I give up. I accept the overwhelming wisdom of the center.

[ulysses]

I believe in school vouchers. Let the poor educate themselves.

I believe in ill-considered overseas wars. Let the poor fight for the rest of us.

I believe in welfare reform. Let the poor starve.

I am the very essence of a modern Democrat.

[leftofthedial]

1. I believe that a much smaller middle class will allow the wealthy

to take better care of the poor

I believe that George W. Bush is an honorable man.

I believe that 50 million people with no health care is acceptable.

I believe that a bloated domestic security and intelligence agency with sweepoing powers to ignore the Constitution is a good thing.

I believe that the money I take from corporations and their lobbyists does not influence my votes for those interests.

This country is in a total, fucked-up mess.

[ulysses]

2. thank you for your belief in the incredible.

:D

[leftofthedial]

23. all except the last one are seemingly too incredible to even exist

but they do!

See the fish-headed man!

See the Incredible Dog-faced Boy!

See the woman with a tail!

See the DLC Dems!

[Mikimouse]

3. Did I miss something?

I usually read your posts and have usually been right there with you in your thinking on most issues. Why the sudden surrender to things that you know to be wrong? (even if you are being sarcastic, if so, please include the smiley for people like me,who scare easily):hi:

[ulysses]

4. don't scare so easily.

It's not as fun if you have to use the sarcasm smiley.

[Mikimouse]

6. Why I oughta...

It is your good fortune that there is no raspberry-giving smiley.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. you poor, tortured, soul. Allow us to help

I suggest several treatments, starting with the following:

1) find a medium to hard, SuDoKu. finish.
2) Put on some Moe's Art. Loud.
3) Pour a fine malted liquor, one finger for each cube.
4) Pick up some Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, Billy the bard, Henry David T., or even Isaac Asimov. Someone you have not read in ages. Open book, pick up glass, do what is required of both objects. Revel in those words.
5) Close eyes. Inhale deeply, then, exhale. Remember that this world has seen worse times, (not many) but nevertheless, they existed in history. Each and every one of us have the duty to try to make things better. Open eyes, start back on the book.

breathe deeply and sense that many of us around you feel the same way, yet are reaching out to each other, both for comfort/support and for learning/ideas.

most importantly, don't let those bastards get you down.
Oh, and forget the whole racist-religious idea of vouchers.

[obxhead]

7. when did it become opposite day?

I didn't get the memo.

[Robertwf]

8. modern day democrats

sounds about right... it unfortunately generally describes the current generation who appear to more interested in what the latest fashion airhead will be wearing rather than trying to do something to help other people :-(

[ismnotwasm]

9. Whatcha need to do

Is read, or re-read, "Woodstock Nation" by Abbie Hoffman. It'll get those ol' fires stirring again. At least the coherent parts when he's not on a mind alternating substance--or maybe those are the parts where he was? Fuck centrist. I got into the book again because of a certain reference to Janis Joplin, and now I'm reading the whole thing. How much it reminds me of the current times is--lets say, uncomfortable. "Pig Nation" indeed.

[democrank]

10. Wait a minute, Ulysses.

Don`t buy that crap. The "center" isn`t even the center anymore. Jerry Springer recently reminded us how "moved" we`ve become. So much so that..." if you`re for peace, you`re considered fringe."

Hang in there. We need you.

[ulysses]

12. I was being sarcastic.

I guess I need to steal Zoccalo's sig line...

[Cocoa]

11. speaking of welfare reform

what are the results, ten years later. Did it really cause people to "starve?" What other effects?

Note: I don't know the answer to this question, and I was strongly against welfare reform. I might still be, depending on what answer anyone gives me.

But I'll be honest, I doubt it has caused people to starve. I do have a strong feeling it possibly depressed wages, and causes many people to work long hard hours for paltry pay, and increases inequality. But what about starvation?

[ulysses]

14. isn't it interesting how we haven't really heard?

What were the effects, after all?

That law took effect in 2001, just as the recession took hold. No, I haven't seen the numbers, because they haven't put out any numbers. So you tell me what probably has happened.

