austinberries

>>Each time James visits Alaska, the state's beaver round-up officially begins! ha!! but Palin's porcupine is safe - she wears a bear trap around her neck! ka-ching! ;-)

i agree w/ you guys about Palin too; i mean, McCain is probably the most at-risk-because-of-advanced-age prez we may have ever elected if we do, & the thought of someone as immature, shallow, & intellectually & ethically undeveloped as Palin succeeding him is a scary one, indeed. it's hard to do, but she may be even more unqualified, wreckless, & disastrous than W. (unless she had better puppets than Rove, Cheney, & Rumsfeld)

>>hollies: Trying to pin the present day financial meltdown, which is tied to the subprime meltdown, is silly and shows a lack of true understanding of the problem. >> mellie: I'm just saying I don't agree with holding elected officials accountable for mistakes made by business owners, other people we entrusted, and yes - sometimes ourselves. actually it is that simple, & the public is definitely most justified in blaming the politicians, b/c they specifically opened the doors (mostly Repubs) to the very deregulatory practices (yes hollies, including, but definitely not limited to the mortgage industry) that legally allowed businessmen to do things that were previously not allowed, & conduct unethical, risky, shady, smoke & mirrors, quick-profit, dangerous, & very destabilizing financial, accounting, & investment practices for short-term (& often artificial) gains sorry, to say that politicians aren't accountable here is to have your head buried 6 ft in the sand. the politicians sit squarely in the lap of & pass legislation for the lobbyists, who lobby for the businessmen & corporations to open these thing wide open for them, & then greed runs its ugly & predictable course there's a very specific reason these things were regulated for decades, & there's a very specific reason Repubs wanted to open those doors, & now there's a very specific reason we are seeing the meltdown, & they are all directly correlated w/ each other this is not even debatable, its just fact, even if it was the party that you happened to help vote into office & you are left trying to defend their actions, thats what has happened

hey, we need to get Bernie to create a new Mssg Board category - "Waxin' & Spankin' Politics"

>>Sarah will hold her own against Joe "Tow The Party Line" Biden. He has about as much charisma as...well...John McCain "charisma"? this is the problem, americans vote based on it, like a high school popularity contest. & btw, Biden has not been a tow-the-party-line Dem, he has always tried to push the Dems (or Congress) in stretched directions, much like McCain has w/ Repubs (& Congress) >>Tony, H-65, I'll remind you guys again: Casting a vote for McCain doesn't mean you'll get to sleep with Sarah Palin this is the funniest & most apropos line i've read yet about her!! again, high school popularity standards >>Got his clock cleaned in every Dem debate. "clock cleaned" - gr8 phrase hollies, i'm gonna start using it. but r u ready to cry uncle yet? the gov is now buying WAMU to flip in a firesale, in the continuing saga of economic-meltdown. all goes back to Repub deregulation, starting w/ Reagan, continuing w/ Bush, & then W & Co really opened the floodgate are any of y'all being affected directly (ie: your pocketbook/job, not stocks, etc) by all this as we speak? it's gettin' pretty damn 'yikes' out there..

O is almost universally regarded as one of the greatest & most well-informed orators we've seen since, well, Hillary's husband, so this instance would be a rare exception to the rule Palin on the other hand, is fast becoming regarded as intellectually vacant, cutthroat, right-wing Alaskan lunatic, w/ a dash of Brittney Spears thrown in for good measure. Biden will eat her alive in a debate & puppet? O? you gotta be kidding, right? W defines the tag with cringing, embarassing accuracy. never have so many regretted voting for such an incompetent president..

wow, this mental midgetry reminds me of another 8-year poser i know! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv6CRObROV0 awwwwwesome, dude.. (8 yrs for u = 12 for me, we had him before y'all did, & i'm still groanin' from it)

dont get me wrong, i love the hollies' music. i was just sure i remembered that in 'bubblegum is the naked truth' it described them (much to my surprise) as a studio band of interchangeable members maybe i'm remembering wrongly, but could've sworn this content was in the book - or maybe there was a little bit of both? (ie: stable & revolving/studio members?) hollies, your music trivia bench is deep, & i will defer to your judgement here. however, you of course realize this will not happen when we are talking politics...

there's sure no arguing w/ these 2 choices; so where do y'all see the nominees listed when they come around? link, plz?

hollies- i think the, err, hollies may be permanently passed over b/c they were something of a pre-fab band, if i recall from my readings in 'bubblegum music is the naked truth'. just a supposition & a hunch here there is no cooler song than 'long cool woman'. & i totally discovered or rediscovered 'carrie ann' a couple of years ago & it blew my mind but still, i think they were a bit propped up from behind..

