I had no idea the Chair was younger than I. He seems wise beyond his few years.
CONGRATULATIONS CHAIRMAN!!!
You do a fine job of table setting....every day :)))
Chairman, it's a pleasure to meet you. You affect your little corner, I'll influence mine. . . and when we see bull we'll call it what it is.
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I've had to post and run the last couple of days. Hopefully I'll get to hang around a little today. I have a question for y'all - I know my way around the kitchen fairly well, but making cream gravy from scratch is not among my skills (think biscuits and gravy). Any gravy gurus here?
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God Bless America, land of the free, home of the brave. . .
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Bull - West Columbia, Texas
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http://easycarts.net/ecarts/TShirtsNTexas/images/715Whatever.jpg
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Daschle cried uncle yesterday.That's the big news from Thursday -- besides the lopsided House-Senate Iraq votes.
One thing you can take to the bank: An epiphany isn't what drove Daschle to throw in the towel.
Indeed, he denies a change of heart.
Daschle said the legislation then before the Senate, granting the President broad war authority to strike Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein from power, does not grant the President broad war authority to strike Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein from power.
A plain reading of the bill suggests Daschle either needs glasses or spend less time reading polls.
Or that he's lying.
Besides, before yesterday wasn't Daschle insisting that Bush, before striking Saddam, must solve the Middle East, bring peace to India and Pakistan, bring peace to Russians and Chechens, China and India, end world hunger, cure cancer, reverse aging, end hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, and turn
BarbraBarbara Streisand into a world-class spelling champ?The measure, in fact, says the President can act even (gasp!) unilaterally, if need be.
In reality, several factors went into Daschle's decision.
1) It suddenly dawned on him, 'hey, I'm not playing a winning hand, here!' A brighter bulb might've figured out sooner that bucking a popular President so close to elections might not be such a terrific idea. Then again the sharpest pencil in the box Daschle is not.
2) The train had already left the station. Daschle, whose repeated stumbles have raised more eyebrows than thong-snapping interns did in Clinton's White House, is playing 'catch up.'
First, Daschle said no to a vote on Iraq before the elections. Then he changed his mind and said yes. Then he added conditions: Among them, the U.N. must vote first. Then he changed his mind again and accused the White House of foot-dragging! Oh, and of politicizing the timing of the vote.
(Daschle's flip-flopping culiminated yesterday in Tom Daschle breaking with, well Tom Daschle. He ultimately voted in favor of military action.)
3) The Senate race in South Dakota. His poodle, Tim Johnson, is in the fight of his life. Polls show the race is neck-and-neck, and that's the problem -- for Johnson. Incumbents as far under the benchmark 50% as Johnson usually get canned. His defeat could tip the balance in the Senate back to Republicans and bring Daschle's reign of obstruction to an end. Democrats hold the Senate by a whopping one-vote margin.
4) The election calender.
E-Day is less than four weeks away and the clock keeps ticking.
The Iraq debate is shaping the landscape in ways Daschle had not banked on and the focus on security and terrorism and war highlights Democrat weakness on those issues.
And Democrat divisions over the war resolution. The internal party blood-letting has been nothing short of disastrous, even crimping the party's fund-raising just as election season kicks into high gear. The heated in-fighting, splits and feuds could not have come at a worst time. Confusion reigns in the ranks.
Fueling Democrat despair: The chaos and disarray at the top.
Before yesterday, Hill leaders Daschle and Gephardt openly disagreed on the use of force. Daschle's most embarrassing setback: The sight of Gephardt and the President in the Rose Garden announcing that a deal had been struck. The event, adding insult to injury, occurred the day after Daschle famously made a fool of himself on the Senate floor, wrongly accusing the White House of politicizing the Iraq debate.
Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Martin Frost, No. 2 and 3 in the House High Command, are at loggerheads, too. On granting Bush war authority, Pelosi says no, Frost says yes.
The Baghdad Boys didn't exactly help matters much, either. Indeed, their antics made them poster boys for treason and blunted the whole of Bush's Democrat opposition.
'Conventional Wisdom' says Daschle's decision was merely a tactical retreat. The sooner the vote, the sooner Iraq drops off the radar, letting Democrats shift election debate to domestic issues in the closing weeks to the November balloting.
The longer the Iraq debate dragged on, the worse it would've been for Democrats.
Er, not so fast.
First, 2 or 3 weeks is hardly enough 'bounce-back' time given the heavy political damage sustained these past months. The pro-Baghdad wing is in an uproar -- not enough Democrats in Washington are 'challenging' bully Bush, they squawk. For the Democrat base, the Senate vote last night will only fuel discontent.
Second, it isn't clear how a vote now will necessarily make the issue go away. A vote on a war resolution is momentous, its reverberations are likely only now beginning. Had the measure been whomped, interest would wane, perhaps. But it wasn't defeated; it passed overwhelmingly in the House, 296-133, and Senate, 77-23.
And let's remember how 'Conventional Wisdom' once told us that Daschle's a genius. Few believe that fairy-tale today.
Anyway, that's...
My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"
SCOUTS OUT!
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People say I'm no good, crazy as a loon...
'Cuz I sing songs about Justice, trash Clinton in ev'ry tune!
'Cuz Slick's like my Ol' HornDawg Hound...
He likes to play the field gettin' laid!
You may not think I'm funny, but I damn-sure got it made...'cuz...
Folks, I ain't askin' Big Guv'ment fer nuthin'...
'Cuz I can git it on my own!
So if you don't like the songs I'm singin'...
LIB'RALS, leave this short-haired country boy alone!
EX-Prez'dent's squawkin' on TeeVee, trashin' some Camel named "JOE"...
Smirks while betraying our Nation, Slaughters Innocents in Kosovo!!
Left b'lieves, "Clinton Walks On Water," but I don't think that's true.
Some of us think Slick's DemonRATS will be doin' a little JailTime soon!!!
'Cuz EX-Emperor Bill ain't clothed in nuthin'...
Wise Men say, "You reap what you have sown!"
If you don't like the Truth I'm bringin'...
You just leave this "Mad libertarian" ALONE!!
(reprise)
Reno tries to delay, but US FReepers got the dirt...
DemonRATS run fer cover, but Limbaugh's words GOTTA HURT!!
The Lib'rals say, "Can't We Just Move On?!!"
But RAT politicians're bleedin' votes...
Slick's holdin' on by the skin of his balls...
But his Party's become a joke!!
No, I ain't tellin' you Lib'rals nuthin'...
That ya'll shouldn't know on your own!
So if you don't like the "MUD" I'm slingin'...
You just leave on'ry Ol' Mudboy ALONE!!
Quite Sincerely...Mudboy Slim
Folks, time to take out the trash...MUD
1 Posted on 07/09/1999 06:16:36 PDT by Mudboy Slim (upt@no.good!)
Heh heh heh...MUD
