What is sounds like and the truth are pretty far apart.
GWB was AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard most of the time. Supposedly he was reassigned to Alabama, but they didn’t see him either. Then Daddy’s buddies taught him to act like he had a job (Founder, President and CEO of Bush Exploration, a company put together to be brought into deals to help spread the liability, and keep the profits among the ‘right kind of people’) then he campaigned for Daddy, then Daddy’s buddies bought a ball team for him to run, giving him another job.
Let’s see…this would back up the first statement nicely:
The records of Bush Exploration are sealed, as is everything else GWB can seal about his past.
Little George is a very lucky boy. If brother Neil hadn’t been such a greedy pig and gotten caught up in some little S&L scandal, and if Jeb hadn’t gotten tied up with some stuff in Florida, Li’l George wouldn’t have been Governor of Texas or President.
I haven’t seen proof that GWB was AWOL. After all, Kruschev admitted that the Rosenberg’s did, in fact, provide the secrets to our nuclear program. Yet, to this day, the left-wing proclaims their innocence. Anyway.
What was lost here was his quote that stated that the more peolple at the club drank, the more the Democratic contenders would make sense.
Someone please find this so those that befall me will see thier error.
Learn how to read. More specifically, the list that Joel provided.
Again, argue as much as you want about the quality of Bush’s work, but the fact remains that, if Mr. Kennedy’s words are to be taken at face value, he and Mr. Bush are NOT anywhere near comparable. Doing a POOR job is, in my book, better than doing NO job at all.
Fuck people, this isn’t that hard. Kennedy’s words transcend politics. They are simply those of an asshole. And it’s sad that they are not universally decried by those on both sides of the political fence.
It’s not about being liberal, or conservative. It’s about not gloating over being a poor little rich kid. And defending him and calling what he said “cool” is profoundly morally and intellectually bankrupt. Can’t people drop the partisanship for one brief instant and instead embrace honesty and decorum?
Supporting a political party or cause does not and can not be synonymous with defending to and beyond the point of absurdity egregious actions of other members of said party.
What he said was assholic. He is an asshole for saying it. It does not speak to or about liberals, democrats, Clinton, Bush, or anyone or anything else. A conservative of similar background and economic status saying the same thing would be equally, in all ways, an asshole.
They should teach this shit on Blue’s Clues, since some people just don’t get it.
I am reminded of James Carville saying similar things, to the effect that since he makes oodles of money, he niether needs nor deserves a tax cut. In that light, Mr. Kennedy’s remarks can be taken to be a refreshing admission of the absurdity of inherited wealth and its attendant inherited privilege. Kurt Vonnegut got it exactly right in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.
As the Revolutionary sons and daughters of Thomas Paine, it behooves us to scorn any form of despised aristocracy. Further, to imply that Mr. Bush has any real awareness of the concept of “work” is chucklesome in the extreme. The most contact he has with anyone who could be termed “working class” is to drag them into self-serving photo ops. As the scion of the gated-community class, his maximum contact comes from any accidental hand-touching that might derive from delivering a tip. And he has staff to take care of that sort of thing.
Maybe you should read your cites. Here is the pertinent exerpt:
So May 1968 to September 1972 is 4 years, 4 months. Lets say he was strung out on coke the whole rest of his term of service. In Sep 1973 he got out, that is 12 months. That is not “most of the time.”
What a splendid rejoinder, friend Dewey! Did you get that at Non Sequiters 'R Us?
There are, of course, any number of hard working white collar workers. There are even hard working lawyers! (I like to stake out a truly radical position every once in a while, even in the face of your disapproval, which alternates between scathing sarcasm and avuncular patronizaton…)
Several such are mentioned in the most recent Atlantic (The Texas Clemency Memos by Alan Berlow) which compliments the efforts of pro bono warriors who labor in the cause of Justice and Mercy. The nobility of work is not derived from industry, but from purpose. The lowest campesino toiling to put lettuce on the tables of America is more worthy than any ten palladins of privilege.
