January 24, 2008

Thank you President Bush

The quote "May you live in interesting times" is sometimes referred to as a (translated) Chinese proverb or curse. An alternate version of this curse could be "May you be inspired by your politicians' speeches." All throughout my life I've been thoroughly bored by political debate and discussion, frustrated into apathy by political gridlock and intraction. But lately I've been inspired by several different politicians, and I've been feeling really good about the future, and I owe it all to the massive ill will that has been built up by President Bush, and the overwhelming and tiring amount of cynicism that his leadership promotes.

Here are some of the things that have inspired me.

  1. Barack Obama's speech on Martin Luther King Day:
  2. Chris Dodd's speech in the Senate about the FISA bill (really, why the fuck should I care about this? And yet, here I am, inspired by W's amazing incompetence and arrogance!)
  3. Russ Feingold's speech in the Senate on the same topic.
I know I've probably alienated half my readership by posting all these speeches by Democrats (sorry, Al), but these leaders have got me interested in politics, and more young people interested in politics is better, right? Posted by mill1991 at January 24, 2008 12:17 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Tim,
First, thanks for the prompt response to my call last night. Over dinner last night Joynt and I were discussing how we used to be math virtuosos and now we probably couldn’t pass an 8th grade math exam or do simple calculus. Thanks for proving us right. We are thinking about getting back in the game, the math game that is. We are going to start doing daily math lessons and problems.

Second, in order to give both sides a fair shake on this site and keep up the republican readership, I’ll make a comment. You note, “. . .why. . .should I care about [FISA]?� I agree. I don’t really care about FISA, as you note, this will have virtually no impact on either of our lives. Whether republicans or democrats are in office our shores will be defended and the economy will keep moving forward. Government’s greatest impact on me that is influenced by different views between republicans and democrats is the amount of tax I pay. This article by Ari Fliescher in the Wall Street Journal is a perfect example of the reason I vote republican.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117668220910270761.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for paying my fair share. But, I’m concerned that we are approaching a point where more than half of all voters will pay no federal income tax, leaving politicians with no responsibility to taxpayers.

Posted by: #1 DAD at January 25, 2008 12:48 PM

Hey Al,
Here's a response to that article on a Time magazine economist blog that suggests the article you linked to is not quite forthright. The gist of it is that while Fleischer basically gets the numbers right, his implications are wrong because things are actually going in the opposite direction as he fears, and differences in tax responsibility are the result of widening income gap between rich and poor.

http://time-blog.com/curious_capitalist/2007/04/earth_to_ari_fleischer_tax_rat.html

Posted by: Tim M at January 25, 2008 1:41 PM