GARY FONG LOVES THE 20D !

"Mr.T" MrT@home wrote in message
u...

"William Graham" wrote in message
. ..
I don't really remember.......

Says it all really.

MrT.


I remember that my father (who was an Exxon executive) told me in 1950 that
the cost of making a gallon of gasoline was 10 cents a gallon from 1900 to
1950. - For 50 years, it hadn't changed at all. Any increase in the retail
price was due to taxes over that whole period. I also know about the
accountants rule of 73's....The inflation rate times the number of years it
takes something to double in price is equal to 73. So, if the inflation rate
is 7.3%, things will double in price every 10 years. Gasoline is still a
bargain here today at under $3.00 a gallon....If the oil companies are
making a lot of money, it's because they are well managed, even if my father
is no longer a part of that. Also, if you think that their profit is
excessive, well, then buy some of them yourself....After all, their stock is
publicly traded.

"Rita Ä Berkowitz" ritaberk2O04 @aol.com wrote in message


I'll agree with you if you can name *ONE* thing Bush did while sitting at
the thrown that genuinely benefited the American people? I'm talking the
average American Joe, not big business. And wanting to grant amnesty for
illegal aliens doesn't count as American people.


How about getting rid of Saddam Hussein? - This benefited the whole
world...Also, how about getting the CIA and the FBI to start talking to one
another again? They haven't done that since Jimmy Carter.... And, as far as
I am concerned, he did help my tax situation a little bit.....Of course, the
Democrats are sure going to change that when they take over. If Ralph Nadir
gets into office, I will be turned out onto the street and have to hit the
welfare lines with everyone else.....And how about getting the stock market
out of the "Carter doldrums"? Bush's tax relief has turned our whole economy
around. Unemployment hasn't been this low since the 80's. - Hillary will
take care of that problem, too........

"smb" wrote in message
...
Uhm.. we have presidents, not kings. Presidents have much less
power than you give them credit for.

Unless its a Republican president, and things aren't going too well....Then
its all his fault.
But I sure don't understand why the Democrats say things aren't going
well. Our economy is booming, unemployment is at a rock-bottom level, and
there hasn't been another terrorist attack here since the "biggie" on 9/11.
What the hell do they want? All they've got to bitch about is the Iraqi
war....And Gore would have gotten us into that for the same reasons Bush
did.....With Hillary standing behind him cheering him on....:^)

"smb" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 23:55:07 GMT, Unclaimed Mysteries
the_letter_k_and_the_numeral_4_doh@unclaimedmyste ries.net wrote:

smb wrote in part:

But any chance you guys get to put the blame on Bush for something,
go for it! It makes you feel better, so it must be good therapy for
you. :-)


Uh, no thank you. I'll pass on taking any advice from dittohead
supporters of this Republican organized crime gang masquerading as
elected officials.



Typical liberal quip... meaningless name-calling and finger pointing
when you can't offer anything of substance.

Exactly.....They can't offer anything of substance. Certainly neither Obama
nor Hillary are any "substance". Obama will go for fatal isolationism, and
Hillary will embark on social welfare programs that stagger even my
imagination.....

"smb" wrote in message
...

Here, this is very good.. a parody of famous speech from a different
era, but this nails it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyUX6wV1lBQ

Very clever! But there is more truth here than the libs want to
admit.

Yes. And if George (C. Scott/S. Patton) were alive today, he very possibly
might make exactly that speech. I have been fighting the "Flower Children"
culture ever since the 60's.....Almost 50 years now. I am convinced that had
Patton taken over the world in 1945......Literally millions of lives (of
mostly innocent people) would have been saved, but for sure, my life
wouldn't have been so good, or, at least, not so rich. It would have cost us
dearly. It's funny that the "soft hearted" liberals, who are always crying
over the plight of the downtrodden and poverty stricken, are the ones who
disagree with me the most. When the chips are down, they don't want to give
up one single Mocha Latte to save any innocent person anywhere.....They
think they can retreat into their isolationist cocoons and live like kings
and the rest of the world will go away. The radical Muslims will just say,
"Live and let live....They aren't hurting us, so why should we hurt them?"

"Ben Miller" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Jul 29, 4:55 am, smb wrote:

but don't
understand that this war was forced on us by a some very evil people
who would love nothing better than to come over here and kill every
one of us.

Rhetoric. Grandiose, re-hashed, rhetoric.

snip

We are still
"The Great Satan" to them simply because we exist and because we have
the freedom to believe what we want and the freedom to criticize our
own leaders.

We are the "great satan" because we occupy their contries and
marginalize their labor forces in pursuit of oil and profit.
Regardless of your political affiliation, regardless of your view of
Islam, we are the "great satan" because we are at the mercy of our
corporations that don't give two ****s that we are treading on their
"holy land" - for better or worse, believe it or not. And to
attribute blame to one party or another is just what the machine wants
- you blame the left, others blame the right, when the real culprit is
Corporate America. The old CIA axiom "follow the money trail" and
there you have it. George Bush isn't having truckloads of oil money
deposited in some mysterious Swiss bank account. Politicians aren't
(directly) profiting financially, but those with government contracts
are; Halliburton and Bechtel and their subsidaries come to mind,
Boeing, Raytheon - et al. Oil company profits are at an all time
high. As badly as we want to make Dick Cheney the poster boy for war
profiteering, he's just an easy target...after all, this is the man
whose office claims he is not entirely within the Executive Branch of
the Government, and is therefore immune to executive orders...that
kind of stuff doesn't exactly build credibility to an already shaky
house of cards.

And if you're dumb enough to think that the left is the answer, just
look at their recent pending record v. their anti-war, evacuation
timeline rhetoric: "Must set a timeline for withdrawal! No? Ok, but
this is the LAST $100,000,000,000 we're giving for this effort!" I
suspect there were many and various riders attached to the war
spending bill that, if vetoed, would have affected the political
futures of many congresspeople...which is inexcusable unto itself.
This is NOT a right v. left issue - don't make that mistake.

Anyway, Muslims don't hate us because our women wear skirts and
tanktops, they hate us because we occupy their countries in the name
of US profits, because of our boundless greed and corruption,

No. They hate us because they are teaching their children in "Religious
Nutcase" school that killing infidels is the only way to get into their
heaven.
Your characterization of us as "interferers" is very much
overblown....If it weren't for us, they would still be riding their camels
over the desert and killing each other over every watering hole they came
across. We (and the other Europeans) are the ones that found and developed
their oil, gave them modern civilization, and the 20 year additional
lifespan they now enjoy. The ME average lifespan is about 71 years today,
and many ME countries have annual incomes of over $10,000 a year. Before
that, they were just bands of outlaws, riding their camels across the
desert. Didn't you see, "Lawrence of Arabia"?...It is largely a true story.
Get the DVD and see it. Especially if you appreciate good photography....It
is the best.

On Sun, 29 Jul 2007 11:03:19 -0700, Ben Miller
wrote:

We will stop at
nothing to ensure we get what they have at a cheap price. And that
won't change no matter what talking head is in the white house.

I don't think $75 a barrel oil is a "cheap price" The ME countries are
living high on the hog off of that oil, and they wouldn't even know it was
there if we hadn't gone over there, found it, and dug it up for them,
refined it and rubbed their noses in it. Today, they are riding
air-conditioned Cadillacs across their desert instead of camels......

William Graham wrote:
"smb" wrote in message
...
Uhm.. we have presidents, not kings. Presidents have much less
power than you give them credit for.

Unless its a Republican president, and things aren't going too well....Then
its all his fault.
But I sure don't understand why the Democrats say things aren't going
well. Our economy is booming

Because the "boom" has been in corporate profits and productivity. It
has not produced net gains for working Americans. Real income is down
versus inflation.

unemployment is at a rock-bottom level,

Good, so immigration isn't a big threat to American workers.

and there hasn't been another terrorist attack here since the "biggie" on 9/11.

I just don't understand why the anthrax attacks have disappeared down
everyone's memory holes.

What the hell do they want? All they've got to bitch about is the Iraqi
war....

