Bush Impeachment Hearing

[Lair]

You know what the best part about being a McCain fan is?

If you don't know where he stands on an issue, just take a guess. Even if you're wrong, you'll be right eventually.

[Lair]

* McCain supported the drilling moratorium; now he’s against it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

* McCain strongly opposes a windfall-tax on oil company profits. Three weeks earlier, he was perfectly comfortable with the idea.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/18/mccains-offsho...

* McCain thought Bush’s warrantless-wiretap program circumvented the law; now he believes the opposite.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15781.htm...

* McCain defended “privatizing” Social Security. Now he says he’s against privatization (though he actually still supports it.)
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15863.htm...

* McCain wanted to change the Republican Party platform to protect abortion rights in cases of rape and incest. Now he doesn’t.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/10/mccain-flips-o...

* McCain thought the estate tax was perfectly fair. Now he believes the opposite.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15825.htm...

* He opposed indefinite detention of terrorist suspects. When the Supreme Court reached the same conclusion,he called it “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.”
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15864.htm...

* McCain said he would “not impose a litmus test on any nominee.” He used to promise the opposite.
http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/now-mccain-is-flip-f...

* McCain believes the telecoms should be forced to explain their role in the administration’s warrantless surveillance program as a condition for retroactive immunity. He used to believe the opposite.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

* McCain supported storing spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Now he believes the opposite.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/may/28/mccains-abo... /

* McCain supported moving “towards normalization of relations” with Cuba. Now he believes the opposite.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15617.htm...

* McCain believed the U.S. should engage in diplomacy with Hamas. Now he believes the opposite.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15557.htm...

* McCain believed the U.S. should engage in diplomacy with Syria. Now he believes the opposite.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15564.htm...

* He argued the NRA should not have a role in the Republican Party’s policy making. Now he believes the opposite.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15573.htm...

* McCain supported his own lobbying-reform legislation from 1997. Now he doesn’t.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/20/mccains-97-lob...

* He wanted political support from radical televangelists like John Hagee and Rod Parsley. Now he doesn’t.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15633.htm...

* McCain supported the Lieberman/Warner legislation to combat global warming. Now he doesn’t.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15699.htm...

*McCain pledged in February 2008 that he would not, under any circumstances, raise taxes. Specifically, McCain was asked if he is a“‘read my lips’ candidate, no new taxes, no matter what?” referring to George H.W. Bush’s 1988 pledge. “No new taxes,” McCain responded.Two weeks later, McCain said, “I’m not making a ‘read my lips’ statement, in that I will not raise taxes.”
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/14761.htm...

* McCain is both for and against a “rogue state rollback” as a focus of his foreign policy vision.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/04/mccain-...

* McCain says he considered and did not consider joining John Kerry’s Democratic ticket in 2004.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/14818.htm...

*In 1998, he championed raising cigarette taxes to fund programs to cut underage smoking, insisting that it would prevent illnesses and provide resources for public health programs. Now, McCain opposes a $0.61-per-pack tax increase, won’t commit to supporting a regulation bill he’s co-sponsoring, and has hired Philip Morris’ former lobbyist as his senior campaign adviser.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15033.htm...

* McCain has changed his economic worldview on multiple occasions.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15337.htm...

* McCain has changed his mind about a long-term U.S. military presence in Iraq on multiple occasions.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15370.htm...

* McCain is both for and against attacking Barack Obama over his former pastor at his former church.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15358.htm...

* McCain believes Americans are both better and worse off than they were before Bush took office.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/19/mccain-economy-bloo... /

* McCain is both for and against earmarks for Arizona.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/06/mccain-earmark /

* McCain believes his endorsement from radical televangelist John Hagee was both a good and bad idea.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/21/hagee-flip-flop /

*McCain’s first mortgage plan was premised on the notion that homeowners facing foreclosure shouldn’t be “rewarded” for acting“irresponsibly.”His second mortgage plan took largely the opposite position.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15176.htm...

* McCain vowed, if elected, to balance the federal budget by the end of his first term. Soon after, he decided he would no longer even try to reach that goal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/us/politics/16mccain....

* In February 2008, McCain reversed course on prohibiting waterboarding.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/10/emtimeem-has-m...

* McCain used to champion the Law of the Sea convention, even volunteering to testify on the treaty’s behalf before a Senate committee. Now he opposes it.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/oct/31/mccain-... /

* McCain was a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to illegal immigrants’ kids who graduate from high school. Now he’s against it.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/oct/31/mccain-... /

* On immigration policy in general, McCain announced in February 2008 that he would vote against his own legislation.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/14447.htm...

*In 2006, McCain sponsored legislation to require grassroots lobbying coalitions to reveal their financial donors. In 2007, after receiving“feedback” on the proposal, McCain told far-right activist groups that he opposes his own measure.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/9658.html

* McCain said before the war in Iraq, “We will win this conflict. We will win it easily.” Four years later, McCain said he knew all along that the war in Iraq war was “probably going to be long and hard and tough.”
http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral...

