great post.

Where were the Democrats ten weeks ago?

In a dark forest, stumbling without a message. Do they still have one?

An excellent post, but it won't mean a damn unless the Democrats come up with something better--a coherent message.

It's time the Democrats turn the class warfare card back on the Republicans.
I like tax cuts too, but what the American right is proposing is absurd--
raising payroll taxes so the middle class would "care more" about the cost of government? Very twisted thinking.

And to say that FICA is a "Christmas Club?" C'mon now. This is unthinkable thinking, and it needs to nipped in the bud now.

Yeah, there was a NYTimes Op-Ed by a billionaires against abolishing the estate tax a few years ago, but it never got anywhere.

Will it now? My guess is that it will, as it's now obvious that the administration has gone too far.

We should note the "Gates" in this item is Bill Gates, Sr., not his son the founder of Microsoft (who is known to support his father's efforts).

Yes, RonK is correct. Bill Gates does agree with Sr on this issue, and it looks like this is their way of highlighting the gross class warfare that Bush is pushing.

It appears that a number of people normally sympathetic to bush are so appauled by the tax cut, and perhaps other recent Bush adventures, that they feel compelled to step forward and say enough.

It seems that the N. Korea fiasco was a sort of tiping event. That display of utter and utterly dangerous incompetence weakened Bush, took the gloss off. Doubts have been sown.

What I find ironic is that the first time someone really stands up to bush and tells him to stuff it, a pygmie no less, Bush falls apart. He is left stammering without a response. His poll numbers start dropping like a rock. His Iraq game plan is left in tatters. His economic plan is attacked by former supporters. He is in free fall.

Karl quickly throws together a diversion plan: In less than a week, bushdom declares sanctity of life day on the anniversary of roe v. wade, opposes affirmative action in higher education on martin luther king's birthday and revs up its plan to stuff states rights and adopt federal tort reform. The pot is stirred, and this time domestic strife is unleashed to mask forign policy disasters, instead of the other way around, as it was nearly a year ago, when we got a new war plan to distract from domestic disasters.

I hope the Gates family will make a difference. Already, there's GOP opposition growing to totally stripping the tax on stock earnings -- maybe that's why Bush is pushing it early in a non-election year. Now is the time for Ms. Pelosi and her cohorts to get Gates endorsement of the Democratic stimulus plan. The Democrats indeed have a plan, but I have yet to read much about it.

MyDD, that is a brilliant post. It just occured to me reading it that Microsoft yesterday declared for the first time that is is going to pay a dividend on its stock. Microsoft executives have long said that they would NEVER pay a dividend and made of fun of the idea. Now, out of the blue, the company announces a dividend. Could this be the Gates' trying to help the cause by, in effect, highlighting the gross inequality of the Bush dividend tax cut for this coming battle? It would be brilliant counter-intuitive strategy. Will see...

MyDD,

Nice post. I would actually call the Lott fiasco the first chick in the armor, but then, Bush's numbers have been dropping for a year now.

Bush is an incompetent nitwit and if his numbers keep falling the year could be full of surprises! I wonder if John Mccain is watching these numbers....primary challenge :)

I'm not sure what McCain is going to do, but he is up to causing plenty of trouble. Did you notice the bill he and Joe Lieberman introduced to combat global warming and greenhouse emissions? That's a smack right in Bush's face. No surprise, given the bad blood between the two. Keep it up, John!

awesome, I didn't see this in the newspaper, which leads me to my next question:
Are the Democrats really failing to provide an alternative? or is the media just completely unwilling to report it?
The media seems completely partisan. They don't seem to report things like this, I still haven't seen Pelosi once talking on TV (her fault or their fault?), they don't report marches and protests with a 100,000 people in them. what's going on?

It makes me so tearful to see Democrats now rallying around Bill Gates after they tried to destroy him for so many years.

Just as they do to African-Americans, Democrats abuse people until they are useful. When it comes to African-Americans, they are useful at election time. When it comes to corporate leaders, it is when they are needed to oppose Bush. The rest of the time, you either ignore or attack the same people.

Bush's Iraq policy is working. The UN is being forced to actively investigate Saddam's WMD program. Obviously, based on the materials found yesterday, the intelligence the CIA is giving Blix is accurate.

Of course, I'm sure all the supporters of Saddam over the President must be astonished that Saddam actually is preparing systems for WMD delivery.

Must have hit a cord if the freepers are showing up here again; bushrep, I don't recall inviting you back. Get lost.

The blog coments here are a hell of a lot better without your venoumous spin that come with your presence; you add zilch to the objective analysis, and inject 100% blind loyalty.

Maybe you don't see Pelosi on TV because the House has recessed.

Maybe you don't see Pelosi because she doesn't have anything to say.

Maybe you don't see Pelosi on because the news media doesn't want to abrasive liberal style to destroy what is left of liberalism in America.

Maybe you don't see Pelosi because the national spokesmen for the Democratic Party are the presidential contenders and Tom Daschle.

Maybe you don't see Pelosi, because in terms of wielding power, she is insignificant.

I have never seen or heard a democrat attack Bill Gates or African Americans. Where are you coming from, BushRep?

Okay, I'm leaving. MyDD wants to keep his site left, and conservatism, let along moderation, isn't needed.

One of these days, I'm going to bring several hundred Freepers over to this site. Won't that be enjoyable?