Here's a short list, from
http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/2007/07/disgust.html

Bush v. Gore (a/k/a "a judicial coup")
(Indian) Mangoes for nukes
Rolling blackouts
"No one could have anticipated _____________."
Mobbed-up Department of Homeland Security Secretary nominees
Tomlinson & PBS
3,584 and counting
Harriet Miers
Angler
Armstrong Williams on the Department of Education payroll
The Medicare Prescripton Drug Bill
WMD: "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."
"Is our children learning?"
Rising infant mortality
Lesbian-romance-writing 2nd Ladies who loathe lesbians (except,
curiously, their lesbian daughters)
Memogate
Secret Energy Task Force
Judith Miller
Loyalty oaths as a condition of attend campaign events
Slutty profligate teenage daughters
Coulter (and the Rest of the Neverending Wingnut Harpy Conga Line™)
The Nuclear Option
The Reverend Ted Haggard
A.Q. Kahn
Scalia, Cheney, duck hunting & The Sierra Club
Israel & Palestine: nothing
Robert Novak
Ralph Reed & the Indian gaming scandal
The quaintness of the Geneva Convention
Using RNC email addresses to subvert Congressional oversight
Rumsfeld
"That's old Europe!"
Tex Sensenbrenner turning out the lights on Democrats
Barbara Bush (Mother from Hell)
"The British Government Has Learned That Saddam Hussein Recently Sought
Significant Quantities of Uranium From Africa."
No Child Left Behind
Fundie prostelitizing at the Air Force Academy
Ken "Ethel" Mehlman
Claude Allen: Thief
"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so
long as I'm the dictator."
Karl Rove
Dancing David Gregory & The D.C. Courtiers
WTO-ranked 37th in the world on healthcare quality
Cheney to Leahy: "Go **** yourself."
Scalia to America: "Go **** yourself."
Bush to the World: "Go **** yourself."
$450 Billion and counting
Lynndie England & Charles Graner
Hasta la vista, Habeas Corpus!
Our "Friends" the Saudis
Bush and the National Guard
Freedom Fries
Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives
Jean "Cowards cut and run" Schmidt
"Bring it on."
Wolfowitz: Iraq Edition
Wolfowitz: World Bank Edition
The Gang of Fourteen
Perle
Mayberry Machiavellis
The Federalist Society
Trent Lott & "All these problems"
Doug ****ing-Stupidest-Guy-on-the-Earth Feith
The President of the United States dessecrates an American flag.
The Coalition Provisional Authority
"Stay the Course."
EPA lies at the WTC site
The Sago Mine disaster
U.S. Income Gap
Duke Cunningham
2001, 2002 & 2003 tax cuts
The President of the United States of America prancing on the deck of an
aircraft carrier in a flight-suit costume
Ahmad Chalabi
Ohio: 2004
GITMO
$700 Million U.S. taxpayer dollars: missing from Afghanistan
Brownie
9/11 Commission recommendations: ignored
Signing Statements
Alberto "Fredo's Fredo" Gonzales
Compassionate Conservatism
The treatment of Helen Thomas
Mass firings of U.S. Attorneys
North Korea: nothing
Pat "The Pig" Peale
Halliburton no-bid contracts
Wingnut Welfare
Wiretapping the U.N.
Gas prices
Bradley Schlotzman
The Military Commissions Act
Pat Tillman
Jessica Lynch
John O'Neill: The Man Who Knew
Friedman Units
Ban on photographing coffins of Iraq casualties
Phony Medicare-bill "News Releases" ("I'm Karen Ryan reporting...")
The 2004 RNC in NYC
"B-B-B-But Clinton....!!!!"
Creationism in the federal government
Christie Whitman
Colin Powell at the U.N.
The Department of Homeland Security
Malicious exposure of covert CIA Operatives
Border fences
James Dobson
Paul "We dominate the scene and we will continue to impose our will on
this country." Bremer
Walter Reed
The Odious Sally Quinn
Waterboarding
Mark Foley and PageGate
Lurita Doan & the GSA
Clear Skies Initiative
Enron
Gonzales v. Carhart et al.
Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Extraordinary Rendition
Supreme Court packing
Free Speech Zones
Abu Ghraib
The attempted destruction of Social Security
"It's a Slam Dunk!"
"Don't forget Poland!"
Elaine Chao
Jeff Gannon
Increasing numbers of terrorist attacks
Dubai Ports deal
GuttedFDA.
"I truly am not that concerned about [Osama bin Laden]."
Scooter ****ing Libby (and all that that implies.)