*McCain said he was the “greatest critic” of Rumsfeld’s failed Iraq policy. In December 2003, McCain praised the same strategy as“a mission accomplished.” In March 2004, he said, “I’m confident we’re on the right course.”In December 2005, he said, “Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/18/mccain-greatest-cri... /

* McCain went from saying he would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade http://mediamatters.org/items/200610310003 to saying the exact opposite.http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/19/mccain-abortion /

[Lair]

Two-poster:


* McCain went from saying gay marriage should be allowed, to saying gay marriage shouldn’t be allowed.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/02/mcc...

* McCain criticized TV preacher Jerry Falwell as “an agent of intolerance” in 2002, but then decided to cozy up to the man who said Americans “deserved” the 9/11 attacks.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/6988.html

* McCain used to oppose Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy, but he reversed course in February.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/6731.html

* On a related note, he said 2005 that he opposed the tax cuts because they were “too tilted to the wealthy.” By 2007, he denied ever having said this, and insisted he opposed the cuts because of increased government spending.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/us/politics/03mccain....

*In 2000, McCain accused Texas businessmen Sam and Charles Wyly of being corrupt, spending “dirty money” to help finance Bush’s presidential campaign. McCain not only filed a complaint against the Wylys for allegedly violating campaign finance law, he also lashed out at them publicly. In April, McCain reached out to the Wylys for support.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=1880630&page=1

* McCain supported a major campaign-finance reform measure that bore his name. In June 2007, he abandoned his own legislation.
http://www.nysun.com/national/campaign-finance-effort-r... /

* McCain opposed a holiday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., before he supported it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20070115/pl_usnw/dnc__mcca...

* McCain was against presidential candidates campaigning at Bob Jones University before he was for it.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/8313.html

* McCain was anti-ethanol. Now he’s pro-ethanol.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15637887 /

* McCain was both for and against state promotion of the Confederate flag.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200610310003

* McCain decided in2000 that he didn’t want anything to do with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, believing he “would taint the image of the‘Straight Talk Express.’” Kissinger is now the Honorary Co-Chair for his presidential campaign in New York.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/12/19/mccain-kissinger /

* McCain used to think that Grover Norquist was a crook and acorrupt shill for dictators. Then McCain got serious about running for president and began to reconcile with Norquist.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/12/19/mccain-kissinger /

* McCain took a firm line in opposition to torture, and then caved to White House demands.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/20...

* McCain gave up on his signature policy issue, campaign-finance reform, and won’t back the same provision he sponsored just a couple of years ago.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/8066.html

* And now he’s both for and against overturning Roe v. Wade.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/19/mccain-abortion /

[E30 Cabrio]

The Judge overseeing the Jones case was the one who held Clinton in contempt of court for lying under oath.
Clinton paid Jones to go away and to stop embarrassing him.

I got an idea!Let's put Clinton and all these broads on a polygraph. Settle it once and for all.

Clinton was either a sexual predator/rapist, or he wasn't.

My bet is he was.

[rwh11385]

Awesome.

You know what the definition of "insanity" is?

Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.

Whose expecting different results? Bush tax rate cuts were the same idea that worked in the 80s. They have been working, just other macro issues (exchange rate, increased global demand for oil, poor people getting loans they shouldn't) troubled the economy and needs time to adjust.

Have you ever had an econ course?


Are you pulling money out of the market because there's a small downturn in some stocks ? :roll:

[Lair]

Whose expecting different results? Bush tax rate cuts were the same idea that worked in the 80s. They have been working, just other macro issues (exchange rate, increased global demand for oil, poor people getting loans they shouldn't) troubled the economy and needs time to adjust.

Have you ever had an econ course?


Are you pulling money out of the market because there's a small downturn in some stocks ? :roll:

What does an econ course have to do with this shit?

Foreclosures surge to a record high -- late payments, too, signaling worse to come.

Watching their home values sink, consumers have pulled back on spending, a factor in the economy's slowdown. Buoyed by rebate checks, shoppers did get back in the buying groove in May, but analysts predict that consumers -- pounded by galloping gasoline prices -- will still be cautious.

"The economy is treading water, and the housing market is one of the undercurrents trying to pull it down," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group.



The report also found that more homeowners slipped behind on their monthly payments. The delinquency rate jumped to 6.35 percent -- or 2.87 million loans -- compared with 5.82 percent for the previous three months. Payments are considered delinquent if they are 30 or more days past due.
Both the rate of new foreclosures and late payments were the highest on record going back to 1979.

From the mid-1980s to September 2003, the inflation adjusted price of a barrel of crude oil on NYMEX was generally under $25/barrel. During 2004, the price rose above $40, then $50.

A series of events led the price to exceed $60 by August 11, 2005, briefly exceed $75 in the middle of 2006, fall back to $60/barrel by the early part of 2007, then rise steeply to $92/barrel by October 2007 and $99.29/barrel for December futures in New York on November 21, 2007.[1]

Throughout the first half of 2008, oil regularly reached record high prices. On February 29, 2008, oil prices peaked at $103.05 per barrel,[2] and reached $110.20 on March 12, 2008,[3] the sixth record in seven trading days.[4][5] Prices on June 27, 2008, touched $141.71/barrel, for August delivery in the New York Mercantile Exchange (after the recent $140.56/barrel), amid Libya's threat to cut output, and OPEC's president predicted prices may reach $170 by the Northern summer.[6][7]

The most recent price per barrel maximum of $147.02 was reached on July 11, 2008.[

Recent surge in layoffs, anyone?

