COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Gingrich Does Not Think It Is Too Hard to Lead



87 comments:

  1. "This stuff is all manageable, once you are serious." Absolutely, Newt, you are right there. I have been for a fence since I was about nine years old, remembering Ike's Opereation Wetback. And yes, I will use that word. Can't do it? Absolute non-sense.

    Goodnite folks.

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  2. Well, I have been up almost all night thinking about this. I did receive a good return e-mail from my Representative Sali, whom I voted for as a second choice. But he seems on the ball on this now. It was a good response. Senator Craig is a shit, as I always knew he was,a failed farmer rancher making his bucks in D.C. He is in France right now, fucking around, about the monument of the landing. But Senator Crapo is a little more thoughtfull. Let us keep this up. I think we are making progress.

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  3. Newt's right.

    A serious country would deal with the border in short order.

    We're not serious anymore.

    The elitists and lawyers have been playing games with our laws and Constitution for 100 years.

    They don't know how to be serious about anything of consequence.

    The only thing they're serious about is trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes while they line their pockets and firm up their status as the ruling class.

    I'd say that their time is just about up and the Consent of the Governed has just about expired.

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  4. NO! NO! NO!

    Mr Bush says it can not be done.
    The flow cannot be stopped, those criminals already here, must be welcomed with visas and jobs, schools for the children, health care and retirement benefits.

    Or we'll lose our collective soul.
    It's just that important, we need the pain to better ourselves.

    Mr Bush said so, it must be true.

    Surrender today, for a peaceful and secure tomorrow. He promises fulfillment, if we do.

    Good for your soul.

    Preacher Bush knows God and souls.
    He'll help to save yours.

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  6. We of the EB stand against both God and Country, risking eternal damnation for wanting a secured frontier.

    Save your souls brothers, give up now! You're on your "last legs", join US in the good works of the New World Order. Be one with God and Government, we are the world!

    The benefits are swell, and the pay is okay, too.

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  7. That is interesting, duece.

    I thought of those Jamestown folks, after reading of Mr Bush's concern for my soul.

    Are they all drinkin' kool-aid, in DC?

    Maybe it's lead in the cookware, or something in the water.

    Maybe it's just that power corrupts.

    The all take up the Cheney Sandard, "Wealth and Power for me, sacrifice for thee"

    Those were the "Higher Priorities" for Mr Cheney, back in the day.

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  8. Let those thousand points of compassionately funded Federal "points of light" guide your travels, as you progress to a higher plain, through pain.

    It'll save your soul, better than rock & roll!


    Just watch those Shia walk through the streets of Najaf, whipping themselves for God. Mr Bush feels their pain, and wants you to feel it too.

    Salvation awaits, the President beckons, your souls brothers, save your souls!

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  9. "... I also know that if we don't solve the problem it's going to affect America. It will affect our economy and it will affect our soul. And people need to do the hard thing. ..."

    Biggest load of crap I've ever seen the DCers spin.
    Read more for yourself, if you feel the need.

    You RINOs you
    So out of step with Republican values.

    E Pluribus Unum, brothers, that's our motto. Live up to it.

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  10. "... through that diversity, if you're open-minded, you get a great sense of how it invigorates the society. "

    Open your minds, brothers, open them and grow, fly on the wings of angels ...

    Sacrifice now, salvation later!

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  11. Having 10% of the drivers in AZ without US license or insurance, now that's invigorating, to say the least.

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  12. The '86 Bill was not comprehensive enough, that's why it failed, says Mr Bush.
    Not due to his inept leadership and lack of funding in his budgets for enforcement.

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  13. WASHINGTON — President Bush would like to see the U.S. military provide long-term stability in Iraq as it has in South Korea, where thousands of American troops have been based for more than half a century, the White House said Wednesday.

    But, according to Mr Snow, that does not mean "Permanent Bases"

    Slip sliding away.

    So far behind the curve, it's sad.

    They've been down so long, it looks like up, to them.

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  14. Newt's secure the border is a good first step but it begs the question of what to do with all the illegals currently in the US.

    The US has been running at virtually full employment for a number of years now. There is obviously a demand for the labor these illegals provide. If they were legal working drivers license bearing folks wouldn't that be a net benefit to the country?

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  16. could be, ash..

    Also may be that the illegals are holding down wage scales for US workers, those that are discouraged and off the unemployment rolls.
    In those industries where the illegals make up 40% of the workforce.

    That is their greatest penetration labor market penetration, in meat packing and construction.
    40%, that means that 60% of those industry jobs are held by citizens or legal workers. Their wages being held artifically low, by the criminal competition.