[Cocoa]

21. that law was passed in 1996

some Googling shows that in fact there has been a lot of attention paid to the question of the law's effects.

choosing for sources we'd find credible, here's a pro and a con:

http://www.prospect.org/print-friendly/print/V13/13/jencks-c.html

<conculsion:>

On balance, welfare reform has turned out far better than most liberals expected. Most Americans now see it as one of the great successes of the 1990s. Instead of remaining wedded to the idea that PRWORA was a bad idea because it was a supported by the lunatic right, liberals need to rethink. My own conclusions are three:

Telling prospective parents that they would have to take primary responsibility for supporting themselves and their children was a good idea, because 60 years of experience showed that no other approach to reducing family poverty could win broad political support in America.

Shifting government largesse toward those who work was a good idea, because it helped erase the stigma of single motherhood and made more resources available to single mothers and their children.

Turning welfare over to the states was a really good idea, because most states currently take a less ideological view of single mothers' problems than does Congress.




http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/jan2000/pov-j12.shtml

Mounting evidence of deepening poverty in the US reveals that the welfare reform policy adopted by the Clinton administration and the Republican Congress is devastating millions of US families. A December 1999 report entitled Recent Changes in the Impact of the Safety Net on Child Poverty found sharp increases in extreme poverty on the one hand, and little, if any, improvement in overall conditions for the majority of children in low-income families.

Kathryn Porter and Wendell Primus, the authors of the report, are researchers at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a Washington think tank. Their research found that poverty trends, which had been documented using initial post-welfare reform data, continued into 1998. Using previously unpublished statistics on child poverty for 1998, which were compiled by the US Census Bureau, their report concentrates on demonstrating the impact of welfare reform on children. While the Clinton administration continues to insist that “welfare reform is working,” many studies have reported increased hunger and homelessness among families with children.

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) was passed by the US Congress and signed by Clinton in 1996. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the decades-old safety net for families with children. This act also contained some of the most vindictive measures aimed at the poor since the first federal assistance programs were adopted during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Among other things, it set a five-year lifetime limit for cash assistance and gave the states power to adopt stringent restrictions in several other areas.

The CBPP study found that the welfare cuts had nearly offset any gains from the "longest peacetime economic recovery in US history." Employment and earnings among low-income parents have increased, but benefits have been sharply cut. The result is that while “the number of children living in poverty has declined significantly since 1993,” after 1995 the pace of decline dropped dramatically. “Measured on an annual basis, the number of poor children declined at a rate of 1.2 million per year between 1993 and 1995 and at a rate of 400,000 a year—one-third as much—between 1995 and 1998.”

more...

[Guaranteed]

13. Waiting for the idiots to show up so that they may be clowned on. nt

[greendog]

15. I believe that competing with Chinese prison labor...

...will make me a more "productive" worker. :patriot:

[entanglement]

19. So what are you doing here? To work, serf!

}(

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. If I clap harder, Tinkerbell will LIVE!

[KoKo]

17. I know....it's hard to keep up that fight ....when so many....well...

what else can one say.. you said it so well. UGH!

[davsand]

18. I think Cheney is a misunderstood teddy bear.

I also think the asswipe in the WH is probably a really cool guy to sit on the stoop and drink a brewski with.

I also think monkeys will fly out my ass just as soon as I poop vanilla ice cream, so you can tell I'm not too bright about this kind of stuff...

------

Shitfire, Uly, don't drink the koolaid yet, buddy! We have a bunch of miles left in us. I know you were joking, but I have to tell you sometimes it creeps hell out of me on here because of some of the stuff people say from time to time. I count on guys like you to keep it real.

:hi:


Laura

[JanMichael]

20. I join you in joining the Mediocre Middle! (AKA "The Sellout Center")

I don't believe in Public Schools at all. Let the Poor pray.

I want the military here at home to take care of those nasty "masses".

I don't believe in any Welfare at all. A rising tide doesn't drown folks, it lifts all boats.

Oh what a happy time we'll have!

[Armstead]

22. You've always been a centrist

The Sloth and Indolence Agenda is very centrist. "Just let things be as they be." :P

[BeFree]

24. Your money belong to us

More tax breaks for the rich

100 billion for a trip to back to the moon

Spread more democracy - like butter - "I can't believe it's not butter"

Less regulation on polluters

Put more pot smokers in jail

If a woman gets screwed - screw her, she's going full term.

b**h actually did win both elections

*********************

We could go on all night, eh?
:puke: