Anyone listening to Kerry on the Sub-Comm

[TayTay]

http://commerce.senate.gov/

June 8th.



Manufacturing Competitiveness in a High-Tech Era
Technology, Innovation, and Competitiveness Hearing
Wednesday, June 8 2005 - 9:30 AM - SR-253


Webcast: Click here to view a live webcast of this hearing.
Description: On Wednesday, June 8, 2005, at 9:30 a.m. in room 253 of the Russell Building, the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Technology, Innovation, and Competitiveness will hold a hearing on Manufacturing Competitiveness in a High-Tech Era. The hearing will address the current challenges that confront American manufacturers, examine how manufacturers have responded to these challenges, discuss how recent technological innovations have impacted the manufacturing industry, and explore what government should do to help American manufacturers remain competitive in today’s global economy. Witnesses will be announced when available.



This first witness is ripe for a takedown. Claims everything good comes from the tax custs.

[whometense]

1. Got it now.

Damn. Did I miss him???

D'Oh!! Allen??????? God.

[TayTay]

2. This is actually good stuff

The NV Senator mentioned Kerry by name. I'm not sure if he is there.

HOWEVER, this is the exact stuff that we need to hear. Even Sen. Barfbag is making some good points. (OMG, 2 Our Fathers and 3 Hail Mary's for saying something nice about him.)

This kind of stuff is exactly where the Dems and Rethugs differ. Tax cuts? More cutting of the legal rights of Americans to file suit against companies that make faulty products? We must cut helath care benefits in order to be competitive? Red-meat stuff. Couldn't be clearer in the difference between parties. It's all here.

[TayTay]

3. What? TayTay this is dull

Well, it's not a Broadway Show, but, listen to what the Rethugs think will solve everything: lessening trade restrictions, doing whatever business wants to erode American worker's rights in order to boost profits and so forth. This is basic Rethuggery.

[whometense]

5. Plus,

don't forget the ****Energy Bill*****. It will solve all known ills.

[whometense]

4. I give no quarter on

Sen. Barfbag. He says the right things, but he has my cognitive dissonance alarm bells ringing like mad. I can't listen to any of these right wing repugnuts talk about our need for scientists without feeling like I'm going to lose my breakfast.

How dare they talk about the "need for science"?? You can't support the kind of "nanotechnology" he's all for and cut scholarship aid.

[whometense]

6. Kerry just got there!!!

:loveya: Needed to see him this morning. :loveya:

[TayTay]

7. This should be good

This encompasses so much. There are Dem positions and Rethug positions. If Kerry doens't ream them on this, I'll eat my hat.

[whometense]

8. No national plan.

You guys are cutting the manufacturing extension program. Why? So we can give the wealthiest people in America a tax break?

[TayTay]

9. The Rethug error in logic

The Tax cuts will spur investment and have that trickle down effect. But this is not so. (China is losing manufacturing jobs, ferchrissakes.) Tax cuts are not the answer. (Neither are cutting worker's legal rights or benefits.)

[TayTay]

10. obligatory shallow comment

(If softens my wonkiness.) He looks great!

[whometense]

12. Yes.

Yes, he does. :evilgrin:

[TayTay]

11. American companies don't think strategically

This is a huge problem. Americans think in terms of short-term gains, not long-term planning. This is a huge problem. India and China are planning for educational resources for their people that don't have huge loan burdens and such. This is vital!

[TayTay]

13. Wow! Great

Lots of cuts
Why?
Because this years's budget required it.
Why?

Only manufacturing job created in America is this guy's. Nice line Senator.

Kerry is reaming him. (Told ya, I told ya this would be a good one.)

[whometense]

14. Yeah, he really is.

46% cut. Not, it was 90% No, 46%. Well then, what was the justification for a 46% cut?

Ooooh. Sexy glasses.

[Mass]

15. He is really great today

not letting this guy go away with his crap.

Too bad it is finished now.

[whometense]

16. Kerry's still talking. n/t

[Mass]

17. Yes, I commented just as Ensign told him it was finished

but he continued for a while.

Now Pryor.

[whometense]

20. So, let's see if I have this right.

The answer to the manufacturing and technology problems are to create a new bureaucracy? A BOOK gave him his marching orders? I can't fathom how these idiots think government is supposed to work.

Pryor's good.

[TayTay]

21. Pryor is very good

His voice and pitch sounds softer (sounds being the operative word here, LOL!) He actually plays very well after Kerry.

Gawd, Rethugs do stay on message, I'll give them that.

[TayTay]

19. I hope Kerry stays and questions the next panel.

That was great stuff.

The budget is being cut in exactly the way it needs to be boosted. Kerry called this guy on his bullshit. (And the budget is not honest in this and so much more.)

Nice job. Despite what Kerry said about this being non-partisan, do you see what I mean about the differences? Rethugs say, extend the tax cuts, enact more tort reform and all will be well. This is awful and untrue.

