] The government's top expert on Medicare costs was told
] not to tell key lawmakers about cost estimates that could
] have torpedoed the White House-backed Medicare
] prescription-drug plan.
]
] Richard Foster, the chief actuary for the Centers for
] Medicare and Medicaid Services, told colleagues last June
] that he would be fired if he revealed a number higher
] than some lawmakers said they would approve.
]
] When the House of Representatives passed the
] controversial benefit by five votes in November, the
] White House was embracing an estimate by the
] Congressional Budget Office that it would cost $395
] billion in the first 10 years.
]
] But for months the administration's analysts in the
] Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had concluded
] that the drug benefit could cost upward of $100 billion
] more than that.

[ So, they lied. Again. And not in a pseudo-mistruth, beating-around-the-bush kind of way. In an outright, unprincipled, we-need-this-political-victory-at-all-costs kind of way. The bill passed by 5 votes. More than 5 people would have jumped ship had they known the number was closer to $500 B than $400 B. It's stunning how much total bullshit this administration is willing to shovel.
Also, on the heels of all this indignation over Kerry calling them a bunch of liars, this couldn't be better timing. See, dammit, you *are* liars. Bush's people lied, conspired to get a bill passed under false cost estimates, all while the main administrator was interviewing for private sector jobs (which he eventually got, jumping the HHS ship). Completely outrageous. -k]

Charlotte Observer | 03/12/2004 | Medicare cost expert muzzled

IconoclasT wrote:
] terratogen wrote:
] ] He's actually more eloquent drunk. He still seems dumb
] ] though.
]
] I'm not a GWB fan by any means but would you call Dr. Steven
] Hawking dumb cuz he isn't a moving and charismatic speaker ?
] Some of the most fucking brilliant minds are horrible orators.
] W. earned a masters degree from an Ivy League University so he
] can't really be that dumb in the end.

I think your throwing the word 'earned' around a bit loosely here. Kinda like he 'earned' the right to land on an aircraft carrier wearing a commanders uniform.

Ryan: Couldn't have said it better myself.

RE: Dubya drunk on video.

Decius wrote:
] I think its inevitable. In 100 years the moon will be covered
] with settlements. On dark nights you'll look up a see a sphere
] covered with a glowing spider web of cities and roads. We take
] the night moon for granted, hanging there naked and pristine
] as nature created her. Future generations will not know that
] moon, and the last to know her will mourn her loss. I think
] someone will probably buy enough land up there to make a sign
] visible from earth. Land will be cheap at first as the place
] is inhospitable. And there will be nothing you can do about it
] really. What people on the moon do with their land is
] definately out of the jurisdiction of some country on earth.

[ I dunno, i wouldn't say anything is inevitable, except maybe the end of the universe. It's like anything, a matter of fighting for things you believe in. I don't think unbridled corporatism is our assured future... i think there's plenty of time to work out positive solutions to our problems. I *definitely* don't think the moon will be out of Earth nations' jurisdiction for a long, *long* time, if ever.
Do i think that the dark moon will live forever? No, and I feel like that's probably a good thing all in all. I'm not against change, just change that minimizes or marginalizes our humanity. Seeing the lights of a moon settlement seems to me to expand and excite that feeling of human accomplishment. Sky-sized advertisements, on the other hand, diminish our humanity, underscore the baser aspects of our nature and lock us into traditional modes, even if it's under a different mechanism.
In the same way that I can appreciate achitechture and efficient means for housing people doesn't mean i wish to see all the world covered with it, it's a matter of balancing progress with history, technology with nature. It's not a new theme, at all, and I tend to feel like we're sort of losing the battle in a lot of ways, but it's important, i think, to give plenty of thought to things like human commons, nature vs. efficiency, etc. We'll be voting in our lifetimes on laws regarding utilization of extraterrestrial resources... it's time to think about that now, right along side your opinion on utilization of earthbound forests, air and sea resources. -k]