    Bring the workplace into legal compliance, wages will rise, the discouraged unemployeed will reenter the marketplace.

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  17. ...and as wages rise offshore businesses become more competitive thus encourage further plant relocations...

    China's manufacturing sector seems to be thriving primarily because of the low wage inputs. India's knowledge based business also provide many cost savings.

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  18. It also seems that the debate is limited to the effects ipon the US.

    Should we not at least discuss the costs, to US, of underwriting a corrupt Mexican society?

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  19. I just viewed the youtube videos Newt had posted.

    Newt gets it.

    And as he says, this isn't complicated stuff. But first you need to weed out the corruption in the system. 75% of New York's police Captains replaced in a first year.

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  20. Want to drive down health care costs, open the borders to Pakistani, Indian and Mexican doctors and nurses, say 500,000 to a million or so.

    That would put a damper on spiraling costs.

    Lots of Columbian and Venezuelan skilled people available, lawyers, doctors, accountants.

    If we are going to open the borders to competition, let's really do it. Let's just noot ask the lowest echelons of our economic system to feel the pain, to do the "hard thing".

    Lots Iraqi doctors looking for a place to hang a shingle.

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  21. Heritage

    Atta would have been granted a tempororary (until death) (permanent) z-visa.

    The folks that did the dry run to Ft Dix in 2004 were granted visa extensions, despite having numerous incidents on their criminal histories, and prior "dry run" affairs.

    THEY ALL WERE ELIGIBLE FOR "TEMPORARY" Visas under the new bill.

    Senate Immigration Reform Bill Neglects Immigration Services

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  22. Charge the Chinese a "brown cloud" tax. Everyone, across the political spectrum, could support that.

    "Unfair" competitive advantages can be regulated, as to entry into the world's largest market.

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  23. Construction workers make what I made and paid in the 1970's!

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  24. Been Down so Long...!

    Maybe "W" had an undisclosed motorcycle accident in addition to the Binge Drinking Damage!

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  25. Victory is like a box of Chocolates.

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  26. We face a time of great peril with urgent questions requiring insightful answers. I submit these:

    How important does a person have to be before they are considered "assassinated" instead of "just murdered"?

    Why do you have to "put your two cents in".. but it's only a "penny for your thoughts"? Where's that extra penny going ?

    What disease did "cured ham" actually have?

    Why is "bra" singular and "panties" plural?

    If "corn oil" is made from corn, and "vegetable oil" is made from vegetables, what is "baby oil" made from?

    If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?

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  27. "... Dave noticed several large cocoa trees which he began researching. Several submitted samples, and a few conclusive DNA tests later, he discovered that he had cocoa trees—cocoa trees so fine so fine and so sought after, that their nut was used in only the world's top 10% of chocolate. Realizing he was sitting on, literally a chocolate gold mine, David started assembling machines that could convert the cocoa pods into actual edible candy. This has been his hobby for the past 5 years. Today, he, his hand-crank oven, modified coffee grinder, and homemade chocolatilery, produce some of the finest organic, single-origin chocolate in the hemisphere (or so his wife says).

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  28. I have followed Newt for over fifteen years.

    He's claerly the most cogent thinker in Washington and I've never seen anyone best him in a debate on any subject.

    His plans produced the largest change in US politics in history, culminating with the Democrats losing control of the House of Representatives for the first time in over 40 years. Then they lost the Senate and the WH.

    Are ther critcs of Gingrich, of course.Who in Washington doesn't have critics.

    Is he the most clever politician in DC? Yes, there is no contest about that. His grasp of history combined with his doable solutions for the future speak fully to that question.

    He is much more a pragmatist than dogmatic. Right now who else offers what he does in the scope and depth of thinking than he does?


    PS. Am I the only one that believes that Ted Kennedy looks like he's bout ready to explode?

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  29. It's the yeast, coon, boils up in the tissue.

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  30. Part of the challenge is getting those poeple who say "that can't be done, or this can't be done " to remove that word from their vocabulary..

    The can'ts of the world never could accomplish what has gone ahead and been accomplished"

    "We can't deport 12 million people"

    I ask why?

    As Ike proved in Operation Wetback once the roundup began, huge number headed for the border voluntarily. The same would happen again. If it didn't a program of two to three years duration could put a significant dent in the 12 million AND provide the time for the fence and anti-personel impliments to be put in place..sonic blasters, aimable microwave "toasters" etc.

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  31. If there is to be a tough vote, just go to France, inspect the Normandy memorials, like my senior Senator Craig. Duck the issue. Don't hang around on the important issue and take heat. Take a vacation.

