This is beginning to bother me

[ewagner]

I'm seeing some really disturbing signs coming out of the Bush* Administration. It appears to me that they are playing for the short term in almost everything they are doing. Spending and legislating like there's no tomorrow!

Just read the thread about the 10 Trillion "baloon payments". They don't give a damn about future generations

Think about their short-sighted policies in the ME.

I'm getting the feeling that the looting of the treasury is reaching a fever pitch.....

So the question is WHY?

No sane people would behave this way.........

[Terran]

1. Answer:

They aren't sane...not really. Bush is a sociopath, and Cheney is simply evil. They don't care.

[MuseRider]

2. " No sane person would behave this way....."

Nope, but whoever said they were sane? They will break our backs for years to come.

[EstimatedProphet]

3. You make it sound like this is new

Theyve been doing it since they got into office.

[htuttle]

4. They are expecting the Rapture any day now...

...just as soon as they can start a bigger war in the Middle East. Apparently, the last one wasn't big enough to bring Jesus back yet...

So they see no need to plan for future generations.

[SCDem]

9. That's what I was going to say

because you know God speaks to the Republican party!

[waywest]

18. They're BANKING on thr rapture.

hope i hope i hope i hope

[lapislzi]

14. Welcome to the politics of Armagideon Times

apologies to Joe Strummer et al.

[Atman]

16. That isn't funny

And there is a lot of truth to it.

[mhr]

5. They Got Their Millions; Screw You And Everyone Else!

eom

[RoadRunner]

6. they believe the rapture is coming

Fundies believe that the world will soon end and all the "right people" will be swooped up to sit at the right hand of Jesus. Why give a shit about a few trillion dollars, since only us miserable sinners will be "left behind."

[FlaGranny]

11. Don't they realize that those "right people"

are virgin representatives of the 12 tribes of Israel? Don't they realize that few Christians can claim to be Jews AND virgins? And don't they realize that after this "rapture" the rest of humanity, even the good folks, have to wait another 1000 years before their reward? I guess most fundies don't stop to consider the so-called "facts." Maybe they should pony up some cash for DNA testing to see if they are descendants from one of the 12 tribes. If they find they are not, maybe they won't be so anxious to bring down the wrath of God on themselves and their loved ones in the here and now.

[RoadRunner]

27. just a guess, but

I'd say they prefer the Pat Robertson version. I remember when Watt was sec of interior, he actually said that it doesn't matter if we cut down all the forests because the world is due to end soon anyway. Scary folks.

[kitkatrose]

29. Hmm...

I know about the 144,000 of the Israeli tribes, but I thought, there would only be seven years between the rapture and the apocalypse. :shrug:

[indigo32]

7. They got carried away in the beginning

and are now afraid they are going down... so why not go for broke. But desparation is not a pretty thing, and can be dangerous.

[sybylla]

20. I would like to think you're right

That this apparent ratcheting up of the plunder and suppression of our rights is out of fear that they will lose. If this is the case, then they don't have the election bought/hacked and there's still reason to hope we can actually elect our next president.

Problem is that it can just as easily be explained away as sociopathic behavior too. And both seem plausible.

[Lefta Dissenter]

8. Absolutely every decision they are making

is totally insane. They're completely out of control and out of their minds. I simply can't believe ANYONE would vote these guys back in, but, unfortunately, that's what I thought the last time around, too.

No matter who our nominee ends up to be :( , we need to move heaven and earth to get him elected.

And don't forget your U.S. Senators and Representatives (I know you won't, ewagner). We need people like Feingold now more than ever!

(and this is starting to bother you? You're much calmer and cooler than I am - must be all the experience you've had!)

[ewagner]

10. I understand

I've been recommended as a possible member of the Feingold Steering Committee. Hope they pick me........

and yes, remaining calm is a requirement for Public Service. used to have MYCAAT taped to my pull-out on my desk in the Mayor's office. MYCAAT stands for MAINTAIN YOUR COOL AT ALL TIMES.

[Lefta Dissenter]

13. Whooo, hooooo!

Good luck with THAT!!! (are you jumping up and down with your hand in the air, shouting, "Pick me, pick me!!!") :bounce: :bounce:

Keep us posted! (I love having friends in high places! :) )

[sybylla]

22. Great news

Hope to see you at the steering committee meeting tonight. :toast: We'll have a great time supporting a fabulous senator.

[Brian Sweat]

12. One theory is that they really believe the world will end soon.

Another theory is that they are prepared to make sure it does.

[TrogL]

15. To bankrupt congress

any time in the immediate future.

That way if a liberal-leaning Congress does get in, they won't have any money for social programs. It will all be spent paying down the deficit or for long-term defence contracts signed under the Bush administration.

Heaven forbid (pun intended) that anyone other than a businessman benefit from government.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

17. When you are looting..

as they are doing, you don't CARE what comes after, because you have yours. They are raiding the bank and walking off with the do-re-mi and leaving us with a ransacked, empty vault. Bush already did it with Texas, adn it has taken them YEARS to recover fiancially from his raid. Bush & Co. will suck us dry, we'll survive after much pain and difficulty, and they will have what they came for, leaving us suckers behind.

This group is Ken Lay/Enron all over again, but with the federal dollars.

[amazona]

19. no one lives forever and these dudes are olddddd...

* is in his mid 50s but has the brain of a man in his mid70s or older from the alcohol/drug poisoning. Most of the most influential advisors in his administration are much older. They don't have long to live, so short-term planning makes sense. They will not be around to pay the piper. There is a saying, "If you've book passage on the Titanic, might as well go first class." There is little evidence that there will be clean drinking water or breathable air on planet earth in another few decades, and no evidence that these commodities exist on other planets. When only the short-term remains, short-term thinking makes sense. They are just going to grab it all and live it up while the living is good. Even Rome fell and it took a couple thousand years to get indoor toilets again. I don't think they're insane (other than * who clearly suffers from Korsakoff syndrome) -- just evil if we define evil as being incapable of empathy. I don't suppose that they seriously believe that there is any reason to plan for a great many future generations -- it's unlikely that we have all that many generations to go.

[priller]

21. That's what happens when you "run government like a business"

Especially with this sort of businessmen. It's ALL about short-term profits, making the next quarter look good. It's Enron all over again.

[MISSDem]

23. Because they want to bankrupt the government; that way they

can say that the "welfare" programs can't continue because they can't afford them.

[RedEarth]

24. To get re-elected

Bush is strictly in it for political reasons and doesn't care what impact his decisions have on ordinary people.

[belle]

25. Two reasons:

They've never, ever had to suffer the repercussions for *any* mistake they've made--Dubya in particular; and they have absolutely no connection to the rest of the world. So technically, yeah, I'd say that's a form of insanity. Moral insanity, maybe.

I do think the Biblical shit is scary, and at some unconscious level they may very well have some kind of death wish for the world. (Eric Fromm and Robert Jay Lifton have a lot to say about this phenomenon: "Destroying the World to Save It" is the title of one of Lifton's books). But whether most of them actually sit down and say to themselves, or each other: "Don't let's forget the *real* goal: to fuck everything up beyond all repair! (so that the Rapture can come)"--i tend to doubt it. I honestly don't think they're self-aware enough. i think they really do think they're being heroic or something. Or they think they think so, you know. also, like Saddam Hussein, i think they like their material pleasures a little too well to risk *everything* being blown to hell: despicable, thoughtless cowards and tyrants, yes; drink-the-Kool-Aid-before-surrendering, probably not.

anyway, Ashcroft, the likeliest contender for this sort of thinking in that bunch, seems to come from the "post-millenial" or Reconstructionist mold; they are also scary, but a different flavor of scary; unlike the Hal Lindseys, who think that *first* the apocalypse happens and *then* Jesus will come, they think that it makes much more sense to try to establish God's kingdom right here on earth *now,* so that Jesus will come back. Think more "Handmaid's Tale" than "Left Behind."

[Robbien]

26. Also remember Peak Oil

Cheney is certainly one who knows whether we have peaked or not.

[adriennel]

28. read Suskind's book

I'm learning a lot about how this economic "policy" (term applied VERY loosely) was developed. You are right in the sense that they are playing for the short term and couldn't give a crap about the future.