Daily Fred Thompson Attack
on 09/08/2007 at 08:00 AM
I think Mr. Reagan has a point. Mr. Thompson should start putting out substansive comments and ‘plans’, if you will. So should all the other candidates, for that matter. I haven’t heard anything real from any of the other Republican candidates other than reversing prior positions on abortion and gun control - reversals I’m not yet ready to believe. (What I’ve heard from the Democratic candidates is more than enough; thanks anyway.)
So far, Brother Thompson is my personal favorite - with possibly the exception of Duncan Hunter. Sadly, Brother Hunter doesn’t seem to be igniting much national interest.
So, let’s hear the plans folks. Mr. Guliani, what are you going to do to restore full firearms rights to the citizens of this nation? Senator McCain, what plans do you have to ensure freedom of speech and expression in these United States? Representative Paul, how will you forestall the bloodbath in Iraq when the Democrat controlled Congress takes all our troops out of Iraq?
Just some thoughts…
Fred can come up with all the pie in the sky rhetoric he can create, but the proof of this pudding will be whether he keeps those promises once elected. Unlike the dems, who expect and encourage their candidates to lie out their butts during the campaign and then forget everything once elected, I want a candidate who will actually get things done. We’ve had 20 years of weak-willed Presidents now. Isn’t it time for a change?
All these folks need to come up with plans and let us know about them. We went through 18 months of JF’inK mouthing “I have a plaaan” last time around, and he had SQUAT.
Need a plan Fred? Here’s a bit of mine ... took me a whole 2 seconds to come up with:
* shrink the federal government and give power back to the states.
* The DOE gets replaced with a set of standards for each grade level.
* DHS gets shelved, or replaced by about 6 people in a weekly meeting. First law enforcement, intel, or border security agency that is found to not be cooperating with the others gets the axe: fire them all and hire new people from the bottom up.
* 3 years of minor subsidy programs for businesses that run on illegal labor. If they can’t fix their business model in that time, fuck em.
* every department, especially state, gets cut 5% per year.
* most farm subsidies get eliminated.
* Line Veto comes back, or perhaps appoint the guys from Pork Busters to Cabinet level posts.
* Transparent Earmarks. No more of this sneaky sh** behind closed doors.
* Social Security cooperates with everyone else right now or they all get canned. Call up the guys who write the credit card databases and have them set the system up properly. Verifying your SSN should be as fast and as easy as swiping your credit card in the grocery store ... and the results could come back with a picture from your driver’s license. We don’t need a national ID because all the data is already there.
* There are no unions in government. Every last person, right down to the janitors, work there at the President’s pleasure.* shrink Medicare expenses by raising the qualifying standards. If you’re retired but have more than 50 grand a year coming in, then you don’t need Medicare. 50 is an arbitrary number of course ... 40 or 60 might work better.
* capital gains tax = 5%. Forever.
* Alternative Income Tax goes away. Forever. Death tax goes away too.
* Federal Income Tax rates get cut 2% per year for all income earners over $45K. Impose some minor income tax on the low earners who aren’t actually paying anything.
* Marriage Penalty goes bye-bye.
* Social Security money goes in a (sorry to say it) lockbox. Well, 20% at least to start, with more every year.
* Any money invested in a 401K or IRA is tax free as long as you leave it there until you’re at least 62.
* Obviously, build the fence. Then have the National Guard patrol it.
* Utter embargo of Iran and North Korea. Excpt we’ll buy their oil and pay for it with rice or wheat.
* Reign in the ATF. They are out of control.
* OSHA takes a huge step back. They have strangled business with excessive rules.
Make the hippies happy:
* no hormones or unnecessary antibiotics allowed for any livestock sold for meat.
* Clean Air Act gets a little stricter.
* CAFE requirements go up a little.
* No mercury allowed as a preservative for any medicine.
* Increase the list of banned chemicals in our food.* Repeal the Sugar Act laws. We could use all the cane sugar the world produces and get that awful corn syrup out of our food. This will earn the Caribbean countries billions and just might bring them out of turd world status.
* More nuclear reactors. About 100. Drill for oil in Anwar and off the Florida coast. Build 5 new state of the art refineries with an emphasis on non-pollution.
Geez, this is too easy. I could go on for hours. So I expect Fred (and Rudy. And Shrillary.) to all come up with a big list of workable ideas within the next 72 hours. Empty rhetoric like that spewed by the Silky Pony just won’t do.
Dagnabbit, I put up a post with 20 or more points that would make things better, and would make both sides happy, and the damned IE ate it. Grrr.
Anyway, if I can come up with so much so fast, then Fred and everybody else should have no trouble at all.
D’oh! Struck by the dread Internet Temporal Anamoly once again!
