December 18, 2004
My Wish List
Aside from an iPod Mini rip-off
that will play Windows Media files, what is the gift, you are undoubtedly asking yourself, that I would most enjoy this holiday season? Good question. At the risk of violating President Kennedy’s maxim to Ask Not your government for gear that is too pricey to ask of your friends, or whatever, I have a wish list for President Bush of things I’d like to see in the New Year. It’s all stuff that both conservatives and liberals have asked for, so I figure these gifts would be welcomed in homes with blue and red hearths in equal measure?
In any case, here goes. Mr. Bush, all I want for Hanukkah is:
- A clear plan to pay for the Social Security changes you have proposed.
- Agreement that global warming exists and is a serious threat, and real changes—not just reductions in regulation—to stem it.
- Rejection of imprisonment without due process, and the torture practiced at Abu Gharib and Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, with the best demonstration that you are serious about restoring our reputation: hold Donald Rumsfeld accountable.
- Reform of the worse excesses of the USA Patriot Act, such as interrogating librarians.
- A peek at your plan to halve the deficit in the next four years while modifying the Social Security system without raising taxes or reducing benefits. (Check with Hanukkah Harry for help on this one. “On Moische! On Herschel! On Schlomo!”)
- And above all, an admission that, like everyone else, you make mistakes – I mean other than just picking the wrong people for your staff.
These would be treasured gifts, which I would not only appreciate, but which would also help me believe that you are serious about re-uniting our divided country. But there may be a small problem. Hanukkah’s over. Shooooot.
© Copyright 2004 Will Friedman
By Will Friedman in Politics | Permalink
|
Comments
Nicely put! If only the list was that short! But I suppose it's a good start. Kudos Will.
Cyrus
Posted by: Cyrus | Dec 27, 2004 12:28:41 PM
Nice wish list. Too bad the White House motto these days is 'Never admit anything. Never look back'. Good news is, they have 361 days to get it right before Hanukkah 2005.
Jocelyn
http://icbleu.blogspot.com
Posted by: Jocelyn Livingston | Dec 30, 2004 10:47:59 AM
Well my reactionary-liberal friend, I think you'll have to do without some of what you've asked Santa to bring you. Let's take them in order.
1. A clear plan to pay for the Social Security changes you have proposed.
The plan has been proposed, in any of several commissions, the Moynihan one would be a good place for you to start. Newt Gingrich has some fine points on his website, if you need additional info. Stop whining and educate yourself. It's getting tiresome listening to you reactionary-liberals whining, as serious people address serious issues, and you do nothing but go into full reactionary mode. Educate yourself, my friend. Whining is not educational.
2. Agreement that global warming exists and is a serious threat, and real changes—not just reductions in regulation—to stem it.
Global warming is not proven, and the data collected by balloons in the atmosphere for the last 25 years shows this. You reactionaries are basing your chicken littlism on bogus mathematical models, and nothing more. Read Chrichton's new book, then educate yourself on the matter. And while you're at it, start pushing for safe nuclear power technology in this country, that would eliminate carbon from the flowstream, and eliminate particle emissions from the atmosphere too. But you're probably stilll stuck on the reactionary-liberal phobia against nuclear technology too, I suppose. We are leaving you types behind in the mud, my friend. The world can't sit around and coddle you reactionaries, we have work to do. We're moving on. Try to keep up.
3. Rejection of imprisonment without due process, and the torture practiced at Abu Gharib and Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, with the best demonstration that you are serious about restoring our reputation: hold Donald Rumsfeld accountable.
In case you didn't notice, anybody in prison is getting due process, as evidenced by Supreme Court rulings just this day. All of us deplore what happened at Abu Ghraib, but it was not "torture", and there's no "torture" at Guantanamo, either. Our "reputation" is intact, and Donald Rumsfeld is a big part of why we have the proper reputation in the world, although it's not what you reactionary-liberals would prefer, granted. But then, you lost the election, so I guess you'll just have to deal with it. You lost, we took at look at what you believe in, and went with the other guy. Get over it.
4. Reform of the worse excesses of the USA Patriot Act, such as interrogating librarians.
Librarians will be "interrogated" as necessary in the execution of proper law enforcement and intelligence functions, as always, long before the Patriot Act. All due respect to you reactionary-liberals, but this is nothing new, there is nothing there of concern, except to you moonbats. All of the liberals in Congress even go along with this thing. Heck, I disagree with more of it than they do.
5. A peek at your plan to halve the deficit in the next four years while modifying the Social Security system without raising taxes or reducing benefits. (Check with Hanukkah Harry for help on this one. “On Moische! On Herschel! On Schlomo!”)
Both candidates ran on halving the deficit in the next 5 years, not a big chore, really, since the economic growth alone will probably achieve this, leaving us down to $200B, down from $400B. If we hold the line on spending growth, which we didn't over the last 6 years, it could shrink far more, plenty enough to provide for 60-100 Billion dollars per year that will be required in transition costs for SS reform (and after the transition period, the system is TRULY self sustaining, and not a bogus, empty and non-existent "Trust Fund"). I'm surprised you've put so much into a website, and yet you're so ignorant of these basic numbers. Perhaps if you weren't stuck in full reactionary-liberal mode, you'd quit whining and educate yourself.
6. And above all, an admission that, like everyone else, you make mistakes – I mean other than just picking the wrong people for your staff.
Bush doesn't think he chose the wrong people, only you reactionary-liberals think so, and you ran your guy and you lost, so evidently the country doesn't agree with you. I'd suggest you spend less time whining about admissions of mistakes, and living in the past as you moonbats have consistently done, and more time educating yourself on the issues, then perhaps you could contribute more than your reactionary-liberalism.
We're moving away from your rantings, no matter that you keep screeching about them, we're moving on. You better catch up. Or not, we don't need your input, the country is rejecting you anyway, and it's all gonna happen with or without you, as we see. Welcome to our world, moonbats.
Posted by: Once a moonbat liberal, now an eyes wide-open Independent | Jan 12, 2005 4:20:47 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83454ef1469e200d8346de63b69e2