A German hiker who in 1991 discovered the mummified remains of a prehistoric man has gone missing while walking in bad conditions in the Alps.Helmut Simon, 67, was last seen on Friday morning setting out for a walk in Salzburg, Austria. Rescue teams have scoured the area but found no trace. Heavy snowfall over the weekend has raised fears Mr Simon has not survived. "If ya have any sense at all, you'll no good lookin' for tha man. He's lost, an' ya'll never see 'im ag'in. At least, not alive. Ya 'ave nae heard about the curse? I'll tell ya about the curse. T'was 'im: he was the one who found the last poor soul, the Ice-Man: the last man tae suffer the curse..."
#1
< halloween voice > The glacier requires a sacrifice. Since this man took the previous sacrifice, he will now take his place... < /halloween voice >
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
10/18/2004 14:52 Comments ||
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#3
It never fails to amaze me how stupidity abounds in such endeavers. No cell phone...no transponder...no flares...no hike path left beforehand! How ironic should someone find him in a thousand years with no balls!!
Academics are to gather at a university in the United States to discuss the legacy of film monster Godzilla. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the lizard's first cinematic outing, since when he has been in 27 films. The University of Kansas Center for East Asian Studies will host the conference, looking at Godzilla's impact on global culture. The event, on 28 October, will include a film festival, exhibitions and a giant inflatable Godzilla.
Can't have a event without one.
The film Gojira - the Japanese movie that started Godzilla's career in November 1954 - will be shown during the conference. Organisers want to provoke discussion of globalisation, Japanese popular culture and Japanese-American relations after World War II.
A seminar titled "Godzilla, Why Does He Hate Us?"
Bill Tsutsui, a history professor at the University of Kansas and author of the book Godzilla on My Mind, said he would like people to take Godzilla "more seriously". Historians, anthropologists and other academics from prestigious universities such as Duke, Harvard and Vanderbilt are expected to attend. Yoshikuni Igarashi, director of east Asian studies at Vanderbilt, said he saw Godzilla films as important cultural artefacts. He plans to lecture on the 1964 film Godzilla vs The Thing, in which Godzilla battles the giant moth, Mothra, and its offspring.
One of the great films of our time.
Japan's Toho Co produced 27 Godzilla films over five decades, with a 28th movie, Godzilla: Final Wars, to be released in December. Takao Shibata, the Japanese consul general in Kansas City, said the meeting would help educate people about his nation but added: "The idea of this kind of serious analysis of the evolution of Godzilla - it never occurred to me."
Who's paying for this crucial academic study? Can anybody get in on the scam research? I've got some important ideas I'd love to contribute if I only had a piece of the boodle funding.
As long as you can conclusively prove or at least convincingly insinuate that Godzilla is categorically America's fault (and manage to work in a snark at Bushitler or John Ashkkkroft), you'll be "in like Flynn." You get a bonus grant and a paid vacation scholarly retreat to Antwerp if your presentation links the Kyoto Treaty to the NorK obsession with becoming a nuclear power and Dick Cheney's corporate masters at Halliburton. Now I'd like my cut of the boodle, please.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/18/2004 11:00:08 AM ||
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#1
Bill Tsutsui, ..., said he would like people to take Godzilla "more seriously".
Quite frankly, I'm having a little trouble taking you seriously right now, Bill.
#6
With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high tension wires down
Helpless people on a subway train
Scream bug-eyed as he looks in on them
He picks up a bus and he throws it back down
As he wades through the buildings toward the center of town
Oh no, they say he’s got to go
Go go Godzilla, yeah
Oh no, there goes Tokyo
Go go Godzilla, yeah . . .
Blue Oyster Cult's finest moment as musicians.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/18/2004 14:03 Comments ||
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#8
BZZZZT - Big BOC fan here - Astronomy, Harvester of Eyes, ME262, Cities on Flame, all of Agents of Fortune were better....Godzilla just got the airplay ;-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/18/2004 14:09 Comments ||
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#9
You people are churlishly denigrating one of the great film series of my youth. Many hours spent watching Godzilla stomping his way thru Tokyo blowing firey death. Simpler times, simpler pleasures. Or maybe it's just me who has become simple. Yes, it was Mothra. And yes, Rodan was very cool. Have all the first movies on DVD.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
10/18/2004 14:09 Comments ||
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#10
Ok duh, then how come we haven't found any fossils of Godzilla then? huh huh??
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
10/18/2004 14:19 Comments ||
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#11
Al:
It's possible to simultaneously love the Godzilla movies and have a little fun with the more dorky and absurd elements thereof. Mothra may have been intensely silly, but I still thought the singing girls were pretty hot.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/18/2004 15:01 Comments ||
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#12
Mike: of course it's possible to do both. Actually, it's required. The original dubbed Godzilla with Raymmond Burr is one of the worst movies ever made, except for the stomping episodes. I consider myself an expert on the worst sci-fi movies ever made. While Godzilla wouldn't make the top ten, it's close.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
10/18/2004 15:14 Comments ||
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#13
There are valid historical angst/horrors (Hiroshima & Nagasaki)that belie any belittling of a hermeneutic exegesis of Godzilla. The monster was very much the product of a Japanese collective id/soulthat survived two Atomic Bombings. The vengeance wrecked by the monster and the monster's subsequent rise to Japanese hero can be viewed as an exemplar of the Japanese social consciousness striking out - if only metaphorically - against the occupying and hegemonic power...
#14
Re: #13. They didn't like the bomb. Enough said.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
10/18/2004 17:15 Comments ||
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#15
Personally, I prefer the short 'Godzilla meets Bambi'.
Posted by: Don ||
10/18/2004 17:40 Comments ||
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#16
#13 There are valid historical angst/horrors (Hiroshima & Nagasaki)that belie any belittling of a hermeneutic exegesis of Godzilla. The monster was very much the product of a Japanese collective id/soulthat survived two Atomic Bombings. The vengeance wrecked by the monster and the monster's subsequent rise to Japanese hero can be viewed as an exemplar of the Japanese social consciousness striking out - if only metaphorically - against the occupying and hegemonic power...
Posted by: borgboy 2004-10-18 4:53:50 PM
i gues if you can't dazzle 'em with your brilliance baffle 'em with your bullshit. But in all seriousness would the Japanese movie industry even made this waste of celuloid if Hollywood hadn't been making bad radiation mutated moster movies, ie Them.
#17
I have a court order to stop the showing of the "So Called Original Godzila". It has been illegally altered, Paul Drake will soon arrive, whisper in my ear and give me a way out of this paragraph.
Posted by: Perry Mason ||
10/18/2004 17:50 Comments ||
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#18
Gotta get back to the office for a little private dictation with Della 'eh?
#19
We were watching Godzilla vs. The Thing in Berkeley in the 60s, which was a benefit for some radical group. Some guy high on something finally jumped on stage and was pacing back and forth, screaming "Enough! Enough! Stop it! This is consuming my very soul!!!!
Somebody yelled, "Save his soul and get his ass offstage!" Then 3 or 4 people came on stage and escorted him away......and we continued the movie.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/18/2004 17:59 Comments ||
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Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/18/2004 18:18 Comments ||
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#22
"Godzilla meets Bambi?
Who wins?" "Who's on top?"
That is so wrong. Yet I can't stop thinking about the result.
Posted by: Charles ||
10/18/2004 18:35 Comments ||
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#23
I still can't believe the same film company that made Seven Samuraii (one of the best films of all time) also made Godzilla. The humanity.
Second, Godzilla is a fascinating incite into the Japanese. For example, the first movie is anti-nuke. Nukes free Godzilla and a scientist creates a super-weapon that is used, against his wishes I think, to destroy Godzilla. Superweapons create more harm than good, yada, yada, yada. That's when Japan was a decade and a half away from having nukes dropped on them so naturally passions were high.
Fast forward a couple of more years and we get Japan pushing the nuclear power option in a big way. What happens? Godzilla starts protecting Japan from other monsters. He becomes a hero. Coincidence, I think not.
Oh, and the Hollywood remake sucked. How do you lose Godzilla in the middle of Manhattan? Rubble, rubble, rubble, hey the rubble stops and there is this giant hole, Where did Godzilla go?
#25
My kids stumbled on to a cable channel showing Destroy All Monsters a few months back. Most fun we'd had in a long time.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/18/2004 20:51 Comments ||
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#26
For those really needing a Godzilla fix, may I recommend the Playstation 2 game "War of the Monsters". It has all the great 50s and 60s B movie monster types available for a fun smash and crush through cities, secret bases, and a final fight level just before the Capital in DC to take on invading saucers.
Posted by: Don ||
10/18/2004 21:41 Comments ||
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#27
20 Godzilla meets Bambi? Who wins??
See the sequel "Bambi's Revenge" to find that out.
Whitey's Egg Business
Whitey was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young layers called pullets and eight or ten roosters, whose job was to fertilize the eggs. Whitey kept records and any rooster that didn't perform went into the soup pot and was replaced. That took an awful lot of Whitey's time so Whitey got a set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone so Whitey could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing. Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report simply by listening to the bells. Whitey's favorite rooster was old Brewster, a very fine specimen he was too. But on this particular morning Whitey noticed old Brewster's bell hadn't rung at all!
Whitey went to investigate. The other roosters were chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing. The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover. BUT, to Whitey's amazement, Brewster had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one. Whitey was so proud of Brewster, he entered him in the county fair... and Brewster became an overnight sensation among the judges.
The result...
The judges not only awarded Brewster the "No Bell Piece Prize" but they also awarded him the "Pulletsurprise" as well.
Conclusion...
Clearly Brewster was a Democrat. Who else could figure out how to win two of the most politically biased awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them.
