The real poll will happen Nov 2nd, when we give pink slips to the incumbants........

hopefully you will have some extra cash thanks to GW that you can put in all those new slot machines.

Bush better come up with some more cash for the middle class since heating oil is going up about 25%, naturaly gas about 20%, gasoline who knows how much more, imports up, exports down, etc, etc, etc.

Oh, and don't forget about privatizing your retirement by investing in the stock market. You've all seen how well that's going. :rolleyes:

GH,

You forgot to blame Bush for the Flu Vaccine shortage and MT. St. Hellens acting up.

The GOP has already blamed Clinton for those two, plus a myriad of others. :rolleyes:

Well you can accurately point the finger at ol Hillary. Remember she championed helath care ?

Vaccinating against disaster

By Robert Goldberg

Parents are in a panic about getting their kids immunized as a flu epidemic spreads rapidly across America. But if Democrats (and some Republicans) get their way, the vaccine shortages will soon spread to medicines for other diseases.

That's because Democrats want to apply the policies that produced the shortages — federal bulk purchase and distribution of old vaccines at government-controlled prices, combined with a refusal to pay for new technology in the name of cost containment — to every drug used for every disease, no matter how fatal. Thanks to Democratic proposals to have the federal government buy up drugs like we buy up vaccines, the blizzard of fear that families are experiencing in seeking to protect their children against the flu will extend into a dark winter for Americans suffering from birth defects, cancer, Alzheimer's, schizophrenia and heart disease.

The current mismatch of immediate demand and available supply can be blamed on the federal Vaccines For Children Program — Hillary Clinton's dry run for national health care. The vaccine program buys up nearly 70 percent of all childhood vaccines at government-set prices and then distributes them to states according to a federally set formula. The result is no surprise to those of us who lived through the policy-induced gasoline crises of the 1970s. Vaccines have gone to where the outbreaks aren't, and price controls have discouraged vaccine makers from producing more than what the government orders and blocked the purchase of more than 4 million doses of an easy to administer vaccination through the private sector.

None of this seems to have stopped Democrats and some Republicans from demanding that the government purchase prescription drugs at deep discounts, too. Indeed, they argue that prices can come down without hurting the ability of companies to produce needed medicines now or in the future, since lower prices will make it easier for more people to buy even more medicines, which will make up for smaller profit margins.

But the risks and costs of developing new medicines are hard to predict, and the pace of future innovation depends on how the free market values a product and not what a single government purchaser wants to pay in order to save money. That's why the federally price-controlled bulk purchase of vaccines has decimated the vaccine industry. Vaccine prices have remained stagnant since 1994, while new regulations and lawsuits have driven up the cost of producing old vaccines and developing new ones.

Thanks to these policies, there are now only four developers of childhood vaccines — down from 20. As a result, there have been periodic shortages of the 11 shots for vaccine-preventable childhood diseases for several years in a row. Technology to produce combination childhood vaccines has been all but shelved.

Democrats like to cloud the issue by claiming price controls are just like those wholesale clubs folks like us use. Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat congressman from Illinois, claims, "We could bring down drug prices if we allowed the secretary of health and human services to negotiate on behalf of 40 million seniors. That is what Sam's Club does." Not even close. Sam's Club gets its buying power from offering consumers a wide array of choices at low prices and adding the newest products quickly and effectively to keep up with several competitors.

Sam's Club doesn't have Medicare's monopoly for buying for 40 million consumers, and it doesn't have the federal power of telling its vendors: Sell at 50 percent below market price, or I will bar you from selling to any customer in America, or I will prosecute you or seize your patent. And it doesn't have Medicare or the vaccine program's power to say: "Since you have no one else to sell it to, I will also determine when I will add new products or whether I will at all depending on my budget."

Democrats think that biotech and drug companies will have no alternative but to keep pumping out new medicines under such circumstances. They are wrong. The flu vaccine shortage is a result of the kind of policies Democrats want to impose on Medicare. Killing the incentive for producing vaccines and medicines not only kills future research, it kills people, too. And that's the sort of club no one should be forced to join because of proposals now being considered in Congress.

Robert Goldberg is director of the Manhattan Institute's Center for Medical Progress.

"Manhattan Institute's Center for Medical Progress"

shocker, a paid medical lobbyist doesn't like something.

go figure....

The polls that matter are the ones in the swing states. Bush proved the popular vote means didly.

Thanks Jeff'ed I doubt anyone would have ever figured that out on their own. Maybe you should send that bit of wisdom to the King 5 tip line?

I think Bob needs a new category for you TK. Amateur Hour Insults web page.