hollies, is this what happened to your political judgment? u know i couldn't pass that one up - u practically handed it to me!..

i can just hear Barry Gibb wailing on it now, w/ that nasally but somehow soulful high tenor..

but hollies, seriously now, you cannot be impressed w/ someone the likes of sarah palin, right? tell me it ain't so. i mean, you don't just like her b/c she landed on the ticket, right? we need intelligent politicians (try to ignore the greed factor for just a moment), but she's just a wash, a facade not sure if i came across your read on her anywhere here yet. dude, don't burst my bubble in thinking you're still a cool cat..

yeah, i could talk smack all day when it comes to politics. one of my best pals (hard right-winger) i recently offended w/ my email exchanges just like the ones we have going here. it's funny, he's not thin-skinned, but he took it personally. when he & i sit down w/ a couple of stogies & a glass of scotch, we can rant & vamp (& disagree) all evening long, but something about how people maybe digest & interpret &/or misinterpret the written word & its inflections, intended or not i just wanna know when the Raspberries are gonna get it together so we can all reunite for another show. now knowing a few political leanings among us should make the grins & wisecracks even bigger if & when we do

by hollies: >>A post for each point! right! i was going for a 7-post run or whatever it ended up being..

true 'dat, paulie! yet somehow, we'll prob sleep better at night, if that's any consolation. or maybe not, b/c those guys can afford the $3,000 mattresses ;-)

hollies, as much as you & i seem to enjoy the debate, maybe you & i can agree to wrap up this thread by just agreeing to cancel each other's vote out. deal? done!

good call, pretender. this is also dead-on truth/fact. i can't stand Graham, we were stuck w/ him forever - official apologies from Texas

by hollies: >>This was started during the Clinton admin and the big player was Clinton whiz kid Cuomo hollies, c'mon - where's your props to Reagan & Bush Sr - hello?? deregulation ho's, those guys... Cuomo surely earns a footnote in the plagued history of dergulation, but this has been the Repubs coveted baby all the way, & for a long, long time

tony this would be counterintuitive to why bush & repubs pushed so hard for deregulation of these industries - it was done to open the door to fast, unethical, but massive accumulations of profit by way of book-cooking & sleight-of-hand

reagan quote - untrue, & implies that you bought into his (& his party's) lies. most overrated american president ever rumsfield quote - so true!! TOTALLY DEFINES the bush administration & cronies behind the war, & their motivation for it. largest war contracts in the history of the world, made them very, very, very rich men

eh, you've never heard me trumpeting the brilliance of the NY Cuomos on these boards or anywhere else

nah, never said the dems were thrifty, but when it comes to spending & running up the federal deficit, the Repubs have them beat hands down - a rout, by light years, not even close, all while crying wolf the whole time. but i'm pretty sure you are comfortable with this, as are most 'fiscal conservatives', which i've never understood

>>McCain has moved ahead of Obama in all three new Ohio tracking polls by an average of 4 pts. Obama loses Oh...he loses the election. Sorry for the bad news Austin. Heh. hollies, IF mccain wins, at least he *might* (another big if) put the brakes on the Republican spending orgy of the last 25 years or so. of course, the Repubs (incl McSame) are also responsible for all the deregulation & ripping away of protections that have worked since the great depression, which has allowed corp's the mad-grab free-for-all that currently has us in this economic freefall & has some of the world's biggest corp's in a nosedive (or already dead). but you knew that

>>"But then I guess as long as he brings the pork home, as long as he furthers the advance of those "tax and spend" liberal ideals..." paulie - like most right-wingers, you are living in a make-believe bubble & have swallowed the big lie if you consider Repubs fiscally conservative - George W has run the federal deficit up by $4 trillion to $9.5 trillion. Reagan & Bush Sr accounted for another nearly $3 trillion rise - this is approx 75% of the national debt since WWII! it's the great (& successful) lie upon the American public that Dems have been the big spenders - clearly the biggest tax & spenders (in the form of corporate welfare & earmarks) have been the ones calling the kettle black: Repubs. most of this occurred while Repubs have held the Senate or both houses (their wet dream, ie: why Bush Jr got to loot the till & burn thru the budget like a madman) this makes the Repub claim that they are fiscally conservative laughable. these are cold hard facts, look it up beyond the sound bites. or just ask hollies, he knows... heh