Dem Max Baucus on C-Span...saying US Students need to learn Chinese

[KoKo]

preferably Mandarin Chinese so they can accustom themselves to change in the World. He says he visited Delhi, India and they have a shining new subway system where "Cell phones actually work." He said that in our US subway systems there are "dead spots."

He's laying out a Dem plan where he will introduce legislation for investment in Education so that we can become Competitive with the "rest of the world."

Yet, a bill just passed which CUTS funding for Education, etc. He keeps praising the Presidents speech and the emphasis on Education...but he says we don't save, our health care is a mess...etc and Americans aren't saving money like the Chinese do!

He really seems to be all over the map with "Good Intentions" but sounds very DLC and Repug like. His solutions seem to be more in line with Bush/Repugs than Dems.

He's proposing a little JFK mixed with Ronald Reagan and Bush I...and it didn't work then...so why should it do now?



What do Montanians think about Baucus.

[Skidmore]

1. I listened to Max Baucus last year give a series of five lectures in

Congress--long ones too- on how wonderful China is. Wonder where some of his contributors live.

[KoKo]

3. He sounded more like a "Professor" looking toward past mistakes and

trying to work for a "vision" of what America could be in the future, while not taking responsiblility for what our Repugs have done because our Dems didn't speak out in the past decades.

I've been around awhile. I felt that Baucus plagerized what JFK spoke about when I was a little kid but old enough to "get it" and it sounded "STALE" to me. It might sound "new" to younger DU'ers but our Dems have been touting these same "Talking Points" for SO LONG that it really is disgusting...in that they didn't deliver anything but CIVIL RIGHTS which WAS HUGE...but left us (as Johnson said it would) in the WILDERNESS in Politics for Decades.

Condi Rice and Clarence Thomas are what we have for our noble intentions. Also Harold Ford.

My preference for what came out of the Civil Rights Movement are "Charlie Rangel and *gasp* Al Sharpton, Barbara Lee, John Conyers and the Black Caucus in the House. My hero's are few from the Civil Rights era..and only the Repug Lights like Powell, Condi, head of AOL/TIME WARNER and Clarence Thomas and the unseen other REPUG RECRUITS are the ones WHO ACHIEVE THE BIG BUCKS.

I wonder what it was all about? The Dems (Johnson/JFK ERA) worked so hard to allow so many people access to College (Lyndon Johnson's "Student Education Loan Program} for the FIRST TIME allowed so MANY OF US...to go to College...yet what happened when we went? So many became Repugs and never THANKED those who gave them their access to education.

American History is so distorted by the Media Whores and the Right Wing that it's hard for young people today to understand anything or give proper credit for what they have to those who deserve it. :-( It makes me weep thinking of the distortions and lies.

[sandnsea]

11. Wanting to sell beef and wheat I imagine

I would guess the Montana economy would like that pretty well. Along with timber and coal. These enormous populations are going to grow econmically whether we sell to them or not.

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. Oh yeah, isn't he the Senator who thinks outsourcing our jobs is

a good thing?

[KoKo]

4. What was strange was that he never mentioned all the Tech/Med jobs that

have gone to India. He said the Indian Government "asks where America is."

I started yelling at the TV at that point! I screamed: "You F'in Baucus....our JOBS...High Tech and Medical are over there in INDIA! WE AMERICANS BUILT Delhi's SUBWAY SYSTEM on OUR BACKS! WITH THE HIGH TECH JOBS LOST TO INDIA! You F**ING HYPOCRIT!!!!!

But, he sounded so nice... I wondered if I was wrong to yell obscenities at the TV...He made me wonder is I was not seeing "THE BIG PICTURE." :shrug:

[SoCalDem]

6. Unfortunately, the "big picture" is that the US is no longer an insular

nation that can afford to sit back and wait for the world to come to us.. Our leaders have given away the farm, and now we must grovel for scraps.

The official language of travel is English, but there are some lurking giants out there who happen to speak a different language. There was a time when we could dismiss them as "quaint", and their country as "an interesting place to visit", but that time is long ago.

