mmmkay...
I promised I would explain (in brief, eh?) how G. W. Bush's second term is showing much as his first did. Now, is the time... There is time, i.e. I have time... To do so.
Namely, W, for all the punditocracy (I am looking at you, Chris Matthews) prattles about the President's resoluteness and strength, he has little in way of policy, save tax-cuts, upon which to hang his hat. (Sure, there is the Patriot Act, but in twenty, twenty-five, forty years, will anybody view it as any better than a boondoggle, but more likely as a tremendously anti-American mistake?)
Let us think back to 2001, but before bin Laden -- Bush's main push was to compromise -- oh, that is resolution right there! -- on stem-cell research, and his principal challenge, to get the crew of the spy-plane, and the plane itself, back from China.
On the one, Bush failed miserably. The touted sixty viable stem-cell lines became twenty percent that, then ten percent, once we figured out ownership (which labs, where, had possession, and would be amenable to U.S. university-level research on them) and composition (which lines were actually viable). Thusly, Bush pleased neither his anti-science, fundamentalist base, who wanted no use of stem-cells apart from in vitro fertilization (and some don't even want that -- I am looking at you, Pope John Paul II and William Donahoe), nor the scientific community, who know that for the time and numbers that need to be devoted to proper research, even sixty would not be enough.
As to the other, the plane's crew came home, after about three weeks in Sino captivity, but the plane stayed, dismantled and investigated by the Chinese military, so they could know what, exactly, we wanted to know of them, and how we were finding it out.
Oh, the President looked so strong after those!
Fast-forward four years. It is term two, and Bush's principal objective is gutting Social Security, even if he has to agree to an increase in pay-roll tax to achieve such. This will please neither his anti-tax supporters (Grover Norquist, et. al.), nor the seniors and younger "left" -- though why liveability in old-age is left to be a "socialist or Randroid?" issue is beyond me -- who want to see Soc. Sec. remain in place, as the "debt" it is accumulating is, a, illusory, and, b, not to strike for AT LEAST forty-five years.
I see it now: a Rose Garden signing of an House-Senate, bipartisan compromise that brings exactly what Pres. Bush "43" seeks....
Sure, and the Easter Bunny will actually be in attendance at the next WH Easter Egg Roll.
I promised I would explain (in brief, eh?) how G. W. Bush's second term is showing much as his first did. Now, is the time... There is time, i.e. I have time... To do so.
Namely, W, for all the punditocracy (I am looking at you, Chris Matthews) prattles about the President's resoluteness and strength, he has little in way of policy, save tax-cuts, upon which to hang his hat. (Sure, there is the Patriot Act, but in twenty, twenty-five, forty years, will anybody view it as any better than a boondoggle, but more likely as a tremendously anti-American mistake?)
Let us think back to 2001, but before bin Laden -- Bush's main push was to compromise -- oh, that is resolution right there! -- on stem-cell research, and his principal challenge, to get the crew of the spy-plane, and the plane itself, back from China.
On the one, Bush failed miserably. The touted sixty viable stem-cell lines became twenty percent that, then ten percent, once we figured out ownership (which labs, where, had possession, and would be amenable to U.S. university-level research on them) and composition (which lines were actually viable). Thusly, Bush pleased neither his anti-science, fundamentalist base, who wanted no use of stem-cells apart from in vitro fertilization (and some don't even want that -- I am looking at you, Pope John Paul II and William Donahoe), nor the scientific community, who know that for the time and numbers that need to be devoted to proper research, even sixty would not be enough.
As to the other, the plane's crew came home, after about three weeks in Sino captivity, but the plane stayed, dismantled and investigated by the Chinese military, so they could know what, exactly, we wanted to know of them, and how we were finding it out.
Oh, the President looked so strong after those!
Fast-forward four years. It is term two, and Bush's principal objective is gutting Social Security, even if he has to agree to an increase in pay-roll tax to achieve such. This will please neither his anti-tax supporters (Grover Norquist, et. al.), nor the seniors and younger "left" -- though why liveability in old-age is left to be a "socialist or Randroid?" issue is beyond me -- who want to see Soc. Sec. remain in place, as the "debt" it is accumulating is, a, illusory, and, b, not to strike for AT LEAST forty-five years.
I see it now: a Rose Garden signing of an House-Senate, bipartisan compromise that brings exactly what Pres. Bush "43" seeks....
Sure, and the Easter Bunny will actually be in attendance at the next WH Easter Egg Roll.