counted for Bush] It just boggles my mind that anybody actually can't see through him and see the corporate arm up his ass making him their puppet for everything they want to do. Like Bill Hicks said about Reagan and how everybody revered him as St. Ronald of Reagan despite being a bloodthirsty terrorist supporting sickening evil man: "How far up your ass does his dick have to be to make you realize he's f***ing you?" /flame on! P.S. Bones_r and other Dems on this board: Is it just me or do the Dems need to have Clark on board as either getting the nod or becoming VP in order to get the more moderate voter? I mean, who are people going to want to protect them...a 4 star general with 34 years of training in national security or a coked up oil boy from Texas?

I like Dennis...but gimme a Clark/Dean or Dean/Clark ticket and Dubya will be going down in 2004.

This is true. Happy birthday to the imperialist Zionist...from the terrorist whore loving, terrorist sympathizing, Jew hating, Arafat loving, anti-Israel, anti-Semetic, douchebag, Semite loving anti-Semite that doesn't know my ass from the hole where we found Saddam

There are no exact numbers for how many of the paramilitaries get trained at the SOA. It's widely known that Colombia is the #1 recipient of training at the SOA [now known as WHISC: Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation located in Ft. Benning, GA] However, it is known that members of paramilitary organizations that have been cited for certain human rights abuses and attacks on civilians have been trained by the SOA. According to a lawsuit filed in Florida by the United Steelworkers and International Labor Rights Fund on behalf of Colombian unionists claims there is a connection between paramilitaries like the AUC and the SOA, saying that trainees were encouraged to torture and murder those wh do "union organizing and recruiting", pass out "propaganda in favor of workers" and "sympathize with demonstrations and strikes". This was made public when the Pentagon was forced to reveal the contents of training manuals used at the SOA. At the same time, 2 members of the Irish Republican Army were arrested in Colombia training FARC rebels in urban bombing techniques. It is the only known connection with the FARC/ELN receiving training from any outside sources.

I dunno if a guy like Dennis could lift the WMD and move them out of Iraq, hahaha...but seriously. Saddam had them [why we can just look at our receipts and find that out] but even according to Hussein Kamal, the Iraqi whose testimony much of the US push for war was based off of, even said that the Iraqis had disarmed themselves of WMD and Kamal should know because he was quite the higher up in the government involving weapons [don't remember his exact position off the top of my head] So, I honestly don't believe that Iraq had them now. Cuz if they did, then Powell wouldn't have had to lie at the UN and Bush wouldn't have had to lie so many times about them.

Seeing how popular the Israel/Palestine thread was, I decided to start this one to see the consensus of who people here think about the problems in Colombia, especially the civil war raging there. Let me preface that all organizations named are deemed as "terrorist organizations" by the US State Department. [The AUC was briefly taken off the list after it declared a cease-fire but was added back on in Dec. 2002 when it started attacks again]

I4E, quick question...since when does the Dept. of Homeland Security use AOHell to connect to the internet? Yeah, it may be a simple running of a WHOIS but it's interesting to find out. I'd figure with a Cabinet Department they might have something a little more secure than AOL. All your link says is that the Al Aqsa's are an offshoot of a movement started by Arafat, not that Arafat controls them in any means. There is no conclusive evidence showing that he is behind them, just that they are affiliated with the fatah movement started by Arafat.

Can we have a choice for "They didn't have them recently and the entire evidence from Bush was made up"? cuz that's my vote.