Posted by: raptor ||
10/18/2004 10:23:35 AM ||
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Some two million Asian maids working in Gulf Arab states without proper legal cover face various forms of maltreatment, including sexual abuse and non-payment of salary, according to an official study. The study, reviewed by Gulf social affairs and labour ministers who met in Kuwait last week, also outlined the negative effects of the huge number of foreign domestic helpers on Gulf societies. It was prepared by a joint Gulf body on the basis of official data supplied by member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The ministers approved a proposal to hold a forum to discuss specific measures to deal with problems facing domestic helpers, in addition to drafting legislation that would serve as a yardstick for member states.
The study stated that domestic helpers are not governed by the labour laws in any of the six states. Only Kuwait has a special law for them but it has so far failed to curb abuses. Bahrain extends the labour law to partially cover maids, while there is no solid form of legal protection, outside existing general legislation, in any of the remaining GCC members. The study placed physical abuse and beating, in addition to sexual harassment and rape, at the top of a list of abuses to which domestic helpers are subjected. Other problems include non-payment or delay in payment of salary and forcing them to do hard work and work long hours and at the weekend. In other words, they are slaves, and often sex slaves. Their passports are taken and they are stuck in slavery, under the mercy of their Islamic masters.
By the end of 2003, there were 812,000 domestic helpers in Saudi Arabia, 400,000 in Kuwait, 30,000 in Bahrain and 66,000 in Oman. The UAE had 450,000 domestics at the end of 2002, the last available figure, while Qatar did not reveal the number of maids it has. But the numbers are expected to have grown even higher in the past 10 months. In Kuwait, for example, the number now is 450,00, including maids, private drivers, gardeners and the like. In the UAE and Kuwait, there is one domestic helper for every two citizens, while in Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain there is one domestic helper for each family on average. The oil-rich GCC states have a population of about 33 million people, including some 11 million guest workers and their families. Foreign workers' remittances exceed 25 billion dollars a year. The overwhelming majority of the domestics come from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and Pakistan, the study said. Most of them come from the countryside and more than half are illiterate or semi-literate. The average age of the domestic helpers is 30, and two-thirds of the maids are either married or divorced, the report said. Christians make up the largest number, followed by Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus. Under one percent are Arabs, and the rest Asian.
A number of GCC states proposed that priority in recruitment be given to Arabs and then to Muslims to overcome language difficulties and religious barriers, particularly those faced by children interacting with the domestic helpers. The study said the dependence of Gulf families on maids had increased because more women were going out to work, but also due to the lack of sufficient nurseries and kindergartens, the low wages of maids and simple recruitment procedures. Some GCC states called for adopting strict measures and imposing high fees - such as taxes on employers of maids, as imposed in the UAE - to make it more difficult to recruit domestic helpers. Thousands of slaves maids flee their masters employers' homes every year mainly because of maltreatment. Many are repatriated to their home countries.
Haiti's interim prime minister accused ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of directing a wave of violence from exile. Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue also said the South African government, which is hosting Aristide, was violating international law by letting the former president organize Haiti's ongoing violence while in exile. Aristide has denied any links to violence in Haiti. Aristide "is the symbol of violence. He believes in that," Latortue told reporters, adding that South African President Thabo Mbeki is "taking a big risk" in his actions involving Aristide. "No respectable president would allow a person in his territory to organize violence in another country," Latortue said, without giving specifics. "Mr. Mbeki is not respecting international law."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2004 1:30:04 PM ||
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apparently he's never heard of Liberia
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/18/2004 14:24 Comments ||
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Soviet intelligence man Rihard Sorge and his closest associate Hozumi Ozaki's execution papers have been disclosed in Japan. The Asahi newspaper published on Sunday photocopies of four sheets of paper where the enforcement of the two death penalties is described. Tomia Watabe, a Sorge biographer, found them by chance in an old bookstore in Tokyo among old papers of the U.S. occupation forces' HQ. According to Watabe, these papers draw a line under uncertainty as to the Soviet super-spy's last minutes.
The death penalty log of the Itigaya prison and the Sugamo detention center for 1932-1945 reads: "Warden Itijima, on checking the name and age of the convict, told him that the Justice Ministry had ordered to serve the sentence on the same day, and that he was expected to meet the death calmly. The warden also asked the convict whether the latter wished to add anything to his will, as to what should be done to his body and his things. Zorge answered, "My will is going to remain as written." The warden asked, "Do you wish to say anything else?" "No, nothing else," said Zorge. "After that exchange Zorge turned to the prison men present and said, 'I thank you for your kindness.' Then he was put into the death chamber where the sentence was served. Time: 10:20 to 10:36. Under the executed man's will, his body was buried."
Rihard Zorge was arrested by the Japanese counterintelligence in Tokyo on October 18, 1941, and executed on November 7, 1944. His reports in the very beginning of war with the Nazis convinced the Soviet leadership that Japan would not attack the Soviet Union, which enabled the Russians to send forces from the Far East to protect Moscow where the Nazis were defeated for the first time in WWII.
#1
I find it hard to believe they would have treated a convicted spy with such respect and dignity considering how atrociously they treated POWs and civilians in occupied territories throughout the war, e.g. Bataan death march, rape of Nanking, etc. If this article is true, then Sorge was quite lucky to be executed with a minimum of fuss.
Posted by: Dar ||
10/18/2004 9:56 Comments ||
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#2
I ever considered Sorge's role was higly inflated: with the Germans at the doors of Moscow Stalin would have been a fool to not bring back the troops from Siberia. And even without any Soviet resistance the poorly motorized Japanese Army would have taken ages to reach "real Russia".
#4
JFM:
Remember that the troops in the Far Eastern district started moving in September, while the Germans were still a ways from Moskva and there was a hope that they could be held in Smolensk. While Uncle Joe would likely have moved the divisions west if the situation got desperate, it takes time (about a month) to organize them for shipment, get them west, then reorganize them to fight again.
#5
After Zukov kicked the Japaneae Armies collective ass in Mongolia the Imperial Army was in dread that the Red Army would move on them in Manchuria. The idea that Japan would attack the USSR as part of the pact with Germany and Italy is happy smoke in my opinion. In fact Hitler's biggest mistake in my opinion was not that he invaded the Soviet Union but that he declared war on the United States. That put the full weight of the Worlds greatest industrial power fully behind the British and really opened the door to lend lease to the russians. If Hitler ahd not declared war on the US it is doubtful IMO that the US would of been involved in the Eurpean war at all and and it most likely would of ended in a negotiated settlement that would of left Britian independent but largely shorn of hr empire. The settlement between the Germany and the USSR would of been somewhere in Belarus and the Ukraine. With the US devoting her entire resources to a naval war with Japan we might of seen an invasion of the home islands by late 44. Just my opinion
Fairly long for a Peshawar piece, but a good overview of the fragility and poor economic performance of the eurozone (the eurozone comprises those states which have adopted the euro - not to be confused with the EU, though it is a subset of the larger union.)
For rent: amphitheatre, 160ft high, with seating capacity for 50,000. In need of refurbishment. Central location in eternal city, suitable for games, circuses and gladiatorial contests. They have not put a price on it yet, but if you fancy taking on the ultimate wreck as a second home, you might be able to rent the Colosseum in Rome. No, really. The giant arena, built by the emperor Vespasian in ad72, could soon be available as part of a programme by Silvio Berlusconi's government to meet its urgent need for cash.
Here is what Daniele Molgora, a junior economics minister, said in an interview last week: "Selling the Colosseum? No. The national patrimony must be protected. But we have the most beautiful artistic possessions in the world and to think of leasing them to private individuals, under the control of local cultural authorities, would mean to raise income for the country." Mr Molgora risks being dispatched by some Russell Crowe lookalike, judging by the reaction of the Italian media and opposition parties. Just imagine the cries of indignation if some trunk-wearing Brit moved into a ruin in Pompeii, or Starbucks opened a branch in the Roman Forum.
We should thank our lucky stars that, despite Labour's curious attempt to turn us into a Euro-economy - through its taxes, regulations, flirtation with the euro and now its desire to ratify the European Constitution - we are not yet in the position of Italy. Unlike in Britain, where growth, though slowing, is likely to be 3.5 per cent this year, the Italian economy is crawling along, as are those of France and Germany. Italy has the lowest birth rate of any advanced nation, and debts three times those of Britain. This year, according to the IMF, the Italian economy will grow at a paltry 1.4 per cent, followed by two per cent in 2005. Even those numbers could be overestimates. Since the IMF made its forecasts last month, the price of oil has shot above $50 a barrel, raising costs for the world economy generally.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Bulldog ||
10/18/2004 5:03:15 AM ||
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#1
I am not planning on buying or holding any EUROs.
one USD = 0.554078 GBP
one USD = 0.80141 EUR
As energy prices rise watch the downward pressure on the EURO. It won't be pretty. Even with the projected high cost of oil US growth will more then double that of the average EU nation this year.
I can't think of many German, French or Italians who live in a oil and gas fields in their own country. How many barrels of Oil are in the German stragic oil reserve? The French one? How about Italy? I live right in the middle of 3 of them. Production may be going down but we still have Oil close. When and if times get tough we will be in better shape than they ever will be.
#2
When the going gets tough, they will most probably lay claim to the North Sea oil and gas fields for the common good, which will put the UK and Norway in an interesting position.
#3
Mergers are not considered a sign of strength in declining industries or markets.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/18/2004 7:41 Comments ||
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#4
SPoD the USD is still wildly overvalued. Its going to .5 Euros. It will be a major destabilizing event, although the instability will be mostly outside the USA.
#5
The German Bundesbank was worried that the inflation-prone, olive-producing countries whose currencies had developed plenty of noughts over the years
Is the olive cause or effect?
Phil's right, if the Chineese would decouple the dollar would fall to it's rational level.
#6
The EUniks will start to panic when several Asian countries largely overtake them in terms of standard of living. Give it another 15-20 years. It's amazing what compound productivity growth does over a few decades, compared to massive unemployment, short work weeks, and a bankrupt Welfare State.
As for the Norwegian oil fields, remember that Norway is not part of the EU...