Hell, he’s not bragging about it at all. He’s stating a matter of fact. And rightly concluding that tax cuts should go to those who work for a living, NOT the leisure class. Fair criticism of the Republican position, I’d say (though not elegantly-stated, by any means).
What exactly is your criticism of the guy? That he uttered an obscenity? Or that he admitted what no Republican trust-funder would?
I totally agree with Kennedy. He hasn’t worked a day in his life, if you don’t count all of his political work (which, I’m willing to bet, December doesn’t, despite counting Bush’s “work” as snicker owner of a mediocre baseball team). Why, then, should he get a tax cut?
This is a pretty lame quibble. He was AWOL for a year which is technically desertion. If Al Gore had deserted his division during war time conservatives would have never shut up about it.
Junior really has not worked in any meaningful sense of the word. He borrowed some money from his daddy’s friends to start an oil company. The company failed and Junior absconded with his investors’ money. He played around at owning a bsaeball team for a while. Owning a baseball team is not work it’s a fucking rich boy hobby. He then bought a Texas governorship with his daddy’s name and money and accomplished very little except to sell out the environment to his daddy’s corporate cronies and set a record for executions (the actual guilt of those he executed was not especially important to him. He just knew that his approval ratings went up whenever he killed somebody…a policy which he is now milking for all it’s worth as the (unelected) POTUS.
GWB has never been an employee. He’s never had to go to a job interview. He’s never had to punch a time clock. He’s never had a boss. He’s never had to go hat in hand and ask for a raise. He’s never had to get up every day and bust his ass to feed his family. He’s never had to wash the dishes or take out the garbage. He is an exceptionally pampered and over-priveleged prick who actually believes he’s earned something. In the words of Jim Hightower, he was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple.
The same can be said of Patrick Kennedy, but at least Kennedy knows it. He recognizes that he hit a genetic jackpot. He was born into a wealthy and politically powerful family and he admits it. Bush actually thinks that he’s done something to deserve his position.
Explain why what Kennedy said was “assholish.” He wasn’t “gloating” about being rich, he was making an honest and admirable statement that he and people like him, that is, people who already have more money than they could ever need, do not deserve a tax cut.
That still doesn’t line up with the quote on me not explaining Kennedy’s “argument” at all, but I’ll answer your query, which at least is comprehensible.
We all have different privledges and abilities. We all have different levels of education, different wealth levels, different family status, etc. And in polite discourse, we don’t go bragging about them in that manner if we are polite or have any sort of interpersonal relations compass.
This is not about liberals, democrats, republicans, conservatives, rich, or poor, regardless of the gymnastics used to try to make it about that. It’s about showing tact when talking about one’s status and privledge in society.
If Kennedy said it (has it even been proven at this point???), it’s an assholic thing to say, true or not. It’s assholic when rich friends of mine brag about their wealth and privledge. I know a person who at 36 has never had to work a day in his life (claims he is a Republican, BTW), and never will. And when he brags about not having to ever had to work and how great it is that he does not pay taxes, he’s being an asshole. And if he were to brag about not needing Bush’s tax cut because he was rich, he would be an asshole on those grounds too. Kennedy is not any more subject to being an asshole just because he is he.
In other words, it may be a “true fact” that one is in the upper 1% of income, but calling attention to that would be assholic if done in the manner attributed. It may be a “true fact” that some people have far, far more formal education than others here pretend to have, but bragging about that is being an asshole. If someone has a 21-inch prehensile penis, it may be a “true fact” when one tells everyone about it, but it’s still being an asshole to brag about it at every Dopefest.
If one did it in the manner the OP quoted - which, I repeat, may not have even happened, correct?
He wasn’t “bragging” he was illustrating a point. There was nothing in that statement to indicate that he was proud of it or that he thought it made him better than anyone else. He was just admitting a reality.