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/mmls.t01.htm

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending July 19, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 406,000, an increase of 34,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 372,000. The 4-week moving average was 382,500, an increase of 4,500 from the previous week's revised average of 378,000.

http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/current.htm

[Money$hit]

What does an econ course have to do with this shit?

Everything, considering the three key macroeconomic indicators are GDP, Inflation and Unemployment rate, and you happened to mention something about all three in your previous post.

[Lair]

[rwh11385]

What does an econ course have to do with this shit?

What is mentioned in the first two quotes? Oh yeah - gas. And is it Bush's fault that China and India are growing and want gasoline too? Should we be the only ones to enjoy globalization? Are we to always have cheap gas (compared to Europe) and be spoiled brats?

A lot of people are crying they really couldn't afford the loan some bank haphazardly gave them using "optimistic" thinking like everyone else. A lot of people are crying that they always assumed gas would be cheap. A lot of people are upset the economic glory that was the 80s/90s didn't continue forever. (especially as tax breaks were cut, the boom we experienced because of cheap labor / costs of foreign nations turned into them gaining income and adding consumer demand... )

And who supported minimum wage? Idiots. Idiots who didn't consider the increase in labor costs would be met with higher unemployment. With higher fuel costs (China's fault), and high costs from exchange rate changes (cheap rates and trade imbalance, in part Walmart's fault), and higher min. wage... did you expect jobs not to be cut? Are you slow?

These are not things to blame on the president in power you uneducated liberal with feces for brains!!

edit: take an international econ course about labor supply/cost and what will be produced. unskilled labor is not cheap here so they are not helped by trading as far as employment goes but they still benefit from less expensive goods. skilled labor here is doing fine. i dont want to know what the price level would be if we paid min wage to uneducated factory workers to make everything... the US still has a lot of advantages and those with the right skills to be strong in the international realm will do fine

[rwh11385]

I mean seriously... you came out and said you didn't see why an understanding of economics is applicable to the situation... NO WONDER YOU FOLLOW ALONG THE BS that comes from other people who see the results and imply cause/effect to the wrong things.

The problem with the American economy right now is people were spoiled from 1982 to 2001 and now don't know how to deal with the effects of globalization and us not being the only big kid on the block. Shut up Liar and read a book or two instead of carpetbaggerreport.com

[uofom3]

What does an econ course have to do with this shit?

That statement right there is enough to discredit anything you have said, period. All you have is propagandist BS, a chip on your shoulder, and are filled with more hatred than I can imagine.

Economics is the way the world works, Lair. Free markets drive virtually everything that happens, or in the case of whats gone on recently, politics are creating problems in the free markets that would not otherwise naturally occur. Everything you mentioned from Oil prices, to the housing market, to the jobless rate, etc., can be easily explained in economic terms why it happened; and then you can look to political actions and policy that helped embed and give traction to those problems.

Who do we have to thank for these problems? People who don't think that econ has anything to do with this... it's a lot easier to blame Bush, flame republicans, and wear a tin foil hat than to understand global economics and the impact of political policy.

[rwh11385]

I guess Lair moved to AL to fit in:

http://www.morganquitno.com/edrank03.htm

AL is the 46th Smartest state...

another fun ranking: http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007243
Reagan is the 6th best president, and Bush has a 3.01/5 rating which is pretty average (19th) even given the media's BS about him. As we grow wiser as times passes and everyone sees what the macro issues were and people realize a lot of crap which blamed him wrongly, I think he will be seen as a good president with some funny speeches. Reagan was no political or economic genius but listened to the right people at the right time and we should see the same in the long run for W's presidency.

[Lair]

Holy jesus.

An econ class has ANY effect on the economy?

I can see how Bush got elected - TWICE.

[Lair]

I guess Lair moved to AL to fit in:

http://www.morganquitno.com/edrank03.htm

AL is the 46th Smartest state...

I moved here because I look like a genius around this red state's constituency.

nother fun ranking: http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007243
Reagan is the 6th best president, and Bush has a 3.01/5 rating which is pretty average (19th) even given the media's BS about him. As we grow wiser as times passes and everyone sees what the macro issues were and people realize a lot of crap which blamed him wrongly, I think he will be seen as a good president with some funny speeches. Reagan was no political or economic genius but listened to the right people at the right time and we should see the same in the long run for W's presidency.

Bush will go down in history as the worst president this country has ever produced - maybe the worst one the PLANET has produced.

[rwh11385]

Holy jesus.

An econ class has ANY effect on the economy?

The macro environment is to blame, not Bush... which you could understand if you were educated. But you fit in with the crowd in AL...

Bush will go down in history as the worst president this country has ever produced - maybe the worst one the PLANET has produced.

Wrong. I would say he'd move up to Top 15 overall in a decade or so. But I think the WSJ might have been talking to educated people more than those whose understanding of the world is limited to carpetbaggerreport.com