#7
It is actually worse than this article implies. Wolfgang Munchau writing in the Financial Times (registration required) had this to say:
"National accounts should provide a true and fair statement of a country's financial position. This is not the case in the eurozone. The officially recorded deficits are those that governments have failed to hide from public view. As an economic statistic, they are close to meaningless. Yet the stability pact, the main instrument of policy co-ordination in the eurozone, relies almost exclusively on that statistic to enforce the rule that reported deficits must not exceed 3 per cent of gross domestic product. As long as the quality of national accounts remains in doubt, it would make a lot more sense to focus on a country's level of outstanding debt and future public-sector obligations, especially pension liabilities. By that measure, of course, several countries of the eurozone would be technically bankrupt and no government is likely to admit that."
#8
As energy prices rise watch the downward pressure on the EURO.
You mean, downward pressure on the currency in which oil's priced. To the extent we're dependent on oil imports, oil's rise will cause the dollar to fall.
#12
Lex:
I don't know about that. Higher oil prices will mean more Euros have to be traded for dollars to buy the oil. That will push the Euro down, while it will tend to lift the dollar. American purchases will push the dollar back down, so maybe the dollar's a wash, but the Euro will drop.
#13
The following are what the US Census Bureau defines as poor, the old bureaucratic process of drawing a line on a statistical chart. Now there are classical or traditional poor in America, but their numbers drop so low, they begin to lose their political value to sell guilt and accumulate power.
- Forty percent of all poor households own their own home. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three bedroom house with one and a half-baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
- Seventy-six percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire US population enjoyed air conditioning.
- Only 6 percent of poor households are overcroweded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
- The average poor American has more living space than the average person [not classified as poor] in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens and other European cities.
- Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.
- Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television. Over half own two or more color televisions.
- Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
- Seventy-three percent own a microwave oven, more than half have stereos, and a third have an automatic dishwasher.
And the Euros expect to compete with a society whose poor do better than their average citizen?
Posted by: Don ||
10/18/2004 17:36 Comments ||
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#14
Yeah, but the US poor got sh*t for nuance, and what good is a TV or a house, or 2 rooms without nuance?
#16
I don't think a .5 Dollar against the EURO would be a bad thing it makes US exports more attractive.
It makes China's fixed value the Yuan tied to the dollar a thing China will have to fix. I don't see it as a bad thing but I amnot so hot with economics I admit.
Shoot I must be sub poor I don't have air conditioning. I have a floor furnace and a swamp cooler.
More than 30 Canadian internet pharmacies have decided not to accept bulk orders of prescription drugs from US states and municipalities. The move delivers a potentially serious setback to US politicians most notably Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry campaigning to give Americans easier access to cheap drugs from Canada... But growing concern in Canada that growing exports to the US could lead to rising prices and shortages north of the border has prompted the Canadian International Pharmacy Association (Cipa), whose members include several of the biggest internet and mail-order drugstores, to act. "We don't want to give Americans the impression that we have unlimited supply for them to tap into on a commercial basis," said David Mackay, the association's executive director. Americans, he added, "can't get everything from Canada. We can't be your complete drugstore"...
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/18/2004 1:08:40 AM ||
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No news here. Anybody who thought little Canada was going to provide drugs for 300 million U.S. citizens was a fool from the start.
Posted by: Tom ||
10/18/2004 8:33 Comments ||
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#2
Tom- that's exactly right. But of course plenty of US politicians are fools. The Canadian system only works because the market is relatively small. Open it to Americans and watch the system implode.
#3
They must have got the word from the American drug companies that they were not going to supply them with a unlimited amount of below cost drugs. Tha Canadian government had forced the US drug makers to sell to Canada at a low cost or they would not honor the drug patents. As long as it was for the small Canadian market, they went along with it. I'd wager they just sent a message they weren't gonna go along any more if massive sales to the US continued.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/18/2004 11:00 Comments ||
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#4
In other news, restaurants across the land inform patrons that they must, in fact, pay for their lunches.
#5
"I'm John Kerry and I don't approve of this message"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/18/2004 12:56 Comments ||
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#6
Canadian International Pharmacy Association (Cipa)
OK, now that I've picked myself up from the floor...in Polish, "Cipa" is slang for "Pussy" (the vagina, not the cat). Roughly pronounced as cheepa. So now you know.
Posted by: Rafael ||
10/18/2004 14:12 Comments ||
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#7
None of this would be the least bit important if Medicare had been given the power to negotiate prices with the drug companies. Drug co in the US spent 40%+ of their GROSS income on advertising and profit margins. Don't cry for me Argentina. They could cut profit margins, reduce direct to consumer ads for controlled substances like Ambien, reduce drug prices by 25% or more, and still make plenty of $. Not GWs finest hour.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
10/18/2004 14:14 Comments ||
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#8
Welcome to capitalism, Weird Al. Government manipulation (or lack thereof) aside, the price rises to what the market will bear.
Posted by: Tom ||
10/18/2004 15:02 Comments ||
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#9
The problem is, when you're old and sick, the market will bear just about anything. It's a captive audience. You need the drugs or you die. Not much manuvering room.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
10/18/2004 15:16 Comments ||
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#10
To clarify: no one is suggesting govt price controls. Simply, the govt has in fact taken responsibility for the medicare drug program. Since it has done so, there should be given the right to negotiate bulk prices. If a given co doesn't like this, no one says they have to participate. Every big health insurance co in the country does the same thing. No one accuses them of being anti-capitalist.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
10/18/2004 15:29 Comments ||
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#11
The Canadian system only works because the market is relatively small
And because US and European Big Pharma multinationals foot the bill for all the drug research that produces the drugs the canucks hack and ripoff.
Al, you don't "spend [money] on profit margins." The average drug today costs, from initial research through clinical trials and FDA approval, about $800 MILLION. Pray tell, who the f*** is supposed to pay for that? Eliminate the pharma companies' profits and you eliminate their drug discovery pipeline.
#12
lex: their profit margin comes AFTER expenses such as research. A NEW drug costs that much to develop. However, 90% plus of all new drugs are in fact "me too" drugs developed to keep pace with expiring patents. They don't cost anywhere near that much.
Once again, the companies can do whatever they like. Like it or not the federal govt has taken responsibility for this program. Responsibility means just that.
Don't tell me about new drugs. I sit in my office all day with drug reps telling me about the "newest" piece of crap that is exactly like the slightly less "New" piece of crap that has it's patent expiring next month. It's particularly amusing when they start bad mouthing their own drug that they've just been pushing for the past 10 years. Happens all the time.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
10/18/2004 15:42 Comments ||
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#13
Al:
The 40% is absolutely false. Only if you consider all of G&A to be "advertising" do you come close to that. Not even Arthur Anderson would believe that.
Oh, and write off the R&D against the "profit" and what do you have left? To bring a drug to market costs $700,000,000 to $1,000,000,000. A drug which doesn't make it to market can still cost a good fraction of that, and there is no product to sell to recover that. The few successes have to pay for the blind alleys.
The drug companies are not ripping us off. The various governments are ripping us off. The foreign governments pay only enough to pay for manufacturing costs & overhead, not to recoup all the hundreds of millions of R&D. Americans pay for R&D for the entire world.
I wonder what would happen if we backed our companies against the EUSSR bureaucrats who want to steal the drugs? If they had to buy them at the open market price? If, when they stole the patent and let one of their companies make them (for a hefty bribe, I'm sure), we filed suit under the WTO?
#14
I didn't 40% profit. I said 40% profit + advertising. R & D is separate, and accounts for roughly 10% of gross. These co have advertising budgets and levels of sophistication that would make your hair curl. And please stop trying to make me cry over the blind alleys and drugs that don't make it. SO WHAT? Isn't that the very capitalism you're talking about? Again and again - any company that doesn't want to negotiate price doesn't have to. Virtually every private health insurance co in the counrty has negotiated prices and preferred drug lists. The drug co haven't gone broke yet.
You're missing the whole point. If you don't think the govt should be in the prescription drug business at all, just say so, and the discussion will end. Once they have taken that responsibility, they should do what every private insurer in the country does. These are after all private capitalistic insurance companies. They're in it for the $. Anyone who thinks they're in it for the patients has been smoking too many of those funny cigarettes. So shouldn't the govt do the same? Be capitalists and work to keep costs down?
Posted by: Weird Al ||
10/18/2004 16:00 Comments ||
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#15
If the govt buys in bulk, then they should be able to negotiate bulk pricing. Happens all the time in lots of industries whether the government is the customer or not. The government is not, however, the entity that prescribes the drugs. Therefore the pharma companies have to market to these decision-makers in the transaction pipeline in addition to negotiating with the govt buyer. Higher volume sales are more critical when the per unit price is lower if a company is to generate an adequate return (the adequacy of which is determined by the market). That means that they must be ever more aggressive in their advertising/marketing. Canada was right to do what they did. They and the Euros know that if the market was operating efficiently across borders, the price of drugs would rise there and come down here reaching a worldwide equilibrium.
Posted by: remote man ||
10/18/2004 16:24 Comments ||
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#16
In other words #15, if we negotiated lower prices for our people, then Canadian prices would rise in due proportion. Makes perfect sense, but why does that matter to our seniors? Or put another way, who in the US cares if Canadian prices go up? The canadians will care, but that's their problem. Capitalism at work.
The bottom line here is the essense of capitalism. The drug cos want the highest possible price for their product, and the consumer wants the best price. The consumer in this case is the federal govt, who as an entity should have been given the right to negotiate. Since the govt wan't given that right, they look like saps. Hell, they are saps.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
10/18/2004 17:20 Comments ||
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#17
Canada deals blow?!? I don't think the narcs are going to like this, Yogi.
#18
The drug cos want the highest possible price for their product, and the consumer wants the best price
That can't be legal? Aren't there laws to protect the poor in Broward County? We need more money, the hurricanes scared the teeth out of us. Im voting for Pat 3 times this year.