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  32. I don't see it here at the EB but for decades I have heard the refrain which is something along this line,"It's too political, or we need to get the politics out of it, or the diurnal cry, I just don't trust politicians"

    Well, all I can say is that since Athens, the Roman Senate and on down through the ages one would think that those objections would have become apparent in there futility.

    But no, as the number of eligible voters who voted in the Presidential primaries in 2004 were Democratic 11.4%, Rupublican 6.7% (both estimates since all absentee ballots had not been counted.They would not expect to move the percentages to any degree) shows we are a pitiful nation in exersizing our right to vote ..but we never seem to lack for hot air about who gets in office.....and whose responsibility is that? Your fat ass neighbor sitting in front of the TV.

    The voting age turnout rate usually hovers around 50-55% and consistently lags the number of eligible voters, sometimes by 10%.

    "But there's nobody worth voting for, so why vote?...

    Hey, so whose fault is that? That questioner is usually someone who has NEVER been involved in the process, never walked a precinct,never regularly voted or even written a letter to the editor or their congressman or senator.

    In the end you get the kind of government you deserve. If you are too lazy to participate too bad,go to the end of the line or better yet just drop dead.

    Voter turnout

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  33. Those are deep and serious questions you have posted, Habu. I too have wondered why it is not bras, rather than bra. On the other hand, when we say,'yo, bro' we seem to be using it in the singular. If there are five or six hoodies around, can we say, 'yo, bros'?

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  34. The Iraqi Parliment will be taking two months off, in the heat of the summer. We should all follow suit.

    Nothing but the best.

    Impossible you say, no way, just ask George Bush, President of the all the Americant's

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  35. I'd like to run this past Rat, but I believe the plural for friends in Spanish is 'amigos'. If you want to ask what is going on, you say, 'que pasa, amigos' I think. We all should start now, boning up on this stuff.

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  36. Habu, I kid you not, there was a movement in California a year or so ago, sponsored by some of their democratic state legislators, to lower the voting age to fourteen. I kid you not, I remember that distinctly.

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  37. amigos, es verdad.

    men or mixed sex.
    amigas when exclusivly female.

    hola is hello, but the "h" is silent in espanol. The "h" replased by the "j", as in Jose'
    Which is pronouced as Hosae

    As in Hosed, which is what Mr Bush has done to US.

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  38. Anyone that is alive and breathing in America should have the right to vote. Parents should have proxies for those of their children unable to push the buttons. Those not able to function in the rest homes should have automatic proxies given to their next of kin, to vote for them.

    Thank you, Rat. What is the Spanish for 'Rat'? Bob is 'Roberto', I believe.

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  39. That should be 'gracias, Rat', I think.

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  40. DR,

    You mean give the floor polisher two months off also? Why I never.

    Well that's it for me.
    If Iraq is gonna siesta then we just need a desert redoubt w/ airport.

    The when the AQ takes over we can finally be totally justifies in carpet bombing their cities.

    The ME, like Africa,and a good deal of the rest of the world is just too tribal to work within a democratic framework.

    So we just neeed to kill them.


    PS. When a building is finished why don't we call it a built?

    If the professor on Gilligan's Island can make a radio out of a coconut, why can't he fix a hole in a boat?

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  41. And truly representative democracy isn't for everyone.

    In fact I can see a big overseas market for our used tires..."necklacing" was all the rage (pun fully intended) a decade of two back. I say lets ship all the old tires to AFrican tribes and let'em ahve a go. That way their machetes won't get dulled hacking and hacking and hacking through all that bone.

    An extra bonus is that, hey, since we're a carbon based lifeform wouldn't we be reducing the "carbon footprint"...ok,ok a little tire smoke in the air ..big deal

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  42. DR,

    Hola..the "h" is silent. ok.

    What do we do with mazola?

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  43. Roberto, si
    la rata, o rata del desierto

    My first wife had a small room in an old woodframed downtown pension, in Panama City.

    Her room, a bit bigger than a walk-in closet.

    She'd never turn off the light, or allow me to. One evening it came to pass, I was there alone, turned off the light and went to sleep. Noise and movement caused me to awake, in combat mode. I listen intently for the location of the intruder, I figured to pull the light string, identify the threat and either make love to it or beat it bloody.
    The light come on as I prepare to launch off the bed, across the room. That's when my eyes focused on the biggest damned rat I'd ever seen in my life. As big, in my recollection, as that hogzilla discussed just the other day.

    Un rata grande!
    We moved to an concrete apartment building within the week.

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  44. mazola? I'd tell you but this is a family blog.

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  45. 'Rat..

