"Ownership" Ad, response #1
My brother and I have shared many yucks watching the President's new TV ad called "ownership," one of the biggest bunches of hilarious nonsense crap you will ever hear. I think Bush must have written it himself. Here's the text:

I'm George W. Bush and I approve this message. One of the most important parts of a reform agenda is to encourage people to own something.

Can encouraging people to "own something" even count as a reform agenda? Encouragement like clapping? Or saying "you go, girl"? What kind of agenda is this? What kind of reform? Apparently a (any? his?)"reform agenda" has "parts"; and of them, one of the "most important" is "encouragement." Oddly enough, I own stuff. Most people own "something." What good is that sentence? Thankfully, he clarifies:

Own their own home, own their own business, own their own health care plan, or own a piece of their retirement.

Those last 2 he just threw in because "home" and "business" aren't enough "somethings" to make a very healthy looking list.

I don't know about you, but my barriers to owning a home, much less a business, have really nothing to do with lack of encouragement. What people could use to help them own homes and businesses are better paying jobs, the promise of help(i.e., money, not encouragement) providing benefits to their employees, fully-funded pell grants to help their kids go to college, fully-funded federal mandates to keep their counties and states from going broke and raising property, business and sales taxes, plus tuition rates. And that's just what white people need. African-American and Latinos could also use a little oversight that punishes notoriously racist banks and lending agencies that keep them from getting decent loans in the first place.

As for health care plans, most people would settle for owning a policy that covers them and their kids. I don't even know what "owning a health care plan" means. The people that do have a policy could stand to own a lower deductible, own a little dental/eye coverage, and own a premium that's not as expensive as their mortgage payment.

As for owning my retirement, I just hope the Social Security and Medicare funds are still in place when I need them. If Bush would stop raiding those trusts to fund wars and tax cuts for people that already own stuff (toooons of stuff), that would make me feel much more empowered than playing the stock market (badly) with it. That lockbox is sounding pretty good right about now isn't it?

Reforms that trust the people, reforms that say government must stand on the side of people. Because I understand if you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of America.

I'm sorry, I must have missed it...what reforms exactly are we talking about? Is he actually proposing....anything? Other than that it's cool to own...something? Hasn't he had 4 years of his brand of "reform agenda"? You can watch the ad here (scroll down to "latest tv ads")