#19
Ummm, I'm pretty sure that the government does negotiate the price of drugs. I don't think they pay top dollar. I know that states do this. The Drug Co's have to do/price things correctly in order to be on the approved list of drugs that they will pay for. Am I missing something?
Posted by: remote man ||
10/18/2004 19:42 Comments ||
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#20
Nope. The medicare prescription act does not give the feds the slightest power to negotiate drug prices with the drug companies. The states all do, particularly through their medicaid acts (medicaid=children, medicare=oldsters). Just what I've been talking about. The govts, state and federal, have taken on the role of the consumer looking for the best price. The states are doing their part, the feds can't. Others seem to feel I'm anti-capitalist, but it's the other way around. The consumer should always have the opportunity to haggle. Here they don't, and it's not like a new washing machine. You can't just walk away if you need the drug.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
10/18/2004 19:53 Comments ||
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#21
I just love my Canadian neighbors!! They will always lead me to the straight and narrow path!
#22
Simple solution often found in intellectual property licenses: a most favored nation clause. That is, the US government simply passes a law that says that in exchange for the authority to peddle their wares in the world's largest and most lucrative market, pharmaceutical manufacturers will wholesale drugs in the US at a price equivalent to the lowest price they charge anywhere on Earth. Generally I oppose all price controls but the fact is that US consumers are subsidizing socialist health care systems all over the world via the higher prices we pay for our prescription drugs. Simple fix: eliminate the subsidy.
"Tut tut. Merely an accidental bit of propagandizing..."
Presidential debate number three is in the books, and most polls show the race a dead heat. Thursday, the Missoula School District studied how documents promoting the democratic ticket ended up going home to parents of third-graders at Hawthorne Elementary. School officials are already apologizing for what they call an honest mistake. Hawthorne Principal Steve McHugh: "It's a whoops, it's a mistake. We're sorry -- Missoula, we're sorry."
This was not meant for parent's eyes. But, pro-Democrat literature accidentally went home with third-grade students from Hawthorne Elementary. McHugh: "It was definitely a mistake. Certainly we're sorry that it happened, we're certainly not trying as a school district or Hawthorne school to tell people who to vote for." The paperwork is from the Missoula Unified Political Action Committee for Education. It supports state and national democratic candidates for office. Officials say the information was intended for teachers, not students. McHugh: "It is very clear to people in the district that work for the district that you are not to do anything that will try to persuade anybody when you're working for the school district during the day." It's a simple error that shows how careful educators have to be to keep political views out of school discussion. Both parents and school officials say they understand why this happened, and believe there was no intentional wrongdoing. Principal McHugh says he apologized to the 14 families that received the paperwork.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2004 8:37:49 PM ||
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It is hard to imagine a political race freighted with greater significance than this one. As one of my colleagues in the American press said to me recently, "it's only going to decide the future of the free world."
It is the first election of the post-9/11 United States. It is a referendum on America's biggest military engagement since Vietnam and America's role in the world.
But for the two political parties, the result is critical to their survival.
Rallying the base
If the Republicans win a second term and retain their hold on Congress, the Democrats would probably be shut out of power for the rest of the decade.
On the other hand if the Democrats win, it will represent the failure of the Bush Doctrine, triggering a civil war within the Republican Party.
At the centre of this titanic battle sits Karl Rove, Bush's political advisor.
Rove has fashioned a unique political strategy around George Bush which relies more on motivating social conservatives than winning over moderates in the middle ground.
That's why George Bush has been unabashedly conservative in almost everything he has done, surprising even those within his own party.
He has clamped down on stem cell research, gay marriage and funding for abortion clinics abroad. He has portrayed himself as a tough, decisive, and, above all, principled leader.
When he lashes his opponent as a liberal on the "far left bank", Bush is not trying to win over the undecided voter.
He is firing up his base.
Pivotal
Liberal is one of those keywords that make social conservatives mad. Karl Rove believes there are more votes to be had in increasing the numbers of conservatives who go to the polls than in trying to bring in undecideds.
After the last election, he noted that four million evangelical conservatives did not bother to vote.
With a president like George Bush, he reasons it's easier to excite them than swing voters, for whom Bush's "with us or against us" view of the world might be a hard sell.
If Rove is right and he wins a second term for his boss, he will go down in the pantheon of great political operators.
If he fails, his boss will be remembered as a one-term Republican president who had no major impact on the course of Republican philosophy.
It's the difference between being a repetition of his father and being Ronald Reagan.
If Bush loses, "there will be civil war in the Party on November the 3rd," Pat Buchanan, the former Republican presidential candidate, told me this summer.
Conservatives will say that Bush's unusual mix of tax cuts and military interventionism failed because it departed from the straight and narrow of Conservatism which is small government, fiscal discipline and no foreign adventures.
And Karl Rove will be cast into the wilderness.
Where now?
In the Democratic camp, success will spell the same thing: proof that the Bush Doctrine was a failed experiment.
Anti-war protesters
The Democrats will have to decide who to appeal to
Failure for the Democrats, however, will raise serious questions about their viability as a party.
Why can't they pick a populist candidate? Has America shifted permanently to the right?
Does the Democratic Party need to reinvent itself? These are the sorts of questions the elders will ask.
The Democratic Party lacks the cohesive unity of the Republicans.
It is a motley and sometimes fractious alliance of Deaniac anti-war protesters, blue collar union men, aspirant yuppies, retired Jewish communities and soccer mums.
Some will say that the Party must return to its roots - whatever they are. Others will say it should stay with Clinton's centrist approach.
Whatever the outcome, it is going to be extremely painful for the losing side.
The stakes could not be higher. So don't expect it to be over quickly. Unless there is a clear Electoral College victory one way or the other on 2 November, both sides will dig in for a long legal fight.
Know thyself and your opponent and you will win a thousand fights.
Know thyself and not your opponent and you will win half the time.
Know not thyself nor your opponent and you will will always lose.
Which party understands itself and its opponent best? Which party actually believes its own propaganda of itself and that which it makes about its opponent?
Posted by: Don ||
10/18/2004 21:20 Comments ||
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#3
haha! This article is clearly the BBC's wanna be version of what is happening in our election.
Go back to your own side of the pond. You don't get it - you aren't even close.
The Ohio billionaire who escaped a drugs conviction in New Zealand has poured millions into John Kerry's presidential election campaign. Peter Lewis, also a multimillion-dollar backer of attempts to liberalise America's marijuana laws, spent eight months fighting the Herald's attempts to name him when he was caught importing drugs here during the America's Cup. Lewis was discharged without conviction, after customs officers found cannabis in his luggage at Auckland Airport, and on his luxury converted tug Lone Ranger. He escaped conviction after making a $53,000 donation to drug rehabilitation centre Odyssey House and had his name suppressed - a decision eventually overturned by the Court of Appeal.
Bought his way out jail, did he?
The episode is widely reported in the US, and on internet sites detailing his involvement with Democratic-friendly political advocacy and advertising.
Not so widely that it doesn't bare repeating
Although a law passed two years ago in the United States tried to tighten the regulation of political spending, it can be avoided. The Centre for Responsive Politics says Lewis has now spent US$14.43 million ($20 million) in "soft money" donations to special-interest groups backing John Kerry's bid to oust George Bush as President.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/18/2004 2:36:25 PM ||
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#1
"No weed and no munchies make Homer mumble mumble."
"Vote Democratic?"
"WHY, DON'T MIND IF I DO!"
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/18/2004 23:22 Comments ||
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EFL. Hat tip: Instapundit
Not too long ago, the pulpit was thought of as a most holy, sacred, and revered location. It was a place from which tremendous leaders of centuries past gave instruction from the Bible, and great messages of hope and empowerment were preached to the masses. In the black community especially, the pulpit has long been considered one of the most time-honored places of influence - except during presidential elections.
Every four years, the pulpit gets pimped. Ain't it the truth!
*snip*
When a presidential election year rolls around, groups that may or may not have been important during those last three years, suddenly become the object of the vultures' affection. This year, the head vulture is John Kerry. Well, he does look the part.
*snip*
When director of the Christian Defense Coalition, Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney wanted to launch a two-week prayer tour in support of President Bush, the Americans United for Separation of Church and State were there in the wings, threateningreminding everyone that churches that support or oppose a Republican candidate may face fines, an IRS audit and loss of tax-exempt status.
The all too frequent reminder of tax-exempt status doesn't seem to come up when Kerry is painfully mis-interpreting scripture across the country at whatever "black church" will have him. It's selective regulation against Republicans only and it's glaringly obvious.
When Florida pastor Gaston E. Smith declared before his congregation that God had chosen John Kerry to "bring our country out of despair, discouragement, despondency, and disgust," there wasn't much heard from the far left moonbat church and state separatist peanut gallery.
We can make this into an issue about 501(c)(3) regulations or the morality of using the church to further a political cause. However, first and foremost, there is a blatant double standard being exercised and it needs to be addressed but won't be until the MSM as a group speak up, which means never.
Thankfully, some churches are standing up and exposing the true hearts of politicians. Recently, the pastor of Apostolic Life Cathedral, Rev. E.S. Harper, decided against allowing Kerry to use their church as a political platform. Kerry cancelled his visit soon after. What a shocker.
Coincidence? Let's not play Democrat strategist dumb.
Politicians show their faces in churches once every four years and it is entirely self-serving. Many pimping pastors and their congregants people know this yet casually sit back and allow the pulpit, once a place of reverence, to become a partisan place of manipulation of power.
As with all abusive relationships, intervention is necessary. The pimping must stop.
Amen, brother! A rightous bitch-slapping of the pandering purveyors of platitudes.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/18/2004 2:36:27 PM ||
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Former United States President Bill Clinton has been recuperating from heart surgery at a slower pace than he expected. It has limited his involvement in John Kerry's campaign, the Washington Post said.
Gee, that's too bad. And a very handy excuse as well.
