Can we survive crookism?

What do you mean by we?  The crooks who rob our lifeboats, will survive longest.  Isn't that all that counts?

by John Hanks (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1094 comments) on Monday, July 7, 2008 at 2:14:09 PM
 

The Tragedy of the Last Commons

by Bucky the Commoner (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 44 comments) on Monday, July 7, 2008 at 6:08:08 PM
 

No, not in a form we'll find acceptable

And we'll have people running the place who got us here. I'm talking about those members of Congress who voted for war funding; allowed chances to save the species form environmental disasters slip by and while saying little or nothing; participated in the evisceration of the Constitution; voted for judges who mght as well get paid by corporate interests; etc.

Having a large portion of the current crew in charge a different levels of the government will ensure will insure two outcomes:

1) not much effective will be done and

2) those responsible are never punished.

You asked;)

by Michael Collins (89 articles, 13 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 329 comments) on Monday, July 7, 2008 at 7:07:59 PM
 

The Bush Years

Just a few facts besides the successes in N Korea, AIDS in Africa,  no terrorist attacks on American soil, getting almost of all of his legislative agenda passed by Congress, toppling of two brutal dictatorships, signing a nuclear non-proliferation pact with India, nuclear disarmament of Libya, bringing the economy out of the Clinton recession, instead of surrendering to Al Qaeda in Iraq and abandoning the Iraqi people he revamped strategy and given the Iraqis hope for the future and making Baghdad safer than Detroit or Washington DC, successfully rebuilt old crumbling diplomatic bridges to old allies in Europe while making NATO into a serious military alliance,  and more, lots more.  

 In a number of key categories, the amount of ground gained or regained since the early 1990s is truly stunning. Crime, especially, has plummeted. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, the rates of both violent crime and property crime fell significantly between 1993 and 2005, reaching their lowest levels since 1973 (the first year for which such data are available). More recent figures from the FBI, which measures crime differently from the NCVS, show an unfortunate uptick in violent crime in the past two years--particularly in cities like Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington. Even so, the overall rate remains far below that of the mid-1990's.

Teenage drug use, which moved relentlessly upward throughout the 1990's, declined thereafter by an impressive 23%, and for a number of specific drugs it has fallen still lower. Thus, the use of ecstasy and LSD has dropped by over 50%, of methamphetamine by almost as much, and of steroids by over 20%.

Then there is welfare. Since the high-water mark of 1994, the national welfare caseload has declined by over 60%. Virtually every state in the union has reduced its caseload by at least a third, and some have achieved reductions of over 90%. Not only have the numbers of people on welfare plunged, but, in the wake of the 1996 welfare-reform bill, overall poverty, child poverty, black child poverty and child hunger have all decreased, while employment figures for single mothers have risen.

Abortion, too, is down. After reaching a high of over 1.6 million in 1990, the number of abortions performed annually in the U.S. has dropped to fewer than 1.3 million, a level not seen since the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which legalized the practice. The divorce rate, meanwhile, is now at its lowest level since 1970.

Educational scores are up. Earlier this year, the National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that the nation's fourth- and eighth-graders continue to improve steadily in math, and that fourth-grade reading achievement is similarly on the rise. Other findings show both fourth- and 12th-graders scoring significantly higher in the field of U.S. history. Black and Hispanic students are also making broad gains, though significant gaps with whites persist. The high-school dropout rate, under 10%, is at a 30-year low, and the mean SAT score was eight points higher in 2005 than in 1993, the year Mr. Bennett published his index.

More generally, we are seeing important progress in critical areas of youth behavior. Since 1991 (a peak year), the birth rate for teenagers aged 15 to 19 has decreased by 35%. The number of high-school students who have reported ever having sexual intercourse has declined by more than 10%. Teen use of alcohol has also fallen sharply since 1996--anywhere from 10% to 35%, depending on the grade in school--and binge drinking has dropped to the lowest levels ever recorded. The same is true of teens reporting that they smoke cigarettes daily.

by Mad Jayhawk (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 224 comments) on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 at 12:23:58 AM
 

References Please

Can you direct us to the source of all of these facts? 

by PrMaine (8 articles, 5 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 284 comments) on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 at 6:35:54 PM
 

With all the respect due (which is not much)

Bullshit.

by Roger (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 335 comments) on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 at 9:36:06 AM