RE: Yahoo! News - Russian Inventor Patents Space-Ads Device

] "The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to do
] with the U.S. government bureaucracy, we settled on the
] one issue that everyone could agree on, which was weapons
] of mass destruction as the core reason."
] - Paul Wolfowitz, quoted by Tim Russert on 'Meet The
] Press, NBC, 06-01-03
]
] "Quit looking at the symbols. Get out and get a job.
] Quit shooting each other. Quit having illegitimate
] babies."
] - State Rep. John Graham Altman (R-SC), addressing
] African-American concerns about the 'symbol' of the
] Confederate Flag, New York Times, 01-24-97
]
] "Two things made this country great: White men &
] Christianity. The degree these two have diminished is in
] direct proportion to the corruption and fall of the
] nation. Every problem that has arisen (sic) can be
] directly traced back to our departure from God's Law and
] the disenfranchisement of White men."
] - State Rep. Don Davis (R-NC), emailed to every
] member of the North Carolina House and Senate, reported
] by the Fayetteville Observer, 08-22-01
]
] "NOW is saying that in order to be a woman, you've
] got to be a lesbian."
] - Pat Robertson again, The 700 Club, 12-03-97
]
] "Why should we hear about body bags and deaths and
] how many, what day it's gonna happen? It's not relevant.
] So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like
] that?"
] - Barbara Bush, said on 'Good Morning America' the
] day before the Iraq war started, New York Times, 01-13-03
]
] "I'm the commander - see, I don't need to explain -
] I don't need to explain why I say things. That's the
] interesting thing about being the President. Maybe
] somebody needs to explain to me why they say something,
] but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."
] - George W. Bush, Washington Post, 11-19-02
]
] These quotes, and about a thousand others equally as
] preposterous, can be found in a new book by Bruce Miller
] and Diana Maio titled 'Take Them At Their Words.' The
] next time our valiant conservative leadership bemoans the
] "corruption and fall of the nation," remember that, by
] and large, these bemoaners are the clowns who have been
] running the circus for the last several years.
]
] A few are also up for re-election in 2004. Bear that
] in mind.

Great list goes on at this page.

t r u t h o u t - William Rivers Pitt | Fish. Barrel. Boom.

] Dave Blood, bassist for defunct Philadelphia rock act the
] Dead Milkmen, committed suicide Wednesday, according to a
] post by his sister on the band's official message board
] (http://deadmilkmen.com).

That sucks.

CNN.com - Dead Milkmen bassist commits suicide - Mar 11, 2004

Decius wrote:
] ryan is the supernicety wrote:
] ] QUOTE: On April 24, 2003, President Bush traveled to Timken
] ] Company’s Canton plant to promote his tax plan. In a speech
] to
] ] workers, he promised that the tax cut plan “means more money
]
] ] for investments, more money for growth and more money for
] ] jobs.”
] ]
] ] Numerous studies have refuted that claim, showing that while
]
] ] the President's tax cuts rewarded wealthy Americans with
] tens
] ] of thousands of dollars in tax windfalls, the rest of
] America
] ] actually received relatively little. The average Bush tax
] cut
] ] for the wealthiest one percent of Americans is $938,000,
] ] reports Citizens for Tax Justice.
]
] Reads like slight of hand to me. "Studies" (You needed a study
] for this?) which show that wealthy Americans received larger
] tax cuts (in raw dollars, not percentagewise) in no way refute
] a claim that the tax cut plan "means more money for X, Y, or
] Z."
]
] The questions are, have the tax cuts translated into growth,
] and has the growth translated into jobs? I'd honestly like to
] see a study that addresses that question instead of constantly
] having different theories about fiscal policy being thrown
] around as matters of faith rather then of fact.
]
] My intuitive feeling is that economic growth has occured
] because we're reaching the end of inventory surplusses which
] existed at the time of the crash, and the investment
] environment has become less uncertain. And, no this hasn't
] translated into jobs.
]
] But I'd much rather be operating on research rather then
] intuition.