Clinton has experienced fatigue and gets exhausted after completing walks under 2km that are part of his recovery regimen, the Post said, citing friends of the former Democratic President. He had quadruple bypass surgery on September 6 and has been recovering at his home in Chappaqua, New York.
But not to worry, he'll be up and chasing interns after November 2nd.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/18/2004 2:26:57 PM ||
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#1
Get well soon, Bill. Your party needs you! *snurfle*
The Defiance County Sheriff's Office arrested Chad Staton, age 22, of Stratton Ave., Defiance, on a charge of False Registration, in Violation of Section 3599.11 of the Ohio Revised Code, a felony of the fifth degree.
The Sheriff's Office alleges that Staton filled out over 100 voter registration forms that were fictitious. Staton was to be paid for each registration form that he could get citizens to fill out. However, Staton himself filled out the registrations and returned them to the woman who hired him from Toledo, Ohio. Deputies allege that Staton was paid crack cocaine for the falsified registrations.
Defiance Deputies along with Toledo Police Department detectives conducted a search warrant of a residence on Woodland in Toledo, believed to be the home of the woman who hired Staton to solicit voter registration. Officers confiscated drug paraphernalia along with voter registration forms from the home. The occupant of the home, Georgianne Pitts, age 41, advised law enforcement, along with Ohio B.C.I.&I., that she had been recruited by Thaddeus J. Jackson, II, of Cleveland, to obtain voter registrations. Pitts admitted to paying Staton crack cocaine for the registrations in lieu of money.
A business card provided by Pitts indicated that Jackson is the Assistant NVF Ohio Director of the NAACP National Voter Fund.
The initial complaint received by the Sheriff's Office came from the Defiance County Board of Elections. The Board had received the 100 plus registration forms from the Cuyahoga Board of Elections that had been submitted to the Cuyahoga Board by the NAACP National Voter Fund.
Developing...
No doubt the MSM will lead with this story tonight....{major sarcasm
Cheeze. The Drudge Reports are coming fast and furious today!
#2
"One wrestles with how best to describe Mr. Kerry; a seasoned, steady, accomplished man who cuts a dashing figure as he snowboards and bikes across the American political landscape. He's a career Vietnam veteran, distinguished war protestor, protector and resuscitator of family rodents..."
career Vietnam protestor...yepper that's Hanoi John..
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
10/18/2004 14:08 Comments ||
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#3
At least kerry ahs learned not to say "I have a secret plan...."
Problems were being reported at nine of 14 early voting sites in Broward County on Monday morning. Gisela Salas, of the Broward Elections Office, said workers were having problems with a live database connection that is used to verify that a voter is properly registered. The sites, Salas said, that were unaffected were at satellite offices in Deerfield Beach, Hollywood, Lauderhill, Pembroke Pines and Plantation. All the branch offices were reported having problems with the database connection. Many of the sites had voters lined up to cast their ballots. Voters at several sites said poll workers told them the problems started 20 minutes to 30 minutes after the early polling stations opened at 8:30 a.m. The stations close at 6 p.m.
At the Tamarac branch public library, where voting stopped after the computer glitch, Sally Zwanger, a poll watcher for the Kerry campaign, claimed the problems reflected on the inability of Gov. Jeb Bush's administration to fix voting problems left over from the 2000 election. "The worst thing to hear was, 'I support Kerry, but I can't wait in this line,'" she said. "We are having a repeat of 2000, and it's only in Florida that this could happen. This administration would do anything to ensure that he [Bush] stays in office."
Yeah, whatever.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/18/2004 12:27:32 PM ||
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#5
Most of the voters waiting in the line were seniors, and many shared Emert's frustration. They repeatedly uttered phrases such as, "This is ridiculous," and "This is so frustrating."
The Kerry campaign finally released Teresa Heinz Kerry's 2003 tax return, or rather two pages of it, late last Friday, the WALL STREET JOURNAL details.
"But even this minimal disclosure deserves more attention in light of John Kerry's pledge to raise tax rates. In 2003, Mrs. Kerry -- or Teresa Heinz, as she declared herself on her IRS 1040 form -- earned $5.07 million, hardly a surprising income for someone estimated to be worth nearly $1 billion.
"The news is that $2.78 million of that income came in the form of tax- exempt interest from what the Kerry campaign's press release attributed to investments in 'state, municipal and public entity bonds.' What the campaign didn't say is that these are the kind of investments that rich people can afford to hire lawyers and accountants to steer their money into."
On her "remaining 'taxable' income of $2.29 million, Mrs. Kerry paid $627,150 in taxes, for an overall average federal tax rate of only 12.4% on her $5.07 million in total income." This "puts Mrs. Kerry's tax rate at well below that of other filers in her super-rich neighborhood. But it also means she is paying a lower average rate than nearly all middle- class taxpayers paid in 2001, the last year for which the IRS has published the data.
The top 50% of all federal filers contributed 96.1% of all federal income taxes in 2001, and they paid an average income-tax rate of 15.9%. That's 3.5-percentage points more than Mrs. Kerry paid in 2003." At the "very least, Mrs. Kerry's tax returns are a screaming illustration of the need for reform to make the tax code simpler and fairer. But they also show that Senator Kerry's proposed tax increases are much more about a revenue grab than they are about tax justice."
#1
Didn't 'Teresa Heinz' (as she's legally known) also categorgize herself as a professional "philanthropist"? Surely philanthropists ought to be entitled to a lot more tax breaks. Hell, if Kerry gets in, she ought to try to have the state match her income, dollar for dollar, so she can engage in ever more of her wonderful career in philanthropy...
#2
Do the math. If she is really worth $500 million or so, just a 5% return on that would be income of $25 million. Note how she only has "income" of $5.07 million. Either she really isn't that rich, or this is a clear example of how the rich live differently from the rest of us working stiffs, who actually wind up paying our full share of federal taxes.
Note: you can probably say the exact same thing about Bush and his family and many others in Congress.
I take a cynical view when either party tries to claim they understand what it is like for the middle class and poorer people.
Posted by: DO ||
10/18/2004 13:59 Comments ||
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#3
She probably finds ways to funnel the $20 million through her charities: perhaps these pay for the Gulfstream, fund her travels and entertainment etc.
#5
Flying Squirrel Enterprises ownes the the jet, the window Heinz ownes Flying Squirrel. The window Heinz merely leases time on the jet. Flying Squirrel is likely a money losing corp.
#6
IIUC most of her interest income comes from tax-exempt bonds
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/18/2004 14:15 Comments ||
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#7
The real q is Where's the other $20M+? If her fortune's $500M, and if she puts, oh 65% into tax-exempt fixed-income, then she's got another $150M to invest in hedge funds, real estate LPs and other vehicles that can be structured to avoid taxes while generating higher returns. Her real income is likely closer to $15M from the tax-exempts plus another $15M at least from the hedge funds etc, or $30M total.
#9
All of the 'expenses' of paying household servants, etc. are easily funnelled off into dummy holding corporations so that they can take the depreciation, cost of maintenance, payroll & etc. There are thousands of small business owners that pull the same thing (albeit on a smaller scale) every year. If you have an LLC which holds most of the income for you, or you can assign your loss to a dummy corp, then it all just goes away . . .
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
10/18/2004 20:46 Comments ||
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#10
I did this elsewhere on the 'net and it's a bit late in the day but what the heck (note that this entire analysis is grossly oversimplified and done merely to illustrate a point. It ignores legitimate ways of avoiding current taxes such as holding appreciated assets rather than selling them):
Speaking of offshore investments try to reconcile the following: Teresa Heinz Kerry has a net worth of approximately at least $1,000,000,000 (estimates range from $1B to $3.9B) but according to the information she just released she had taxable income of only $2,291,137 and nontaxable income of $2,781,791 (the $4,600,000 in charitable contributions are a red herring since the foundations will file their own taxes and she won't have been able to deduct this amount).
Let's assume that she's playing by the rules and reporting all of her income: that's an annual return on her net worth of just over one half of one percent. Folks, she could more than quadruple her return by merely rolling all of her assets into 1-year CDs.
Or could she? Try to line the above up with the following quote from the SFGate article I linked, "Heinz Kerry's investments, worth an estimated $500 million in 1995, have grown over the last nine years to $1 billion or more, even accounting for large living expenses and charitable contributions, according to an analysis of Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Senate financial disclosure reports, probate documents and other public records." Using a simple annually compounded future value formula that represents an average annual rate of return of around 8%.
Assuming $1,000,000,000 net worth and an 8% ROR (she probably did significantly better since we're in an economic upswing) we'd expect Mrs. Heinz Kerry to report around $80,000,000 in taxable income for this last tax year less the approximately $2.7M in nontaxable interest income she reported for a net taxable income of approximately $77,300,000.
The bottom line:
Approximate federal tax due @ previous 39.6% rate = $30,600,000
Approximate federal tax due @ Bush's new 35% rate = $27,100,000
Actual federal tax paid by Teresa Heinz Kerry = $798,820
Theoretical (uncollectable) tax revenue loss due to Bush tax cut = $3,500,000
Actual tax revenue lost because the rich can always avoid paying = $26,301,180
Actual tax revenue lost due to Bush tax cut (0.396/0.35 * $798,820 - $798,820) = $104,988
Let's assume that Mrs. Heinz Kerry's behavior is typical of the wealthy (it is) and that we can't significantly increase collections (we can't). There are approximately 313 billionaires like Mrs. Heinz Kerry living in the United States. They control assets valued at approximately $800B. Assuming that they're averaging as a group returns similar to those of Mrs. Heinz Kerry and reporting similar amounts of income for each billion in assets (slam dunks on each) the total tax revenue actually lost to marginal rate cuts favoring billionaires under the Bush tax cut is ($800B * $105k tax / $1B assets) is around $84,000,000. That $84,000,000 represents the amount necessary to fund our federal government for approximately 20 minutes. Think it's really worth arguing about marginal rate reductions for the wealthy or does that now seem to be merely a pointless and unproductive class warfare political ideology?
