The average American citizen can, but the average Iraqi cannot.
I actually have had family members serve in Iraq, so I have been personally affected. But the truth is, that isn’t even why I “bash” Bush. I just have a problem with being responsible, even if only in name, for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.
I don’t know why; I guess I’m just silly like that.
I can’t get past this. You were ten in 1979; were you more politically aware as a little tyke than you are now?
One of the things Bush is attacked for is increasing the federal budget deficit. That affects nobody immediately now, but is believed to have long-term deleterious effects on the economy – at least, that’s always been the conservative line.
Nice responses. Thanks, all. I have much to respond to.
I am in the 70% who disapproves of President GW Bush’s job performance, but not to the point of hyperbole. I think he is leading a global war on terror in too weak of a fashion and that amnesty thing… yuk!
In 1979 I was ten years old but us kids could hear our parents talk. Iran’s Islamic Revolution, Soviets and MAD, 18% mortgages. It all is not exactly understood by a ten year old but the effects on our parents was a big hit on our happiness and outlook. Of course we could shake it off as kids do, but that year was one of the worst I remember in my whole life for hitting at the home level. Those few years we saw most of the mothers in the neighborhood go off to work and it did not appear to be a happy thing at all. The parents complained about the Japanese slaughtering us in the global marketplace and for some reason all of the cars were either older and falling apart or new and lemons. Boston, where I grew up was an ugly place at that time. Jewish lightning (as the adults called it) was rampant in the poorer sections of the city and blight and disrepair felt as normal to me as seeing grates on all the stores in the center of our part of town… some of which seemed to never, ever open.
That all led to even greater confusion in the late 80’s when things exploded in the economy in our area and it was like overnight everyone had money and suddenly our part of town was infested with Yuppies who wanted to remodel everything in sight. Nothing was available for rent by 1988 and rents shot up to obscene levels. The confusing part was that many people were saying the same things about Reagan then, that they are saying about President GW Bush now. Same types too, as I remember it…
So…
I do see what a few of you posters are saying about destruction being in the eye of the beholder (and subsequent reaction to a perceived destruction) and I think that answers my question. It sets me on a solid base of looking at the whole issue. You all have done good. Thanks.
(And now I am off to study the Padilla thing… interesting)
This is a good point. I think that the long-term consequences of this administration will be the most serious effects, as opposed to the immediate consequences. The administration has been, for the most part, very sensitive to actions that would do any damage to the economy so as to avoid a repeat of Bush 41’s ouster. Some of my gripes are the damage that’s been done to the military by the continued deployments and the refusal to significantly increase total troop strength; damage to the expertise in the various federal agencies; a failure to do anything of consequence with respect to climate change; the damage to the Dept. of Justice due to its being politicized; and a tremendous increase in the federal deficit after being handed a surplus.
There are other things that I’ve very uncomfortable with, but they can be repaired relatively quickly by the next administration - wiretapping, general obsession with secrecy, and other edicts via executive order - but these other impacts will take a long time to address. I’m not comfortable with the remaking of the judiciary, but that’s been an on-going process that’s a result of Republican control of the Presidency for most of the last 26 years, so I’ll accept that as a result of a more conservative voting public.
Some of the criticisms are the same, certainly. Liberals will always criticize Conservative Presidents. And when there has been corruption and scandal such as Iran-Contra, criticism isn’t limited to just a “type.”
But low polling numbers for GWB now extend longer than they did for Nixon and public revulsion goes deeper than anything that I can remember. I was still too much of a child when Harry Truman was in office.
The United States has lost a major city to a natural disaster during Bush’s Presidency. And an area of the country that is the size of England has yet to recover from Katrina. It didn’t even get mentioned in his last State of the Union Speech. That is low down. By now shouldn’t he be bragging about a city and area restored?
You now live in a damaged country whether you are fully aware of it or not. You are paying higher prices for everything you buy because gasoline costs so much more and that means it costs more to ship them to a store near you. You’ve lost not just your privacy at the library, but also in your bank records, in your email, on your telephone and in your overseas mail. If someone has a grudge against you, it wouldn’t be that hard to get you into big trouble.
Health care prices are unbelievable. One single shot can cost thousands of dollars. And you already do pay for the other guy’s health care; you pay a higher cost for his services or product so that he can afford insurance. Meanwhile, a medication that is very expensive in the USA is inexpensive in Canada. Yet American laws prevent us from ordering this medication from across the border.
As for your memories about women having to go to work in the late seventies and how sad that was seems very strange to me. I don’t remember it like that at all. I don’t remember it happening suddenly in the Seventies or a mass resentment or sadness.
Our country tortures people or makes them disappear altogether. I don’t think “the average American” is very satisfied with that.
Are you satisfied with a country where only “the average American” has Constitutional Rights or do you want a country where all Americans can count on Constitutional Rights?
Since my OP question has been answered, I will take this one line-by-line.
I am one of those jerks who admire Col. North. I am a “type”.
Again, I disapprove of President GW Bush and I would love to know the breakdown of the 70% who disapprove. I am in the category of people who want him to fight harder in Iraq and boot more illegals out. Two things he sucks at.
