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Originally Posted by Jermyn Davidson
C'mon Pel,
GWB and Congress were Republican dominated for MOST of GWB's time-- when he spent the most.
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Nope. The Dems "took back" the House and Senate midway through GWB's
first term. He hardly had Congress behind him at all. One single budget was passed with both a Republican Congress and GWB in office - and that budget was passed on the heels of 9/11.
The Republicans controlled Congress for most of BILL CLINTON's terms in office, not GWB's.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jermyn Davidson
I don't count the bail out because it was a necessary evil.
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It was an "evil" necessitated by the government take over of the mortgage industry with Freddie Mac & Co. The "bail out" was necessitated by too much government and the cozy relationships that Wall Street has with the ruling Dem majority.
Wall Street took reckless risks because they knew that they'd have a government handout waiting to cover up for their errors. So, they rolled the dice and put it all on risky derivatives contrived from mortgage debts, collected huge multi BILLION dollar bonuses and then handed the whole mess off to their friends in Congress to straighten out.
Having made a whole lot of filthy lucre themselves off of this scheme, the Dems then took the "bad guys" like Bernanke, Geithner and the rest and put them in charge of the US Treasury in the Obama admin. Nice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jermyn Davidson
Though it may not have affected me much at all (will you know if you are under survelillance for checking out the wrong book at the library?), a better group of people to ask would be all of the innocent American citizens whose lives have been made remarkable more difficult because their names were on a "No-Fly" list or they have the wrong combination of letters in their name which causes extra scrutiny and embarrassment... or maybe we can ask the Americans who have friends or even relatives who live abroad in countries that are not exactly friendly to us-- I bet they can tell you what it was like to live under the fear of constant scrutiny.
Just because it did not affect you negatively does not mean that the Patriot Act did not cause unjustifiable injustices for other Americans.
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In 2006, I tried to reenter the country with a copy of my original birth certificate - the one with my footy prints on it and the little bracelet that reads "B-A-B-Y." (Ironically, this is the same document that the birthers want Obama to produce).
Since I had just been hospitalized, my wife had packed everything for me and she didn't grab my Passport, nor even a copy of my birth certificate - instead she grabbed the envelope with my "footy prints" document. I spent 2 hours sitting in an I.C.E. office in Miami when I attempted to return to the US.
Me. A blue eyed white guy with the surname of a Scot. I was treated cordially and just had to wait while the computer searches concerning my identity were complete. When that was done I was one my way.
I have a very low tolerance for the jive claims about how you have to be "the wrong color" or "have the wrong letters in your name" to be held up for an intense screening. I suffered that indignity and came away having only lost 2 hours of my precious time. I have actually been there, in THAT room where they do the body cavity searches and I feel like I am something of an "expert" on just the types of things that go on.
Still, the Patriot Act has had pretty much ZERO impact on my life and on the lives of the illegals in my community. We're all just keepin' on like we've always been.
Give me some examples of those who have suffered "unjustly" due to the Patriot Act.
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