Sorry, Dick. Excuses are like a**h***s, as the saying goes. Everyone has one and they all stink.
Maybe they should put him on a piecework payroll, where he gets paid on the basis of attendance. Then again, is he smart enough to even have the job? Being a truant, especially during his present campaign bespeaks a paucity of the grey matter one would suppose is something of a prerequisite for the job of U.S. Inc’s CEO.
Even Trafficant, these days, is always where he’s supposed to be.
:-)

Posted by: Seth at July 26, 2003 02:34 PM

gephardt, you awful bastard.

Posted by: june16 at July 26, 2003 04:32 PM

sorry for the profanity alan and michelle, but the man has no respect for his job and no respect for his country. he obviously does not care a wit about this issue.

Posted by: june16_1904 at July 26, 2003 04:34 PM

We now temporarily take control of your weblog to urge people to get involved in this civil disobedience.

How to force congress to pass a prescription drug benefit under Medicare Part B

Now you have the opportunity to repeal HR 1/ S 1 the Republican prescription drug plan and replace it with a prescription drug benefit under Medicare Part B

Call Eckerd Pharmacy Corporate Headquarters at 1-800-325-3737 and tell them unless they can get the congress to pass
a prescription drug benefit under Medicare part B covering 80 percent of medication with no extra premium, no extra deductibles, no means test, no coverage gaps, you will not buy from them and you will tell your friends also not to buy from them.

Call CVS Pharmacy Corporate headquarters at 888 607-4287
and tell them unless they can get the congress to pass a prescription drug benefit under Medicare part B covering 80 percent of medication with no extra premium, no extra deductibles, no means test, no coverage gaps, you will not buy from them and you will tell your friends also not to buy from them.

Call Walgreens Pharmacy Corporate headquarters at 888 289 2273 and tell them unless they can get the congress to pass a prescription drug benefit under Medicare part B covering 80 percent of medication with no extra premium, no extra deductibles, no means test, no coverage gaps, you will not buy from them and you will tell your friends also not to buy from them.

Also read and sign the petition at
http://www.boycott-republicans.com

which covers a comprehensive progressive agenda.

How to stop the Republican initiated governor recall.


Hello

Several Republicans will run for Governor of California in a recall election. They have every right to run for governor.

Because the Republicans have decided to do this recall action I have a right to decide not to buy a car alarm called the Viper from Directed Electronics, a company that one of the candidates Darrell Issa works for.

I have a right to tell others not to buy products from Directed Electronics for this reason and call them at 1 800 876 0800 and demand that they get every Republican candidate to withdraw or they will lose alot of sales. So if you want to stop the Republicans from running, call Directed electronics and call car alarm dealers that sell the Viper and let the civil disobedience begin.

Also read and sign the petition at
http://www.boycott-republicans.com

which covers a comprehensive progressive agenda.

Posted by: stolenelectioncoin.com at July 26, 2003 04:44 PM

A) The sooner we kick that no load piece of liberal crap Davis out of Sacramento, the better. He is a total failure as governor. The democrats have been mismanaging California so badly that the state is now screwed up almost beyond repair, and having proven that they are not capable of running the state, if they cared about anything other than their petty party politics they would stand aside and let the republicans fix things.

B) Comprehensive Progressive Agenda = Leaving the liberals alone so they can finish the job of turning California into a combination anarchy and Socialist State.

Get a life, dude!

Posted by: Seth at July 26, 2003 05:07 PM

Okay, so 433 votes were cast. Are there 435 representatives?

At any rate, Gephardt was likely not really a deciding vote. After all, if he had been present, the Republican who would be harmed the least would have been instructed to switch votes from “nay” to “yea”, to offset Gephardt’s.

Posted by: MG at July 26, 2003 05:14 PM

stolenelectioncoin.com said, “We now temporarily take control of your weblog to urge people to get involved in this civil disobedience.”