    You were fortunate that night amigo, for as you well know the marabunda are silent, but can strip a man to the bone in a minute.

    Madre de dios!

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  46. Hottest female saxaphonist on the planet..Candy Dulfer

    Candy Dulfer

    Pick of the Pieces

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  47. rata del desierto y el habu--one of the funny things about renting the very few apartments I have is that I get inquiries from internet cafes in Nigeria offering to send me big bucks if I will cash the draft and send them back the remainder.
    These scams are well known to us here in the 'rental community'. Just got one that asked if the rent was negotiable...I wrote back saying, no,no,no, no negotiate, you stay there, hunt monkey.

    Thank dios for good Navy men from Montana, is all I can say.

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  48. rata del desierto--I have read all you have said today, with great attention, and I want to say, there is not a thing there I disagree with. It is damned disgusting, is what it is. Keep well. Roberto.

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  49. Let's just say the hell with it, and go Surfing while the winds are still up, before the poles melt, and the great calm descends.

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  50. Bob_L

    I know that Sailor appreciates what you've done. He probably knows as you said previously that pick'ins are slim. And I know from just reading you that I'm damn happy there's folks like you.

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  51. Federal prosecutors on Tuesday added the father of a Chicago alderman to a fake-ID case in which 22 people were charged last month.

    Authorities cracked down on the operation in late April, saying they had shut down a $2 million operation that cranked out as many as 100 phony ID cards a day. Employees working in shifts made bogus driver's licenses, Social Security cards and resident alien cards.

    Charged Tuesday was Elias Munoz, identified in court documents as the operator of Nuevo Foto Munoz, 3105 W. 26th St., a photo studio in the Little Village Discount Mall.

    He is the father of Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd), who said after the April 25 raid that nothing illegal was taking place at his father's shop. On Tuesday, the alderman declined to make any statement on the charges.

    A lawyer for Elias Munoz could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday.

    The original criminal complaint alleged the shop was at the center of the scheme. Negotiations for the fake documents allegedly took place inside the business.

    Authorities have said some of the documents sold for as much as $300 each.

    Munoz is expected to appear in federal court at 9 a.m. Wednesday. The 62-year-old is charged with conspiring to produce false identification documents and aiding and abetting the schemers. He could face up to 5 years in prison.

    On three consecutive days, the complaint says, undercover agents had photos taken at the shop and got bogus identification.

    Among the items allegedly found in the shop were hundreds of blank Illinois and U.S. identification cards, blank laminates and information stamps. As part of the allegedly illegal work at the photo shop, authorities said, Munoz kept a box of blank order forms.

    The daytime raid by gun-wielding agents in the Little Village neighborhood came just days before the latest large immigration march through downtown Chicago. U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald promised the federal action had no connection to the scheduled rally.

    Julio Leija-Sanchez, 31, of Oak Lawn was charged as the ringleader in the case. Authorities alleged he had also conspired to have a competitor killed. Thirteen of the 22 people charged are in custody, authorities said Tuesday.

    A government informant told authorities he used the shop for 10 years as he worked for the Leija-Sanchez organization, the complaint says.

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  52. hmmmm, the pressure continues to build:

    Turkey troops head to Iraq border


    "ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey has sent large contingents of soldiers, tanks, guns and armored personnel carriers to reinforce its border with Iraq -- amid heated debate over whether to stage a cross-border offensive to hit Kurdish rebel bases.

    The military has said the border reinforcement is routine in summer, to prevent guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, from infiltrating from bases in northern Iraq.

    For weeks, television stations have broadcast images of military trucks rumbling along the remote border with Iraq's Kurdish zone, and trains transferring tanks and guns to reinforce an already formidable force in the area.

    "The PKK must be eliminated as a problem between Iraq and Turkey," Turkey's special envoy to Iraq, Oguz Celikkol, told CNN-Turk television on Wednesday after visiting Baghdad this week.

    Asked whether Turkey could take unilateral action, Celikkol said: "Our expectation is that this issue is resolved before it comes to that point."

    Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the United States and Iraq on Tuesday to destroy PKK bases in northern Iraq, and did not rule out a cross-border Turkish operation.

    "The target is to achieve results," Erdogan said. "Our patience has run out. The necessary steps will be taken when needed."

    Turkey's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday urged Iraq to take action.

    "What we want from the Iraqi government is to take necessary steps to stop the terrorists' activities by any means," Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Bilman told reporters."

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  54. The Department of Interior issues the following directive to the National Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management outlining the following changes.

    The Secretary has deemed that the usage of certain phrases and words are detrimental to good order and morale of US citizens.