And Gore would have gotten us into that for the same reasons Bush
did.....With Hillary standing behind him cheering him on....:^)

(sigh) I think I speak for the majority of Americans at this point when
I say I really miss Bill Clinton.

"Ben Miller" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Jul 29, 3:31 pm, smb wrote:
On Sun, 29 Jul 2007 11:03:19 -0700, Ben Miller
wrote:

On Jul 29, 4:55 am, smb wrote:

but don't
understand that this war was forced on us by a some very evil people
who would love nothing better than to come over here and kill every
one of us.

Rhetoric. Grandiose, re-hashed, rhetoric.

Just as your diatribe below against Corporate America is equally so...

I suppose you could say that, but gubmint contracts _are_ in place,
big business IS profitting. I am mixing my opinion with empirical
facts. War means big money - oil means big money. You, OTOH, are
speaking in the abstract extreme.

My 600 thousand dollar portfolio isn't an "abstract extreme" it is the real
money that I am living off of.


And let's not get confused here -
Al Quaeda is nothing like any terror group we've seen before. They
are so decentralized, in many cases remote and "passive" that it is
all but impossible to predict and prevent them from attacking. A cell
may be comprised of 30 or 40 individuals who have never met or seen
one-another in their lives. They maintain "radio silence" for the
large part, but when the order is given, they all do their part to
carry out the act - from materials, to implementation, to action. So
the fact that they haven't attacked US soil since 2001 is not
surprising at all, and has nothing whatsoever to do with our war in
Iraq.

But it has a lot to do with their communication problem....In order for them
to communicate, they tip their hand to our CIA and FBI, who are listening in
on their conversations. (Would it always be so) This is what has prevented
other attacks of the order of 9/11 from occurring.

As to Iraq.....When we have to invade Iran and/or Syria, we will already be
conveniently deployed........

"smb" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 20:11:55 -0400, Alan Browne
wrote:

smb wrote:
On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 17:21:50 -0400, Alan Browne
wrote:

smb wrote:

He's not my boy, but he's a sight better than any of the alternatives
that were running at the time! It's a shame that he turned out to be
not the conservative that he was elected to be.
Elect Hillary or Obama or Edwards and you can guarantee your
disposable income will shrink, so buy those toys now while you can,
and thank Mr. Bush for making it possible while it lasts.
Just 'cause you can't see it on your books, does not mean that the
debit
column assigned to you via Bush deficit spending is not real.

Surely you aren't so naive as to think that any president is
responsible for that. Go back to your high school government classes
and you'll recall that spending is controlled by Congress, not the
Executive Branch.

Right, the Republican US president has no influence at all on the (up
until recently) Republican dominated Congress. Sure Wilbur.

As almost every Bush era law has passed within the presidential veto
margin, he hasn't done much to prevent Republican overspending or
Republican tax-cutting. And of course it's the executive that tables
budgets for little side adventures like Iraq.

That's why the US Fed debt has grown $3T under Bush. Face the facts.

Yes, the fact is that wars cost lots of money. You may not agree with
or understand the reason for the war, but that's the way it is.

The other fact is that tax cuts generate MORE revenue for the
government. Tax increases ALWAYS slow the economy and eventually
result in less money coming in. It works this way every time. You
may not understand the math, but facts are facts, fact them.

The only reason that the liberals run on a platform of raising taxes
is that it gets them votes from their base, most of whom don't
understand basic economics and think raising taxes is a way to get the
"rich" to pay their "fair share." Most of them don't understand that
the "rich" are already paying more than their fair share.

Steve

That's because most of them have never looked at a 1040 tax table and
figured the percentages.....

I know this, because they say dumb things like,"We should get rid of the
present tax laws and just have a 10% flat tax." 10% of what? Gross income?
they don't realize that the 1040 form is what you use to figure your net
income out from your gross. And that some people have a gross of millions
and a net of only a few thousands.....Should they pay 10% of all those
millions? - Other people have a gross of only a few thousand a year, and get
to keep all of it....Should they pay 10% and starve to death? The form 1040
takes care of all that....It is one of the best government forms ever
devised. (and, it took 70 years of litigation to devise it, too) Now, these
idiots want to throw away all those 70 years and start again from
scratch.......They must be lawyers....Only the lawyers could possible profit
from such a thing.......