If we expect to compete, it might be a good idea to at least know what they are saying. It's unlikely that they will want to or need to use English that much when they (with India) are over 50% of the production of the world and 60% of the monetary wealth of the world (by 2050)..:scared:

[SammyWinstonJack]

9. You weren't wrong to yell obscenities at the TV. And you have the

big picture as pertains to his view of globalization of American jobs. And he isn't on our side.

[SmokingJacket]

5. He's damn right we should be learning Chinese, though.

Clearly, China is going to become the next big thing. Like the country or not -- and I don't; they have a terrible human rights record -- they'll be kicking our economic ass in a decade.

As it is, I don't see much of a future for my kids here -- college is getting unaffordable for middle class families, and lots of areas (esp science) are being defunded. If I could get my kids fluent in Mandarin by the time they leave the house, I could quit worrying about their futures...

When I lived in Montana, democrats liked Baucus pretty well -- but that was in comparison with Conrad Burns!! And in those days (90s) things were mellower.

[KoKo]

12. I grew up in the Fifties and it was French then Russian,Japanese, Mexican

Spanish/and now Baucus puts us to "Mandarin Chinese." :eyes:

I think our lack of bi-lingual education has been horrific...but I've gone through this so many times..and frankly...leaning "Mexican/Spanish" would have in the "long run" been more productive.

I live in NC and we have MILLIONS OF HISPANICS who run our Conveniece Stores and Build our Houses and Tear DOWN the Houses folks today don't want.

A few words of Mexican/Spanish seem to be okay for the "Contruction Job Forme" but it makes me wonder about the huge Contruction Death Toll in job related accidents here in NC for our Hispanic Americans.

Maybe we need to learn more than a few "command words."

But...Baucus says we need to learn "Mandarin Chinese." That alone shows what a Corporate WHORE he is! Do a Google about "Mandarin Chinese" as opposed to what MOST OF CHINA SPEAKS ...and you will see what I'm saying.

Sheesh! :eyes:

[wordpix2]

7. now that China holds the note for *'s selling of America, we all

should learn Chinese

[John Q. Citizen]

8. Max is a strange dude. We need a viable alternative in MT. He was

one of 10 Dem Sen. who crossed over to push through the bogus medicare prescription bill.

And he went for the bankruptcy bill.

It's hard to find true fans of Baucas, everyone kind of puts up with him because he bring home a lot of pork. A lot of people are disgusted with his peo-corporatist anti-consumer rambling.

He drags down the party. He's not up for re-election until 08 so I hope we can find a challenger for the primary.

[KoKo]

13. Thanks for the "info" on Baucus... I guess I should have figured as much

listening to him...and having so many questions about what he was spouting.

And..that he kept referring to Bush's Speech as a Roadmap for HIS (Baucus Bills of Reform!) :rofl:

He had YEARS for reform...and he speaks as a TRUE MINORITY....That's what our Dems have become...pitiful echo's of the great REFORMERS of the Past.

And...they don't really give a shit if they vote for Bankruptcy Reform to hurt Americans who are living on Credit Cards because of NO JOBS and NO PROSPECTS and they just pushed through a new bill making it MUCH HARDER for those wanting to go to COLLEGE to EVER REPAY THE STEEP LOAN REPAYMENTS.

He talked about how great INDIA was doing without mentioning CORPORATE OUTSOURCING...

All those questions I had were answered when you said how he's voted to undermine the very programs and bills that would have helped our Education, Savings and Infrastructure.

Hey MAX BAUCUS...maybe if we weren't spending BILLIONS IN IRAQ we might just have enough to take care of what needs to be done at home. But, looking at you...I think you are old enough to remember the BILLIONS squandered in IRAQ that put our country as Second Class to Japan and now you are comparing the US with CHINA?

Scare tactics right out of the Bushie/Rove Script. :puke:

[sandnsea]

10. He wasn't praising, he was contrasting

The President said bla bla, but here is the reality and here's what we really need to do. The Senate is not South Park.

[KoKo]

14. Excuse Me? "the Senate is not South Park." What does that mean?

:shrug: