Help Me respond to this email from a cousin....

[Sherman A1]

Don't know if any of you have received this drivel or not, but I could use a hand responding to this piece of _____ email. It's early and the brain isn't fully engaged yet, enraged Yes, engaged No.....

Thanks!



WHY I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER !!!

The Democrats have promised - "A New Direction For America"

The stock market is at a new all-time high and America's 401K's are back.
A new direction from there means, what?

Unemployment is at 25 year lows.
A new direction from there means, what?

Oil prices are plummeting.
A new direction from there means, what?

Taxes are at 20 year lows.
A new direction from there means, what?

Federal tax revenues are at all-time highs.
A new direction from there means, what?

The Federal deficit is down almost 50%, just as predicted over last year.
A new direction from there means. What?

Home valuations are up 200% over the past 3.5 years.
A new direction from there means, what?

Inflation is in check, hovering at 20 year lows.
A new direction from there means, what?

Not a single terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11/01.
A new direction from there means, what?

Osama bin Laden is living under a rock in a dark cave, having not surfaced in years, if he's alive at all, while 95% of Al Queda's top dogs are either dead or in custody, cooperating with US Intel.
A new direction from there means, what?

Several major terrorist attacks already thwarted by US and British Intel,including the recent planned attack involving 10 Jumbo Jets being exploded in mid-air over major US cities in order to celebrate the anniversary of The 9/11/01 attacks.
A new direction from there means, what?

Just as President Bush foretold us on a number of occasions, Iraq was to be made "ground zero" for the war on terrorism -- and just as President Bush said they would, terrorist cells from all over the region are arriving
From the shadows of their hiding places and flooding into Iraq in order to get their faces blown off by US Marines rather than boarding planes and heading to the United States to wage war on us here.
A new direction from there means, what?

Now let me see, do I have this right? Under the Democrats, "A New Direction For America" Program I can expect the following:

And This thing goes on and on.......

[Heidi]

1. Dear Cousin,

Please stop sending me rightwing propaganda.

Your enlightened cousin,

Sherman A1

[zbdent]

14. "Thank you for enlightening me on

why the average IQ levels of the American population are so wickedly skewed toward the negative ..."

[Dean Martin]

2. My first answer would be

For Republicans to be honest about unemployment. For them to admit that people who are unemployed after a certain amount of time roll off the list and no longer count as being unemployed. So they're no longer unemployed, even though they don't have jobs.

For all of those people that the Republicans brag about having jobs to have jobs that pay a wage people can actually afford to buy food on, or a roof over their heads.

That'd be a start....

[Swagman]

3. just remind him that the majority of Americans don't believe a word

he has written..which is why the Dems are back !:toast:

[Raine]

4. If the MISadministration has

done such a great job with all that stuff then why is chimp's approval rating at below 30%??? :evilgrin:

[sam sarrha]

5. say nothing and block them from your computer.. they are in denial

[lligrd]

6. Hundreds Of Thousands Have Been Killed

While you enjoy the things you listed. Does that bother you?

[lapfog_1]

7. Oh dear, another piece of right wing bullshit...

1. Stock market is "back" and 401Ks are doing fine.

Well, the DOW is "back", however, not adjusted for inflation, plus it's only an index of the top DOW components (which, if a company is doing badly, means they get dropped from the DOW). So, how is Americas car builders doing? Everything fine at GM and Ford? How about the rest of the manufacturing sector? (oh, that's right, we got rid of that because we could shift from industrial revolution to information technology... yeah, that's the ticket? Better and higher paying jobs... oh, we got rid of that too... what replaces it. Oh yeah, service industries and literally "McJobs". Paying minimum wage. Well, thankfully we all have houses that we sunk our life savings into (lot more savings wealth there than 401Ks)... what's that? HOUSING BUBBLE!
Oh crap.

2. Unemployment is at a 25 year low.

Bullshit. There isn't any data to support that. Plus many of the chronically unemployed simply have fallen off the charts because we don't count them. And by sector, things are grim for the middle class. Good paying jobs are scarce. They had to classify making a hamburger a "manufacturing job" to keep the stats for job classification from looking really bad.