[karynnj]

18. He was great

Franks (?) really couldn't answer any of Kerry's points. He also seems to not even get the bigger picture. The trend in technology is quite dangerous and Kerry really summed it up beautifully.

[whometense]

22. Is Kerry

ranking member?

[TayTay]

23. Yes.

He is of this and a few other comms. (Small Business, out and out)

[TayTay]

24. Sen. Barfbag:

I can't add anything, so I'll just parrot your comments.

I learned the word 'Nanotech.' That's all I remember. Can't talk about anything else. I miss Sen. Wyden. He used to coach me on this stuff. Now I have to speak on my own. Sigh. Nanotech.

I got good press in Va. And we now call VA, the semiconductor dominion. Hmmm, catchy.

OMG, what tax policies help. Tax, tax, tax.

VAers --- How did this guy ever get elected? He is dumb as a post.

Gawd, when he finishes, Kerry should pull out his car keys and say, "Now George be quiet and I'll let you play with the shiny keys."

[whometense]

25. Snurk. (suppressed giggle)

Must be a little scary to be a staffer sitting back there when your senator reaches around for some data.

[rox63]

26. And he's supposedly going to run for Prez in '08

Continuing the * tradition of being "dumb as a post". Gawd help us all...

[whometense]

27. You can tell by his

tone of voice that Kerry respects the Georgia Tech guy.

[TayTay]

28. Very much so

and he completely and fully backs what Kerry said out on the trail last year. Every single bit of it. (And Sen. Barfbag is managing to keep quiet and play with his blocks.)

Oooh, sexy reading glasses! Like that. (I am so shallow.)

Sigh! That was great. So true and so well argued.

Sen. Barfbag now to state the obvious.

"If it weren't for the Guttenburg Press, Martin Luthors 95 thesis (or feces, Allen's diction is off) would have been read by very few people." OMG, how did this guy ever get elected? What the hell goes on in Virginia? Allen is dumber than the average post. (I wonder if he gave JKerry back his keys before he left.)

[whometense]

29. Nah, just female!

:evilgrin:

That was beautiful!!!! God, he's so smart. And now Barfbag looks up from his blocks and wastes some oxygen.

Ok, JK stalker alert - where's he going now????

[TayTay]

30. Some meeting

Probably with Dem Leadership. They are strategizing on Bolton and the Judicial Appointments. He may (or may not) make appearances on the floor today. (Janice Rogers Brown nomination and stuff.)

I just switched to C-Span 2. Nice hearing btw. I think I will post a long-winded and wonky thing on it tonight. It deals with issues that are the key to the future.

[karynnj]

31. Thanks for posting the link

Although it won't happen it would be great if more people saw the Senators in these hearings. Both because the issues will determine what kind of country we'll have and to see how good many of the Senators are and how idiotic some are - Why is Allen on this committee? - he seemed lost.

Kerry was brilliant in connecting everything. (Although he said he's been in the Senate for 22 years again.)

[TayTay]

32. I have decided to just skip it on the 22 years

I think he is saying 22 in state and federal government. It's too small a point for me to become obsessed with and I will skip it. (I will try and skip. Honestly I will.)

This was a good hearing. It was to the point and raised some exceptional issues that need to be addressed. And it had that high entertainment factor with George Allen talking both before and after John Kerry. (Poor Sen. Barfbag. He is just a moron. Again, Virginia, what the hell were you thinking?)

Anyway, this was good stuff. Kerry made his points well. We do need to fund education better and fund NSF and other federal programs that give the boost to competitiveness in the US. And taxes are not the answer to everything.

[karynnj]

33. I never noticed it - until you (or someone) pointed it out

He is so accurate otherwise that it's kind of cute. It was interesting how even some of the Republicans pointed to things he said. I wish this type of stuff could have been addressed more in the campaign - as Bush doesn't seem to care that we need to be technologically competent.

I still don't get what the administration's goal is on this. Unless they really see the future as the world being the US's empire, I don't get what the US offers if we're not more innovative. (At some point, we have to have more than service industry jobs.)

[TayTay]

34. Robert Reich addressed this in his talk

the Globalization movement works very, very well for those at the top and those who have a great deal of education and who are well-connected. These folks make out like bandits. Their wealth and income are going up at a fantastic rate.

The problem is with everyone below the top 10% of income. (Okay, at a stretch, even below the top 20%.) They are losing income, wealth (like home equity and so forth) and are now losing health care benefits, pensions and, possibly, social security benefits. The issues that came up in this hearing talk to these problems. We must have more high school kids consider careers in the sciences. However, if their parents are losing ground economically and can't afford to pay for college for their kids, then we are not going to grow the number of students in the sciences. (There are so many other things that come off of this discussion.) Today's hearing was very very good in bringing a lot of that to light.

the 22 years thing annoyed me, but I am going to ignore it. (It is too small to notice.) It makes me feel small so I have decided not to bring it up anymore. I think he is looking back at 22 years of serving in office. He's right in that.