Food for thought: the federal government operates at an efficiency of approximately 27.2% (number provided by an occasional business partner of mine who's heavily into this stuff and whom I have no reason to doubt). Raising the efficiency of the operation of the federal government by 0.0038% (yes 38 one-thousandths of one percent) would recoup the entire amount of revenue "lost" to marginal rate cuts for billionaires under the Bush tax cut and would have positive economic consequences while avoiding the negative economic consequences of raising the top marginal rate. Which sounds like a better way to address the issue?
#13
With all due respect AzCat, I'd like to see a flat-rate tax. Eliminate all loopholes. Just declare what you had at the beginning of the year and at the end. Tax the difference, if you must tax.
Ultimately I'd rather not have any income tax, but that will have to come after getting rid of the Welfare State, Social Security, and Dept of Education.
#14
Kalle - A flat income tax is the 2nd best proposal out there (all income taxes are bad because they tax economic productivity). The best is a flat retail sales tax. It would make the US the world's preferred tax haven and we'd be staggered by the rush of capital into our economy (remember that to grow an economy you have to add labor, add capital, or increase productivity). But the critical component is this: the bills that have been in the House & Senate the past couple of years called for a 23% sales tax (and elimination of all other federal taxes except taxes on imported goods) while a couple of Harverd economists have calculated that current the prices of all goods sold in the US economy are inflated approximately 20-22% by the current federal tax burden imposed on producers/sellers. Thus we'd expect a competitive economy to reduce the price of goods by around 20% while we'd pay approximately 23% to the federal government on the reduced basis. At first glance it looks like a wash BUT we'd be paying with untaxed dollars rather than our current taxed dollars so we'd be far ahead as consumers. The sales tax is so superior on so many fronts as to be a no-brainer, the question is whether we can push aside our entrenched special interests and get our politicians to give up the class warfare, intergenerational warfare, & race baiting the current systems allows them to engage in.
#15
AzCat, the problem with sales tax is that it opens the door to government control of all business.
I'd rather leave all corporations alone. Make the income tax flat, and let each individual feel the pain directly. Best recipe to reduce the scope of government, and to eventually abolish the income tax itself.
#16
Actually the bills introduced last year would have abolished all taxes on business (note the massive gains in competitiveness we'd experience overnight).
But I agree 100% with letting every individual feel the pain and see the true cost of the government services they demand. That *is* the only path that leads anywhere I want to go.
While I don't agree with the endorsement, I do agree with their analysis of the candidates:
"Sen. John Kerry is the clear choice for voters who care about advancing gay rights and preserving abortion."
I left out the part of the quote where it talks about "Judges with American values, maintaining a transparent government, and protecting the environment." That's because the election will not be decided on these issues. Also I can't see a Kerry administration changing anything in composition, scope, or goal with respect to Iraq. To do so would doom both the Iraqis and American foreign policy for the next generation (see Vietnam for example). So if you want your 12-year-old daughter to be able to have an abortion on demand then by all means vote for Kerry. If want the Military, Boy Scouts, and religious organizations to be forced to accept open gay/lesbian/transgender/bestiality/necrophiliacs members then by all means vote for Senator Kerry. Also if you think it's ok for the above categories to intermarry, then Kerry's your man (err partner).
#3
President Bush, on the other hand, is the clear choice for voters who think that avoiding a nuclear attack on an American city might be just a trifle more pressing than advancing gay rights and preserving abortion.
Posted by: Matt ||
10/18/2004 13:18 Comments ||
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#4
I'm so surprised.
NOT
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/18/2004 14:39 Comments ||
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Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/18/2004 00:59 ||
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#1
It seems the only real issue Mr. Kerry still has an edge over the President on is health care. The economy is doing well and most people don't give a rat's patoot what the rest of the world thinks so his "alliance" talk is going nowhere. Even the Democrats I know her are all talking on the single issue of healthcare and were genuinely appalled at Mr. Kerry's bringing up of Mary Cheny. They all thought it a cheap trick to get the homosexual vote. Most of them don't think Kerry will win and are planning for 4 years from now.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/18/2004 7:56 Comments ||
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#2
Globally my ass. That is what Sorros wants a global influence for himself. He is hoping he can buy the influence of a Kerry Presidency. What is with that Sorros guy? That is where all this "globally" crap is coming from. It's been a Kerry meme but it's Gorge Sorros pulling the puppet strings.
#6
The Bush campaign has an advertisment out about the Kerry health plan that is very effective. Shows multiple bureaucracies like IRS on the Kerry plan involved in the decision making process of how health care is administered. Ends with the Dr. having little say in the process.
I personally thought it was very effective in highlighting that Kerry's plan will allow lazy and inefficient bureaucrats to be calling the shots.
Forgive me please, Bulldog, Howard, Tony, Shep, and persons of a delicate constitution. The headline is courtesy the Guardian. It's a sampling of the Guardian's American mailbag as regards Operation Clark County. Priceless.
Also, Australian news is running footage of Kerry saying (and I paraphrase) 'The President is also the leader of the free world and we need someone who the world respects'.
My immediate genuine reaction was 'If I were an American, I would be embarassed to have you represent me to the world.'
For twoud the almighty God the gift to gie us, to se ourselves as others see us.
#5
Please be advised that I have forwarded this to the CIA and FBI.
Wonder if Gaurdian members and Journalists will be put on the "no-fly" list. Or maybe even the " departing at 30,000 ft" list.
Posted by: Charles ||
10/18/2004 2:49 Comments ||
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#6
F*cking classic:
Have you not noticed that Americans don't give two shits what Europeans think of us?
* Consider this: stay out of American electoral politics
* You vote for your leaders and we'll vote for ours. Your problem is with your leaders, not ours.
* Real Americans aren't interested in your pansy-ass, tea-sipping opinions. If you want to save the world, begin with your own worthless corner of it.
* I'm hoping that it is genius satire. Nothing will do more to undermine the Democratic cause in Ohio than having patronising Brits wander around Clark County telling people how to vote
* I enjoy reading your paper and agree with your politics, but this is really too much.Your plan, if carried out, will hurt the Bush opposition TERRIBLY.
* Thank heavens! I was adrift in a sea of confusion and you are my beacon of hope! ... Please remember, too, that I am merely an American. That means I am not very bright. It means I have no culture or sense of history. It also means that I am barely literate, so please don't use big, fancy words
*
That was my favorite. Those Guardian brits should get that sort of humor.
* We all enjoyed this at work. Cheers.
*
That, I think, was the best low ball putdown.
* The next time you have elections in Great Britain, I shall endeavour to send names of your citizens to people in France, Iraq, India, the United Arab Emirates, Botswana, Pakistan, China and Argentina so that they may attempt to influence your election. It's only fair that everybody in the world should have a say in the selection of the prime minister
* While I empathise with your plight, this attempt to influence voters by sending letters from foreigners will have a negative effect on your ultimate goal. You will cause people to empathise with the president, not the other way around.
* Who in the hell do you think you are??? Well, I'll tell you, you're a bunch of meddling socialist pricks!
* I've decided that neither myself, nor my family will ever visit again. ... Though I still love the castles!
*
Well, you gotta love the castles. Points for bringing up the castles.
* Perhaps there is something wrong with you. Perhaps it is your teeth.
*
And the best for last:
Thank God above for you English! Just when I was beginning to despair at the thought of Bush being re-elected, you come along with a strategy to help us! Your invitation to your readership and rationale for offering it are provocative at the least, and laudable at best.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
10/18/2004 4:05 Comments ||
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#8
Heh heh heh... :) I'll admit I'm surprised they did this. Wonder what the ratio of positive:negative feedback actually has been. Interesting to see that the rabidly anglophobic responses get pre-eminence amongst the negative repsonses. Nothing like a bit of spin to keep your deluded readers' prejudices intact, especially when you're going down in flames.
I am all out of hashish and Guinness please send more. About that election letter thing I don't think it's a good idea. We have a habit of blowing shit up that pisses us off over here, so don't piss us off.
#10
Interesting. I thought this was a hoax at first. Makes you wonder how they edited the letters. Seems to be quite a fair sample, but knowing the Guardian...
Maybe they've been influenced by the Pajamahadeen. Pushing your own angry letter back in your face is more the style of the blogosphere than the MSM.
#14
That's why I love America, straight to the point. e.g.
My favorite:
"Who in the hell do you think you are??? Well, I'll tell you, you're a bunch of meddling socialist pricks! Stay the hell out of our country and politics. And another thing, John Kerry is a worthless lying sack of crap so it doesn't surprise me that a socialist rag like yours would back him. I hope your cynical ploy blows up in your cowardly faces, you bunch of mealy-mouthed morons!
United States "
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
10/18/2004 10:48 Comments ||
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#15
I should have also noted here that my feelings on this don't apply to all Brits. I was born there myself and mum would be rather angry if I said otherwise.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
10/18/2004 10:58 Comments ||
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#16
The Guardian stunt generates worldwide publicity for the paper. My guess is that publicity is more important to the Guardian than who wins the US election.
News as an entertainment business is a problem with our society. As long as bad news sells more papers, papers will focus on bad news (or in the worst case, manufacture bad news).
#17
...and I find your National Anthem quite warlike and frightening. Might you change it to "Imagine" or something similiar? We International Weenie Boys would feel so much more comfortable with that.
Thanks much.
#19
The Guardian stunt generates worldwide publicity for the paper. My guess is that publicity is more important to the Guardian than who wins the US election
Of course. Look what spam did for Nigeria's share of mind. Perhaps the Guardian can branch out into the lucrative viagra email market as well.
#20
How can the only national anthem to begin and end with questions be threatening? What is threatening aboout asking a question, appropriately named Bridiot?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/18/2004 11:29 Comments ||
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#21
No prob Britiot. Besides, it was setting to be a quite a nuisance watching International Weenie Boys drop a load in their shorts every time the Star Spangled Banner was played.
