Posted on 11/08/2004 11:08:45 PM PST by upchuck
Do you know how to cure a chicken-killin' dog? Now, you know you cannot keep a dog that kills chickens, no matter how fine a dog it is otherwise.
Some people think you cannot break a dog that has got in the habit of killin' chickens, but my friend John Henry always claimed you could. He said the way to do it is to take one of the chickens the dog has killed and wire the thing around the dog's neck, good and strong. And leave it there until that dead chicken stinks so bad that no other dog or person will even go near that poor beast. Thing'll smell so bad the dog won't be able to stand himself. You leave it on there until the last little bit of flesh rots and falls off, and that dog won't kill chickens again.
The Bush administration is going to be wired around the neck of the American people for four more years, long enough for the stench to sicken everybody. It should cure the country of electing Republicans.
And at least Democrats won't have to clean up after him until it is real clear to everyone who made the mess.
In some circles, that will be seen as sour grapes. But in Texas, we've been losing elections to the demagogic triad of God, gays and guns long enough to be pretty cynical about how it works out. I'm sure millions of Americans voted for George W. under the honest impression that he stands for moral values — family, patriotism, faith in God. I'm sure it's the Democrats' fault that such a silly ruse is allowed to stand. What Bush actually does stand for is nicely summed up by a rather common news story that got stuck on the business pages lately.
In September, Merck & Co., the huge drug manufacturer, pulled Vioxx off the market. Vioxx was a popular pain-killing, anti-arthritis drug, but Merck said it was putting patients' safety first. A new study from the Federal Drug Administration showed high doses of Vioxx triple the risk of heart attack and sudden cardiac death.
From there, the story bifurcates — it takes two directions. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa revealed that the FDA had tried to silence the author of the study, Dr. David Graham, associate director of science in the Office of Drug Safety. Grassley said the FDA first sat on Graham's study and that then he was "ostracized" and "subjected to veiled threats and intimidation."
The Wall Street Journal followed the other fork, finding internal memos from Merck showing that company officials may have been aware of the dangers of Vioxx as long ago as 1996, including a memo apparently instructing its sales reps to "dodge" the question when doctors asked about the cardiac record of Vioxx.
In short, we have a toothless regulatory agency in the pocket of the industry it is supposed to patrol. We have an administration-wide contempt for science and plain facts. And the allegation against the folks at Merck is that they were making such enormous profits on a drug that killed people that when they knew or suspected it was killing people, they kept right on selling it. When the information that Merck had known for a long time about Vioxx and heart attacks became public, the company's stock fell by 9.6 percent.
That's the system George W. Bush stands for: where a corporation can knowingly kill people for profit and, when it finally comes out, everyone knows the penalties will be so light the company doesn't even lose a tenth of its worth. Hey, just a little bump in the road.
We sure don't want any of that terrible, burdensome government regulation to control that kind of behavior, do we? We sure don't want an FDA that listens to its own scientists and acts promptly, do we? We sure don't want anyone to sue these monster corporations, do we? I bet if it were possible to compare the odds of an American getting killed by a negligent regulatory agency and rapacious corporate behavior versus an American getting killed by a terrorist, it would turn out we need to be a lot more scared of rank greed and its enablers than we do of terrorists. And that's not counting what the corps. (pronounced corpse) steal and mess up.
So, fellow progressives, stop thinking about suicide or moving abroad. Want to feel better? Eat a sour grape, then do something immediately, now, today. Figure out what you can do to help rescue the country — join something, send a little money to some group, call somewhere and offer to volunteer, find a politician you like at the local level and start helping him or her to move up.
Think about how you can lend a hand to the amazing myriad efforts that will promptly break out to help the country recover from what it has done to itself. Now is the time. Don't mourn, organize.
Uh... Viox came out more than four years ago and Bush wasn't President then... and I don't think the gov of Texas had any control over the FDA. What's Molly been smokin?
Does Ivin's drive a Subaru Forester and wear Timberland boots?
No Molly, did your parents spank you?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x971238#971289
You think that is bad? Look at this. It is time to shut them down folks.
Molly and Helen Thomas should mud wrestle, underneath the mud.
Of course George W. works for Halliburton and Merck. What else you need to know? Just that he favors the fat cats over ordinary Americans. Somehow Molly Ivins' fellow citizens didn't see it that way. Wonder why.
The same democrats were livid when the Dow Jones Industrial Average had a shaky year in 2002. Yet, are there any component stocks the democrats haven't demonized?
Merck, McDonalds, Microsoft, Walmart, Exxon, Altria, Home Depot, General Motors, Disney... I'll bet I could find 100 instances where some lefty has tried to seriously damage or destroy each of these companies in the last 4 years alone.
We should sponsor a beauty contest...Molly, TahRayZah and Hitlery...Who can be first to shatter a mirror without touching it?
Liberals have gone totally nuts
What's old molly got wired around her neck??? She really stinks and has for years.
Yeah...I know what you mean....it really sucks when those goon squads knock down my door Sunday morning and drag me kicking a screaming to my local church.
Civil rights and freedom of speech are no longer rights and may only be used as The Department of Homeland Security sees fit.
And talking about those freedoms you've lost...unless your posting this from a jail cell...just be quiet.
This country was founded on freedom of religion, tolerance, and, freedom of speech.
And I just love being lectured about "love of our fellow man" and tolerance by Libs.
George W. Bush has been called everything but a White Man by the likes of Michael Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Barbara Streisand, Janeane Garofalo, Cher, Bruce Springstein, George Clooney...
Well, I could add many more names to this list, but the time is getting late.
United we Stand, Divided we Fall.
An least we agree on one thing.
But as one individual who has "extended his hand" to many a lib for an open and honest dialog, and pulled back a bleeding stump of blood and bone, you'll forgive me if I don't drop to my knees and praise the Lord that somebody from your side of the aisle has finally gotten it...not yet anyway.
Put Maureen Dowd (or Molly Ivans) around a dog's neck, and that dog will never vote democratic again. That's the cure.
Good Lord. What on earth has that woman been smoking? Helen Thomas' stash?
Jeez! I can't beleive that this gasbag is still blowing farts.
Moore trash from Molly.........I get warm and fuzzy all over just knowing how pissed these seditious presstitutes and their handlers are........Kiss my ( ! ) Molly !
ROTFLMAO !!!.........Phucm !
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