Say Anything Blog

you cerntainly can’t take away from the fact that Mr. Bush is a principled person.  And, he is sticking to his principles, that’s great to see.  Like you, I disagree with those principles, but that is democracy.  I would hate to have a man/woman (like that?) in the Oval who could not stand by their principles, that would be a sad day for America.

Oh yeah, I LOVE ELIZABETH VARGAS!!! 

Mike, I don’t necessarily disagree with the President’s principles.  I agree with most of the things he says.  Its the things he does (refusing to veto outrageous amounts of spending, signing campaign finance reform, the guest worker program, etc.) that get me angry.

The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is… legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay … If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.

Frédéric Bastiat, The Law

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Rob: Whenever I get away from the good stuff, like going after the terrorists and tax cuts, I consider the alternatives: Gore and Kerry, and I feel a whole lot better.  Demanding perfection before acting is the mark of the frightened child.

And the deficit spins out of control.

I do have to agree though Bush does stand by his guns some times to a fault, but I would much rather have that than a President that tries to please everybody knowing from word one that he never can.

How does sticking by your guns make you automatically principled is beyond me. I am sure that Hillary coinsiders herself principled. What you are defining as pricipled some would call stubborn.

Most of my distain for Clinton (both of them) is in how they govern based upon polls. 

Too many polls are answered by people who don’t yet have all the facts.  Polls are subjective.  How do you feel about [insert topic]?  Most businesses are trying to reduce subjectivity in all areas relating to decision making.  Subjective decisions can change based upon what you ate for breakfast or how much sleep you got.  

When a politician makes governing decisions based upon people’s feelings, then he’s going for the short term, ‘get people to like me’, win.  

My impression of Bush is that he would rather make decisions based upon fact.  Objectivity!  We need more of that.

Seth -
That trait has spread this side of the Atlantic - it’s called ‘focus group’ politics.

There are very few ‘conviction’ politicians left - i.e. those that are independent, have their own ideas and are prepared to argue for them, rather than just shaping what they believe around what will get them elected.

Seth,   Good perspective, especially on the "feelings" point and, of course, on the "want people to like me".   Someone wrote a piece on that a while ago along the lines of the "wonder (teen) years"  ---   "does she really, really like me"?

I’d like to see Hillary Principaled, a al Jim Belushi...  Just sayin’.

Aprincipled person? Bush?  Now we find out and can see and hear it with our own eyes and ears that Bush was warned before Katrina that the levees could fail.  He heard it, he discussed.  Yet he tells the world that "no one anticipated the levees would fail."  He lied, he flatout lied.  He knew, he was warned, these tapes are amazing. It was anticipated, discussed.  Unbelievable, yup principled alright.

P: "Could have" is not certainty.  Stop lying yourself.

Puzzlefeet, Bush is not directly in charge of New Orleans or Lousiana.  The mayor and the governor were, respectively.

If you want to point fingers, put it at them.   We have a federalist system for a reason.

Its their state.

The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is… legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay … If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.

Frédéric Bastiat, The Law

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

I once that a spoon "could have" floated up off the table... 

Good luck Robert... 

You all are missing the point intentionally.  Yes, everyone had some responsibility.  But our commander in chief lied to everyone.  It was clear from the tape that it was anticipated that the levees could be breeched and it was discussed before the breech.  It was discussed with Bush in the room.  And then he goes on TV and tells the nation that no one anticipated that there would be a breech.  He sat there in a room with Chertoff, Brown, the weather service people when it was discussed that a breech was anticipated.

You guys are unbelieveable.  even in black and white and in living color he said, he heard and then baldfacedly lied to the American people.  It’s a lie, he lied and nothing you write changes what is on that tape.  Again, Bush, principled, pulease!

Even Fox news is running it on their website:  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,186525,00.html.  He was warned and said they were prepared. 

Have you seen the tape, Puzzle?  Because I haven’t.  All we have is a summary from some AP reporter (you say "even Fox News," yet that link goes to an AP wire story on the Fox News website, it isn’t a Fox News story), and that isn’t enough to go on for me.

Before I buy into this I want to see the documents and the video itself. not a summary of it from some reporter.

There are also some questions as to the claims made by the article (you can read a summary of them here).

The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is… legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay … If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.

Frédéric Bastiat, The Law

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Actually I have watched the tape. It is on the Fox News site as well. You should take a look as well.  Very interesting and supports what I wrote.

Actually, you watched an AP broadcast that had selected clips from the video.  Not exactly the same as seeing the original.

The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is… legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay … If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.

Frédéric Bastiat, The Law

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

P: Once again, the luxury of 20/20 hindsight.  Before the tragedy, someone said the levees "could be" breached, which, in my memory, gets said every hurricane season.  This is a "cry wolf" story turned into the leftie "Get the President" mantra.  Blame everything, acknowledge nothing.  It is really getting boring.  If you want a psychic President, include that in the job description.  Maybe if GW had been down there on the levees pitching sandbags, you would have found something wrong with that, as well.

Robert, I still think it is an important distinction to note that nobody said the levees would be breached.  Topped, yes, but not breeched.

Two entirely different situations, whether the lefties choose to see it that way or not. 

The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is… legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay … If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.

Frédéric Bastiat, The Law

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Rob: Exactly.  The story of the MSM reporting Katrina is a litany of lies and half-truths.  It was a scandal, really, but you will hear very little about that part of it, because they still have a virtual monopoly on the public concsciousness.

Puzzlefeet drivels on, You all are missing the point intentionally.  Yes, everyone had some responsibility.  But our commander in chief lied to everyone.  It was clear from the tape that it was anticipated that the levees could be breeched and it was discussed before the breech.  It was discussed with Bush in the room.  And then he goes on TV and tells the nation that no one anticipated that there would be a breech.

Puzzlefeet - get a new hearing aid. The tape showed someone who said that the possibility of the levees being topped is a concern. He didn’t say "breeched". No lie. Go ahead an watch it again.

You guys are unbelieveable.  even in black and white and in living color he said, he heard and then baldfacedly lied to the American people.  It’s a lie, he lied and nothing you write changes what is on that tape.  Again, Bush, principled, pulease!

*sigh* I think you might be a willfull fool.

"I don’t think any model can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not but that is obviously a very, very grave concern," Mayfield told the briefing.

"TOPPED"

You may now continue your screeching and squawking. "he lied squawk!" "he lied squawk!"

"squawk" - Funny!

Having lived behind levees during hurricane season I can assure you this is said every time a storm is inbound. Hell, it is said every time there is flooding up north on the Ohio and Mississippi river basins.