Posted by: ed ||
10/18/2004 11:39 Comments ||
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#22
LOL! Kind of what I expected from everyone: A big buzz off. Can we return the favor when the UK holds elections? Wonder how the brits would take it? Bulldog? Howard?
#23
Bwahhhaaaa...it's so clear that they don't grasp even one tenth of the sacrasm inflicted on them.
am a student and life-long resident of Clark County, Ohio. I just wanted you to know that this is a wonderful idea you've initiated; people here love and respect the United Kingdom, especially the prime minister. I hope this campaign will be successful for your newspaper and for us voters.
Springfield, Ohio
clue to guardian...that is sarcasm! Those comments just assured a Bush victory in Clark County. Thanks!
#26
...and I find your National Anthem quite warlike and frightening. Might you change it to "Imagine" or something similiar? We International Weenie Boys would feel so much more comfortable with that.
Thanks much.
You blinkered idiots think this guy was being serious?? Can you not grasp basic sarcasm? This guy is AGREEING with you you fools by lampooining a typical british letter to your electorate. My god 3 of you are too stupid to grasp that? no wonder you vote bush.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/18/2004 13:45 Comments ||
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#29
Cyber Sarge - so long as the letters are addressed only to Guardina readers, you weon't do any harm (unlike the Guardian which, I suspect, has done a great deal of harm to its nut-shit moonbat leftoid agenda.)
#30
But, you have failed (as per usual for this site) to answer the CONTENT of the post. The 3 posters misread Britiot's post. Why don't you focus on the issues for once instead of lame attempts at character assassination?
#31
I decide what I think, authoritarian clairvoyant assclown, and that isn't it.
I quite recognize that Britiot's remarks are satirical and I have addressed them in the same vein, as others probably have as well. That would be obvious if you weren't an authoritarian shithead in love with his own media-slavery. Now, dumbshit, prove my point by continuing to argue with me.
#33
Strange, i would have expected the 'hey, i knew it was a joke all along' post to have been the first response. Still, you were still first in line in your attempt to save face. Perhaps it's me but could you explain how your responses to Britiots satirical point that wimpy lefty europeans may find your national anthem warlike was to respond with (and i paraphrase i know) 'hey! the british attacked us in the revolutionary war you know'; can't quite see the satirical double meaning in that?
#36
"Strange, i would have expected the 'hey, i knew it was a joke all along' post to have been the first response."
Perhaps because it is true? More evidence of your clairvoyance.
"Still, you were still first in line in your attempt to save face. Perhaps it's me but could you explain how your responses to Britiots satirical point that wimpy lefty europeans may find your national anthem warlike was to respond with (and i paraphrase i know) 'hey! the british attacked us in the revolutionary war you know'; can't quite see the satirical double meaning in that?"
Again, you are attempting to tell me what I think, and to analyze a piece of satire, yet you cannot even construct a coherent sentence.
As an authoritarian adolescent sound-biter, you obviously confine all attempts at wit and irony to a single sentence and the concept of picking up a cue is therefore alien to you.
It was the War of 1812, btw, not the Revolution.
#37
Why must you seek to rubbish the person who's views disagree with yours and not argue with their points instead. This entire site appears to be an endless list of faux news items followed by alot of comments that simply agree with the article posted and (not literally mind) shout 'go team america'. Perhaos America's greatest problem today is left and right being totally unable to enter discourse with each other.
#39
"Why must you seek to rubbish the person who's views disagree with yours and not argue with their points instead."
You mean rubbish like this in your first post: "blinkered idiots" "too stupid to grasp that" and "no wonder you vote for Bush?"
Your points are based on strawmen, the presumption of authority, and the pretense of clairvoyance; that is really all the argument required, case closed.
When I went to British schools in the 50s, they still taught logic and composition. That is plainly no longer the case.
#40
Well, discourse would be fine, but your trollish approach is not helpfull in that direction at all.
If you call that discourse, then you need to check your textbooks or ask your teacher very hard questions.
OTOH, if you are after scoring troll points, then you certainly manage rather well. I think that has been duly recognized last night by issuing the prestigeous RB award.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/18/2004 14:23 Comments ||
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#47
Could Al Guardian really be so stupid as to not realize how this will backfire?
As much as I despise these Streicherist bigots, I have a hard time believing that they really are, though some of their chatterati readers are obviously stupid and arrogant enought to test their traditional and smug presumption of authority in this fashion.
It seems more likely that the real purpose is to set up a semi-direct confrontation between the Guardian audience and offended Americans. Since the former are utterly oblivious to their own arrogance and bigotry, the overall effect will be
to make them feel threatened and rejected.
As a result, they will bind themselves even more closely to the Guardian view and the appeals of its advertisers.
#48
"The tone here is frightening and warlike! As an International Weenie Boy, I am obligated to run in terror and blame Bush!"
Thank you again, Britiot, for taking the time to succinctly express the opposition view on behalf of those who are manifestly unable to do so for themselves.
#51
AS - I don't usually insult people on blogs, but in your case I'll make an exception. For an allegedly educated person, your spelling is bad. But the more you post, the more it improves. You can't be learning that quickly, so you must have started running your posts through the spellcheck. How else did your 'artical' of yesterday transform itself into 'article'? Or does your spelling change with your mood?
Yesterday you scorned a Rantburger for accessing an online dictionary to tell you how to spell 'alliteration' and define it for you. Well, at least he knows that word doesn't start with an 'i'.
#57
Seafarious (me old mucker), I think this is awesome - no need to think this would offend. I've posted on Tim Blair's site lauding Americans that have given it to the Grauniad in spades.
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! 'course the Grauniadistas don't believe in guns, so they must injure their feet by wearing sandals with cracked lentil insoles. Arseholes.
All this really shows is that the LLL exists on both sides of the Atlantic and they are as much of a danger to Western Civilisation as the Islamofascists.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/18/2004 17:35 Comments ||
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#58
Thank God I'm an Atheist.
/sarcasm (for the sarcasm-challenged)
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/18/2004 17:44 Comments ||
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#59
Too true Tony(UK)...
Posted by: Dan ||
10/18/2004 18:38 Comments ||
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#60
Guys, did anyone actually see the letter that began "Dear Limey Assholes"? 'Cause I looked for it and was disappointed not to find it.
#61
By the way, tonight one of the Fox guys (the one who does "My Word", forget his name) said he figured that this was a Guardian ploy to show the world how loutish and vulgar Americans were, and we entirely fulfilled their expectations.
Anyone who hasn't been following this really needs to head over to Tim Blair's site and read all the postings. There are a lot of terrific letters that the Grauniad didn't dare print posted in the comments. Links for your amusement:
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
10/18/2004 21:46 Comments ||
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#63
Maybe we should ask the Brits if they need France's permission to have elections now? They bend over at French and EU command now, like the good little slaves they've become.
#66
This whole thing just cracks me up - US citizens outraged that citizens of another country would dare interfere (as if a letter from a Brit is going to change anything) in their election. ha ha ha . We just had an election in Australia which was completely free of outside influence... as the following extract from the Washington Times shows...
Cheers,
Aussie
Debate Down Under
By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES - 30 Sept 2004
U.S. intervention
President Bush, meeting with Mr. Howard at the White House in June, said it would be "disastrous" if Australian troops pulled out of Iraq. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell added: "I don't think that's the Australia that I have known and respected for so many decades."
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, in an interview with the Australian, the country's leading newspaper, infuriated Latham supporters by saying the Labor Party's platform calling for better strategic and cultural relations with Washington would not work if bilateral economic and political relations suffer.
"Now, you either have a full-up relationship or you don't," said Mr. Armitage, who added that he believed Mr. Latham's own party was divided over the Iraq policy.
Asked later why he did not include the standard diplomatic disclaimer against commenting on an ally's domestic political debate, Mr. Armitage replied: "I just ran out of time, I guess."
Police on Sunday were still trying to determine who was driving a stolen truck loaded with illegal immigrants that smashed into other vehicles and rolled over, killing six people and injuring 15, some critically. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials questioned a man they had believed was the driver, but he turned out to be a passenger, said Arizona Department of Public Safety Sgt. Brian Preston. snip
Seventeen people were in the truck, including two women, 14 men and a boy. snipFive people died at the scene of the 11-car crash Saturday and one victim died later a hospital. Of the 15 injured, one person was on life support and six were in critical but stable condition.snip
Four suspected illegal immigrants were being interviewed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Naco, Border Patrol spokesman Andy Adame said Sunday.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/18/2004 1:45:43 AM ||
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#1
They're going to ship it over to Hangar 19, just down the road from the other crashed alien SUV.
#2
The county's emergency medical budget just got blown for the next 10 years taking care of these nonpaying critical cases. Medical bills for everyone else will shoot way up to cover for these people. Wouldn't be surprised if the hospital, if small or medium sized, is forced to shut down.
Posted by: ed ||
10/18/2004 10:28 Comments ||
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#3
I'd ben wondering what happened to St. Preston. Turned into a snowbird, eh? Hope he didn't taking King down there. PETA violation.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/18/2004 10:37 Comments ||
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#5
Pickup truck?! I think the media owes the entire SUV community an apology! How quick they are to stereotype and jump to conclusions! All SUV's are NOT evil! SUV's are motor vehicles too! The NAASUV shall hear about this!
#6
They had (?) a problem in San Diego with illegals driving at night, with lights off, on the opposite lanes of the freeway hoping to avoid known checkpoints.
They should just put those shred your tires if you backup over them things on freeways so that anyone going the wrong way can't do so for long.
Hugh Grant, 44, who split from actress Liz Hurley four years ago, has made his first commitment to Jemima Khan by introducing her to his father — who gave his blessings to Grant's intention to marry Jemima, website FemaleFirst said sources told newspaper Daily Star. The website quoted the paper as saying that the movie heartthrob was said to be so smitten with the heiress that he would soon ask for her hand in marriage.
