I'm conversing with Debbie Schlussel on the Howardstern Bulliten Board

[Bombtrack]

She just made this post

QuoteOriginally Posted by This Face Bangs Beth
Debbie so what do you think about Bush so far ? ................

I actually have been very, very critical of Bush. He's invited many terrorists and terror supporters into the Oval Office, despite Secret Service objections. He's even hired some of these people into his administration, despite FBI objections. So domestically, he is very, very weak on terror. It's only abroad that he has the guts. But if you have cancer inside your body and you are fighting only the cancer on your outer limbs, the cancer will metasticize, and you will die anyway (and probably more quickly). I've written a lot about this since 2000.
My other problem is with his out-of-control spending. Bush is demonized by the left as an intolerant miser who cuts off the poor. But actually, he's a big spender -- his education bill, his farm bill, his Americorps bill -- that's all despicable.
So people need to really read my columns before dismissing me as a Bush soldier. I'm pretty critical of both sides, and I think I'm very fair in that respect. Don't get me wrong. John Kerry will be at least as bad, and probably worse.
Debbie

What is the quickest and simplest way to unspin her critique about democrats critisms of Bush and how he's "actually a big spender"

[neuvocat]

1. Just quote her.

"My other problem is with his out-of-control spending. Bush is demonized by the left as an intolerant miser who cuts off the poor. "

Those tax cuts benefitted the wealthy and screwed the poor.

"But actually, he's a big spender -- his education bill, his farm bill, his Americorps bill -- that's all despicable."

The education bill has no funding-ask Ted Kennedy about the "No Child Left Behind" Act. Americorps has been slashed and nearly replaced in favor of Bush's version (the name escapes me but guess what? Funding for that program doesn't exist either).


"So people need to really read my columns before dismissing me as a Bush soldier.
I'm pretty critical of both sides, and I think I'm very fair in that respect. Don't get me wrong. John Kerry will be at least as bad, and probably worse."


Rhetorical tricks like that just don't fly. You can't say that one guy is bad then the other one worse then say you're impartial, especially with unsubstantiated shit like that. I have a little bit of a hard time believing Bush actually hired known terrorists to work for him directly anyway.

[Lexingtonian]

2. But she's an idiot

-albeit a very nice and very amusing sort of idiot, if her appearances on Bill Maher's show were good indications of what she's really like.

All the Bush spending is directed at "terra" and bribing/paying off Republican constituencies. The deficits are directly related to the tax cuts for the rich.

And she's a fruitcake paranoid for thinking the U.S. federal government is full of terrorist conspirators. It's full of Bush appointees that are incompetent, corrupt, and betray the People's best interests at every turn for their special interest corporate buddies.

Debbie's little problem is that she can never figure out the math on anything- who wins and who actually loses at the games being played is stuff she just can't figure out for herself. Her shtick is big generalities and vague ideas of the sort that teenagers find fascinating and important- We Should Have Small Government, Decrease Spending, Let People Do What They Want. Nothing she argues ever adds up.

[Bombtrack]

3. Yeah, I told her my replies about alot of her points

about how right-wingers have to understand that the vote-buying bills that Bush passed do not make him moderate, they basically make him shameless and that he didn't pass them to be compassionate, he passed them to help himself to spin them for votes and to reimburse his poltiical/lobbyist friends.

But she's a fellow proud Stern fan and I don't think she goes on his show just to self promote I think she genuinly likes him and his show, AND at least for several months as far as I can remember she never uses her call-ins to propogandize for the GOP or Bush and usually it's just some story in the news usually relating to terror or the middle east she wants to tell Howard about and then maybe opine somewhat but never going into full fembot mode.

[Bombtrack]

4. Anything I should ask her about?

I wish some liberal op-ed columnists and/or pundits posted on their.

Man the people from Air America need to adopt DU as their messageboard and post here in the middle of the night.

[Joanne98]

5. Yeah ask her about this......

Blackwell rulings rile voting advocates
Boards of elections told to strictly follow two provisions
By Jim Bebbington and Laura Bischoff
Dayton Daily News

DAYTON | Voters-rights advocates are criticizing two recent decisions by Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell that they say will unfairly limit some people's ability to vote Nov. 2. Blackwell's office has told county boards of elections to follow strictly two provisions in Ohio election law:

• One requires Ohio voter registration cards be printed on thick, 80-pound stock paper.
• The other ordered boards to strictly interpret the rules regarding provisional ballots, the ones cast by voters who move before the election but are still registered in Ohio.

The paper-stock issue is frustrating Montgomery County Board of Elections officials, who have a backlog of registrations to complete. If they get an Ohio voter registration card on paper thinner than required, they are mailing a new card out to the voter. But if they still have the backlog by the registration deadline, Oct. 4, voters will not have another chance to get their correct paperwork in, said Steve Harsman, deputy director of the
Montgomery County board. "There is just no reason to use 80-pound paper," Harsman said.

In Montgomery County there is a backlog of around 4,000 registrations, Harsman said. A few hundred could be affected by this provision, he said. Cuyahoga County board of elections officials are ignoring the edict because they have already had an avalanche of new registrations submitted on forms printed on newsprint in The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. "We don't have a micrometer at each desk to check the weight of the paper," said Michael Vu, director of the Cuyahoga County Board. Blackwell's office has given the Cuyahoga board a special dispensation to accept the newsprint registration forms. The requirement is because the forms are designed to be mailed like post-cards and must be thick enough to survive mechanical sorters at the U.S. Post Office, according to Blackwell's spokesman Carlo LoParo."Our directive stands and it is specifically in place to protect newregistrants to make sure the forms are not destroyed," LoParo said.Confusing the matter further is a national registration form available offthe Internet at the federal Elections Assistance Agency. That form mustbe accepted by Ohio boards regardless of what it is printed on, Blackwell has said.

The heavy-weight paper was a requirement when the cards were kept for years, were used to keep track of when a person voted, and were the main way to check signatures to combat voter fraud and verify petitions.
But many boards, including both Montgomery and Cuyahoga, scan the signatures into a computer database and no longer record voting history on the cards.

The League of Women Voters of Ohio on Thursday called on Blackwell to clarify his position. League national president Kay Maxwell said she knows of no other states that are requiring the 80-pound paper stock for voter registration cards. "This is the first I've heard of it," she said on Thursday in Columbus.

The other directive forbids poll workers from giving a provisional ballot unless the person can prove they live in that precinct. Peg Rosenfield, spokeswoman for the league, said she interprets federal to be less restrictive. Rosenfield says people who show up at the wrong precinct should be given a ballot and allowed to vote on the non-local races. (contact Jim Bebbington at 225-2262)

[Safi]

6. ?

What is the quickest and simplest way to unspin her critique about democrats critisms of Bush and how he's "actually a big spender"

Punch her fucking lights out? Who's the journalist here? You're on DU. She probably makes 6 figures to peddle such bullshit. Its her fucking job to do the goddamn math, not parrot talking points.

Not advocating violence against women, just overpaid 'journalists'.