News from the dark side . . .

[DollyM]

For 8 years I have listened to and to endure rah rah Bush forwards from my sister in law. I kept my mouth shut to keep the peace in our family but I finally have had enough. She sent me this from FRC and I finally blew a gasket. She emailed me back and said I was "bitter." I am still formulating an answer to her as to how she thinks I am bitter and people like FRC are somehow wonderful and joyful at our new administration and a new President. Anyway, enjoy news from the dark side . . .




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [e-mail]

Sent: 2/10/2009 4:36:14 P.M. Pacific Standard Time
Subj: Obama: Up to His Earmarks in Pork








Share with Friends | February 10, 2009
Obama: Up to His Earmarks in Pork


Yesterday, President Obama was back in campaign mode, hoping to engender the same affection for his massive stimulus bill that he did for his candidacy. This time, voters are noticeably more skeptical. In Indiana, Obama abandoned his trademark optimism and warned that without his trillion dollar spending spree, we would be turning a "crisis into a catastrophe." He defended his recovery plan--but not without telling a few whoppers about the intricacies of his plan.

To a roomful of Hoosiers, Obama said, "Understand, this bill does not have a single earmark in it, which is unprecedented for a bill of this size. There aren't individual pork projects that members of Congress are putting into this bill." In truth, it depends on how the President defines the word "earmark." A majority of Obama's projects are wasteful, special interest spending programs. If the Coast Guard's $255 million "polar icebreaker" doesn't qualify as pork, what does? Maybe the $3 million tax benefit for people with golf carts or ATVs?

Obama bragged, "The plan that we've put forward will save or create three million to four million jobs over the next two years." As the Associated Press points out, those numbers are impossible to substantiate. "The president's own economists... stated, 'It should be understood that all of the estimates presented in this memo are subject to significant margins of error.'"

Despite voters' displeasure, the stimulus bill passed the Senate today, paving the way for some high-stakes bargaining between the chambers. Democrats have already indicated that most of the Senate cuts will be put back into the final legislation during the House and Senate conference. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the "compromise" expected to pass today will cost $18.7 billion more than the House bill. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said, "I do think that there was some spending in the bill that was makeup for a starvation diet under the Bush administration, some important priorities of our party." A "starvation diet" is hardly how I would characterize Bush's two terms, in which federal spending ballooned by more than 20 percent!

Unfortunately, this is just a tidbit of what the administration has in store over the next few months. On the threshold of an unprecedented $1.3 trillion stimulus, the President is moving forward with "phase two" of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), created to rescue Wall Street. In TARP 2, the Treasury Department has floated the possibility of spending up to $150 billion in new bank bailouts, shortly before the springtime omnibus, which is rumored to cost another $500 billion.

Additional Resources
Associated Press: FACT CHECK: Examining Obama's job, pork claims



Can You Hear Us Now?


Despite the Italian Parliament's furious efforts to save her, Eluana Englaro, the comatose victim of an automobile accident, died yesterday in Rome after her father won the right to euthanize her. Apart from her limited consciousness, Eluana was healthy, receiving only food and water from her caretakers since 1992. This weekend, at the request of her dad, the clinic starved her to death. The news came as the legislature was working on an emergency act to save Eluana's life. Here in Washington, it is a tragic irony that Thomas Perrelli, the attorney who fought for the death of Terri Schindler Schiavo is being considered for a top post at the Justice Department. His Senate confirmation hearing was today, along with that of Elana Kagan, Obama's choice for Solicitor General.

Fortunately, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy is feeling the heat from your calls of protest over nominees like David Ogden, a legal extremist who fought to protect child pornographers. As more red flags are raised, Leahy will do what he can to fast-track these nominations. You can make a difference! Please continue to call your leaders at 202-224-3121.