Wants to get to the rest of her as well, I'd wager...
"When Hugh Grant told his dad he had never loved a woman like Jemima and his heart ached without her around, he said, 'In that case, you must make her your wife.' That was it for Hugh," the website quoted Daily Star.
Gonna tie the knot, huh? Cheeze. I didn't even know they were related... Oh. Wait. At least one of 'em's not a Moose limb...
Meanwhile, Jemima has admitted she was so in love with the star after a painful split with cricket legend Imran Khan that she wanted to tell the world about their whirlwind romance, said the website.
"I'm so happy! I just hope Imran doesn't throw acid in my face!"
The daughter of late tycoon Sir James Goldsmith reportedly told friends, "I'm happier than ever, and I've reached the point with Hugh where I want the world to know. I married and had children very young and now I'm having some fun."
Oh, you brazen hussy!
The website quoted the paper as saying that the pair, however, were determined not to rush into marriage until after Jemima's divorce proceedings with Khan.
That's usually considered a good move.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2004 8:13:15 PM ||
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THE newly-elected Masvingo Member of Parliament, Walter Muzembi says some Zanu PF members in Masvingo want him dead. Muzembi surprised mourners gathered at the funeral of the late freelance photographer, Lucky Hakata at Grenville cemetery in Harare on Saturday when he said the Pajero that Hakata was travelling in with four others had been shot at by Zanu PF members opposed to his election. Hakata, a Harare-based sports photographer was travelling in the car, owned by Muzembi, to Harare when it rolled over several times at the 109 km peg between Featherstone and Munyati on Thursday afternoon and died on the spot. His body was taken to Chivhu hospital for a post mortem. The others in the car sustained serious injuries and were admitted at Chivhu hospital.
Without mincing his words, Muzembi, whose election surprised many people as he was on suspension from the ruling party, said the people who fired shots at his Pajero thought that he (Muzembi) was in the car as it was the same vehicle that he had been using during his campaign in Masvingo province. "The people who shot at my car wanted to kill me. Hakata was sitting in the back seat of the car where I used to sit during my campaigns. I am very sorry for the Hakata family for what happened," said Muzembi, who offered to foot the bill including buying the casket. A policeman from Chivhu who attended the burial of Hakata confirmed that Muzembi's car had been shot several times. Muzembi's public announcement was filmed by a Zimbabwe Television crew which covered Hakata's burial but the clip was not screened when the story was aired on Saturday night.
The Masvingo South constituency fell vacant after the death two months ago of Zanu PF long standing member and former cabinet minister Eddison Zvobgo. The two Zanu PF factions in Masvingo, the one loyal to the late vice President Simon Muzenda and the one loyal to the late Zvobgo had been vying for the Masvingo South seat when it fell vacant following Zvobgo's death. The Masvingo Zanu PF provincial executive, led by Daniel Shumba announced that Muzembi, who belongs to the Zvobgo faction, had been elected unopposed after all those within the party who had been contesting stepped down. It is not clear whether they were coerced into stepping down or did so of their own volition. Attempts to get a comment from Zanu PF were in vain.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2004 7:29:51 PM ||
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COMEDY CENTRAL's 'DAILY SHOW' has experienced surprise audience erosion -- despite a publicity push by host Jon Stewart. Stewart, who announced last week that he plans to support John Kerry, pulled 1,040,000 total viewers for month of September -- down 7% from August, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. snip
CNN editors were busy this weekend cleaning up a transcript from Stewart's Friday appearance on CROSSFIRE. One CNN executive called Stewart's performace "belligerent." During the live program, Stewart slammed host Tucker Carlson: "You're as big a dick on your show as you are on any show." The awkward exchange came at the end of an 8 minute segment between Stewart, Carlson and co-host Paul Begala.
It gets worse from there. Drudge gives the key, ugly bits of the transcript, which should be highly amusing to those of you less than fond of the MSM. Its odd... I saw Stewart interviewed on Charlie Rose, and he was very thoughtful, articulate, even erudite. He also expressed frustration that the MSM journalists are not doing their job to root out and present the kind of background information and perspective that I come here to find.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/18/2004 1:04:26 AM ||
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#2
He's not a Kerry-loving POS anymouse. He actually respects American politics and is one of the few "hollywood" people voting based on their beliefs of what's best for this country.
That being said, he's voting for the wrong person.
Posted by: Charles ||
10/18/2004 2:56 Comments ||
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#3
I agree with Charles, anymouse. Stewart may be a liberal, but he smacks down the system every show. We need more people like him, regardless of their political convictions.
A great current example is his smackdown of Crossfire. It's a great clip. What he says should be said to all the news people who pretend to perform a service to us citizens. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out:
#4
"one of the few "hollywood" people voting based on their beliefs of what's best for this country."
Then it's funny that they keep making the same erudite, incredibly educated, and completely WRONG decision, isn't it?
If not "POS," then definitely "SFB."
And I'll stand by that.
#6
Yet another sign of our bicoastal betters' increasing desperation.
This election will not be close. The polls are even less reliable than their usual 4% +/- error rate would suggest. Consider:
--the LATimes' polls on the day before the Calif governor's race had Schwarzenegger and Bustamante in a dead heat. Arnold won by 17 points. Bustamante who? - my point exactly. -ed.
--various polls in the Florida governor's race had Jeb Bush up by 3, 5, 6 points. He won by 13 points.
This year, millions of people will vote their gut, which is not to be confused with what those same people are willing to tell their neighbors, colleagues, families, or god forbid, pollsters, in the weeks and months leading up to the election.
The gut issue is of course which candidate one trusts more to prosecute and win the war. The "gut" voters will tilt toward Bush by at least 2-to-1, and I seriously doubt that any of the polls have reflected this phenomenon.
They were feted by Robert Mugabe as patriots and pioneers in a radical redistribution of land to redress colonial injustice. But the war veterans who ousted white farmers have now themselves been invaded. Last month, police units fanned across Trelawney, a rural district outside the capital, Harare, and erased settlements with matches and mallets. The devastation starts just north of Harare and stretches for mile after mile with hundreds of homes wrecked, fields scorched and families gone, leaving the landscape silent and empty. "Now we are in the position the white farmer was. The authorities used us," Richard Mapuringa, 33, said last week, sifting through the ruins of his house.
Now there's a field calibration test for the Acme surprise meter.
#4
"They used me! They told me I was a veteran of a war that occurred before I was born," Richard Mapuringa, 33, said last week, sifting through the ruins of his house.
#6
Yes there is, tu3031. It is a dual scale meter. The surprise meter is on the left and swings at the 9 00 position on the right side. the sympathy meter is at the 300 position and swings to the left. When both meters start acting erratically, then the unit becomes a WTF meter.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/18/2004 14:13 Comments ||
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#7
And if the whole unit begins to spew thick black smoke, it becomes a Holy S! meter.
#8
I thought if you let out the magic smoke, the unit stopped working.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/18/2004 18:55 Comments ||
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#9
Also, more seriously... weren't most of these so-called veterans actually too young to have fought in the revolution against colonial injustice, way back when?
ZIMBABWE has placed a $US200 million ($290 million) order to buy a fleet of Chinese-made fighter jets and military vehicles, even as the African country's depleted food stocks and remaining hard currency run out.
...
As relations with the rest of the world have grown colder, Zimbabwe has become increasingly dependent on China, one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Mr Mugabe's government when it came to power upon independence in 1980.
Since then the Chinese Government has helped build Harare's national sports stadium, hospitals, dams and school dormitories. It has also dug wells and established clothing factories.
Last month, a high-level trade delegation, which included the central committee of the Chinese Communist Party, visited Harare to discuss trade.
Chinese construction companies are also involved in building Mr Mugabe's Saddam Hussein-style mansion in Harare.
...
Last year a Chinese state-owned company, the China International Water and Electric Corporation, was awarded a government contract to farm 100,000 hectares in southern Zimbabwe from which white farmers had been driven off.
I can't help but think that in the bad old days, this sort of arrangement would have been called "colonialism."
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/18/2004 19:08 Comments ||
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#10
Phil F. --
I was thinking more along the lines of "wholly owned subsidiary" to be followed, when the local population succumbs to starvation, AIDS, or death by internecine violence, with "Lebensraum." Red China will soon need to do something drastic about their excess male population, before it brings down the entire society, and the outer provinces of Russia likely won't be enough.
#11
Prease, prease. You ah beung mach tooo puhranoyad. We Chinlee ahh oh so peezvull. Onree rissh to herp.
(Ignore zhe knyfe in yur bahk. Onree yur eemahgenation)
The only reason the Commie Chinese reach their hands around your shoulders is to place the knife squarely in the middle of your back. Past masters of 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer'.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
10/18/2004 20:29 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Haiti's interim prime minister accused ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of directing a wave of violence from exile. Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue also said the South African government, which is hosting Aristide, was violating international law by letting the former president organize Haiti's ongoing violence while in exile. Aristide has denied any links to violence in Haiti. Aristide "is the symbol of violence. He believes in that," Latortue told reporters, adding that South African President Thabo Mbeki is "taking a big risk" in his actions involving Aristide. "No respectable president would allow a person in his territory to organize violence in another country," Latortue said, without giving specifics. "Mr. Mbeki is not respecting international law."
The Ohio billionaire who escaped a drugs conviction in New Zealand has poured millions into John Kerry's presidential election campaign. 
They were feted by Robert Mugabe as patriots and pioneers in a radical redistribution of land to redress colonial injustice. But the war veterans who ousted white farmers have now themselves been invaded. Last month, police units fanned across Trelawney, a rural district outside the capital, Harare, and erased settlements with matches and mallets. The devastation starts just north of Harare and stretches for mile after mile with hundreds of homes wrecked, fields scorched and families gone, leaving the landscape silent and empty. "Now we are in the position the white farmer was. The authorities used us," Richard Mapuringa, 33, said last week, sifting through the ruins of his house.
