Saturday, December 21, 2002White House insists President is not out to screw most Americans by cutting taxes even more for the rich.
They reiterate that all Americans will get what they deserve.
your note [] Looking for nude Romanian gymnast photos?
I am starting to get many google hits looking for them. The photos of Claudia Presecan, Lavinia Milosovici, and Corina Ungureanu can be found here. No not "here" but here. (Used to be here, but the account was supended.) Not that I would post their names and phrases like "naked gymnasts" or "nude balance beam" in an attempt to get more google hits. I guess I can show two of the less revealing pics.
From left, Claudia Presecan, Lavinia Milosovici, and Corina Ungureanu at a press conference.
They each received about $40,000 for appearing in the Japanese DVD, which in Romania is probably a hell of a lot of money. The scenes filmed are not pornographic. The girls, or now women, were filmed performing on standard gymnastic apparatuses. While there have been many other stars who have posed nude, this may be the first time any have done so while performing underfull athletic sweat. The ban, which is not actually for posing nude but for using the emblems of the Romanian national team, should have little effect on the three gymnasts as they no longer compete internationally, and they can still coach in other countries. Ungureanu has appeared nude before, in a 1999 Romanian edition of playboy.
By the way, these are not the svelte young girls you saw perfoming in the Olympics. They are older, and no longer have their competitive physique.
More stories on other athletes posing nude:
Australian Athletes comment on Romanian women.
Japanese officials livid over nude photos and DVD.
your note [] Friday, December 20, 2002Ballenger, a North Carolina Republican, said former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-GA, so provoked him that "I must I admit I had segregationist feelings. If I had to listen to her, I probably would have developed a little bit of a segregationist feeling."
"I mean, she was such a bitch," he said.
Ballenger later discussed his comments in an interview with a Charlotte, NC, radio station.
"I talk too much..."
Yeah, but so do Cynthia and her father.
your note [] Lean Left has some good stuff on the Confederacy and the Civil War.
Look, I am a Polish American - my mom actually came from Poland. I am proud of the my heritage. There is a lot to be proud of. Lech Walesa, Chopin, Copernicus, etc. There is also much to be ashamed of - particularly Poland's treatment of Jews. I do not feel the need to defend the bad in order to learn from it, and be proud of the good. I do not understand why so many Southerners feel compelled to continue to defend the Confederacy instead of learning from it, and being proud of the good.
As I have said before, there are many southern things to be proud about. The Confederacy and the Civil War are not among them. Why some people want to continue to brag about losing a war they fought in order to keep slaves boggles my mind. And yes the Civil War was about the right to keep slaves. Go read the history books, and not the revisionist ones.
your note [] Thursday, December 19, 2002Via Talking Points Memo, CNN and Bill Clinton transcript.
CNN: Do you have a comment on Senator Lott?
Clinton: No, other than....I think that -- obviously -- I don't agree with him.
But I think there is something a bit hypocritical about the way Republicans are jumping all over him. I think what they really are upset about is he made public their strategy.
The whole Republican apparatus supported campaigns in Georgia and South Carolina on the Confederate flag. There is no action coming out of the Justice Department against all those people, Republicans, who suppressed black voters in the South, in Arkansas and Louisiana, and lots of other places. Telephone operations telling people in Florida they didn't have to vote on Election Day, that they could vote on Saturday but not if they had parking tickets. I mean, this is their policy.
So I think the way that the Republicans treated Senator Lott is a pretty hypocritical since right now, their policy is in my view inimical to everything this country stands for. They tried to suppress black voting, they ran on the Conferederate flag in Georgia and South Carolina and from top to bottom Republicans supported them. So I don't see what they're jumping on Trent Lott about.
I think the Democrats can say we disagree with what he said and we don't think its right but that's the Republican policy. How do you think they got a majority in the South anyway?
CNN: So he should step down as majority leader?
Clinton: I think that's up to them. But I think that they can't say it with a straight face. How can they jump all over him when they're out there repressing and trying to run black voters away from polls and to run on the Confederate flag in Georgia and South Carolina. Look at their whole record. The others, how can they attack him? He just embarrassed them by saying in Washington what they do on the back roads every day.
Clinton is great. I hope Al Gore and him keep the pressure on the GOP for the next two years.
I wonder how many searches on Dictionary.com for "inimical?"
your note [] I certainly hope safe sex and birth control was used if anything sexual happened. However, I can't think of much to say other than "where can I get a copy of the tape?"
The trio had "tarnished the image of gymnastics" with their naked performance on apparatus such as the balance beam in a DVD filmed in Chiba prefecture outside Tokyo...
The gymnasts, including Sydney Gold Medalist Claudia Presecan, Double Olympic gold medalist Lavinia Milosovici and Corina Ungureanu, have not denied appearing nude, but did say the images have been doctored.
Lavinia Milosovici on the floor exercise.
I can see google getting busy when this story breaks.
your note [] This works great! I am glad they cleared up some of the problems.
your note [] CalPundit: Why I could not be a Republican.