3. Oil prices are "plummeting".

Yeah, they are plummeting alright, from a speculation bubble of $70+ dollars/brl to 50+ dollars/brl, btw, $50 is 20 dollars higher than the announcement target the Saudis set after 9/11 as the "stabilization price". The real reason that oil has sunk is that oil used for heating this winter has not yet materialized in the pricing so there is a temporary oversupply. That will be fixed and soon. The world has not found another huge lake of oil somewhere that could cause supply to swell, nor has the overall demand dropped, in fact, demand is still increasing because of China and India. It's just that THIS MONTH there was a temp oil oversupply because Europe and the NE US had a very very warm winter so far (record breaking).

4. Taxes are the lowest in blah blah blah...

Our nations debt has almost doubled in the last 4 years (the real debt not the phony numbers in the budget. Almost the entire cost of the Iraq war has been "off budget". Don't believe these liars. They are bankrupting the US government (that was a GOAL of Grover Norquist). What's the value of the dollar in the world these days? How come China and our "allies" in the Gulf states are dumping their T-bills... and when they are dumping them, who is going to buy them??? Our national finances are at a crises point. So glad the upper 1 percent got their huge tax breaks! Makes the $600 a year I got seem so meaningful. :sarcasm:

5. Federal deficit is down 50 percent!

This one is just sooo funny. When * got his hands ON our government, he was given not only a balanced budget but one that was finally producing a small surplus every year. The repuke tax cut, the WOT, and lavish on budget spending for military contractors took care of that. Then there is the off budget actual war in Iraq! But they don't talk about that. The 50 percent "reduction" was a phony number from start to finish. Some funny number projections were thrown out that showed us almost 600 billion in deficit spending... so now the deficit is ONLY 300 billion and they say the deficit was cut 50 percent! Course, that is still a huge deficit, adding to an outlandish 8 trillion dollar debt and still doesn't include the cost of the war.

6. House valuations up 200 percent in the last 3.5 years?

Bullshit. There was a speculative bubble in housing that drove up prices, along with easy to get gimmick mortgages. But not 200 percent in the last few years. And that housing bubble is deflating, in some places rapidly. And those mortgages... the gimmick easy to get into ones... foreclosure is going to be a common term in the next year or so.

7. Inflation is in check.

No. this year could be the first in a long time where that isn't true anymore. The government is forced to print money and raise interest rates to attract investors to the new T-bills that must be sold to float the war machine. Those new interest rates will take the wind our of the sails of the markets and kill home mortgages but are needed to try to sell some bad paper. Welcome to inflation city.

8. No terrorist attack since 9/11.

Bullshit. Right after 9/11 there was a WMD attack within the US. It was widespread and there were casualties. And to date, no one has even been identified (except for a hapless scientist) as responsible. Not only that, but it doesn't appear that anyone is even interested in this case anymore. Like Osama bin forgotten. Of course, I happen to think this attack WAS launched by elements in our own government that wanted the Patriot Act to be passed by congress. Besides a few trumped up cases against people suckered in to being terrorists, there have been no credible attempts by islamic terrorists to even try to attack our homeland. Not because they don't want to, but because they have so many other places and other targets now. And they HAVE attacked those places. Not to mention our war in Iraq gave the jihadists 130,000 (oops make that 151,000) targets to kill. All without buying an expensive plane ticket. None of those jihadists were in Iraq before we invaded (and likely they WEREN'T JIHADISTS before we invaded). They are there now, killing Americans. The number of terror attacks around the world since 9/11 has been skyrocketing. The number of terrorists has likely increased by a large percentage as well.

9. Wow... 95 percent of the "top dogs" have been captured or killed. Yup, that's a number I can believe. Since almost every day we find out that another "number 2 or number 3" has been killed somewhere. So if you take the membership roles as of 9/11, we probably HAVE killed MORE than 95 percent (we sure seem to get a lot of number 3's). course, they have all been replaced. And we have never gotten number ONE or number TWO. Granted, number one might really be dead now. That doesn't matter, his organization is now stronger and more popular with the young men of Islam than ever before. Because of our invasion of Iraq.

10. Just as Bush foretold... HA! That's the one thing they said WOULDN'T happen. The people we were fighting in Iraq after the fall of the Saddam government (even before we got Saddam from his hidey hole)... Cheney snarled that they were all "dead enders" and "leftover Baathists" and were in their "last throes". That was some 2500 (out of 3040+) dead American soldiers ago. Now they try to re-write history and say Bush "foretold" this! That's just too funny (well it would be funny except is show just how delusional these people are). Bush had no clue. He didn't invade Iraq to fight terrorists. He invaded because Saddam was his "moby dick". And for the Oil, and for the military contracts and billions his circle of Halliburton and the like would make. It was never about WMDs, it was never about ties to 9/11 or OBL, it was never about terrorists.

