Thursday, December 16, 2004
2nd attempt at posting "A conservative's criteria to judge Bush"
Hopefully no HTML errors this time - i'll skip linking to Globalsecurity.org - decided to post criteria from a conservative & a liberal this time.
Our criterion for Iraq are not identical, but close. If our death toll is really <20/month, href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_casualties.htm">~40 through the first half of the month. Will certainly cost him a chunk of political capital when he goes to Congress asking for $100,000,000,000 to fund the war. Well let's hope my link to globalsecurity.org works this time (went up 1 level in their hierarchy) - if not, then I'll be seriously ticked off by a 2nd failed posting...here goes...
CONSERVATIVE
1 Iraq: success would be Iraqi's take over their own security and US Troops reduced to under 50,000 by end of Bush's Second term. Stable democracy (more aggressive then my bet with Kirk).
2 Taxes: elimination of the income tax in favor of either a value added or flat tax
3 Social Security: at least 2% of payroll taxes are allowed to be diverted to private accounts.
4 Health Savings accounts become law.
5 Non defense spending held to under 2% growth/year
6 Iran's nuclear facilities are either verified to be shut down or taken out militarily
7 North Korea holds multinational talks with China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and the US. Agrees to verifiable shut down of nuclear facilities or taken out militarily.
LIBERAL
Environmental issues.
How much erosion of our existing environmental protections does he manage to implement.
Does he back down from his anti-Global Warming / anti-Kyoto protocols stance.
Social issues.
How badly does he screw up Social Security.
How badly does he screw up health care.
Taxation / Fiscal issues.
How drastically does he distort the tax system to favor the wealthy.
How much further in debt are we. What deficits are we running.
Economic issues.
How many net jobs have we lost/gained in his two terms.
How badly does the dollar slide.
How high are our trade deficits.
International issues.
How badly does our international reputation suffer
Do we have any real allies left at the end of his term.
Are we out of Iraq, and is it a stable popular democracy.
Does he make any attempt to promote peace between Israel & the Palestinians.
Is any progress made in resolving the North Korean problem.
Is any progress made in resolving the Iranian problem.
Human Rights & Civil Liberties issues.
How badly are our civil liberties compromised in the name of security.
Does he make any effort to effectively promote human rights internationally.
Governmental issues.
How badly does he distort the U.S. governmental system to advance his own ends and those of his party.
Our criterion for Iraq are not identical, but close. If our death toll is really <20/month, href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_casualties.htm">~40 through the first half of the month. Will certainly cost him a chunk of political capital when he goes to Congress asking for $100,000,000,000 to fund the war. Well let's hope my link to globalsecurity.org works this time (went up 1 level in their hierarchy) - if not, then I'll be seriously ticked off by a 2nd failed posting...here goes...
CONSERVATIVE
1 Iraq: success would be Iraqi's take over their own security and US Troops reduced to under 50,000 by end of Bush's Second term. Stable democracy (more aggressive then my bet with Kirk).
2 Taxes: elimination of the income tax in favor of either a value added or flat tax
3 Social Security: at least 2% of payroll taxes are allowed to be diverted to private accounts.
4 Health Savings accounts become law.
5 Non defense spending held to under 2% growth/year
6 Iran's nuclear facilities are either verified to be shut down or taken out militarily
7 North Korea holds multinational talks with China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and the US. Agrees to verifiable shut down of nuclear facilities or taken out militarily.
LIBERAL
Environmental issues.
How much erosion of our existing environmental protections does he manage to implement.
Does he back down from his anti-Global Warming / anti-Kyoto protocols stance.
Social issues.
How badly does he screw up Social Security.
How badly does he screw up health care.
Taxation / Fiscal issues.
How drastically does he distort the tax system to favor the wealthy.
How much further in debt are we. What deficits are we running.
Economic issues.
How many net jobs have we lost/gained in his two terms.
How badly does the dollar slide.
How high are our trade deficits.
International issues.
How badly does our international reputation suffer
Do we have any real allies left at the end of his term.
Are we out of Iraq, and is it a stable popular democracy.
Does he make any attempt to promote peace between Israel & the Palestinians.
Is any progress made in resolving the North Korean problem.
Is any progress made in resolving the Iranian problem.
Human Rights & Civil Liberties issues.
How badly are our civil liberties compromised in the name of security.
Does he make any effort to effectively promote human rights internationally.
Governmental issues.
How badly does he distort the U.S. governmental system to advance his own ends and those of his party.