The real reason - the one that just makes me shake with rage - is their disgusting and unrelenting bigotry toward gays. And there are no code words here, either, just a blind, unreasoning hatred that actually seems to grow with time.
More intolerence from the GOP? NO!!!
A good short read.
your note [] Chairman of Georgia Republican Party claims GOP is the party of civil rights.
Ralphie wants you to believe that the GOP of today is the same GOP of Lincoln's presidency. If you are buying this, I have $18 million in a bank account in Nigeria, and if you can give me the money to pay the fees on it, you can have 20%. I only need $25,000 up front to get the money released.
Republican welfare reform policies have helped 4.7 million Americans move from welfare to work, and the African-American child poverty rate has fallen to its lowest level in U.S. history.
This last statement I really want to see the data on. I really, really want to see this data.
your note [] Cippollini's and Pantani's merger of teams is now off again.
The idea of these two Italian superstars on the same cycling team has been floated around for a few months. The Italian people would love it! The top Italian climber and the best sprinter in the world, who happens to be Italian, on the same team! The negotiations have completely bogged down. Pantani has refused to allow his image to be marketed by the team. The deal looks dead. Cipollini's new team will be known as Domina Vacanze-Elitron-RDZ. Pantani, who has not won a race in many years, has an uncertain future.
In other cycling news 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich is still entertaining offers from some teams. It is uncertain where the young troubled star will end up.
your note [] Wednesday, December 18, 2002A second batch of photos from Puerto Rico.
I had some problems with my 24-year-old Olympus OM1, and am not happy with many of the shots. Others were taken with an Olympus point-and-shoot. Still not too bad after not really shooting for 14 years.
The first batch can be found here.
Hopefully I will have one more batch.
your note [] An excellent flash presentation by Take Back the Media.
You saw the damage Bush did in 2002.
What does he have in store for 2003.
your note [] Another relative "guilty" in the death of Terrell Patterson.
This was the case of Terrell Paterson, the child that was tortured and starved until he died at age 5. During the investigation of his death Georgia's Department of Family and Children Services was found to have received many reports of abuse, which were never properly followed up. Terrell's grandmother pleaded guilty taking a life sentence instead of risking the death penalty. Just found guilty by a jury was Terrell's aunt. She turned down a 10 year plea bargain to go to trial.
The details of Terrell's short life are unbelievable. Much can be found in the story, I just do not want to type them. I am amazed at what people can do to a small child. I am all for new Governor Perdue cleaning house at DFCS and getting the department running correctly. He may just do that. He and his wife have been foster parents over the years. He really does seem concerned about the children in Georgia. However, any change is too late for Terrell Peterson. I hope the changes will not be too late for other kids.
your note [] Tuesday, December 17, 2002Georgia Democratic Representative John Lewis offers an olive branch to Trent Lott.
Lewis has accepted Lott's apology, and hopes to form a "reconciliation group" with Lott. Lott had proposed the group while reaching out to Lewis on Friday. Lott has offered to work with Lewis on an agenda to "improve the lot of all minorities in this country." Lewis should be reminded that Lott also offered to work with Senator Olympia Snowe on removing some provisions in the legislation creating the Homeland Security Department. Lott seemed to forget that promise less than a day later.
Why has Lewis decided to extend an olive branch to Lott when most other African-American government officials have refused to? He says it is "keeping with the philosophy and discipline of non-violence to forgive and move on." Which may be true. I cannot look into his heart, or "inner soul." I can't help but notice, however, that he is getting some pretty nice press out of this.
your note [] A very good explanation of how the tax burden has shifted from the corporations and the wealthy to the lower earning brackets since 1944, when we also faced war. The tax code then was much simpler, and there were not many loopholes.
It is noted that during the war in 1944, everybody was more willing to pay their fair share.
Then, the country at war accepted the necessity to pay for the war effort and made sacrifices, at both personal and corporate levels. The tax code then was, indeed, simpler. Corporations paid their fair share of taxes. The wealthy paid more taxes because they were most likely to lose their wealth if the country were to lose a war. Everyone, grudgingly, was, if not happy, then satisfied with the arrangement.
Now, however, it is very different.
Now, the right-wing extremists are not happy with the situation. They want less taxes on the rich, though the rich pay much less now than they did in 1944. Corporations now pay about 80% less in taxes than they did during the last major war, even though they largely benefit by government spending for war.
Some very good statistics and number are included. Go ahead and read it.
your note [] Jim Wooten, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's conservative right wing hack.
I hate even linking to this buffoon, but he sometimes is just too funny.
Liberals amaze me.
With a clarity not gifted to other mortals, they are able to see into the inner soul of Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott and therefrom to report with absolute certainty truths known only to Lott and his Maker. If his meaning in praising Strom Thurmond's presidential campaign was as Lott's enemies aver, then his words are to be damned.