You ‘Evergreen College’ idiot. You are a wingnut. You’re probably the geek that starts all those junk e-mails that say “forward this to 10 people and something really cool will happen on your PC monitor. If you don’t, bad luck will strike you.”

So when you’re boycotting all of the drug companies……….just where does grandma get her life saving drugs, Mr. Wizard?

Posted by: Jeff B at July 26, 2003 06:06 PM

This, Jeff, is why California is in so much trouble: The liberal politicians act without even considering an intelligent question like that.
They feel their Utopian approach will work simply because “it is right in principle, therefore it must be”, or something like that. Then they ignore the misery they’ve caused and sit there with that trademark superior smirk you just want to put your fist in….
They’ll have a ten million dollar budget for something and, fully knowing this, push through a five billion dollar plan; When it comes time for them to account for both the failure of their plan and its resulting increase in the deficit, they blame “Bush and the Republicans”. Next campaign? They actually have the moxi to cite that same “great coup” as one of their “accomplishments”, and all the airheaded liberal turnips in their constituencies, who only read liberal news venues, extol their praises on the way to the polls.
It’s sickening.

Posted by: Seth at July 26, 2003 06:28 PM

MG, there are 435 representatives and only 433 voted. The two absentees were Gephardt and Ed Pastor (D). Pastor had been in Arizona “attenting to his ill father” and not able to make the vote. Its my understanding that 433 is a high turnout and indicates the perceived importance of the vote.

Posted by: Mike Van Winkle at July 26, 2003 08:56 PM

Mike,

Thanks for the ID of the other non-voter.

I guess my point comes from my understanding of “inside the Beltway” politics. Even had the Dems gotten those two votes, the Republicans would have found two of their members who would have voted against it, and had them change their votes. That is how party leaders (in either party) maintain discipline — by letting the maximal amount of their members vote against the party position when it would otherwise hurt them at home.

Hence, Gephardt’s comment about the Republicans being able to get the votes they need when they need them.

MG

PS: Mind you, I think Gephardt shot himself in the foot politically by not making the vote, even though it would likely not have changed the final outcome.

Posted by: MG at July 26, 2003 10:05 PM

I hear the talk about California & ther problems being caused by Democrats, I live in a republican state, & we are in trouble also, who fault is that?

Posted by: sophia at July 26, 2003 11:06 PM

How much is the recall costing California.

Posted by: sophia at July 26, 2003 11:08 PM

Sophia

This is not merely a case of a bad economy, this is a case of a state government severely mismanaging funds. When Grey Davis took office here, there was about a 6 billion dollar surplus that had been generated by the high tech boom(incl the .coms) of the 1990s. The dems managed not only to blow it all, but to plunge the state about $30 billion in the hole.
The dems in Cal politics today don’t have any idea what they are doing, it’s like taking a bunch of people with degrees in Philosophy and asking them to run Merrill Lynch, except to make matters worse, these people throw tons of money at myriad social projects, to appease their liberal voters, and don’t do their homework re longterm costs and so forth, and their projects either fail miserably at well over budget or run out of money. Then they sell bonds to make up what they need, scores of issues that the taxpayer will one day, in the near future, have to start paying interest on; that will end up multiplying taxes in a state that’s mostly already overpriced on the cost of living end. The dems here have the state on an almost irreparable downhill slide, and they plan to keep doing the same things, making the same mistakes, as they implement their so called “Comprehensive Progressive Agenda, which they refuse to even compromise on, BECAUSE THEY DON‘T HAVE A CLUE ABOUT THE CONCEPT OF FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY AND HAVE PROVEN THEY KNOW NOTHING ABOUT BUSINESS.
Look at the energy crisis we had here a couple of years back: Gray Davis and company let Californians be swindled by Enron and a few other energy firms, paying humongous amounts of money for outside electricity, then when Cal had a surplus, they sold ours off for pennies on the dollar.
They have turned a once vibrant state economy into a shambles.

