BY TOM TOMORROW
After critizing the Democrats for holding a hatefest convention which only looked backward (i.e., to Vietnam), failed to provide a clear vision for the future, and primarily pushed their candidate as Not the Other Guy…
…the Republicans give us a hatefest convention which only looked backward (i.e., to 9/11/01), failed to provide a clear vision for the future, and primarily pushed their candidate as Not the Other Guy.
And now we all take a long weekend, and then the final stretch begins.
I knew that Republicans want to phase out Social Security in favor of personal investment accounts. And I knew that they think the answer to the health care crisis is to give tax breaks for individual medical accounts — in other words, to encourage each of us to save up our pennies in case we ever need to pay for major surgery. (So much more efficient than the old fashioned notion that we should collectively share the risk through some form of “insurance” — and it helps to cull the weak and the sick out of the herd at the same time!)
But even I was surprised by this bit from Elaine Chao’s speech (my transcript):
For workers experiencing unemployment, the President has proposed Personal Re-employment Accounts which workers can use to get the training and support they need.
So in addition to saving for your retirement and saving for the possibility of catastrophic medical care, Republicans would also like you to set aside some money for your own retraining in the event that their lousy economic policies lead to the loss of your job.
Pretty much sums up compassionate conservativism, doesn’t it?
Letter from a reader:
As you probably already heard, 10 AIDS activist protesters snuck onto the floor of the RNC to protest and shortly there after were restrained by those nearby (security and young republicans).
WABC-TV’s local news program in New York (http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/) was there and documented this incident which shows a young republican kicking one of the protesters (a young Asian woman). WABC interviewed this young republican afterwards saying that cameras show him kicking a protester, to which he just looks blindly into the camera for a good 5 seconds saying nothing.
Currently the clip is not available on the website but the entire situation I described was aired during the 6:00pm edition of local news.
…here’s a link, but it’s not Mac-friendly.
Apparently the festivities at MSG have convinced Michael Berube to abandon his leftish ways and join the winning team.
How do you know you’re a Republican, Arnold asked? If you believe that government should be accountable to the people, instead of the people being accountable to the government, you’re a Republican. Well, no kidding! Again, you won’t hear this from the liberal media, but independent studies have proven that the Bush presidency has been the most accountable presidency ever — and more than twice as accountable as Clinton’s. In fact, you could say that the “W” in “George W. Bush” stands for “We Have Been Extremely Accountable.”
Also, Arnold said, if you think your family knows how to spend money better than the government does, you’re a Republican. Damn straight, Kindergarten Cop! In the past year, my family has initiated a bold new spending program designed to bolster the alternative-rock industry, and next year we’re unveiling our plan to provide health care for all Americans except the ones who don’t live with us. Also, don’t forget to check out the new Bérubé Turnpike we’ll be building in a town near you. It’ll be a toll road, so that we can raise the funds for the light rail system we’re working on for 2009.
Some of you might doubt that my family can pull this off. Well, some of you might just be economic girlie-men! The kind who get their panties in a bunch about a little deficit here and a little job loss there! You people don’t have health care? You can’t afford a visit to the dentist, you say, and you’ve got this inflammation that you’re worried about? You’re a bunch of fags!! Why not just go to Hollywood and become DemocRATS, you lily-livered gum-inflamed liberal whiners?
Via Atrios.
Let’s play six degrees of separation here. Will the person in this audience who knows someone who knows someone who knows Amy Carter tell her that I lost her address and ask her to shoot me an email?