Michael Reagan does have a good point. Fred need to tell us how he’s going to do it because none of the other candidates, both Republican and Democrap, are telling us how they’re going to do it. I think if Fred follows his advice, he’ll be our next president. I think this is more of advice on the part of Michael instead of a demand.
Drew I like your list except the IRS (and their zillion employees and pages of non-sensical rules) can get cut down to size - a simple 15 - 17% - if it is income, you pay it. Stop the idiotic loopholes.
Reign in the Insurance Cos and Medical companies - who I swear have co-conspired with the pharma corps to create a ‘new’ condition (with requisite medication) every 6 months - and the FDA needs a complete and utter overhaul and transparent way of ‘producing results’.
Interest on Medical Savings accounts, college savings accounts and 401k/IRA is tax free. We no longer encourage buying nor saving - it seems as though everything is taxed - even after you start your dirt nap. Cut the Congresscritters off at the pocketbook that will be the first step to reign them in. [Of course I also subscribe to the what is good for the goose (President) is good for the ganders (Congress) - Term Limits and Pay Cap]
I like the line item veto and wonder if there is a way to go and get rid of well say for instance that phone tax that was put in to fund the Spanish-American War, and other such ancient subsidies (I remember in the 70s of one still on for Wool production from WWI and Helium from WWII) - it is all just a scam to keep the ‘defict’up in the screed zone and to keep those tax dollars coming in.
As for Fred’s requirements and stated plans - why the heck should he be held to a standard that none of the others are? And usually the plans aren’t put into effect any way.
So until someone has the backbone to actually take on our Government and make it really work for the People rather than work over the People - whatever comes out of their mouths is just campaign sloganeering and who ever slogans the best wins.
I quite like drews list, and Michael Rs. And I want to hear the plans so we as a nation can evaluate them. And then I want to be able to fire ANYBODY that ends up waffling or changing direction once they’re in.
Thompson has had just as long as all the rest of the pack to come up with a platform. He has an advantage in that he has not been public and been picked apart yet, so has the opportunity to tweek it without being called a flipper.
He can surge to the front by putting issues on the table, straight forward, honest, and in touch with the base.
Now is not the time to dwaddle. Now is the time to ACT! slap a good plan down. Don’t bother with feel good catch phrases. AMericans want ideas and answers. We are sick of the petty name calling the rest of the “losers to be” are engaged in.
Many people have tuned out as far as election 2006 redux is concerned.
The things that erk me to no end:
Candidates who announce before Labor day.
Candidates who neglect their elected office while chasing another truck. They were elected to do a JOB, DO IT!
Candidates who don’t have a plan.
Drew. DO me a favor. Get your ass out of theat chair. get down to Leno and announce!Drew458 Wardmomma04 08
Drew’s list… hmmm.
* shrink the federal government and give power back to the states.
* The DOE gets replaced with a set of standards for each grade level.Okay, I like it in principle, but what happens to all those wage earners with no job? I agree, most of them are lazy and don’t do anything (I’m one of them) but does anyone see an economic problem with just dumping them all?
* DHS gets shelved, or replaced by about 6 people in a weekly meeting.
That will fix everything. This nation is going to manage Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Transportation Security Agency, Air Marshals, Coast Guard and about twenty other agencies with six people?
First law enforcement, intel, or border security agency that is found to not be cooperating with the others gets the axe: fire them all and hire new people from the bottom up.
Right! If anyone recalls, the TSA was started just that way about four years ago. From scratch, bottom up. TSA is still the most popular thing about which to gripe in modern government.
In point of fact, we should do that to L. A. P. D. and L. A. S. O. Simply fire them all and start over. But that’s a different story.
* 3 years of minor subsidy programs for businesses that run on illegal labor. If they can’t fix their business model in that time, fuck em.
Not a bad idea. How do you propose to get it passed in Congress? Even a Republican congress?
Not a bad idea. How do you propose to get it passed in Congress?* every department, especially state, gets cut 5% per year.
* most farm subsidies get eliminated.
Not a bad idea. How do you propose to get it passed in Congress?* Transparent Earmarks. No more of this sneaky sh** behind closed doors.
* Social Security cooperates with everyone else right now or they all get canned. Call up the guys who write the credit card databases and have them set the system up properly. Verifying your SSN should be as fast and as easy as swiping your credit card in the grocery store ... and the results could come back with a picture from your driver’s license. We don’t need a national ID because all the data is already there.
Not a bad idea. How do you propose to get it passed in Congress?
* There are no unions in government. Every last person, right down to the janitors, work there at the President’s pleasure.
You slept through the civics class in High School regarding the ‘spoils system’? The reason we have ‘Civil Service’ laws is due to the abuses of the President being able to fire everyone and hire his friends. Google it; perhaps it’s in the web somewhere.