Posted by: Seth at July 26, 2003 11:51 PM

Oh, and the cost of the recall is estimated at about $34,000,000.00, which, when you consider the potential cost of keeping Davis in office, is money well spent.

Posted by: Seth at July 27, 2003 12:00 AM

In states controlled by Republicans in which the state is in trouble then yes the Republicans are at fault. It is not fair to say, only Republicans can ever be at fault.

But, guess what? People here at Michigan kept complaining about how the Republicans sent a surplus in Michigan down to a deficit and messed things up. At the 2002 election, we elect a Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm, but we also strengthend the Republican Congress (adding many more seats).

Granholm put together a budget that would cut the MEAP test scholarship fund by as much as $2000 so it is only a $500 scholarship and Michigan would just barely break even.

The Republican Congress countered with their own Republican Budget (as detailed in the MIGOP newsletter. www.migop.org). This budget saved the MEAP scholarship (one of the few Academic/non-racist Scholarships left in America), and created a surplus of funds! A pretty good sized surplus too!

So? The moral of the story is that while Republicans can make mistakes too, I would not start using the age old, “You do it too”, blame game. Republicans know how to climb out of a hole. Democrats have proven that they do not.

Posted by: Jeff MacMillan at July 27, 2003 08:52 PM

Jeff MacMillan

The problem here in Cal is that there is a wide(and I mean WIDE) majority of liberal democrats, and when you look at state election results, every position from governor to deputy underassistant dog catcher is filled by democrats. This is not an exaggeration, not even a little bit.
Most of these liberals could care less about the GOP and democrat sides of the issues, only about the views on issues by different democrats. Even after Gray Davis had demonstrated his ineptitude and brought the state into extreme deficit, they reelected him.
California is unique where internal politics are concerned, liberals here are determined to keep liberals in office no matter how much they screw up, and support them all the way down to rock bottom without giving an inch, what I like to term the “Lemming Principle”. If the liberal viewpoint here is “The sky is purple” and you get one of them to go outside and look up at the pale blue sky, he/ she will look you right in the eye and say, “The sky is purple”, just because it’s the party line.
No logic need apply.
I live in San Francisco, which is the Mecca of Liberals, a city where they rule, and I’ve long since learned that you can’t tell them anything. Both this town and the state are on the way down, and no matter how obvious it gets, these idiots won’t even listen to any ideas from outside their party. I go to district meetings, am pretty active to the point of even speaking at some of these meetings, and I always come away frustrated. It’s like they speak a foreign language that sounds exactly like English, but isn’t.
The California Republicans have finally reached the breaking point, said, “Enough is enough!” and are making the strongest efforts possible to do something about this. It’s a question of taking the ball away from the democrats altogether and trying to stop the plunge and, indeed, climb back out of that hole.

Posted by: Seth at July 27, 2003 11:40 PM

Before the election, Davis was saying that the budget deficit was on the order of $5 billion. Suddenly after the election, he reveals it’s closer to $40 billion. Dems are jumping up and down about how “Bush lied”. To put this in perspective, Davis’ lie, in dollar amounts, was about half the total cost of the Iraq war.
Most everyone agrees that the Iraq war got rid of a brutal murderer. Davis’ lie got us nothing but more Davis.
As for the cost of the election, it’s the merest drop in the bucket compared to the rate at which the state is hemorrhaging under his “leadership”. If we were to say that his leadership is costing $10 billion a year (a quarter of the surprise deficit), then having the election on October 7th instead of September 30th costs an extra $200 million… many times the cost of the election itself.

Posted by: Dishman at July 28, 2003 01:13 AM

Sophia - You live where? I thought you were from Venus. Geeesh. What, pray tell, is a ‘Republican’ state?

Posted by: Cap'n SPIN at July 28, 2003 10:39 AM

Yes, where is it?
The missus and I will start packing immediately!

Posted by: Seth at July 28, 2003 03:06 PM

Capn Spin said, “What, pray tell, is a ‘Republican’ state?”