There are now terrorists in Iraq. Most of them did NOT come from other places (some did). If you kill a young man's family with bombs or throw someone's uncle into a torture prison, if you kill someone's father, they will become "terrorists" and try to kill you. It's that simple.

[B Calm]

9. Great response!

[rock]

11. To summarize

bush* had things so bad that they had to improve (a little).

[global1]

13. Thank You For This - I'm Going To Use This In Response To My.....

rich Repug so-called 'friend'.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

16. Excellent! I would only add that the dollar is taking a nose dive. eom

[Berry Cool]

8. Seems to me that every day, some DU'er gets one of these freeper emails "for the first time"

even though it has been brought up here and debunked numerous times.

A whole lot more people appear to need to become familiar with this:

www.snopes.com

Then they will not have to ask their fellow DU'ers to debunk the same nonsense over and over again.

Of course, DU'ers may be able to do it even better than snopes. Maybe DU should have a "Freeper Spam Group" in which examples of freeper spam and appropriate debunking statements are kept fresh and ready for use by anyone who needs them.

on edit: typo fix

[tom_paine]

10. Some quick answers (feel free to flesh them out with the research)

The stock market is at a new all-time high and America's 401K's are back.

Since Bushler took office, the dollar has weakened against foreign currncies by 15-25%. This means the stock market, in terms of global purchasing power, has actually lost money. You can have a million weak Bush dollars, but I'd rather have a hundred thousand strong Clinton dollars (and the genuinely prospering country we had under Clinton)

Unemployment is at 25 year lows.

It is becoming an axiom that Bushler numbers are lies like Soviet Fove Yeart Plans were. Bush denies Americva information by cutting us off from it. He has changed unemployment calculations to render them more meaningless than his father did.

Oil prices are plummeting.

Yes, they began right before the 2006 election. Plus, the warm winters caused by Global Warming are "helping" with oil prices while killing the planet. Finaqlly, even as oil prices are falling, gasoline remains 50-60% HIGHER than the day Bushler stole office.

Taxes are at 20 year lows.
National Debt is at a 231 year high. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Federal tax revenues are at all-time highs.
This is a straight out lie told by the Busheviks. They have changed measurements to include payroll taxes in the calculation. Further, even under this fraudulent caluculation, TAX REVENUES FELL for four straight years, before barely exceeding 2000 tx revenues. In what bizzaro universe is this an INCREASE (if I get four consecutive pay cuts, what kind of moron would I be if I crowed how much I made simply because on the fifth year I made $1.00 more than I amde five years ago? What kind of moron? The kind that wrote this e-mail full of lies)

The Federal deficit is down almost 50%, just as predicted over last year.
Staggering lie. In 2000, we had a $125,000,000,000 SURPLUS! Also, Bush accounting practices make it certain they are lying about the defecit being decerased. What the deficit means is that we are still using "credit cards" every year, just less of them. Again, opnly a moron could see a surplus to a deficit as improvement.

Home valuations are up 200% over the past 3.5 years.
Yes, and the housing bubble is bursting. Home foreclosures are at an alltime high.

Inflation is in check, hovering at 20 year lows.
Another unsibstantiated lie. Bush accounting prcatices artificially suppress inflation. Check the prices at the supermarket. Just like a Soviet who reads toilet paper production is up 600%, then has to wiat six hours for three rolls, reality just doesn't match Bush Party Lies.

Not a single terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11/01.
Considering the 8 1/2 years that went between the 1993 WTC bombing and 9/11, I'd say Bushler stille hasn;t beaten Clinton's record for keeping us safe.

Osama bin Laden is living under a rock in a dark cave, having not surfaced in years, if he's alive at all, while 95% of Al Queda's top dogs are either dead or in custody, cooperating with US Intel.

Nobody knows where Bin laden is (a check of Crawford, Texas might be in order) and to say that 95% of al-Qaeda is dead or in custody is a staggering, unfounded lie. All reports are is that Bushler's bungled invasion of Iraq, combined with his leaving Bin Laden and many of al-Qaeda's top member free, has aided terrorist recruitment.