* shrink Medicare expenses by raising the qualifying standards. If you’re retired but have more than 50 grand a year coming in, then you don’t need Medicare. 50 is an arbitrary number of course ... 40 or 60 might work better.
* capital gains tax = 5%. Forever.
* Alternative Income Tax goes away. Forever. Death tax goes away too.
* Federal Income Tax rates get cut 2% per year for all income earners over $45K. Impose some minor income tax on the low earners who aren’t actually paying anything.
* Marriage Penalty goes bye-bye.The “Fair Tax” is probably a good idea. No exemptions, low flat rate for everyone. I actually prefer doing away with income tax and imposing a National Sales tax instead. One can hide income, one cannot hide purchases.
* Social Security money goes in a (sorry to say it) lockbox. Well, 20% at least to start, with more every year.
Social Security needs to be a dedicated fund to pay off those who have paid into it; and then ended for future generations. As long as we’re reducing government, the government has no business being in the retirement fund business.
* Any money invested in a 401K or IRA is tax free as long as you leave it there until you’re at least 62.
Okay…
* Obviously, build the fence. Then have the National Guard patrol it.
Fence, yes; Guard, no. The Constitution does not allow for ‘military’ to provide ‘police’ services. I think this would be a bad precedent. Either way, it requires a Constitutional amendment.
* Utter embargo of Iran and North Korea. Excpt we’ll buy their oil and pay for it with rice or wheat.
There is a total embargo on North Korea. They (Kim Jong Il the whacked) don’t seem to care. Iran is a nation with a population not happy with their current government – I don’t think we should go out of our way to alienate those people any further. There are lots of Iranians who live in the U. S. and still have family in Iran; those Iranians are not mad at us particularly. We need to hit the Iranian government without damaging the people. It’s tricky and I really don’t have a plan of my own.
* Reign in the ATF. They are out of control.
Yeah; move their investigative and enforcement authority to FBI. Leave BATFE as a licensing body. Or, move legislation through Congress to repeal Internal Revenue Taxes on Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and just dump it completely.
* OSHA takes a huge step back. They have strangled business with excessive rules.
Something needs to be done. As a nation, we need to protect workers while allowing jobs to go on. Perhaps make safety a union function? Unions should be lookink out for their troops, right?
Make the hippies happy:
* no hormones or unnecessary antibiotics allowed for any livestock sold for meat.
* Clean Air Act gets a little stricter.
* CAFE requirements go up a little.
* No mercury allowed as a preservative for any medicine.
* Increase the list of banned chemicals in our food.I could probably live with most of this. Making the Clean Air Act stricter could be like ‘empowering OSHA’ you realize. It would actually have to deal with air quality issues and not liberal moonbat perceptions of ‘clean air’.
* Repeal the Sugar Act laws. We could use all the cane sugar the world produces and get that awful corn syrup out of our food. This will earn the Caribbean countries billions and just might bring them out of turd world status.
I’m not much of a food faddist. No comment.
Not a bad idea. How do you propose to get it passed in Congress?* More nuclear reactors. About 100. Drill for oil in Anwar and off the Florida coast. Build 5 new state of the art refineries with an emphasis on non-pollution.
So we get Brother Thompson or some other guy we like elected. Who provides the magic wand to do all this stuff? This cannot be done by ‘Executive Order’, folks. Some of this stuff requires Constitutional changes and the rest a lot of legislative changes.
And here’s my pork barrel project to keep Congress honest. All laws – all laws – expire five years from date of passage. No law can be re-enacted in conjunction with any other law.
They guy is making his first stump speech and is supposed to have already layed out his entire plan for peace on earth?
Well, yeah. What else was he doing all this time before declaring? I assume he was thinking out his positions.
Regardless, I have the same problem with Fred Thompson that I have with John McCain. Both, while senators, have voted to curtail rights guaranteed by the Constitution. John McCain co-authored McCain-Feingold and voted for it. Then-senator Thompson also voted for it. If sitting Senators attack the Constitution like that, they are ‘enemies, foreign and domestic‘. I’m still under the same oath to support and defend the Constitution against ALL enemies...etc.
So no, I’m NOT with Fred. In fact, I can’t find any candidate I would support. Though I do read that Allen Keyes is weighing a run. I liked him in ‘96. My dream ticket in ‘96 was Forbes-Keyes. But we got Dole. (sigh)
Archie I was just coming up with a plan to see how long it takes. I’m sure not all of them are workable and a few may be at cross purposes.
Prior to Bush 2 there was no DHS. Prior to Clinton all these groups could talk to each other. Draw up a big flowchart, make it so, and cut the overhead. TSA is the biggest thing I’ve seen out of these guys ... and the idea is just a recycle of something from the Clinton years, but even more PC and watered down than the pablum they finally passed.