There’s lots of them out here brother…….just don’t bring any libs with you. We don’t tolerate their sh-t here.

Seth….I feel sorry for you out there in the lib ‘mecca’. Not feasible, but what if everyone in Cal that is logical, just said, f—k it! Packed their sh-t…..wait..that’s what the San Fran libs do….okay..packed their bags and moved. Just tell them, “ok, you guys/gals/notsures live your beliefs out here. No help from the sane taxpayers from other states. Make your socialist philosophy work.” When the state files bankruptcy, we’ll just go out and buy it for pennies on the dollar.

Just heard Bill ORielly on Gray Davis. He gave the numbers on how Gray blew Cal’s money buying votes with special interest. I don’t like OReilly, but those facts speak for themselves. I tried to jot down notes, but an example was, the welfare cost went up 40% but he cut payouts 20%?????
Maybe we can dig the facts up on the web.

Posted by: Jeff B at July 28, 2003 11:10 PM

I couldn’t find the figures but I did find this on Fox’s ORielly website:

Another right-wing conspiracy. That’s the subject of this evening’s Talking Points Memo. California Governor Gray Davis (search) says his recall problem is a hostile takeover by the right wing. But with an approval rating barely over 20 percent, Mr. Davis must be taking LSD if he really believes that.

Just about everybody in the Golden State wants the guy out of there with the possible exception of Barbra Streisand (search). Governor Davis should own up to his incompetence and quit. He raised spending more than 30 percent a year in his term, pandering to special interest votes and he misled the voters about the financial disaster that has to befallen California.

Davis has no solutions, only tired accusations. Now you would think that Davis would just resign to retain a measure of self-respect. Hey, great. 80 percent of the folks think you’re doing a bad job. They’re not all conservatives. Got it?

In any other situation, a business, a club, even a family, if you lead the enterprise into bankruptcy, you pay a price. You either get fired or lose all credibility. For far too long Americans have put up with elected officials who lie to them and turn in terrible performances.

Leon Panetta (search), who ran the Clinton White House for a time, says the recall is bad because it creates chaos. With all due respect to Mr. Panetta, whom I like, Davis is the one who created the chaos. A recall can only improve things for the people.

Talking Points hopes people all over the country start thinking recall. That message might wake up a few of these power hunger palls who will sell you out in a heart beat.

These louts should be held accountable and partisan politics be damned. So I applaud the California recall, which has even changed the alphabet. Now it’s ABD, Anybody But Davis.

Posted by: Jeff B at July 28, 2003 11:30 PM

Bill OReilly is about to come back on…I’ll try to jot the numbers down this time.

Posted by: Jeff B at July 28, 2003 11:37 PM

Sorry…different subjects. Some left wing school teacher that is ripping the Bush administration.

Posted by: Jeff B at July 28, 2003 11:47 PM

Well Seth….just got another taste of what you are talking about. Kathy Eder, a prep teacher at Bellarmine College in Mt.View, CA that teaches ‘Morality and Social Justice’ has made a deck of cards with Bush Administration officials on them. Then she misquotes and quotes liberal media on each card. OReilly interviewed her. She’s a real winner. Can you imagine people spending money sending their kids to her for an education??? Glad that bitch had nothing to do with my kid’s education.

Posted by: Jeff B at July 28, 2003 11:59 PM

Did it ever occur to you that all states are in bad shape? If all states are in bad shape then the national government run by Republicans is at fault not the Dems. Gray Davis is doing the best he can to stop California from being destroyed by the national government. If a Republican gets in there then California will completely collapse. And also even if one of your precious ultraconservative Republicans get in control of Calif. they can’t fix it because you said yourself “California’s been ruined beyond repair”

Posted by: John at August 13, 2003 04:47 PM

I dont know what to say, but i likeed it.

Posted by: Seely Margaret at January 9, 2004 09:23 AM