    Therefore he has ordered that in all official correspondence or with any verbal or written contact with the public the word "chigger" will be modified to read "chigroe"


    Your cooperation in this adjustment is appreciated.

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  55. Our relatives the Apes are under threat. I don't post this flippantly, I really do hate to see the destruction of the environment. I am a conservationist at heart, albeit a conservative one.

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  56. The REALLY interesting part of that story, ash, is that just today the three Kurdish provinces were handed over to the Iraqi Government.

    Safe and Secure.

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  57. At home and abroad, this admin always serves the oppo first, from Ted, to the followers of Sharia, the illegals, liberals, socialist one-worlders.

    Peerless Record, I'd say.

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  58. AlBobAl,
    Only Jerkoffs don't appreciate natue, and look what happens to some of the Machine-Obsessed.

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  59. "You Jerk Me off My Feet"
    You irreplaceable machine, you.

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  60. AlBobAl,
    re:
    Hookipa, the gal shown at 25 seconds is my "Thursday Lady."

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  61. Low-skilled aliens exact a burden

    "The Heritage Foundation report proves what we already know, that illegal immigration is a drain to the American people," the California Republican said. "At more than $22,000 a year, it's like having the American taxpayers buy everyone who doesn't have a high school diploma a brand new Ford Mustang convertible."

    The Heritage Foundation report calculates that for every $1 unskilled workers pay in taxes they receive about $3 in government benefits, including Medicaid, food stamps, public housing and other welfare programs.

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  62. Heard on KRLA, also, need to find website:
    ---
    Wow—our local radio station is playing an anti-Amnesty ad. It begins “How would you like to buy every illegal immigrant a new Mustang every year?”

    143 posted on 05/29/2007 9:58:30 AM PDT by American Quilter (A gun in the hand is better than a police dispatcher on the phone.)

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  63. Sounds like Hugh's gone black on immigration.
    Probly wants to keep in touch with Tony and the boys with "access."

    ...just when we should be turning up the heat.

    Spells turncoat, in my book.

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  64. How come Newt's not running again?

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  65. Some 60 people staged a protest near Sen. Saxby Chambliss' office because he helped write the new federal immigration bill they call amnesty. But Gov. Sonny Perdue became a target, too.

    Perdue vetoed a bill that set two to 12 days in prison and a $500 to $1,000 fine on a first offense for people caught without valid driver's licenses. Backers aimed the bill mostly at illegal immigrants, who usually drive unlicensed.

    The demonstrators called the governor's veto a big mistake.


    In Protesters' Sights

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  66. Do you mean why he is not running, or why he has not filed with the various election regulation offices, sam?

    Because I think he is running, just not filing.

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  67. Doug, the 25 second gal, that's my sister. Has she been hanky-pankying again?

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  68. I meant the former. If you think he's running, all the better. I liked that clip.

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  69. I've always thought highly of the G Team concept.

    Still do.

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  70. Polling Data

    If the 2008 Republican presidential caucus were being held today, for whom would you vote?

    May 2007
    Apr. 2007
    Dec. 2006

    John McCain
    32%
    36%
    35%

    Rudy Giuliani
    23%
    23%
    28%

    Fred Thompson
    13%
    10%
    n.a.

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  71. If the 2008 Democratic presidential caucus were being held today, for whom would you vote?

    May 2007
    Apr. 2007
    Dec. 2006

    Hillary Rodham Clinton
    34%
    36%
    34%

    John Edwards
    30%
    18%
    31%

    Barack Obama
    18%
    24%
    10%

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  72. Mr McCain would be a disaster, as President.

    He doesn't do much damage as a Senator, but what he's already done is more than enough

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  73. Source: American Research Group
    Methodology: Telephone interviews with 600 likely Republican caucus voters in South Carolina, and 600 likely Democratic caucus voters in South Carolina, conducted from May 23 to May 26, 2007.


    South Carolina

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  74. So total that 1,200 up in SC and you've got Clinton/McCain/Edwards.

    We're losing 2 - 1.

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  75. But like Rat says, maybe we're losing 3 - 0.

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  76. With McCain on that list, my side is losing all the way around.

    Believe me, he's been carpet baggin' here for years.

    Not to besmerch his service or his time as a POW. Even as a Senator, he's had lots of help limiting Freedom of Speach, but as President ...

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  77. Hey, how 'bout a Clinton/McCain ticket?

    Would that be fucked up, or what?

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  78. Hello, is there anybody out there?

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  79. Just nod if you can hear me.

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  80. I hear you Sam and I am nodding but I am so tired I am not making any sense. G'nite as Rufus says.

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