"Bush fiddles with economy while Baghdad burns" (page 2)

jelly

Yeah Azalo, there is a shortage of people over here in the states speaking out against the war because they all get fired from the jobs.

</sarcasm>

Joe Lieberman was booed at the Democratic convention in California (about two weeks ago) when he spoke out in favor of the war. Where his rights violated? Did the democratic delegates participate in ‘McCarthyism’? Or did the just express there opinions in line with their constitutional rights? It seems that when anyone criticizes someone’s opinion charges of McCarthyism are immediately laid upon the critic. Free speech runs both directions.

The Dixie chicks alienated their audience; people do not have a constitutional obligation to buy their records. Recording stars and movie stars are not like average citizens, it is a field where enraging you core audience is not a good idea. For the common worker however no one is being fired because they are pro/anti war. If the do they would have a wonderful wrongful termination case on their hands.

280 million people live in America, somewhere some idiot is going to fire someone because they disagree with there politics, and this statistically insignificant number does not disprove my above argument.

Terry

Pleasuredome

iraq converted it's reserves into Euros in 2000

n korea converted its reserves to Euros in 2002

venezuela now barters oil for goods and services with s american countries

foriegn investment decline in the US

Euro now stronger than the dollar

russians buying gold instead of the dollar

OPEC in discussion using the Euro instead of the dollar

America goes to war with a country with the second biggest oil reserve in the world

Russia, Germany and France against the war

anyone notice a pattern?

"Pop your cork for the Euro, my little don perignons!"

Simon

Having another currency as strong & well supported as the Euro spring up and gain momentum must be a huge threat to the US which will see the influence of it's own dollar diminish. The dominance of it's currency has been a powerful weapon that it has used to control things for it's own interests.

I am not sure but were any laws created during the McCarthy era? There are laws created now that can be used to strip you of all your rights. You can be labeled an "enemy combatant" and imprisoned indefinitely, possibly even tortured or killed and you do not even get a hearing. I cannot believe that America sat idly by while such an un-American law was passed !

Re: Joe Lieberman gettiing booed ... rights are easy to have when you are in the majority. It is the minority view and those holding it that needs the protection. Many, many times we discover that what the majority wanted was "the wrong thing" and so to silence the few who may be forward thinkers or looking at things from a different angle is a dangerous thing to do.

Of course the article is not talking about what has happened but what might happen ... where things may appear to be headed ... if people allow it.

Anyway, being an ex-empire ain't so bad ... we manage! Plenty of the countries that we used to rule have a soft spot for us and give us a warm welcome still (good job we weren't too horrible to them eh?!).

Englishman

Ha ha!

This is just a devious ploy by Simon to try to convince us that he's a Grauniad reader!

Betcha pining for page 3, eh, Simon? http://www.thesun.co.uk/

Englishman.

ozziepost

he's a Grauniad reader

Ah, the Grauniad!! Bet the non-Brits don't understand that one, Eman!!!

I still like it, despite its "imperfections".

Cheers, Ozzie

Englishman

Ozzie,

Here's a clue for the puzzled:

Englishman.

ozziepost

Eman,

I retire each evening with the latest "Private Eye". I find it gets me a chuckle to end the day!!

Of course, if I was in the UK. I'd start the day with the ~~Grunaid~~ ~~Gruniard~~ ~~Grauniad~~ Guardian.

Cheers, Ozzie

Francois

Perhaps it wasn't reported in your press, however it was in ours. Fully 18 months before Clinton left office, both he and Alan Greenspan were making comments about how they were going to "bring the economy in for a soft landing." I don't know what they knew about the U.S. economy, but apparently it was in deep kaka long before Clinton left office - and lots of people knew it.

Politicians depend for their continued political health on the short memories of those governed. Now that 99% of the population has forgotten those comments by Clinton and Greenspan, it's safe to blame Bush. And that is an act of utmost cynicism. Bush inherited what he's got in the U.S. economy from Clinton and I think it wold be well to remind ourselves of that fact from time to time.

francois

Liberty

The Dixie Chick isn't having her rights violated, she is merely feeling the same sting of consequence that all working folks do when we say things that the people around us find offensive. Even though I might think my boss is an over paid idiot, or that a co-worker is a lazy whore I have learned to curb my tongue and not proclaim these thoughts loudly in a public forum because I am aware of the negative consequences such an airing would bring. My rights to free speach aren't being violated I just don't want the people I work with/for mad at me because life is already hard enough. As an entertainer, Natalie (the Dixie Chick), has the CD/concert ticket buying public as her boss. More importantly, her audience is very different from Marilyn Manson's because the Dixie Chicks' fan base is mostly made up of country folk and conservative family types, not radical young Goth/punk/rocker types so DUH!! she will feel a backlash to her comments from her primary audience/boss. In short, she has every right to say how she feels but NO rights protect her against the consequences of her exercise of freedom. I am free to to dress as a giant fig and jump every third step but I would probably be fired if I did this at work because it is stupid and I would not consider this a violation of my rights. So, telling conservative folks that buy your records that you are ashamed of the President they probably voted for is STUPID, and no rights were violated since she was not arrested and tortured.

You make a good point Frank. Clinton left office with a declining economy and had Gore won we would have seen the same decline as under Bush. 9/11 would have accelerated the decline under Gore as well. In fact I think it would have been worse because we would still be negotiating with the Taliban and Bin Laden's terrorists would still be free to attack us with impunity further damaging economic confidence. Clinton also depleted our military stores to balance his budgets so now we are paying the difference as we rebuild our defenses. By the way, where were all the peace activists and critics when Clinton was bombing and killing in the Balkins in his own war of liberation to get their dictator? This region was much less dangerous to the US than Iraq, yet all the peace nicks looked the other way. Why, simply because he was a Democrat.

Utopian Reformist

Simon and Englishman:

Great posts, pictures and articles! You guys know I am a little nationalistic, especially during the cups (FIFA, UEFA). I wanted to say that I am ashamed of Italy's pathetic support and hypocritical alliance with the coalition. The whole EU knows that Italy is barely functional, and severely hampered by social problems. Berlusconi and friends are foolish to think the US will ever offer some future economic prizes for joining the coalition.

I have to look at how Italy is treated in general by the US and it is pathetic. A few years ago some USMC pilots were screwing around in northern Italy and caused the death of 28 civilians in a rail car. Were they compensated? No. Other than a verbal apology and quick evacuation of the pilots back to the US for verbal chastisement and reassignment. It reminds me of the sudden attack on Corsica and the Riviera by Mussolini, on the eve of France's capitulation to Germany in 1940. Pathetic, self-serving behavior like a hyena waiting for the lions to leave some scraps.

Only, this foolish mediterranean hyena never learns no matter how many times it is "shooed away" after the kill. Poor fools.

"Bush fiddles with economy while Baghdad burns"

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