If Jim wouldn't go to take a nap every morning after having his Metamucil, and perhaps read the paper, or even perhaps this new internet thingy, he would see that it is not Lott's statements at Thurmond's party that let us see "into the inner soul" of Lott. What allows us to see into Lott's "inner soul" is the pattern of racist statements, the pattern of a racist voting record, and a pattern of participating in and associating with racist groups. People who are not racist, do not repeatedly keep doing all the things Lott has kept doing. Sure it is possible to have a quote from an article taken out of context by one of these organizations for their newsletter. But you would not write fourteen articles/columns for them, as Lott did for the Council of Conservative Citizens. That seems pretty clear to me.
In all of the Lott hoopla, the single most offensive reaction is that the Republican Party should renounce the sentiments inferred. The premise is that conservative whites in the South are incorrigibly racist and the Republican Party is, too. Therefore, since one of its leaders, Trent Lott, has been caught expressing the party's inherent bigotry, which of course is the bedrock value system of conservatives, the party should seek forgiveness and salvation.
No, that is not what liberals like me want. What we would like is for any racists in a powerful leadership position to be exposed. We would like their record examined. We would like to know if their views are tainting their action for our country. It is not illegal to be a racist, but it is illegal to let racism taint your job performance. If racism is affecting a government employee's hiring, firing, law enforcement, or policy making, then that needs to come out for all Americans to see. If it is found to be against our country's morals or laws, then rememdies should be sought. We are really unconcerned with whether or not the GOP should get forgiveness and salvation. Conservatives in the GOP should know that those come from somewhere else, as they seem to think they know more about religion than the common man.
It is quite remarkable how quickly and easily commentators fall into stereotyping conservatives. The reason is that liberals truly do believe that conservatives are homophobic racists who loathe the poor and gather in secret conclaves on the weekends to drink mint juleps and to pine for days gone by.
No we do not think that all conservatives "drink mint juleps," but there do seem to be many who do gather in enclaves and pine for days gone by. See link about Council of Conservative Citizens. There are others. Maybe Jim should check out this new thingy on the internet called google.
Whether Lott stays or goes is unimportant. Frankly, either U.S. Sens. Don Nickles of Oklahoma or Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania would be good fiscally conservative replacements as majority leader
Nickles? Jim likes Nickles? According to the blog TalkLeft Nickles' voting record is pretty much the same as Lott's. His votes can be seen here. Of course Nickles is also fiercely anti-gay. Santorum? On the issues he is no better than Lott or Nickles. In the past he has voted against affirmative action and against any policy favorable to gays and lesbians. Naturally he is staunchly anti-abortion. I guess it is unimportant if Lott stays, since there seems to be many just like him the Republican party ready to step into his shoes. Jim's two choices seem to have beliefs just like Lott. Maybe the premise he quoted, "The premise is that conservative whites in the South are incorrigibly racist and the Republican Party is, too." is not far from the truth.
I wonder if that "fiscally conservative" is just another code word?
If you don't like somebody or don't wish them success on the day before they act/speak/make news, you can't profess to know their hearts after they do.
But you can look at their actions. Remember actions speak louder than words. If it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, there is a good chance it is a duck. If it does it for decades, there is a very good chance that it is a very old duck. Or as in Lott's case, just another old racist.
your note [] Monday, December 16, 2002
I have mixed feelings. I think he would have made one hell of a president. I will openly support which ever candidate wins the Democratic nomination, but I am praying it is not Lieberman, Gephardt, or Daschle.
Right now I seem to be leaning towards Howard Dean, Governor of Vermont. A list of articles about him and his platform can be found here. Two years is a long time, however. There could be another candidate lurking who may be better. Bill Clinton was only a second tier candidate when he launched his campaign. So you never know what may happen.
your note [] As the Bush administration draws up plans to simplify the tax system, it is also refining arguments for why it may be necessary to shift more of the tax load onto lower-income workers.
.....
The efforts would thrust the administration into a debate that until now has lingered on the fringes of economic policy: Are too few wealthy Americans paying too much in taxes for too many, and should the working poor and middle class be shouldering more of the tax burden?
.....
"The president is making the case that people who earn between $50 [thousand] and $75,000 a year should be paying a third more taxes," [Rep. Robert T.] Matsui [D-Calif.] said. "I'd love to debate him on that."
Again, as I have said repeatedly, if you are not making well over a quarter million dollars a year, the Republican economic policies will hurt you. And I hope you enjoyed your $300 or $600 tax rebate. You are really going to pay for that.
If somebody is doing incredibly well in our system of government, they need to pay a bigger share into supporting that government. If you think all those taxes are towards social programs think again. Check out this earlier entry I wrote that breaks down the governments spending. You can research the governments spending yourself here.
Finally, look at your paycheck stub. Look at the deduction being taken out for Social Security. Well Bush and the Republicans are going to try to tell you that it is not a tax. That is right. The thousands of dollars you pay in Social Security is not a tax. See, Bush and the Republicans just reduced your taxes! Wasn't that easy for them.
your note []
Copyright 2003 Tim
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