Additional Resources
FRC: Contact your Elected Officials



The Talk of the Town


Don't miss this Thursday's lecture, "The Audacity of Hype: Embryonic Stem Cells Wasting Taxpayer Lives and Taxpayer Dollars" at FRC headquarters from 11 a.m - 1 p.m. National expert and FRC Senior Fellow Dr. David Prentice will lead the discussion. We encourage you to watch the event online if you cannot attend in person.

A special study guide is available for download on our site at www.frc.org/events. If you're a homeschooling family (Grades 6 and up) who would like to participate, please register in advance by following the links on our homepage.

Additional Resources
FRC Lecture: 'The Audacity of Hype: Embryonic Stem Cells Wasting Taxpayer Lives and Taxpayer Dollars'













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[rurallib]

1. Maybe I shouldn't say this but

relatives I have that are Bushco supporters get little but a hello from me. I believe I would send her a note that her nam has been added to my junk mail list.
If you believe you can convert her, forget it the mind is closed. And she will pester you with huga amounts af garbage until you finally see the light.
For me, life is just too short to put up with such willful ignorance. Maybe I am out of line on this.

[mysticalchick]

15. Not out of line for me ...

... I don't argue, I don't fret ... they will not change their mind until they understand (if ever) that we are all in this together. So, I'd say to the OP that the energy you spend getting aggravated at the email will be better spent elsewhere to bring something nice into his/her life.

My family knows better than to send me ANYthing like this. And I've got some hardcore repugs (closet KKK peeps, I suspect) there along with some sheeple but they all know how I feel and leave me be.

Agree with your comment "life is too short".

[drm604]

2. Family Research Council?

What does any of that have to do with "family research"?

[barbtries]

3. frankly, i'd be bitter myself

if i wasted my precious time reading the crap she sent to you. This thread http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5055729 or the linked article might be one way to rebut her. i mean without having to actually read the BS. i don't know. i applaud you for coming back at her anyway, and consider that calling you "bitter" is just another way for her to avoid debating the merits of your argument.

[scarletwoman]

4. If you kept your mouth shut for 8 years, she can do the same. Tell her not to send you this crap.

There's no reasoning with people who buy into the FRC worldview, and it's a waste of your time and energy to go through it line-by-line to counter it. It wouldn't make any difference anyway.

If you don't want to be confrontational, then simply delete anything like this that she sends you and don't say a word. If she asks you about it, then you can let her know that you have no intention of reading that stuff and that you will delete it as soon as it comes into your inbox. "You may as well stop sending it, SIL, because I'm not interested in reading it, and I always just delete it."

Really, save yourself the aggravation and just don't bother reading that crap.

sw

[david13]

5. The rule is: Never discuss politics or religion

in mixed company. That means where you know they disagree with you.
I have relatives who send me all that stuff too, and I have had to just block/sender them. And when I see them, tell them, YOU didn't send me anything, all you did was cc somebody else to me. Don't do that.
My father and his wife supported Barack, but they saw my uncle recently, and he didn't say anything, he just made a face, therefore, nobody discussed politics. Just other stuff.
Families just end up fighting the most, unless we just stay in the safe zone.
dc

[DollyM]

6. I have asked her a couple of times not to send forwards . . .

As well as dropping general hints that I did not agree with her political views but it has all gone over her head. I have found that people like this live in a little bubble, they believe everything they read and hear from people like FRC and FOX news. She lives a charmed life so nothing really touches her either. She is a single mother with two kids but aside from two years of married life, has lived with her mother in a nice home in California. She doesn't pay rent, buy groceries, utilities, anything. She works in retail so she doesn't make a lot of money but heck, she doesn't need too. Her only expenses are her medical bills and what little the kids need as I am sure my mother in law takes care of buying the kids clothing and toys too. So people with real needs don't exist in her mind. What I see from the Stimulus package is some help from those of us who are suffering from job layoff's and need unemployment and food stamps. We are facing having to pay back the state of Wisconsin $3000.00 in unemployment because my husband quit a part time job at Walmart so we could move back to Illinois where we at least had family and a house that we own. They say he shouldn't not have got unemployment so we are fighting them on that. In addition, we will have to pay taxes on the unemployment that he got which is going to be about $1000.00. We don't have jobs or unemployment coming in so I have no idea how we are going to pay anyone anything. The stimulus is forgiving federal tax on unemployment received this year which will help a lot of people. I just wish it had been done last year but my husband reminded me who was in charge last year!
So if I am "bitter" it is because we have suffered under a man with no heart or compassion for people in our situation. It is easy for my sister in law to sit and pass judgement because she does not have to worry about day to day survival like we do.

[lsewpershad]

7. Dolly

don't let anyone steal your energy. Put them on ignore.

[DollyM]

8. My SIL isn't used to anyone standing up to her . . .

So it's time for a change. I am at the point where I just dont care anymore if I offend her or my in laws. They are the most wacked up people I have ever met and their kids are a mess, my husband included.

[scarletwoman]

10. Just because she sends this stuff doesn't mean you have to read it. DELETE it.

Don't read it, don't respond. You don't need it.

[NC_Nurse]

9. I got off all of their lists by sending them back liberal stuff like MoveOn and

commondreams petitions. They stop after a while. ;-)

[demgurl]

11. How you react is, of course, up to you.

Let me point out something before you react. She knows you are a liberal or else she would not have made her snipe about being bitter. That is the only thing I need to point out because it says all you need to know. The only reason she would send you stuff, knowing you are liberal, is either to re-educate you or irritate you. I go with the latter since she felt she had offended you enough to irritate you and instead of saying she was sorry, she called you bitter.

This says volumes about who she is. She sounds like she is trying to push your buttons and now you must decide how you will react. You can snipe back at her and things will most likely escalate. Or you can take the high road and tell her you are sorry she feels you are bitter but you hope some day she may want to hear the information you have gathered and consider your side of politics. Kill her with kindness. She is looking for a reaction and it only feeds her if she gets a rise out of you.

It is only when we take down walls that we can get along better together. If both sides build walls then we will never be able to see eye to eye.

Good luck with your interaction and I am rooting for you.

[TBF]

12. You can't control her - only your response to her. I'd suggest ignore and delete.

That is the response that works well for me. :)

[DollyM]

13. I suppose that is true but . . .

for 8 years I have been hitting delete and I'm just tired of it. It is like they can't stand that we actually won and have a decent President for the first time in a long time and have to go and try to make everyone else miserable. I'm just fed up and don't feel like playing nice anymore. I think they should rename themselves the joy suckers because it seems like that is all they want to do is suck the kindness and compassion out of the world.

[TBF]

14. Randomly send her news reports of all the good things Obama is doing -

that is sure to annoy her :)

I have two especially crazy family members - one is my FIL & the other my father's new wife. They both forward the right-wing emails etc... I used to occasionally open them & send the correct information from snopes, but now I just delete. If they were nicer people they'd see their grandchildren more often. Because they continue to be assholes I don't make much of an effort to be nice to them. They reap what they sow.

Good luck dealing with her.

[DollyM]

16. I had to laugh about this . . .

I just routinely go to snopes now and look up whatever my SIL sends me because it is usually false so I stop and send her the link on snopes. Do these people take every stupid thing they read as the gospel truth? It just amazes me how gullible some people are. I have even gently suggested she needs to check snopes first before she sends out the things that she does but it just goes right over her head.
I voted Republican during my early years, even voted for Reagan, (okay, I will regret that until the day I die!)but working in social programs and seeing them get cut under every Republican President and Governor, I started re-thinking my position and really researched and studied before I vote. I don't agree with every thing Democratic, I have some strong issues with abortion which is primarily why I voted Republican in the first place. But I have found that overall I agree more with the Democratic tennets than I do the Republican ones. The point is, I make a thinking decision as to who I support and why, I hate it when I see other people blindly follow someone or something because they don't want to have to think. That's why God gave us brains, so we can use them!