The swift boating of Graeme Frost

[ERD50]

ladelfina, I think if you looked at any point in history, you would hear the same complaints.

Standard Oil, the RailRoads, Coal Miners, Textiles, Meat Packers, etc,

I agree on that Congress is a huge part of the current problem, and I do criticize Bush for not using that Veto power.

Doesn't the prez, in effect have 'line item veto' power? If I were in that position, I'd veto a bill, spell out what I won't accept and let them fix and resubmit. And use the press to get my points out to the people to get support (if deserved). Over-rides are pretty tough. I don't understand why presidents have complained that they need 'line item veto' power?

I wouldn't want to give it to them anyhow. They could strike the 'how are we going to pay for this' part, and pass the benefit part. A bill should encompass everything on an issue, but not drag other issues into it, like pork.

Oh well, I think I see a windmill out on the horizon....

-ERD50

 

[Rustic23]

In the case of the veto, the press makes a big difference. Clinton vetoed some republican spending bill, and the republican congress got the blame for shutting down government. Can you imagine if bush vetoed a defense bill who would get the blame for not funding the troops.

Check today's Bob Novak column Museum pork goes on display :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Robert Novak. If the president vetoes a bill because of say Hilliary's museum, he will be accused of vetoing, if it is attached to say a Medicare bill, elderly health care. Even though he spells out it was the pork he was vetoing. This stuff goes on all the time in congress, and the press uses it as a filler on slow news days. Until we start voting the seated representative/senator out of office in their primaries, we will never put an end to this. I say in their primaries so a dem could replace a dem and a rep a rep. They get away with this cr@p because we let them!

Ladelfina: The Dems controlled the house and the senate from Eisenhower to Clinton, and things didn't change then. As I said it is not the President, according to the Constitution, that holds the purse strings. The Dems promised a new day on earmarks. Democratic voters should be outraged!

 

[ladelfina]

Yes - the bills should only include aspects directly related to the meat of a particular matter. There has been and always will be "horse trading" and an amount of that is good, but not to the extent of dumping myriad unrelated things into the same bill.

What I would like to see also is more systematic plain-language coverage of bills pending, bills voted on, and voting records in daily papers and on the TV, instead of the out-of-context way things are now presented. When you read the sports section there's analysis and opinion, but they always find room for the scores!! How is it that sports are taken more seriously than the running of the government?

I would make this a mandatory part of every broadcast license so that basic coverage is not ghettoized on C-SPAN (which unless you are really into it, is mind-numbing). The Jeffersonian argument for public education is that an ignorant population cannot self-govern.

Since many "journalists" have given up being serious, we are left with are not the arguments, but the meta-arguments. If you were to only look at the Mainstream Media, it appears we're less worried about ACTUAL war casualties and health coverage and energy policy than about what person X SAYS about it, whether they used bad language, whether they wore a flag lapel pin at the time, what kind of car they were driving, how much their hairdresser was paid, etc. (To say nothing of Paris, Brittney, Natalee, etc.) Those are the easier, 'fun' things to follow, I guess; no poring through committee reports or boring legal documents and court opinions.

The newspaper/TV/radio ownership keeps declining in diversity and independence. Alternate sources are "the blogs" and other online enterprises.. but these are sneered at in the mainstream press. Yes, their quality and attendibility varies wildly, but I don't think anyone is really happy with the attendibility and integrity of Judy "Aspens" Miller, Brit Hume, Katie Couric or Neil Cavuto either.

This is an interesting poster:
Death and Taxes 2008 Poster - $24.95 : ..., The Entire Federal Government... in 6 Square Feet


Rustic23 .. I AM outraged!!!

(but Novak is a slimeball and himself part of the problem)

 

[Rustic23]

I have seen that poster before..... are earmarks and pork on it? I did not find that catagory.

 

[ladelfina]

Right, it only expresses totals without breakdowns (I guess that would be, not the 6 sq. ft. poster. but the 600 sq. ft poster). Earmarks and pork are in it, but hidden. And again, someone's yummy pork is another's cruel, likely hormone-ridden, poison. I wonder if the off-the-books ("black") spending for the CIA/NSA etc. is included. Unlikely; these are the "official" figures as given.

I just thought it was at least a helpful start. It should be in every school as a jumping-off point for the un-initiated, pork or no pork.