your campaign slush fund for bread and circuses All I could think of is the scenes from Gladiator. Bread and Circuses indeed. |
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Written By:
meagain
URL:
http://
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Completely OT, but I had no idea Manu Chao was some big-time leftist activist. He put out one of my kids’ favorite songs: Bongo Bong.
It’s a great tune if you can get a copy. |
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Written By:
MichaelW
URL:
http://asecondhandconjecture.com
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How is that any different from the IRS putting off collections until after the elections? |
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Written By:
william
URL:
http://
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How is that any different from the IRS putting off collections until after the elections? You’re reaching there William - assuming it’s accurate for more than a small segment (and I can personally assure you, my company has received no indication that I am not obligated to pay the FICA, Medicare and 941 Taxes for the employees again until after the election) there’s also a tremendous difference between not collecting and actually SPENDING (then too, since the tax is normally due the 15th of the month for the prior months wages, I’d be paying it, um, after the election, just as a normal matter of course....)
Now, does our government spend firvoulously? Oh my yes, but is the President directing it personally? No, get a grip William. We leave handing out port to our Congress Critters.
Only you could equate not collecting funds for some segment of the population to a nationally sponsored trip to the ball park, free train rides for all, and a Christmas bonus to civil servants before Thanksgiving courtesy of the President.
Ya know, your desire to contiously equate the actions of the Bush administration to everything bad verges on a pathology.
Why can’t you just go with the premise that Hugo isn’t a paragon of virtue without tying it back to how evil and corrupt Americans are?
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Written By:
looker
URL:
http://
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Why can’t you just go with the premise that Hugo isn’t a paragon of virtue without tying it back to how evil and corrupt Americans are? Because that’s symptom one of BDS. |
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Written By:
McQ
URL:
http://www.qando.net/blog
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Doesn’t this happen every four years in the US too?
Not to mention the pork barrel stuff that gets people like Don Young and Ted Stevens and Robert Byrd returning to Congress. |
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Written By:
Geek, Esq.
URL:
http://
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No, Geek, it um, doesn’t happen every 4 years in the US at the behest of the President as if he were emperor of the Roman "Republic".
I’ve seen at least 8 US Presidents arrive and depart that I have actual memory of and I don’t remember getting a single ball game, train ride, meal, trip, or gift because of a Presidential election. I consider myself fairly average.
It must be interesting at the party in y’alls heads where this stuff happens, or y’all believe this stuff happens. I’m sure you believe it happens a lot less when there’s a president you like, from a party you like, in office.
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Written By:
looker
URL:
http://
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Doesn’t this happen every four years in the US too? Too an extent, yes. As blatantly? Uh, no. And in reality it is every 2 years here as our Representatives try to wrap up the bacon in the legislature for easy transport home just in time for the election run... but as looker says, Presidentially?
Not really.
That’s pretty much a Hugo exclusive. |
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Written By:
McQ
URL:
http://www.qando.net/blog
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Hugo Chavez, bringing Tropico to life... |
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Written By:
Jody
URL:
http://
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Venezuelans get goodies and hand-outs at election time; I get a stepped-up war, and a fence that wasn’t even paid for. What was your point again? Oh right, clearly our system is better. |
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Written By:
william
URL:
http://
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Venezuelans get goodies and hand-outs at election time; I get a stepped-up war, and a fence that wasn’t even paid for. What was your point again? Oh right, clearly our system is better. Actually the post was about what was going on in Venezuela ... its you who wandered off into the ether ... as usual. |
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Written By:
McQ
URL:
http://www.qando.net/blog
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Hugo will be gone as a leader soon. His people will remove him. |
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Written By:
newc
URL:
http://
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Well good old Paul Martin unveiled 13 Billion dollars in spending right before going into an election, and then revealed that they would only get funded if he won the election. Which is all to say it’s a really good idea to separate the executive and legistlative branches, and to not elect megalomaniacs in the first place. |
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Written By:
Joe Canadian
URL:
http://
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William -Why can’t you just go with the premise that Hugo isn’t a paragon of virtue without tying it back to how evil and corrupt Americans are? Venezuelans get goodies and hand-outs at election time; I get a stepped-up war, and a fence that wasn’t even paid for. What was your point again? Oh right, clearly our system is better. The question stands.
You can spend your life finding fault with our system, because it isn’t perfect, and it constantly needs adjustment because people like us, on either side of the fence, tend to push things in a direction we favor, and sometimes we push too far for our own good and the good of the country.
But in a way, that’s a measure of the quality of the system, that we can shove it around and we still have a functioning system that can actually correct itself (by the voter) without resorting to tanks in the streets and armed teams taking over the radio/television stations and the government buildings so the "right" news gets to the people.
Now you can take the view that by running down our country, and always focusing on the places where we go wrong, instead of appreciating what we do right, you’re somehow a ’better’ American, but you’d be wrong yourself. It’s not always about what we do wrong William and we’re not always wrong.
But that’s probably all lost on you.
Still, it must be pretty depressing to always think your country is a corrupt collection of evil b*stards (except you of course).
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Written By:
looker
URL:
http://
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A democracy’s days are over once the 51 percent realize they can vote to take the money of the other 49%.
Hugo will find enough followers to make ’creative electioneering’ a practical option.
Eventually he may become arrogant enough he may feel he doesn’t need to pander. That will be Venezuala’s only chance for reversal. |
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Written By:
jpm100
URL:
http://
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Alternatively, since Government can only move money around, Chavez will be ousted when there is no more money to move. |
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Written By:
Joe Canadian
URL:
http://
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Yeah, that’s democracy. Yes it is democracy. People have a choice, they vote, it is a democracy.
He is not stealing the money or imprisoning his people at gun point, he is not acting like Castro. He is spending the states money in an effort to win peoples support to his ideal - which is - spending more of the states money. It is up to the people of Venezuela to decide if they like the idea of a government that spends money hand over fist or not. Eventually he may become arrogant enough he may feel he doesn’t need to pander. That will be Venezuala’s only chance for reversal. Or may be the opposition will move closer to his position, with slightly more restrained but still liberal spending policies in an effort to capture some of that 59% of the votes he has. And a slight reversal in oil prices will cause people to think that a bit of austerity might be practical. |
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Written By:
unaha-closp
URL:
http://warisforwinning.blogspot.com/
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