Several major terrorist attacks already thwarted by US and British Intel,including the recent planned attack involving 10 Jumbo Jets being exploded in mid-air over major US cities in order to celebrate the anniversary of The 9/11/01 attacks.
Actually, Bushler pressed the Brist to make the arrests prematurely. As a result, half of the conspriators may go free to continue their efforts. Were the Busheviks more concerned with the 2006 election than hurting al-Qaeda?

Just as President Bush foretold us on a number of occasions, Iraq was to be made "ground zero" for the war on terrorism -- and just as President Bush said they would, terrorist cells from all over the region are arriving
From the shadows of their hiding places and flooding into Iraq in order to get their faces blown off by US Marines rather than boarding planes and heading to the United States to wage war on us here.
Is that all our brave soldiers are to you. BAIT? If you agree with this strategy, you disgust me.

[Vinca]

12. Tell cousin to turn off Rush and go out into the real world.

The email is nothing more than a parroting of right wing talking points.

[mwb970]

15. Who are they trying to convince with this stuff?

Our side knows it's hogwash. Their side already believes it. Your cousin is beyond reach. Delete the e-mail.

[Toots]

17. Apparently your cousin is one of the 12% of Americans that approve of the direction America is going

Apparently your "Cousin" is even dumber than Bush* because Bush* doesn't even believe those numbers...

[NewJeffCT]

18. Let's see - try these

1) The stock market has been flat for the last 6 years when you adjust for rising inflation. In the 8 years of the Clinton Administration, the stock market gained about 19% per year.

2) Average wages for the American worker have gone down for the first time since Hoover was president. The well paying jobs that are being outsourced to China and India are being replaced by jobs flipping hamburgers.

3) The price of gas was about $1.40/gallon when Bush took office. It is now in the $2.25 range.

4) Tax revenues are higher because the economy has grown. Tax revenues are a percent of GDP are at their lowest levels in decades despite massive increases in governmental spending the last 6 years.

5) The federal budget has gone from a huge surplus when Bush took office to a huge deficit where halving trumped up budget deficit numbers are trumpeted as a victory. To use a baseball comparison, since Bush loves baseball - it's like a baseball team manager celebrating because they finally finished the season next-to-last instead of last, whereas the previous manager had won 8 straight World Series titles. The Bush deficit also does not include "off budget" items for the Iraq war and Katrina relief, amounting to over $100 billion.

6) So, home values are up 200% - that means more and more people are being priced out of the home market and will turn to renting. Home values are now slowly contracting as well.

7)Inflation has been rising over the past year - and remember, that does not include the price of oil and food, which are considered too volatile. However, if you add the prices of oil & food to the inflation rate, it is at its highest levels since the early 1980s.

8)No terror attacks on US soil since 9/11? The person better check their facts - the anthrax attacks took place after 9/11, the DC sniper was after 9/11, and there have been over 30 other incidents since 9/11/01. However, the media has not reported them widely because they involved either white supremicist groups or religious fanatics who bomb women's health clinics.

9)Al Qaeda has had a recruiting bonanza since Bush invaded Iraq. They went from a small organization of a few thousand confined to the hills and mountains of Afghanistan to a group that is now estimated to be 20,000 strong and recently forced our ally Pakistan to surrender territory to them.

10) (Verify this one first please) I believe the Brits recently dropped charges against the toothpaste bombers due to lack of evidence against them - remember, the Brits wanted to observe them for longer, but were pushed by the US to get them. There have been no convictions in US courts for any of these supposedly thwarted Al Qaeda terror attacks. Prior to Bush taking office, the first WTC bombers from 1993 were caught, prosecuted and jailed... the Oklahoma City bombers were caught, prosecuted and executed... the embassy bombers were caught and prosecuted and jailed.

[kentuck]

19. If the deficit were down 50% from a trillion dollars...

rather than 50% from a half-trillion, would he see that as a success also? Especially since there was a $270 billion surplus and a projected $5.6 trillion surplus over 10 years? Also, the unemployment rate was 4% when Bush took office and it has never reached that low point since? Oil prices are plummeting from $3.00 a gallon to 2.25 a gallon? What happen to the 1.40 per gallon when Bush came into office? That's still a big tax increase for the average AMerican worker who may spend $25.00 or more per week on gasoline. Figure it out and get back to us.