It does not work ... or it does work, at a deliberate massive inconvenience to the rest of us.And yes, put people’s jobs on the line. They all get laid off due to inefficiency or some major screw up? TOUGH SHIT. Happens every day in business. Remember when AT&T, IBM, etc kept laying people off 10,000 at a time? Almost all of us found jobs elsewhere. Government is not a jobs program. Well, it shouldn’t be. It should be the greatest honor; a rare privilege to the proven best and brightest. It might seem that the only answer to this is a spoils system, but an honest government hires people with skills, not connections. Ok, so I’m naive here ... but the cronyism has to go, and unions are not th answer.
How do I propose to get it passed in Congress? Easy. Because I said so. And you said so. And 160 million other people said so, and continue saying so every week. Government By the People: get involved, get heard. Vox populi: if Fred comes in with a Reagan sized landslide and gets people involved again, then a few million letters showing up every week to each Congress critter will get their attention. Especially if people put the muscle on their state legislators as well, to get them to write recall laws. I’d guess at least 85% of the people in this country are sick unto death of the runaway, irresponive, and irresponsible, “leaders” in DC. Actually the idea would work for any candidate. Just get the people fired up and involved. It’s only when we stop watching them every damned second that the monkey business starts up. Look what happened this summer with that Shamnesty bill. Down. In. Flames. And both houses just about buried in letters, calls, and emails. About time!!!
Maybe it (new agendas) could be done by additional voting. WTP need some leadership, but most all of us are more than capable of telling these leaders where to go. It’s time to straighten out, toughen up, and get past the worthless touchy-feely crap we’ve had for a generation now.
Business As Usual has to end. Business As It Ought To Be has to start. Hell, if the Senate had 2 votes in a row that were split on party lines more than 85% I’d fire the lot of them ... because that means they’re being pouty babies, not leaders and people of high reason. If they can’t honestly debate, reconsider, and reach agreement then they’re useless. Tit for Tat is corruption. Party politics is obstruction. Add-ins ("amendments" to bills that have nothing to do with the original bill) is both of the above, and ought to cost these bastards their jobs. On the spot.
Wardmama...the Spanish-American War Tax was phased out last year and we got up to $30 back on our Tax returns this past year.
Archie,
What is wrong with having the National Guard GUARD the nation? Border protection is not a police function except if they are intercepting drug traffic. Protecting the border from economic subversion should fall to the military because it is a foreign power acting against our national interest. Not how the Mexican Government supports the invaders.Drew, I have to agree about cutting the incompetent out of the job market. However, cutting one to two thirds of governmental jobs is going to have a heck of a splash on the economy. I’m not arguing they serve a valid purpose, but cutting that payroll is going to have serious, deep and far lasting effects on the national economy.
Perhaps not replacing people who quit, transfer or retire might be less catastophic. I do agree, government is too big and doing things it doesn’t need to be doing.
I only brought up TSA to address your comments about replacing whole law enforcement agencies from the bottom up. To replace an agency in toto is an amazing project. That’s the big problem we have right now setting up the (new) Iragi police and Army. When we defeated Germany during WWII, we left many of the civilian political leaders in place. Even if they were NAZI members. To have replaced them all with anyone else would have caused massive turmoil and confusion - like there wasn’t enough to go around.
About influencing congress. Good luck, bunky. Yes, I’ll write letters too, but do you really think my two senators (Boxer and Feinstein) are going to do anything but leftist-socialist party line? Most of the Democratic members of the House are afraid of the moonbat left they serve. They sure aren’t concerned about hacking off you or I.
If Thompson gets elected in “...a Reagan sized landslide and gets people involved again...” I don’t think we’ll get that sort of landslide, seriously. I think we can get him elected, but not more than 55%, I’m thinking. If Thompson is elected, if the Democrats still control either the House or the Senate, they’ll continue to block everything he does, just like they’re doing to President Bush. Our letters won’t mean squat to the moonbats.
And even the Republican entrenched suspects won’t vote to cut their own pay or benefits. Dream on. Forget about any legislation that would allow the population to summarily fire any Congressional member.
Still, much of what you propose has merit. If we could just figure out the details.
Jeremy, take it up with Congress. Refer to the “Posse Comitatus Act”, (Title 18 U. S. Code § 1385). The law dates from 1878, dealing with the aftermath of the Civil War (or War Between the States, if you prefer.)
Illegals entering the U. S. from Mexico has never been viewed as the Mexican Government encroaching on our territory. Perhaps it should be, but that’s another story.
Aside from that legal consideration, how many Guard units do you want to call up to watch the border? Do you not realize the Guard is a part-time force who have jobs and lives other than being a force in reserve?
Then, what do you propose to do with the agents of the Border Patrol - who have the specific mission of defending the legal boundaries of this country from illegal entrants?