If "W" Wins - We Deserve It
By Bewick Cory, Tennessee USA
October 18, 2004


The mere fact that George W. Bush IS the President of the
United States says something quite profound. As a Nation, we're,
well...naaa...I don't want to lose you all just yet. Oh, what the
hell...As a Nation we must be pretty dang DUMB! IF we read, we read
what suits us, meaning, what WE want to hear. That goes for lots of
us, Left, Right, and In-Between. The general public's grasp of the
issues is poor at best. Add to this the already deep seated bias that
any issue is approached with and what do you have? Lots of uninformed
voters. Is Voter Education the answer? I don't think that it makes
much difference. Basically, people are going to vote for who they are
going to vote for. The "Undecided Voters?" Who is this swarming mass
of people who rise and fall with every smile and clever quote by each
candidate? A few days ago Kerry was on top...today I notice Bush is
back. Are these people so clueless as to their place in America's
future that each day's news brings an entirely different outlook on
their choice for President? How do you win these people over? That
will be decided by the events immediately preceding the Election. I
would say that a betting man would put the odds in "W's" corner for
that one...though I would wager, certainly not a sure bet.

It is definitely a game of perception, of personality, of marketing. And
what public would be easier to fool than the good ol' U.S.A.? We
literally worship the fine art of bull****. The bigger the lie, the
bigger the sigh of awe. The movie studios have known this for years.
It doesn't have to be real. It doesn't have to be anywhere near real.
It just has to be a damn good read...a good show. It doesn't matter
that if what "W" tells us is the truth or not...does it sound good?
We Americans like to feel good. We like to feel rough and tough, wild
and extreme. We like to think of ourselves as the best there is.
Other people, cultures, countries...they got nothin' on us! We like
to think that they are all "jealous" of us. Guess what?. They
aren't. We got ourselves a regular John Wayne in the White House. It
doesn't matter that the cowpoke ain't real, what matters is that we
believe he is. "W" knows this, Rove knows this, and all his handlers
know this. Members of the Right Wing of the Republican Party saw this
wonderful attribute in little George way back when. He had all the
qualities: cruel, calculating, deceptive - a bully with an affable
charm, a goll dang Will Rogers without the talent or the brains.
Never fear! "W" can be the puppet, Karl Rove can be the T & B! Just
like Hollywood. Get a decent actor, pair him with a good
director...market the hell out of the project...make the people
believe the hype...There is one major difference here. Politics can
be deadly. Deadly to many people world wide.

We as a Nation have put
our trust in the Little Cowpoke from KenneCrawfordPort, TexasMaine.
Chances are (as Johnny Mathis would say) that we will be getting the
phony, lying, smirking, little jackass for four more years. Four more
years that could send this Nation spiraling into the New Dark Ages of
a sneaky new-age Fascism. This Cowpoke has a plan for us that even
his most devout followers will be staring wide-eyed at within two
years. This President, if re-elected, is going to be in some
downright serious trouble...along with our country. By re-electing
the Lonesome Cowpoke/Smirking Monkey/Shrub...whatever you want to call
him...I have a hard time calling him Mr. President, we are telling the
rest of the World to SCREW OFF! We are giving them the big ol'
American finger. This is were the Bush people want us to go. It's
the Kill ‘Em All.Let God Decide Frontier. Hey! We're taking care
of business, aren't we? We got them *******s who took down the
"Towers" didn't we? We made Iraq a free and safe country where
terrorists won't be welcome and won't have a foothold. Oh,
yeah...today the news is saying that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ("W's"
Recruiter in Iraq) is pledging allegiance to Osama bin Laden. And
please don't forget Poland! And if you all think that our Health Care
and Education System is the best in the world...do your homework....It
ain't. We have become so compliant as to take everything that is told
to us as the god's honest truth, when in fact, it is not. Sure this
is a Great Nation, but everything that is great, and beautiful, and
fine needs love, attention, care, and maintenance in order to remain
that way. Neglect means death. This country needs a great big dose
of TRUTH UP. We've been swimming in lies for so long that we don't
know were the hell the shore line is anymore. How do we get back to
reality? Is it even possible? Is our culture too diverse and too
wacked to even begin to try? Is the bull**** message so firmly
imbedded into our culture that it IS our culture? The Times They Are
A Changin'. TV News used to bring us some sort of truth. They
brought us harsh images during the days of the Civil Rights Movement
and the war in the Viet Nam. They asked tough questions and showed
images which didn't soften the facts. What happened!? There are
people being slaughtered around the world and we are too damn
sensitive to even see a few photos? Is that it? The same people who
are glued to the set watching one violent show after another? Hurt
our sensibilities? We love the stuff! It's political. The pressure
is on. It has happened little by little. The Liberal Media? What a
load of crap. If it IS a Liberal Media, they are eating out of
someone else's pocket. The News today IS the word of the Government.
The pressure is on to get in line. With "W", you are for him, or you
are against him.