Ryan: Fiscal policy is THEORY and thus truly is FAITH. There are at least three major accepted models of fiscal and monetary policy. All three accepted models are at odds with one another. You should ask my friend (t at the supernicety dot com) about it sometime.

Regardless, the hard and humorous facts for purposes of this story are these: Bush spoke there about jobs and his tax policy. His taxs policy has not driven job growth-- we are at a negative in necessary job growth each month (350k jobs needed each month to replace the ones lost plus population growth). The place where he spoke had a $#||load worth of jobs lost. Oh yeah, and Bush's friends have the highest executive to normal worker pay ratio in the world.

RE: Campaign Money Watch

] A robot for "printing" houses is to be trialled by the
] construction industry. It takes instructions directly
] from an architect's computerised drawings and then
] squirts successive layers of concrete on top of one other
] to build up vertical walls and domed roofs.

That is damn cool--

New Scientist -- Robot Builder could 'print' houses

QUOTE: On April 24, 2003, President Bush traveled to Timken Company’s Canton plant to promote his tax plan. In a speech to workers, he promised that the tax cut plan “means more money for investments, more money for growth and more money for jobs.”

Numerous studies have refuted that claim, showing that while the President's tax cuts rewarded wealthy Americans with tens of thousands of dollars in tax windfalls, the rest of America actually received relatively little. The average Bush tax cut for the wealthiest one percent of Americans is $938,000, reports Citizens for Tax Justice.

According to Reuters, the Chairman of Timken Company, W.R. Timken, made $2.62 million in 2003, clearly placing him in the wealthiest one percent of Americans.

Two months later, W.R. Timken co-hosted a fundraiser for Bush’s campaign in Akron which raised $600,000, and earned Timken ‘Ranger’ status (for those who raise more than $200,000 for the campaign).

Then, in September last year, Timken Company announced it was laying off 700 workers, adding more pain to one of the jobless recovery's most hardest-hit states.

Campaign Money Watch

] ATLANTA - Instead of gaining jobs last year, metro
] Atlanta actually lost 16,800, according to the Georgia
] Department of Labor.
]
] Earlier figures indicated that there had been an increase
] of 67,900 jobs in the Atlanta area in 2003, which
] appeared to make the area a national leader in job
] creation.

Thank god... I had really started being depressed about my underemployment situation when I had seen those initial numbers showing Atlanta as the job growth leader in the US. Now we know that it was just all number shenanigans....

AP Wire | 03/11/2004 | Net loss shows jobs picture in metro Atlanta not as good as believed

] And let's end the illusion right now that adult voters
] make their decisions based on careful study of the
] candidates and their issues. We all know that's bullshit.
] To pretend that teenagers would vote for the first
] politician who promises to outlaw homework ignores the
] fact that their parents are probably dumb enough to vote
] for a politician who promised to shorten commercial
] breaks and make super-sizing free.
]
]
] People are dumb and lazy. They don't give a shit who wins
] because they don't really understand why voting is
] important. Y'know who does realize how important voting
] is? That's right, kids! While we've mostly forgotten all
] the stuff that we were taught in civics class about "one
] man, one vote" it's still fresh in their minds. Hell,
] this could be one of the only opportunities the kids have
] to actually apply the knowledge they gain in school.
]
]
] So, yeah. I'm strongly in favor of this. In fact, other
] than the last few years, the only other time I was really
] excited about politics was during the 1992 election. I
] actually cared about how the candidates stood on the
] issues and I was pissed that I wasn't considered as
] "mature" as the adults who mostly stayed home on election
] day. If I was old enough at 16 to "rock the vote", are
] 16-year-olds today much different?

A quick retort to opposition against a new bill in California considering a partial vote for 16 and 14 year olds.

The Talent Show: Soccer Moms NASCAR Dads = ?