Here is the second Mardi Gras since Katrina:
http://www.viewimages.com/Search.aspx?mid=73376654&epmid=1&partner=Google
What are you talking about?
Minimum wage is what, six bucks? Two gallons of gas? A gallon of milk costs $3.19 now.
My first job paid me minimum wage in 1981… 2.15, IIRC. That was two gallons of gas. A gallon of milk cost 1.79 then.
Is there something about the natural inflation I should be worried about?
I, as a citizen have the power to change that. No one has taken that power away from us. Someday it may matter. It does not matter to me who reads my international mail or looks at my reading list from the library. I always assumed people looked at those lists anyway. If they use it in court without a warrant I will be mad. I read peoples things all the time in my course of business and would report any crimes. It is up to the courts and the law officers to make sure the intrusion is clean and admissible.
I assume people read and listen to my stuff constantly.
Yes it would. Do not assume you know me. I take your statement as hostile unless you care to explain yourself in detail.
Once again, we as citizens have the power to change all this.
I don’t know how your part of the country handled the 18% mortgage rates, but I accept your input as valid. I lived in a distinct area of Boston that may have overbought/overreached at the time. I did not mean to blanket anything.
Vince Foster? Ron Brown? Jennifer Flowers cat?
Who are you referring to? I would like to learn more about your knowledge on people that disappear at the hands of our country… as in names.
All Americans, ma’am. I do like Americans.
Well, that’s good, seeing as how nobody else much does. Got any thoughts about how that might have happened?
<peeve>
Constitutionally Protected Rights.
Humans have inherent Rights. The Constitution limits what powers We may grant to Our government to Protect those Rights. There are no “Constitutional Rights” of individuals… We have those Rights regardless of the Constitution.
</peeve>
In my humble opinion, you wield the word “nobody” around much like a child would wield a pistol that they found in their father’s sock drawer. No malicious offense intended in either sense of the statement.
The business world still likes Americans… almost unanimously.
People who think as individuals still like Americans, IMHO. I believe it is still the freest country on the planet. Yeah, our health care is expensive, but it is still a dazzling entity.
As for how the rabble (as I call them) fell out of love with America… They have no power to change what they dislike in their own country so they point fingers at us. That is my opinion and it might serve you well to point out a specific beef that another country has with Americans.
Thank you, 666.
I may have to remember to call on your powers of peeve when someone eventually tries to tell me that the 2nd Amendment states some sort of “right” of the government.
Minimum wage in 1981 was $3.35, so using your gallon of milk logic, people making minimum wage today ($5.15) have 12% less purchasing power today than they did 26 years ago. No wonder Joe & Jane Lunchbucket don’t share your optimism.
Why, no, of course not, how could anyone take offense at such an innocent metaphor? The image of an irresponsible child in command of deadly force is rather a droll bit of irony, when you think about it.
Hmmm. Well, is Iraq still a country, or is it an ex-country? I understand that a considerable number of its citizens are rather annoyed with us. Perhaps if you were to explain the situation more clearly to them? Perhaps then they would realize the enormous good fortune that has fallen to them? Or to the survivors, at any rate.
If you qualified your initial assessment of how the rest of the world feels about us in the same manner then I would not have resorted to teh droll.
Considerable amounts of the Iraq, and the world are quite annoyed with us. Yes.
It is the specific people that are annoyed with us that matters and dang it if I could have cared less about those types… ever. We are sovereign and we are pretty cool in the scope of things as evidenced by the hordes of people who risk their lives to come here.
Ring me collect when they all start paddling back in haste.
From from 1919 to 1921 the Palmer raids captured and deported immigrants that had joined the American Communist party, the thing was that that was done to counteract the violent anarchist movement of those days. It is not clear how connected the anarchists were with the communist movement, but there were some notorious examples, some of the convictions though were thrown out of court. However, about 900 communists were shipped to Russia mostly for just belonging to the Communist Party, many ended up dead at the hands of Stalin.
And then one should not forget how the black list on the 50’s affected the livelihood of people that were even suspected of being communist.
[Aside: Now why someone should become what in theory is the end result of society’s progress when clearly a socialist phase is needed first is another history, in any case, just because one does not like them was no reason to prosecute them.]
In 15 days it will be $5.85 per hour (July 24, 2007)
I will take my lumps on the matter for two weeks, but prepare for the worst on the 24th 
Not only that, but he picked the absolutely worst year to do the comparison (on purpose?). The prices in 1981 were far higher than any year since then in today’s dollars, up until 2005. In fact, in 1995, the actual price for gas, not adjusted for inflation, was only a penny over the price spike we hit in 1981, while 1981 was more than double the price of just 6 years prior, in 1975.
This seems analogous to using the Great Depression as a yardstick when judging the economy.
Could you possibly retype that in bold letters because I was trying to convey that 1979 sucked. I’ll take a correction that 1981 was the absolutely worst year to do the comparison
I stand corrected on the year but there is no 18% mortgage rate now.
Yay us.
You were rebutting the following claim made by Zoe:
Again, your response is similar to someone claiming that the economy is bad and then getting a response from you that it’s no worse than it was 1932.
I still rebut that claim by Zoe.
Our economy is better than 1932 and our economy is better than 1981.
Hands down.