The Bush Administration has lied like no other Administration
before it, and that is saying something. They are outright criminals.
They impeach Clinton for oral sex violations? You could put "W's"
entire Administration behind bars for real crimes against this Nation
and the world. The Lonesome Cowpoke just smirks, shrugs, and
slides...and more n' half the country says... "Go daddy go..." What
does this say? I can't repeat it enough. I have stayed out of
politics for the past 30 years, until "W" rode into town. Maybe it is
because people like myself did stay out of the picture for so long
that this happened. I feel that measure of guilt. I feel the weight.
Something's gone wrong in Tombstone and we need to fix it. And yes,
if "W" wins we deserve it, with special thanks to the once great News
Media of this Nation for failing to take this poor excuse of an
Administration to task for all of its short comings, crimes, and
misdirections...and to "we the people" for failing to see past a
smirking bully and calling him out. To the Lonesome Cowpoke, I
say..."Skin that smokewagon...I'm your Huckleberry..."

If I posted something that obvious I would expect to have someone make fun at my expense and not cry about it. If you take yourself too serious you end up bitter like a few people here.

Fall Fashion Preview: Cowboy Boots In, Flip-Flops Out

During the second presidential debate, John Kerry said: "I ask each of you just to look into your hearts, look into your guts. Gut-check time. Was this really going to war as a last resort?"

How about this for "gut-check time": When you close your eyes, can you see the Democrats defending America? Because I can't see it.

These are the people who are obsessed with getting the French to like us. They call terrorism a "nuisance," like prostitution and other petty crimes. ("Hundreds of Children Killed in Chechnya by Nuisance," "British Civilian Beheaded by Annoyance," "9-11: What a Hassle!") They babble about nonexistent civil liberties violations under the Patriot Act.

If Gore had been elected president, right now he would just be finding that last lesbian quadriplegic for the Special Forces team.

During the second presidential debate, Kerry droned on about the civil liberties crisis in America under the Patriot Act (which he voted for). He claimed to have "met a man who spent eight months in prison, wasn't even allowed to call his lawyer, wasn't allowed to get – finally, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois intervened and was able to get him out."

Pity he didn't meet Abdullah Mehsud, a guy who spent two years in Guantanamo before being released and is now in Pakistan strapping dynamite to Chinese hostages.

Bush said he had met a man, too: "Grant Milliron, Mansfield, Ohio. He's creating jobs." Which one of these candidates is more likely to put the wood to the terrorists?

Kerry explained his "plan" to prevent terrorists from getting nukes, saying, "We've got to join with the British and the French, with the Germans, who've been involved, in their initiative." (This guy's got more plans than MCI.) We may lose the war on terrorism, but by God we'll get the Europeans to like us!

Kerry told the New York Times he could "do a better job" in the war on terror – which Kerry adviser Richard Holbrooke says is not a war at all, but a metaphor ("Thousands Die in Attack by Metaphor").

He would do a better job, Kerry said, "most importantly – and I mean most importantly – of restoring America's reputation as a country that listens, is sensitive, brings people to our side, is the seeker of peace, not war, and that uses our high moral ground and high-level values to augment us in the war on terror, not to diminish us."

Imagine President John Kerry at the Berlin Wall. "Mr. Gorbachev ... I challenge you to get to an emotional place where you can imagine a different kind of non-wall reality, that fully respects the 'wallness' of your current reality, yet takes us on a spiritual journey in which ..."

Republicans are more simple-minded, but for some things you want to be a little less contemplative, a little less nuanced. In a war against rabid savages trying to nuke Manhattan, you want a policy more along the lines of: Kill 'em! Republicans will shoot burn and bury the terrorists. Kerry will give them a speech.

In his convention speech in August, Kerry's idea for the terrorists was this: We'll give them a faux-WASP, stentorian honker of a speech. Striking fear in the hearts of Islamic lunatics everywhere, Kerry said he would say this to the terrorists: "You will lose and we will win. The future doesn't belong to fear; it belongs to freedom." (Kerry's speechwriters are now throwing key words like "future" and "freedom" together in various combinations in hopes of stumbling upon something the senator actually believes in just by random chance.)

Yes, that's how to capture terrorists: Put them to sleep with a long boring speech. Osama bin Laden would escape before the speech is complete. Only a liberal would imagine this is what you say to a terrorist in his moment of fear and dread. Who does Kerry imagine will be giving this speech exactly? Kevin Kline? How about the Marine who catches bin Laden's associates saying something along the lines of, "Hey, dirtbag!" before smacking them across the face with a rifle butt?

(If Israel plays its cards right, perhaps Kerry would even draft a speech for them to give suicide bombers: "You will lose and we will win. The future doesn't belong to fear; it belongs to freedom," blah blah blah.)

Better yet, let's use a Kerry speech to torture them into revealing where and when their next attack will be! Ten minutes of that snoozefest convention speech would have the most hardened Islamic fanatic begging for mercy and spilling his guts. Now, that's my idea of a "gut check."

As if it means something, Kerry keeps vowing: "I will never stop at anything to hunt down and kill the terrorists." But he will stop at the Iraqi border. Or if the French and Germans aren't on board. Or we don't have United Nations approval. Or it would require investigating a Muslim under the Patriot Act.