[editors note: go ahead, either, depending on the mood: 1) there posts will last about as long as a minute; 2) I'll ban everyone of their IP's; 3) I'll change their comments to have them say how much they love Democratic Party's diversity, multicuturalism, and inclusivity-- that it reminds them of what Jesus preaches.]

BushRep, you're acting like a little child who had his toy taken away. See ya!

MyDD didn't leave me any choice. (D-Boy, Iraq (D))

Howard Fineman, a Newsweek columnist who is one arbiter of the mainstream press, described Bush yesterday as a "suddenly vulnerable" president. That's a far cry from the "Top Gun" Newsweek cover story from early November.Since then, there's been trouble with the economy, delays with Iraq, frustrations with North Korea, and Bush opposing affirmative action on the eve of the MLK, Jr. Day celebrations (good timing, Mr. Prez!).

Look next for Bush to be described as "beleagured"--yet every Bushie out there will claim that as soon as you start criticizing or underestimating Bush, it blows up in your face. But so far in '03, Bush hasn't fended off the critics--what's happened to his teflon?

Cute.......

Gee, like I said before it must really be getting bad for the GOP when they are sending people out to hurl invective on discussion boards. Look guys, Bushrep is very naive. He had no idea that dixiecans have the GOP under their thumb when the Trent Lott stuff happened. So just consider the source.

I don't know BushRep well, but my impressions are that he has a fealty for G.W. Bush and his policies. Occasionally, he has criticized the far right. His tone can be sarcastic, arrogant, and condescending, and he seems to know this, and knows other posters recognize this. Yet, there are worse on discussion boards. I think his saving grace is that he can produce good research.

Pelosi was up on the Friday just before Bush released his tax cutting plan. I heard her on C-Span and she sounded great.

Bushrep is just mad because he is living with Ed Rendell as governor. Also why does he come here when he is NOT wanted??? He acts like Mydd owes him equal time. Its HIS site, does Rush Limbaugh give equal time? What a spoiled little boy who has probably never worked a day in his life. I was a Republican until I was 20 then reality smacked me in the face!

Well, maybe BushRep would be more interesting if he didn't keep cribbing his posts from R. Robot...

On Gates: even the Younger stated at the outset his opposition to repeal of the Estate Tax. Between his foundation efforts and these tax salvos, I suspect he's demonstrating a conscience, despite certain business practices that has built so much resentment towards him. I say Bully for him!

As for BushRepetitious: those empty shells have a throw capacity of 12 miles. Keep cowering under your own schooldesk, son; he's no threat to anyone outside his borders.

As for me, unless someone's attacking us or allies, I'm not as eager to invest so many young men's lives that should be properly spent chasing skirt, not chasing some has-been thug and the innocents' skirts he'll be hiding behind to increase the casualty rates.

But if you've been appointed to be Bush's Rep, it's really a pity that the leader of the strongest nation on the globe feels so desperate that he's gotta hire blog trolls to do his PR... or are you just repaying an old cocaine debt?

So now Bill Gates is our spokesman? The richest man in the world who keeps much of his workers on as "temporary" so he does not have to pay them benefits. The Bill Gates who fights all attempts of his workers to unionize. Why does the Democratic Party claim to be for the American working people when the richest and most exploiting people in the world run the Party. Four out of five of the richest multimillionaires in congress are Democrats. When we celebrate the fact that the richest man in the world is a Democrat, we show everyone that we are the Party who past NAFTA, GAT, and the WTO into law.

Our new House leader Pelosi is a multimillionaire. At least Dick G. had some credibility as a pro-labor leader. Pro-NAFTA Pelosi is a slap in the face to the American workers. Our DMC Chairman McAuliffe is a multimillionaire who walked off with $18 million from the Global Crossing Corp. just before they went bankrupt. And it was revealed in the Department of Labor case Herman vs. Moore, that McAuliffe swindled the IBEW Union out of millions of their pension money. The IBEW is one of the strongest and largest Democratic contributors. But McAuliffe is still our DNC Chairman. Either we return to a Party for the working people of America, or we continue our rapid decent as a Multimillionaires club and a permanent minority Party with less and less credibility.

I can attest to Microsoft's temp practices. They'll hire you for a project (typically through a temp agency that takes 45-65% of the pay, like Sakson and Taylor), expect you to commute to their campus and use their equipment each workday, and then fire you for a hundred days each year if necessary so the IRS won't get on their back. (Your medical benefits -- if your agency offers any -- will vanish as well while you're out.)

How well you're treated by the employees (their badges are blue while yours is orange) depends on the department. Some consider you an equal, others as a serf, and others still will give you not an office, not even a cubicle, but a desk in a room with twelve others in a "temp cage".

I *do* consider Gates' foundation more responsible in their activities than Microsoft; the latter's charitable activities seem to consist of donating their problematic, to say the least, software (available at the campus store for $50 or under, which is about what it costs for manufacture -- did I mention they use prison labor for assembly?) and writing off the full list price on their corporate taxes.

Dear sir,

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HIV-infected people and AIDS'orphaned children.also we are doing
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dying everyday with aids.As a leader I'm trying to be sponsored to get
the available adequat treatment delivered for aids'victim.Also, we want to cooperate with your organization and to work
in paternship with your organization.Thank you for your helping hand reached to those in great need. Jesus said "For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me ... inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My bretheren, you did it to Me." (Matthew 26:35-36,40)

hoping to hear from you soon, please be praying for us and may God bless you with all kind of blessing

the manager

rev. guy mahoungou

our web-site:

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e-mail:jmc_info@yahoo.fr